Tennis Shoes

My daughter LOVES shoes. When I first realized that about her, she was 16 months old and I was walking through the shoe department, looking at shoes for her. She grabbed these HOT pink and yellow flowered Nikes and refused to let them go. When I asked for the shoe back, she looked at me with her ice blue eyes and pleaded, "pllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssssseeeeeeeeeeeee Mama" and hugged them to her chest. Of course I couldn't say no.

Since that time, she has had no less than 6 pair of shoes/boots at any given time, summer time, it's more. I'm a sale shopper so I don't spend much on them and when she was little, she'd inherit some from older cousins. As she has gotten older, she opts for cheaper shoes so she can have more.

Enter the "Gym" shoe. She had to have gym shoes for school. It said specifically that they needed to have good traction.

She liked some that were about $75 and I said no. She liked some that were $50 and I said "fine you can have those, but you will only get one other pair".

"But, "I" don't want them, I have to have them. They shouldn't count".

"I am the one paying for them, so if you don't want them to "count", pick out something under $20".

So that is what she did. She grudgingly picked out a generic version of the above shoes knowing that she had to wear them on Mondays.

School started 4 weeks ago and some how, those shoes haven't made it to school yet. I know this because they are bright white and looking BRAND NEW. She "forgot" was the excuse I was given.

Yesterday, I HANDED her the gym shoes when she came down from getting dressed. As she was walking out the door I looked at her feet and saw that she had on silver glitter Chuck Taylors.

"Claire, where are your gym shoes"?

I get a sheepish shrug.

I calmly but firmly said, "I handed you your gym shoes so that you wouldn't forget. You are supposed to have gym shoes on Monday, not fashion tennis shoes. If you pull this again (no time to change her shoes or she'll miss the bus), you will be wearing those gym shoes everyday for a week".

Sad face, complete with puppy dog eyes, "I'm sorry".

I smiled and said, "I mean it". (She knows I will do exactly as I said if she ignores me again)

Crabby face, grabbed her backpack and stomped out the door.

"I love you", I called.

ahhh, the joys of Motherhood.