A Purse of His Own

A couple of years ago the kids and I were looking through the purses and bags at Goodwill, and my son announced that he, too, wanted a purse. I suppose he would have been about six years old at the time.

A bag of his own could contain his wallet, ChapStick, a notepad and pen, his Nintendo DS—such a practical solution for easy transport!

He started poking around the jumble of gently used purses, totes, and shoulder bags, considering the possibilities.

His sisters were horrified, but he was determined.

I had to decide what to do, what to say. I had to decide quickly.

The Unknown Contributor faced that same moment of decision when her son wanted a handbag of his own:

I bought my six year old son a pocketbook. It wasn’t easy. Tuesday night after dinner, I announced I was going over to the mall to find a nice organizer bag to go inside my new big black pocketbook. My husband gave me that look, the “You’re going to leave me home with all these kids during the bewitching bedtime hours?” So I took the Gecko with me to lighten the load for him. We headed straight to the Macy’s purse displays. Mmm...delightful... Guess, Nine West, Fossil... We snapped, zipped, flapped, stroked and sniffed. We admired, explored, examined, and counted pockets. I favored a Giani Bernini black, shiny, soft nylon bag with a gorgeous royal purple interior. Gecko wanted its red twin, but not before he pleaded for a black flower-embossed Fossil wallet, a leopard print triple zipper bag, a bright blue leather sac, and a screamingly shiny black Guess satchel with a couple pounds of silver bling on it. How could I say no? No, Gecko, you can’t have one of these fancy bags with cool hidden pockets because you are a boy....

Read "The Man Bag" in its entirety at The Unknown Contributor.

Photo by Claire Burge. Used with permission. Post by Ann Kroeker.