Kid Fashion - Shoes for him

I remember when I just had one child and shopping for anything for him was so fun! Bibs, tiny socks, pajamas, shoes, clothes -- oh the excitement whenever he needed anything new!

Now that I have 3 ever-growing kids, keeping all 3 in shirts, shorts, pants, dresses, skirts, pajamas, school shoes, church shoes, underwear, winter coats, rain coats, swimsuits, swim goggles, winter hats, sun hats, baseball pants, baseball socks, ballet leotards, tights, ballet shoes, soccer cleats, baseball cleats, etc. that are the right size and not too worn out has become quite the overwhelming task. At any given time somebody needs something!

Just today my daughter's feet were crammed into too small ballet shoes that I need to find time to take her to replace and my toddler went to bed in a pajama shirt with some random athletic shorts because the bottoms to all the 2-year-old-sized-boy-summer-jammies somehow disappeared during the passing down from big brother to little brother!

But this past weekend, I tackled a wardrobe issue rather painlessly and learned something new about malekind in the process!

My 6 year-old has been wearing last year's brown sandals to church the past few weeks because it has been warm enough for shorts, but his toes were crammed up against the end. I checked a couple of my usual stores for new ones, but since he moved up to a kid size 1, the choices for classic looking footwear in those stores have disappeared.

But the Internet, is my friend!

You gotta try shoes on, right? And they may or may not work, so that is why I love the sites like Endless.com that have free shipping and free return shipping if the shoe does not fit or work or whatever!

I found 2 cute options and planned to send one pair back after we decided which was best. They arrived so fast I didn't have time to try them on my son until we were getting ready for church.

I did the girl maneuver on him and put a different shoe on either foot to compare. I was leaning towards the one with the toe covered, but I asked my son what he thought.

Do you know what he did?

Lifted up each foot and examined the bottom of the shoe!

I was amazed at why the part nobody could see would matter. Comfort & cuteness, that's how I rate shoes! He informed me the ones with the open toe (1st picture) had a much better bottom and would allow him to run faster and jump higher.

Hmmm. . .

I called in his dad, my husband, for further help and wisdom. He had been in another part of the house and not heard any of our conversation thus far.

Do you know what my husband did when I asked him which shoe was better?

HE LIFTED MY SON'S FOOT AND LOOKED AT THE BOTTOM OF EACH SHOE!

People, I learned something new about males! I have been married to a man for nearly 10 years, grew up with a big brother, and have 2 sons. I thought I knew it all about boys. Not true!

Apparently they choose shoes based on the bottom of the shoe!

Whatever! The shoe they unanimously chose was on sale for $19.00 versus the nearly $40.00 pair I liked! So the $40 pair was sent back.

No matter how you choose shoes, I highly recommend the Internet shopping. More choices, better prices, not dragging your kid to the store and through the store, and being able to try the shoes on your kid in your home when he or she is in a cooperative mood & while your other kids are contained and not running wildly through the store -- I could go on and on about the benefits!

But I'll just list one more. You get to narrow the choices!!! I chose 2 pairs of sandals that I liked and thus eliminated taking him to the store and having him fall in love with some ugly shoes and fight to get them! It's all about bringing the store to your child, not your child to the store!

Find more Fashion Friday at Big Mama.