Back-to-school shopping is going to be taking a back seat this year if the economy keeps on wreaking havoc on family budgets.

While news reports keep telling us things are moving upward, if you repeat this kind of chatter to your next-door neighbor or to Uncle Willie who lives down in Arkansas, neither one of them are going to know what you're talking about.

Most of us continue to see our expenses rise and our income, if we still have one, not stretching far enough to meet the cost of things. This takes us back to the issue of shopping for kids' clothes.

Too many parents, mothers in particular, are mashing their teeth wondering just how they're going to pull off this year's shopping extravaganza.

By the way, this column isn't for those parents who, through wise decision-making or sheer luck, have children who wear school uniforms.

And while Michael or Michelle may have grown a bit since June when summer vacation started, there's a hem at the bottom of the pants and the skirts that can be let out.

Come on now, surely I'm not the only one who remembers this cost-saving activity. And maybe there is a word or two here for the parents of uniform-wearing kids, because there's apt to be some talk among the offspring regarding that line where last year's hemline was that can't be steamed out - no matter what.

Stay tuned, parents of students in uniforms. I suspect, there's going be something for you, too. What about our kids' clothes that still fit and are hanging in their bedroom closet? Oh, they're not "in" this year. Parents, programmed like robots, follow what the kids demand and what some highly paid marketing executives have determined will keep us spending. It's old-folks talk when I say that long ago a pair of shoes for school and a pair of shoes for Sunday was all the space the closet floor had to yield for footwear. Once out of elementary school, another space was probably needed for a pair of gym shoes. Times have changed.

"Just how many shoes are in that space-saving bag?" I asked my 10-year-old grandson while staring in through his closet door.

Of course the kid didn't have an answer, but he was willing to count. Details weren't required and, in fact, I shouldn't have involved him in my thought process. He didn't buy the shoes. His parents, as is the case so very often, didn't think twice about spending the money.

The biggest change time has brought about is that too many parents have apparently felt they had too much money - or too many credit cards. Well, they wouldn't see it this way, but just look in their kids' closets, drawers and on the floors in their bedrooms.

Too much money along with really having enough money have both, and quite quickly it seems, become terms that just don't mean anything anymore. This school year, parents, I suspect, are not only going to ignore what their kids want in their wardrobe but they are also going to make some cost-effective modifications toward what the real needs are.

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