Buying A Gift - Appropriate Vs. Cool

I was standing in the checkout line at a bookstore and I overheard a mother and daughter standing nearby.  They were trying to agree upon a gift to purchase for the daughter’s friend.  They were not causing a scene but their discussion was definitely getting animated.

 

The daughter was probably about 14 years old.

The mom wanted to buy something “appropriate.”  Those weren’t the words she used but that’s the gist of what she was saying.

The daughter, on the other hand, was embarrassed about the whole idea of buying something appropriate.  I didn’t hear her actual words but the tone of voice the daughter was using along with her body language suggested that she was suffering terribly at her mother’s annoying lack of gift-buying aptitude.

These thoughts occurred to me: “What’s the problem, here?  What’s wrong with the mom’s gift ideas?”

Very quickly my answer came.  Instead of something appropriate, the daughter wanted to get her friend something cool.

“Ah yes, of course, I should have known,” I smiled.  “It’s the old appropriate versus cool struggle.”

You probably know this but I was reminded, once again, by my experience in the checkout line:  To a 14-year-old girl a gift that is appropriate and a gift that is cool are two very different things.