If you’re anything like me, you love an excuse to dress up. If I could twirl around in pretty dresses all night, I would.

The truth is, as a mom with little ones, my Friday nights are instead spent on the couch in a track suit. But it’s the holiday season - a month of parties and a time to get all fancified. Unfortunately, bedazzling said track suit isn’t cutting it as holiday glam. At least not until I’m 80.

If you don’t have a daughter under the age of 13, you might not be familiar with Skechers Twinkle Toes. If not, let me fill you in.

This weekend, I need to start my annual spring cleaning push, which has grown insanely stressful since Toy Story 3 has emotionally crippled me from tossing out the kids’ toys.

But clothing? Yeah, I can handle that. Especially if they can go to a good cause and I can shop for new threads for me and the girls.

At the end of summer, my friend and I were discussing our fashion needs for fall and mentioned our mutual desire to pick up some skinny jeans. While I didn’t think the skinny jeans/flats combo worked on my body, I was excited to pair them with some knee-high boots I had stuffed away in the closet. All was right in Mommy Land.

However, a couple of days later, my friend went on Facebook and questioned her decision to purchase said skinny jeans. That’s when the floodgates opened and all hell broke loose in Mommy Land. By the responses she received, you would expect my friend to be parading down the street in a Lady Gaga meat dress. Almost all of our fellow mommies rallied against the purchase of the skinny jeans and noted how silly they look on women our age.

Yikes! My friend and I both flew into a tizzy (yes, I said tizzy) which fueled our nonstop skinny jean debate – “Should we buy them? Will we look dumb? Maybe I’ll just purchase a cheap pair from Old Navy and see how they work.”

I know, I know. Stressing over a stupid pair of jeans – it’s ridiculous. But it got me thinking – why can’t a mom still follow fashion trends, within reason, after the baby arrives?

Getting my first bra in fifth grade was a little on the humiliating side because 1) I had developed earlier than my more petite friends who teased me about my growing chest (which unfortunately did not keep on pace with the rest of my body as I got older), and 2) My mom picked out a stark white bra wrapped up in plastic from JCPenney which today reminds me of the Seinfeld “bro” (or “manziere” if you lean toward Frank Costanza) or an Ace bandage.

Today’s bras are nothing like ours from the 1980s. Department and specialty stores are packed with an abundance of padded, push-up and lace bras that tweens can choose from, but at the same time, leave their parents sobbing in the aisles over their little girls’ quickly diminishing childhoods. In fact, just a few weeks ago, the British retailer Primark pulled its padded bras off its shelves after media and customer outrage accused the store of sexualizing young teens.

Oh, prom. The climax of every great teen movie. Remember the empowerment we felt when Andie walked into prom with Duckie with her head held high and her body wrapped in her reconfigured pink prom dress? (OK – the dress was kind of hideous, and I’m still inflamed she chose Duckie over Blaine, but darn it, the girl had spunk!)

Our kids’ clothes drawers are full of variety, from the play clothes we let them wear in the sandbox to the outfits that make us cross our fingers and pray oh-please-don’t-spill-spaghetti-on-that.