Categories: uncategorized
Date: 11 December 2007 14:04:24
Buying shoes to fit our son has been, to put it mildly, a challenge. The first attempt, a few weeks ago, had him wearing a pair of GoreTex boots; last year a similar pair served him well, but these, he told us after wearing them to school for a day are 'too big', by which I understand 'clumsy'. We tried again, coming home with a pair that look like a cross between shoes and trainers; initially he liked them, but now he has a problem. Children's shoes nowadays are fastened with Velcro straps - easy and quick to do, but they don't have the staying power of laces. Also, our son likes his shoes tight, so he pulls the strap across so far that the bits which are supposed to stick to each other are no longer opposite one another. I think that part of the problem may lie in the shape of his foot - like me he has a narrow heel, so that shoes which fit the front of the foot tend to come adrift at the back. And, naturally, we want to buy shoes which have room for growth.
So, maybe hoping for third time lucky; but we're not buying another expensive pair. Perhaps, without too much outlay, we can buy shoes that will do him until he grows into the shoes that he already has. And his trousers don't fit. I really don't want to be going to the shops this close to Christmas, but I already leave the house fairly early on a Saturday morning to take our daughter to a ballet class. Maybe, son will come with me, and we can somehow fit this extra activity between dropping my daughter off and collecting her.
Ironically, last Saturday I was talking with the father of one of the other ballet pupils, who was taking his son to the shoe shop later that day. I was recommending the shop we normally use, which, not being in Edinburgh, offers a pleasanter shopping experience. Not that shopping in Edinburgh is generally unpleasant, of course, but as the season of cheer and goodwill (and giving presents) approaches it can become somewhat fraught. This time around, though, I shall just have to put on my body armour, and head for the (I can't think of the right word - it isn't a mall) centre.