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Friday, October 06, 2006

Fit to Be Tied

As my husband was putting on my older son’s (OS) shoes today, he reminded me of a lesson that I learned the hard way. OS was a late walker and thus did not own a pair of shoes until he was just short of 17 months old. No, not even a little pair of Nikes. When it got cold he wore Robeez (which I highly recommend).

By the time OS needed a pair of shoes, most of his little friends had been in footwear for a while. Thus, I thought I knew from their moms what type of shoes to get: ones with laces! Yes, laces were preferred over Velcro because it was harder for the kids to get them off and also in a world of TV, digital clocks, and microwaves, it was important to have laces so that OS would learn how to tie a bow. Apparently it’s a critical life skill and one that you are now required to demonstrate during college interviews. “If only Johnny could have tied a better bow, he could have gotten into Harvard.”

The time had come, and I took OS to Stride Rite to get his first pair of shoes. I was quite excited, and, I know this is really dorky so I probably shouldn’t even admit it but, I brought my camera with me so I could take a picture of OS in his first pair of shoes. The sneaky salesperson tried to trick me into Velcro. I scoffed at her and carefully explained that I was a well-informed mother and my child would be wearing shoes with laces, thank you very much. She looked at me like I was insane. Looking back I was.

In case you are curious, it turns out that OS had no trouble whatsoever removing his shoes despite the laces. Can you guess who had a hard time with the laces? Yes, you probably got it: ME!!!! After all, OS wasn’t really concerned about the proper way to remove a shoe. Thus, I was left with empty footwear with knotted laces. I had to sit there and pick at the tight knots to be able to get his shoes back on him. Lest you think you may be able to avoid my fate by not tying the bows tightly or by using the double knot, I’m hear to tell you that it doesn’t work. When OS would yank his shoes off, he would first pull on the laces, causing the knots to become even tighter. I swear I have memories of times that I had to use a safety pin to pry those knots loose. I’m not sure if they really happened or if they were just nightmares, but either way it was pretty scary. By far the worst was when he would walk through snow or jump in a puddle, and I would have to try and untie a wet tight knot. That should be an Olympic skill right there. Maybe a little post college interview demo for a full ride scholarship.

I have to admit that I was a little suspicious of about bow tying skills. I mean it was hard for me to picture a 2 year-old boy tying his shoes, but at the time I didn’t really know anything about two year olds, since my son was only 17 months, so I thought, well maybe it was possible. Yeah, right!!! Apparently it’s a skill that a lot of kindergarteners still need to work on. Probably some adults too. In fact, my husband can barely do it (alright he has no trouble tying his own shoes, but he can’t seem to keep them tied).

I remember my first pair of Velcro shoes from when I was a child very fondly. They were Kangaroo shoes by, I believe, Buster Brown. Maybe not, but I remember for sure that ET shoes were made by Buster Brown. They had a cute little Velcro pocket on the side with a kangaroo on it. Mine were a pale purple. I used to keep my brownie/girl scout money in there, which, looking back is kind of disturbing because it was next to my sweaty feet. What’s even more disturbing is that all the girls in my class did it. That’s some scary money right there.

Armed with these fine memories of my Kangaroo shoes and my frustration with the lace shoes, the next pair of shoes I bought OS were Velcro. They are absolutely fabulous. Now that he’s older I know he can put them on and take them off himself. I have never actually seen this myself, but he apparently is willing to do this for babysitters.

A. Elliot’s Lesson Learned: Stick with Velcro

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posted by Alex Elliot @ 11:24 PM   1 comments
1 Comments:

  • At 10/09/2006 11:40 PM, Blogger Janean said…

    AMEN! My 12-year old still prefers velcro...although I have a suspicion that it's because he doesn't want to expend the energy it takes to bend over. :D

     
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Name:Alex Elliot
Home:MA, United States
About Me:Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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For those of us who didn't get an instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always gone as planned. On a more serious note this blog is about supporting a woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the choice, for whatever reason, to bottle feed her babies formula.

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