As I’m getting ready this morning I’ve got CBS’s Early Show on the TV. I didn’t get a chance to watch the whole segment, but they were talking about shoes for toddlers. Not really my big interest so I was only half paying attention until they got to a spot where some guy (looked like a Children’s shoe store owner) was talking about the medical need for toddler’s shoes and that the cost of $40-$50 should be thought of as such. I’ve never really thought of shoes as a medical need (unless we’re talking orthotics and that such) but I could kind of see his point.
The segment went on to a Dr., I’m not sure if it was a pediatrician/podiatrist/or what, but he said that toddlers should not wear hand-me-down shoes because they won’t fit the foot.
Considering how fast childrens’ feet grow, I would think that at some point the hand-me-downs would fit properly. I can’t imagine that the shoes would be broken in that little of time as they mentioned get a new size shoe every 2-3 months. I can see making sure that they’re the proper size, but the “rule of thumb” that was mentioned should take care of that. So, is there something I’m missing?
And after typing all of that out, I found the article online.
(Note: I don’t have kids, never got hand-me-downs, so I’m pretty dang ignorant on this whole subject.)
Of course kids have their own individual feet sizes - but shoes come in a fairly standard set of sizes. If your older daughter wore a pair of size 3 shoes for 2 months before moving on to size 4, why wouldn’t you pass them down to the younger daughter, who will almost definitely hit size 3 somewhere along the way - for about 2 months. I’m sorry but kids’ shoes are ridiculously expensive, and they wear them for an astoundingly short period of time. My kids hated shoes when they were toddlers, so they wore them only when walking outside. I think some of their shoes had a total usage of maybe 4 hours in the 2 months they fit into them. I’m supposed to spend another 40 bucks for the next kid to wear a “brand new” version of the same exact thing? For 4 hours of use? Fat chance.
If they think I am spending $40 for a pair of shoes on a kid that will outgrow them in 2-6 months they are clinically insane.
All of my kids shoes ( with the exception of the emergency pair that we had to buy on vacation because their feet had a growth spurt and didn’t fit into their shoes suddenly. Damn them!) are handme downs.
There are two reasons I didn’t have handme down shoes as a kid (youngest of two). First, I had special orthotics because of a birth “deformity” (turned out to be low arches and lots of fat on the bottom of my foot) from infancy, and my brother was really really hard on his shoes, so it would have been strapping on scraps of shoe leather rather than actual shoes.
My kids are so tough on shoes they never last long enough to be hand-me-downs. No way am I ever spending that much on regular school shoes. Target all the way. My kids didn’t even get shoes until they were walking outside on their own.
My brothers are two years apart. The youngest is part of a set of four boys born in the same apartment building in the same year: for the first three years or so, the four mothers were handing things down left and right. They would even hand things “up”: if one got a present that was too big for her kid at the time, she’d give it to the one whose kid was the right size.
None of the kids involved seems to be any stranger than your average male, but they certainly feel a close bond.