How not to shoe shop with children

This was a ‘meh’ weekend. A week of promising sunshine gave way to a drizzle-filled weekend that screamed of ‘soft play hell’. But no, I was not to be led toward that horror. Instead we did a bit of this and a bit of that, and we would have got through it unscathed if it hadn’t been for the shoe shop.

Shopping for children’s shoes is one of those activities designed to empty your purse of every last bit of cash you have stashed away. It doesn’t seem to matter whether I go high-end or low, every pair of shoes lasts exactly the same amount of time. The only variable is how trashed they look before they finally hit the recycling bin. Maybe my children are harder on shoes than most, or maybe I’m unlucky but on average I’m spending over £100 every half term on shoes for the ferals.

My youngest seems to have developed something of a shoe habit. Not content with emptying out my wardrobe and parading around in my shoes, she’s constantly begging me to take her shoe shopping for high heels - for a four year old? ….Yes, that’s what I said too. Our compromise is generally a pair of pretty ballet shoes and sometime later in the day she remembers that she wanted heels. I blame Suri Cruise. Before that kids were happy in Clarks and K-Shoes, at least that’s what my mother always persuaded me of.

So on Sunday we drove to a large out-of-town shoe shop. Everyone was in good spirits, things were looking good. Once in there we located a pair of ballet shoes for the four year old and, even better, they were reduced to £11. Bolstered by the fact that I’d just saved a hypothetical £7 I started browsing for myself, finding two pairs of shoes that I really liked. A quick note check in my purse confirmed that I could afford them. But then, disaster! My wayward children had relocated to a different area of the shop. An area that contained toys, and lunch boxes, drinks bottles, and books! This was terrible! What are these things doing in a shoe shop?

The upshot was that in order to maintain the good karma of the day, I ended up spending an additional £20, meaning that the coffers were drained and facilitating a speedy trip to the closest ATM.

Still, the shoes are lovely…

Tuesday, 19th July 2011

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