It’s not just a pair of shoes.
But it was a pair of shoes that had me literally sweating the morning of the first day of school. Since kindergarten, shoes have been a “thing.” He spent most of the first several years of his life barefoot or in footie pajamas. And when he did wear shoes- it was Crocs. Always Crocs. And nothing else.
But it has always been a point of contention for us, for him.
So when he did eventually start school, he wore Crocs. And then rain boots. And he loved the rain boots, usually wearing them until they had holes in them. Never mind the weather, once we went to the rain boots he had a hard time returning to the Crocs. So it could be 80 degrees towards the end of the school year and he’d be out on the field at recess tromping around in his boots.
But these damn shoes. When he became okay with socks (which was another miracle), we started to move towards shoes. You can’t just order shoes online and hope they work- we’d have to truck into Nordstrom, measure the feet, see which pairs might be deemed acceptable first based on appearance and then we’d have to try putting them on. And that’s where it could all go off the rails. Even the coolest red shoes can be thrown out if you put them on and they suck. Last year we purchased three pairs before we found the winner which ended up being some random brand from Amazon that literally cost less than twenty dollars.
This year I was prepared. Early August we went out on our first shoe mission. We found a pair that was cool, offered in red and even went and double checked sizes the next day. He tried them on, chased sister down the aisle proving he could run in them. He said they were great, but wanted them in red. Awesome, I found them online and ordered them right away.
First day of school arrives. We get the shoes on. The vetted and approved ones, in red.
He immediately shook his head no repeatedly and I could see tears welling up.
I got them off his feet as fast as I could and started sweating.
He wanted to wear slides. I told him that was against the rules.
I grabbed the only back up plan I had and I was sure it wasn’t going to work.
Sometime last year I had grabbed these super cute kids Nike Jordan high tops on sale. I have turned into a bit of a sneaker head and I thought that maybe I could convince him to wear them. I hadn’t yet.
I told him he had to choose between the pairs because slides are against the rules.
He picked the high tops.
The kid who refused shoes and socks for the majority of the early years of his life.
Who thought Crocs were the only acceptable kinds of shoes.
Who is known for many things, his flexibility not being one of them.
And he may have done it begrudgingly, but he wore them. As soon as I dropped him off on the first day of school, I RAN to the shoe store and bought a pair of low tops. I gave him the option to wear those this past week.
EMILY. THE TALL ONES ARE JUST BETTER.
It’s a kid who’s learning how to be flexible.
It’s a parent who’s learning to keep pushing, to keep asking.
It’s not just a pair of shoes.
They are pretty damn cool though.
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