Inspired by this thread here in IMHO.
I was in kindergarten, trying ot get a star on my starchart. Other people say they were in 8th or 9th grade. How old were you, Dopers?
4
My step-son didn’t learn to tie his shoes until he was 10 years old.
I’m 24 and I still can’t figure that shit out. I just tie them in a big old knot or use velcro.
I’m working on it…
Ok, not really. About 6, I think.
almost 4 - but i could only do “bunny ears” then, not the regular way.
i think i was 5 when i could do it “right”.
I was about 3, as was my son.
My husband’s family razzes him at every gathering about how old he was when he finally mastered it. And they didn’t have velcro in those days. Poor guy…someone must have dropped him on his head.
- And this is before there were velcro shoes.
Seven-going-on-eight. My sister taught me while we were sitting in our grandmother’s kitchen.
I assume this refers to two separate occaisions? 
I was about 4 or 5… although I did wear velcro shoes for a long time because I was too lazy to tie shoelaces. Knew how to, just didn’t want to. I also wore jogging bottoms a lot because I didn’t have to do up a fly. Soon grew out of that when another kid at the school took advantage of it to pull my trousers down on top of the Big Toy one lunch break. My, that was embarrassing.
I don’t mena to be rude, but for those who didn’t learn until 13 or later, just how the hell did you get around without falling on your face all the time? Or do you go barefoot? How hard is it to tie two peices of string together?
I was about five or six and I was one of the later learners, or so I thought.
I learned in kindergarten - it was one of the daily lessons. Mrs. Bell gathered us around and showed us how to do it.
Sadly, I was unable to master it with the rest of the kids, and had to get remedial shoe-tying instruction from the teacher instead of recess the next day.
I was in fourth grade. I had to get my sister to tie them on the way to school and my teacher if they came untied during the day. Embarassment finally convinced me to learn.
Ties are something I still can’t figure out. I can do a half Windsor in about three attempts but that’s it.
I don’t remember my exact age but I do know I was much older than most people who master it, maybe somewhere between 10 and 13. When I was younger I would just tie a bunch of knots so those things didn’t come untied, but my mother hated it because they couldn’t be untied easily. I usually just left them that way and slipped my shoes off and on. I eventually learned a modified tie which wasn’t the bunny through the hole, this one was quick to tie but was a little harder to untie - but it was much better than the “bunch a knots” method. When I finally learned the proper tie I discovered that my shoes were always coming untied, so I often used my previous method anyway.
I love velcro on shoes.
I was 8. My grandmother taught me.
Probably around 6. I had my parents teach me because 1) it was annoying having to always get someone else to do it for me and 2) it bothered me that pretty much everyone else my age could but I couldn’t.
Hit and miss until age 5. Then I ran around tying EVERYBODY’S shoes when I finally learned how – baby shoelaces, kids my own age, teenagers at the beach…
This is one of my fond memories of my grandmother. My mother told me that I’d need to learn to tie my shoes before kindergarten so Nanny sat with me on the back porch going through the bunny ears steps until I mastered it .
Thinking of learning this makes me smell fresh cut grass and her White Shoulders perfume. Good memories.
My oldest daughter beat me by a year, taught by the same person. 
I was 7. My parents tried hard to get me to learn sooner. It was a very frustrating and discouraging experience. At least I don’t feel so bad about learning so late after seeing other peoples’ responses here.
I was 8 or 9. And I learned to read at 6. :smack:
We used to live on a dead-end street that led down to a creek. I used to go down there and take my sneakers off, and wade, and then when I put them back on I couldn’t tie them again.
I finally learned in school. My parents were non-too-nice about it, and no way would they buy me Velcro shoes. 
I was three or four, in daycare. We had a little wooden block that had laces through it, and I learned on that.