Shoe Shop Malarky

It seems I have spent all day shoe shopping. Didnt pick a good day to do it. The first day of the Easter end of term school holidays. Everyone was out shoe shopping. I was in the shoe shop for an hour. Got shoes for the big lad, no problem. But shoes for Luke is just a nightmare. He has a problem with his feet. They are too bendy! Well, he had talipes feet when he was born and now his feet just bend all over the place and have no strength to them. He is seeing a specialist at the Royal in Belfast. So good fitting shoes are a priority for Luke. The man in charge always serves us as he knows what he is doing. Today they brought down a Clarkes specialist to take a look at him. And between him and the shoe fitting man they found a pair of shoes that were very sturdy and held his feet in place. So I paid for them and took them home. Luke hates shoe shopping. He hates people touching or looking at his feet. I wonder if its because of the amount of needles they put in his feet when he was born. Anyway, shoe shopping is always a nightmare as he cries and doesnt like the attention of someone looking at him so closely.

I brought him home with his new navy shoes. Actually we walked out of the shop wearing them and after a pain staking 5 minutes walk which covered about 20 steps I took the shoes off and put his old ones on so that we could get back to the car some time today. This afternoon I slipped the shoes onto him and left him in them to play in the house. It wasnt long before I heard him screaming and begging me to take them off. He couldnt walk in them. They were so sore. The tongue of the shoe came up so high at the front of his foot and was so tough and rigid that he couldnt move his feet properly and was getting bruised in the attempt.

So I drove him back down to the shoe shop and asked to exchange them. Well, they did exchange them but not until I'd had a good lecture about not giving in to him. The 'delightful' lady there told me it was just a cry for attention and I should just take him home and tell him he's wearing them whether he likes it or not. I tried to explain that the child was in PAIN, but she kindly explained to me that her son had been just the same. She'd be back and forth giving in to his every whim until she realised he was a spoilt brat. Oooohhh I was feeling so patronised. This woman didnt know anything about me or Luke. Luke hates the attention of shoe shopping so he certainly wasnt doing it for more attention. Anyway, Im hoping now that these new shoes I brought home will not hurt him because I'd hate to have to take them back again!

Now its 5.30pm and I need to cook dinner. Today is the first day that the kids were off school and I expected to get so much done. Hence, I got nothing done. Apart from new shoes. Aargh.