The love that surpasses all others… shoes
March 29, 2007
There are times when I look at my daughter and worry that she is going to turn out just like me. That I am going to somehow hand down all my neurosis and insecurities to her, just by virtue of being her mother. I worry about her in a way that I don’t worry about my sons.
But then there are times that I realize she is turning out just like me, and that it is okay. In fact, it is more than okay. It makes me want to scoop her up and plant kisses all over her until she pushes me away.
Yesterday she was tidying up her room. She had lined all of her shoes up and called me into her bedroom. When I came into her room she was standing there with her hands on her hips. She gestured with her right arm towards the shoes in a sweeping motion.
“Look at my shoes!” she said.
“I see them! You did a great job organizing them.” I replied, a little confused by her seeming annoyance.
“Do you see that I don’t have sneakers? I NEED sneakers. With laces.”
She was right.
And I knew exactly how she felt.
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I know exactly, too. My daughter works at Kohl’s, and there was a 50% off sale on shoes last weekend, and with her employee discount…. I bought six pairs.
Two pair were flip flops! I’m justifying, here. ahhh, shoes….
March 29th, 2007 at 10:40 amI sense a shoe shopping trip coming up.
I have two pair of shoes. Two. And I only wear one regularly. I obviously didn’t get the shoe gene.
March 29th, 2007 at 10:57 amI have over 70 pairs of shoes. There, I admit it. And I am raising two kids (20 year old boy and 15 year old girl) with the exact same fetish. Why have one pair of black flip flops when you can have three? These sneakers are for X, and these are for Y, and these are Chucks, Mom, they’re not for anything but just cool! Yeah, we have issues at my house, too. More than a newstand.
March 29th, 2007 at 11:01 amOh. I am in love with all of your mouldings!
March 29th, 2007 at 11:34 amUm, Chris, I want to be your daughter too. (I wear size 6 1/2)
March 29th, 2007 at 11:39 amOkay - perhaps this belongs in your other blog - but I have a how do you do it question? How do you handle all the shoes???? There are only 5 people in my house - and none of my children have as many shoes as your daughter (which by the way is not a judgement - just a volume observation;) and I feel like we’re always drowning in shoes - can’t find them, can’t find matching ones, they’re all over the place…
On the passing on neurosis - well I feel that way about my oldest son b/c it’s become very clear that emotionally he shares many of my insecurities - I feel so bad for him - he expresses so many of the feelings I’ve learned to keep to myself - I hope that by holding him and loving him he manages better than I did. But in so many ways I feel closer to him than the others - b/c I get him. I look at #2 son who is wonderful in so many ways - but I feel like he’s an alien (a good alien but I just don’t know where he came from) I hope my daughter is more comfortable with her body than I am - and I kiss her 3 yr old toddler belly every chance I get.
March 29th, 2007 at 11:45 amThe pink cowboy boots are killing me. Do they come in MY size?
March 29th, 2007 at 12:04 pmThis may be a question for your other blog also but, how do you budget for all those shoes?? My 3 year old daughter is also a big shoe fan and seems to have very expensive taste! I often get the evil eye from the hubby when a new pair of shoes shows up. He can’t understand why I would buy her so many pairs when she’ll outgrow them within a few months… I guess I’m wondering where you’re buying all those cute shoes!!
March 29th, 2007 at 12:05 pmOh the wrath of little girls! She is too cute! Please buy her a pair of sneakers with laces ASAP! And not on the internet. That child needs to see and touch them and take her time trying them on. Clearly, she is a little girl who knows what she wants. I see the title CEO in her future.
March 29th, 2007 at 12:08 pmMy god that’s a lot of shoes. I own one pair of black dress shoes (flats). One pair of running shoes, one pair of sandals and some duckies for when it’s muddy.
My husband has more shoes than I do, but his tastes are still conservative. Brown dress shoes. Black dress shoes. Shoes for mowing the lawn. Boots for shoveling snow, etc.
My daughters, however, beg for pretty pretty shoes. Shoes with butterflies, shoes with scooby, pretty flower shoes and shoes for parties (we don’t go to many parties requiring heels with sparkly rubies and feathers). Shoes with sunflowers and shoes with wavy pink lines. Slippers for summer and slippers for winter, and scooby doo slippers. They both begged for cowboy boots.
Fortunately for me, I’m cash strapped I feel no guilt NOT giving into any of the shoe requests… groceries come first, after all. But I didn’t know so many people were so serious about shoes!
How on gods name did my children’s shoe obsession happen in my gene pool? Is the shoe gene recessive maybe?
March 29th, 2007 at 12:25 pmTotal shoe fiend here, too. On last count, I had close to 100 pairs (of which I wear about 2 pairs on a regular basis).
My daughter’s the same way. It’s a sickness, really.
Thank God we only have one daughter each!
March 29th, 2007 at 12:40 pmOhhh, she’s an organized little girly! Now go buy some sneakers!
March 29th, 2007 at 12:58 pmI love your daughter. And now I’m going to take my girls shoe shopping. (Cause we need SANDALS! And FLIP FLOPS!)
March 29th, 2007 at 1:24 pmDude… your daughter owns more shoes than I do. Clearly I have to go shopping.
March 29th, 2007 at 1:50 pmI am finding DS#1 has the same shoe fetish that has been carried on from generation to generation. This time it is hitting the male gene. He is so stinking picky with his shoes it is scary. I hope and pray DS#2 does not carry the same defective gene.
March 29th, 2007 at 2:12 pmGoodness, my 4 daughters have less shoes than that between them! And i only have 3 pairs myself
March 29th, 2007 at 2:37 pmHave y’all seen the Macy’s shoe commercial? I need them all. I even have TWO pair of green shoes.
It’s not an addiction if I don’t have a problem with it?
March 29th, 2007 at 2:43 pmEvery little girl needs sneakers with laces.
March 29th, 2007 at 2:55 pmI’m not counting, and wouldn’t tell if I did, how many pairs of shoes I have. But if I like them I get more than one color. Remember,I’m old, I need good shoes for my poor, aching feet. That excuse is good now but it didn’t work 20 years ago when I had even more shoes. (but I worked then) Your daughter has taken a good lesson in shoes and in shoe organization. I can’t wait to hear from you about this as she grows older, it’s going to be fun.
March 29th, 2007 at 3:03 pmI love shoes because they don’t judge me the way my pants do. My shoe size doesn’t fluctuate the way my pant size does. Your daughter is right on the money. She NEEDS sneakers with laces.
March 29th, 2007 at 3:18 pmI believe I’m reading my future here. We literally just put Thalia in a new pair of rainboots and she went “oooohhhh” and hasn’t taken then off.
She’s 21 months.
March 29th, 2007 at 3:18 pmi am soooo impressed with that clean floor.
so funny you took this photo, ’cause i was considering taking a photo of all the new spring/summer shoes for my 1, 3, and 5 yr-olds that i (and my mother, my personal target shopper, since there is not one in north MS) have bought in the last month.
my daughter is wearing her pink target cowgirl boots today, and she has the brown ones w/ flowers but refused to wear them. she is strange about shoes; so picky.
March 29th, 2007 at 3:29 pmI know some people hate them, but have you seen the Mary Jane crocs?? I’m thinkin’ she needs a pair of those too!
March 29th, 2007 at 3:55 pmI love the shoes, but I really like the dress hanging in the background. My daughter (3.5) saw it as I was reading this and she said oooooohhhhh, I want that dress mommy.
March 29th, 2007 at 4:10 pmMy 2 daughters and I have about three pairs of shoes each. Good quality shoes are really expensive in Australia
March 29th, 2007 at 4:54 pmIs it wrong for me to want a daughter of my own so I can buy her some cute shoes? My 8 year old son loves shoes, but there’s only so much you can do with sneakers (he has 2 pairs of Chucks, Etnies, Starburries, Aesics, and Crocs - yes 5 pairs of sneakers with laces). Today we cruised through Nordstrom’s kid shoe department. Cute boy shoes, amazing girl shoes…
March 29th, 2007 at 6:01 pmI feel like a pauper in the shoe department compared to some of the people here though, guess I better get shopping!
I worry about my daughter too. I try to keep it in the back of mind during all of my interactions with her. I have to remember that I’m not my mother and I don’t have to repeat her mistakes!
March 29th, 2007 at 6:10 pmoh so cute. of course!
I think your daughter has about the same number of shoes as all 3 of mine put together, though!
March 29th, 2007 at 6:12 pmI am convinced within myself that somewhere scientist are working on a cure for shoemounia, It is a terrible disease passed from mother to daughter, costing this country billions. Well, it is at least costing unsuspecting husbands and fathers billions.
March 29th, 2007 at 6:31 pmThey need to come up with a vaccine and soon! It is spreading fast at my house. Happily, humans of the male persuasion seem to be immune.
What’s funny is that, in the previous post, she has no shoes on at all!
March 29th, 2007 at 8:51 pmI am laughing SO hard. She is right, of course.
March 29th, 2007 at 9:26 pmI completely understand about the sneakers with laces, but what I love even more are those wonderful pink boots.
March 29th, 2007 at 9:41 pmLook at her cute slops! I want those.
Tell her that Susan will come and take her to the store for sneakers.
March 29th, 2007 at 9:44 pmUm. I’m still curious how you got her to actually clean her room. My daughter is twice as old and doesn’t clean half as well.
March 29th, 2007 at 10:45 pmI love it! My daughter will be 5 in June and she’s my little shopping fashionista. This week she told me she HAD to have headbands and new shoes.
March 29th, 2007 at 10:52 pmAnd those all fit her? My girls have about three pairs of shoes each and I thought I was splurging. I obviously need to get with the program.
March 29th, 2007 at 11:02 pmA picture truly is worth a thousand words. That was priceless. Loved it. Now please go get the girl some sneakers.
March 29th, 2007 at 11:19 pmhilarious…
March 30th, 2007 at 1:23 amHave you ever noticed how cute little girl shoes are and wouldn’t it be nice if they’d size up a bit so us big girls could enjoy too? My daughter’s had those pink cowboy boots since last fall and I’d be lying if I said I haven’t been envious a couple of times over them. She’s already eyeing some of my shoes and she’s only 4. I remember doing the same with my mom and to my horror, one day all of her shoes were too small for me. I can only hope for the same.
March 30th, 2007 at 1:36 amHa ha ha ha haaaa!!!! Too funny.
March 30th, 2007 at 6:48 amA child after my own heart…My 27 year old daughter and I both have the shoe gene–can’t wait for HER to have a daughter that will carry on the tradition!
March 30th, 2007 at 9:09 amShe has the cutest shoes ever! The poor thing, though. No sneakers? Buy her a pair before you end up paying for years of therapy due to her trauma for neglect.
March 30th, 2007 at 9:46 amThat is sooo cute. LOVE all the pink.
I love girls.
March 30th, 2007 at 11:44 amHas she seen the commercials for Lelli Kelly shoes? My 8y/o has been obsessing about them for weeks…. there will be a pair in her Easter basket now.
March 30th, 2007 at 12:09 pmAnd you see, you are the perfect mother who has trained her right!!
March 30th, 2007 at 12:46 pmGood job!
I love the way your girl has lined up all her shoes. I have a 2 and a half year old and I have to hold myself back to not buy her all of the cute shoes I see around. She also has those pink cowboy boots, but her FATHER bought them for her.
March 30th, 2007 at 1:49 pmGREAT pic. She has cuter shoes than anyone I know.
March 30th, 2007 at 7:59 pmI need to get a new shoes as an old one had worn out. Why not start the search right now
April 6th, 2007 at 6:12 am