Every girl wants to look perfect on the single most talked about event of high school, and doing so takes a number of steps. Girls go to great lengths to get their hair done just right, their makeup done to match perfectly, their nails done to flash off their jewelry, and shoes to go with the perfect dress. The perfect dress. Every girl dreams of finding it. The dress that will minimize her flaws, highlight her strengths, and, for one night at least, make her look and feel like a fairy tale princess.
Finding the perfect dress takes patience and persistence, especially if your daughter has her heart set on an expensive designer prom dress. An expensive designer prom dress can cost anywhere from $300 to upwards of $1000. For that kind of money, your daughter will certainly get a lovely dress, but chances are she's looking for more than that. She's also looking for others to recognize that she's wearing the newest and most stylish designer dress.
Negotiating When an Expensive Designer Prom Dress Is a Must
You probably know your daughter's friends and what they value. Chances are, if your daughter wants an expensive designer prom dress, it means her friends will be wearing these styles, too. Your daughter might feel embarrassed to wear a less expensive dress when her friends have all purchased expensive designer prom dresses.
If your family is not strapped for cash, and the dress is very important to your daughter, you may decide to buy her the expensive designer prom dress she wants. If so, she's a lucky girl.
Another option is to offer to help her pay for the dress she wants, but insist that she put some of her own money towards the purchase as well. For instance, you might offer to match each dollar she puts in with two of your own. Another approach is to offer to pay the cost of a standard prom dress, anywhere between $100 and $300. If the dress your daughter has her eye on costs more than that, she will have to make up the difference herself.
Still another option is to loan your daughter the money to pay for the expensive designer prom dress she wants, but insist that she pay it back.
These negotiating tactics promote fiscal responsibility on your daughter's part. Rather than just being given something she wants, she has to do something to get it. Perhaps she will step up to the plate and earn her share of the money. Or perhaps, once her own hard-earned cash becomes involved, she may decide she can make do with an equally beautiful but less expensive dress. Either way, she will have learned a valuable lesson.
