August 09, 2003
Consequences of a Growing Boy
I Meandered about it when I announced Aidie’s impending birth. I have blogged about it since. Shoes. Children’s shoes.
Aidie has three perfectly good pairs of shoes. Now they don’t fit. He hasn’t had them for very long at all. Even with his rough-and-tumble way, they have hardly a mark on them. But his time as a 4½ has come and gone forever. His 5½ feet just won’t squeeze into them anymore. I have no doubt that his new size 6s won’t last long at all.
And they normally aren’t cheap. Mrs Holford, being the bargain hunter and gatherer than she is, found Nike trainers for £12. We aren’t the kind of parents who want our child wearing name-brand accessories, but they were actually cheaper than more generic models available. (The ones from Clark’s are £25.) This isn’t the best she’s done. His last pair were Reeboks for £6. Her record was set in the States, when she picked up Winnie-the-Pooh trainers for $4.
Still, shelling out even these amounts over and over and over again, in intervals that can be measured in weeks, is significant. He’s only been walking since January and he’s had eight pairs of shoes. That averages one pair a month.
We got summer clothes for him in April as things began to warm up. (We had no idea then that it would get as warm as it has!) It’s now only August and he’s outgrown them all.
It wouldn’t be so bad, except that he is the first grandchild on either side of his family, so there aren’t any hand-me-downs. The only good thing is that as he’s grown out of them before wearing them out, they will be available for the next one. Unless we have a girl, of course.