One of the low points of the summer holidays for me is the point where I finally have to admit defeat and drag my unwilling children through the doors of a shoe shop. You would think that it is a simple enough process wouldn’t you? You go into a shoe shop accompanied by smiley happy children all positively delighted with the prospect of having something new, they all behave impeccably and come out with shoes as shiny as their smiles. No? No. If that’s how it is for you, please tell me your secret as that is not how it is for me.
I mean shoes are quite important really in the grand scheme of things. Shoes that fit badly or in fact no shoes at all can cause you all sorts of problems, so why fight the fact that you have to have new ones? I always quite enjoyed the trip to Clarks, I was always hopeful that my mum might relent and let me have something a little more feminine and less well, sturdy, but no I always can away with the same old regulation brown clompy lace ups. Around the age of 12 after much nagging, I was finally allowed a pair of black patent slip ons from Stead and Simpsons and I was the happiest girl in town. However, those shoes lasted around a week. One week. That was a huge ‘ I told you so’ moment I can tell you and I was back in Clarks quick smart.
But with my lovely lot, the minute we enter a shoe establishment, they turn into surly, uncooperative monsters. They don’t want new shoes, they don’t want to have to queue, they don’t want to have their feet measured, they don’t want to try anything on. These days thanks to the spangly machine that measures their feet, there is a brief respite for about ten seconds and then chaos resumes.
So we battle the crowds, clutch on to our tickets like our lives depend on it and wait our turn to be measured. It is better than bingo when that number appears on the screen and then we have the ‘who goes on the machine first’ discussion (similar to the ‘who sits in the front’ discussion). I usually end up manhandling the nearest child on with one hand whilst yanking their shoes off with the other and even then one of the others slips underneath and jumps on first.
That, however, is the easy bit. Particularly this time of year, you can pretty much guarantee that all three of them need new shoes. Okay three pairs of shoes isn’t too bad. Except it isn’t three pairs. When you factor in the football boots, astro boots, pumps and trainers. So then I find myself with the daunting task of locating and fitting around eight pairs of shoes. All this with lots of other people also grappling with their offspring and several pairs of shoes, it is a juggling act and a half.
The next thing we have to consider is the wide foot issue. You get measured. You finally get your child to muster a small degree of enthusiasm in a pair of shoes. You pin down the very busy and harassed assistant with arms full of shoe boxes and send her off with your choices and you know as soon as she reappears that those shoes aren’t available in a G or a H and you have to restart the whole process again (with tears in your eyes).
A of course adds a whole new dimension to the shoe shopping experience. She adores shoes. She would have the whole shop. Pink? Check. Sparkly? Check. Flowers? Check. Shiny? Check. She often turns round clutching about ten pairs of shoes all in the wrong size and totally impractical and will not part with them as three year olds don’t do rational. Sensible does not cut it and if I introduced her to the brown lace ups that I wore, she would probably cut me down with a withering look of total disdain. No way. Luckily, even the cute pink shoes are reasonably sensible and as her feet are still growing, I am not going all out for the sensible shoe until next year when she starts school.
These days along with the rest of South Wales, we often go to a Clarks outlet shop for our shoes as we do save loads of money but the offset of that is the chaos that you face when you enter the shop at any point during the summer holidays. Take the average shoe shop and times it by a hundred. But I am weathered to the shoe shopping storm now and I always go in determined and come out victorious, slightly traumatised and a whole lot poorer.
It’s a shame you can’t do shoe measuring and shopping for kids online.
I’m sure there are lots of mothers, and fathers, that know exactly how you feel. I have one child who had wide feet and I knew we’d have to visit several shops to find even one pair that fitted, let alone that she liked. Dragging the other two children along, even though they have found shoes and could see nothing in it for them. Sigh. Fortunately, the length of her feet have caught up now. So there is hope. It does get easier.
As always I have left this to the final week of the summer hols! Why????!!!!!! I hate this chore and I hate the cost! Grrrr, grump over! x 🙂
I have left it to this weekend too. I’ll be trawling Cardiff on Monday…
Aaagh! My kids are awful in the shoe shop too! They might go in as normal kids, but as soon as they get in there they start chucking themselves around and arguing and being totally unco-operative. I THINK I only need to get shoes for my eldest this time round though. Result!
I’ve got this joy to look forward to next week, Reading this though I’m so glad I’ve only got one who needs shoes for now. Hats of to you lady!
And why do childrens shoes have to be so expensive?! I spent more than £70 last week on a pair of shoes each for my two. It’s enough to make you weep!
???????????????????????????????????????????????|????????|????????????????}{??? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?