My wife and I were lucky enough to have two kids, a daughter and then a son, which was what we both wanted. All the luck in the world, however, was not going to prepare us for the inevitable questions and desires that come with them getting older. I was having a hard enough time relating to my son, and I had been a young boy once. My daughter was a foreign concept in many regards, especially when she was old enough for the “But everyone else is wearing make-up and jewelry” pout-a-thons. Anniversary shopping introduced me to something I’d never seen before…chain slides, and at least one crisis was averted. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Heart Chain Slide[/caption] My daughter had been wearing play jewelry ever since she was old enough to reach to the top of our dresser, dump her mom’s entire jewelry collection on the floor (feed one of the earrings to the dog) and parade around the house in the rest of it. We bought her fun stuff that sparkled and was pretty, and if it broke or got lost, we weren’t out that much money. With the introduction of Middle School, her tastes changed. We didn’t want to deny her, but we didn’t want her to grow up too fast, either. The first time I saw chain slides I was picking up some custom design jewelry I had made for my wife to celebrate our fifteenth anniversary. There was a display of them on the counter top and it looked simply like a pendant. Imagine my surprise when the heart-shaped design started moving as I picked up the chain. The sales clerk told me about them and showed me the full selection that they had to offer. I came back a couple of days later to show my wife and tell her my thoughts. Chain slides, to me, were the perfect crossover piece of jewelry. Made with precious metals, they certainly had the sophisticated look that our daughter was clamoring for, but the playfulness of the chain slides would be appreciated by the kid she still was. The only flaw in my plan, in fact, was when my wife stumped me by asking why I had been in the jewelry store. I had to lie for two weeks until our anniversary finally rolled around!