Usually, I would be quite happy to write and talk about shoes but not this time…as they are not my shoes we are talking about!

Seriously…what is it with kids and shoes?  They seem to go through them as quick as they would gobble up a a chocolate chip cookie!  It is only just over 2 months since school started back.  A week or so before the September start, I had their stinky feet measured and bought the appropriate sized shoes, as well as a pair in the next size up for each of them.

Already DS1 and DD are wearing the next size up, having discarded the first pair.

Why do kids see fit to have a growth spurt 2 weeks into the new school year????  Little beggars.  I swear it has something to do with competition!  After the summer hols they return to school all eager and bright.  They shine in their new, and freshly ironed uniforms, shiny, polished shoes, and immaculate white socks.  They rush to hug their long lost friends whom they have not seen since the end of June.  Some have grown like weeds; others, not so much.  For some, feet have grown; others not so much.

But kids always seem to gravitate to those who are taller than them, or in this case, have bigger feet than them.  They want to be taller, and to wear bigger shoes, even if it means wearing the wrong sized shoes.

‘Mum, so and so wears a size 1 shoe…..size 1?????  I am a size 12……he must be a baby!’ declares DS1 not realising that a size 1 at this stage is bigger than size 12.

Having spent a long time explaining this fact to DS1, he insisted on wearing his ‘next size up’, 12.5.  Somehow he thought ‘believe big, will be big’ (male-no comment!).  Nothing could deter him;  not the blisters, the chaffing or the downright discomfort!  And now he has finally outgrown the size 12’s he hardly wore…..please see Dubizzle for the advert!

DD, on the other hand, was more open to my persuasive charm, and continued to wear her right fitting shoes, even though she too wanted to be the next size up at 12.  Each day she implored me to press the front of her shoe to see how far down her big toe pushed forward.  After about 4 weeks into the new term, it was getting close.  To extend the life of these shoes, I ensured she wore very thin socks.  Soon, I would be sending her to school sockless, a look that would not go down too well with the principal!

Week 5 and her shoes looked like they had gone a round or two with a shredder.  Bits of leather had fallen off.  More frayed bits hung on by a thread.  What do they do at school to get shoes into such a state?

So much for my attempt at planning ahead.  At this rate, it will be a new pair of shoes each term.

To ease the pain, I will be adopting the ‘one for them, one for me’ approach.  Each time they get new school shoes, I will also get a new pair pour moi!