Shoe Envy

Twinkle Toe Sketchers are all the rage in Ellie's preschool. She has been asking for a pair for quite some time, but I was all no way am I spending $50 on shoes for a 4 year old whose feet grow nonstop. Well, then her best friend at school got them and Ellie starts coming home with stories about how Kaycee wouldn't play with her because only the kids who have Sketchers get to be on her team. What? My kid is being excluded because her shoes aren't cool enough? So, Tom is all just buy her the shoes, but I feel like that is the wrong message to send. I do not want to raise a materialistic child and I want her to realize that people who befriend her based on her apparel are not real friends. Excuse me while I climb down off my soapbox. Now, I realize that Ellie is only 4 and this might be a hard lesson to grasp. Also, I have my very own story of shoe envy.

When I was in 1st grade, all the girls were wearing what appeared to be hiking boots, As the 5th child of 7, I knew I was lucky just to have my own pair of hand-me-down sneakers so I didn't bother asking my parents for these boots that I so coveted. However, one morning I saw an actual pair of hiking boots in the hall closet that belonged to my older brother. Score! I proudly put them on and stomped my way to school. Immediately, two of the popular girls swooped down on me. What are you wearing? Are those boys' boots? Ewww, they are so dirty! Apparently, in my excitement over discovering the boots, I failed to notice that my brother really DID hike in them and they were caked in mud. The teacher noticed, however, and made me take them off. I spent that day in my socks feeling mighty embarrassed. So, as much as I don't want my daughter to be materialistic and as much as I hate the thought of spending that amount of money on ugly looking shoes...I am pretty sure Ellie will be getting her very own pair of Twinkle Toe Sketchers any day now. Parenting. It's tricky.