My favorite topic (beyond my children)

I am a shoe girl.

I am not a Manola Blahnik girl (not sure I even spelled that right…), and in fact, I can’t stand heels. I think I have a single pair of heels in my closet that I reserved for the occasion when “East Coasters” visit work. I wore them once. Because I think most East Coasters visit our side of the U.S. and enjoy dressing down. Still I love shoes. Cute shoes.

I seem to have passed on my affliction to my children. My daughter enjoys sorting through and picking out her shoes in the morning. They only occasionally match her outfit. But she has names for them “Dora’s shoes” (the turquoise blue Gabby Crocs that look *just* like Dora’s in one of her books), the “lellow” Crocs that are just like her brothers and then the couple of pairs of hand-me-downs from our friends’ daughters and she knows those shoes by the prior owners names and gravitates to them simply because of her admiration for the girls.

I was a touch surprised that it isn’t just my daughter who has inherited my love for shoes. As a little girl, I think she may be forced into being a shoe girl. But my son has typically had two pairs of shoes each season; an athletic shoe and a sandal for the summer or boots for the winter.

A few months ago he suddenly grew out of his Merrell’s and I quickly jumped online and found a great pair of Keens at a great price and before I knew it I was holding them out before him.

“Are they Skechers?” he asked.

“No,” I replied, sensing a problem.

“But I wanted Skechers,” he declared.

“I didn’t know this,” I replied.

“Well *everyone* at school has Skechers,” as he proceeds to list the offenders names.

“Well these are better than Skechers!” I declared.

He wasn’t buying it.

“Wear these and the next time you need shoes we will get Skechers,” I said.

Then amazingly, two months later, he grew out of the Keens. It was almost like he willed his feet to grow faster. So I took him to Famous Footwear. He spied the Skechers and honed in on them. And the evil mom that I am… I didn’t live up to my promise.

“But you need shoes for soccer,” I said. “Those aren’t soccer shoes. And in fact, they don’t even have your size!” (I failed to tell him that the salesman had just told me they would order in and have delivered to my house any shoe in the right size not in stock.)

Hindsight is always 20/20.

I pushed it and we bought a nice light pair of Nikes that are perfect for soccer.

The peer pressure my four (almost five) year old is feeling from preschool is a heavy burden. It is unrelenting!

He declared the other day, “I know they aren’t Skechers, I just say they are.”

Camel's back was broken.

My son is now the proud owner of a pair of size 13.5 Skechers. With the lights.