Shoes, again.

Re: shoes:

It's true that arches are primarily a matter of genetics, but I also believe that living in hard-soled shoes can hinder a child's feet from developing arches naturally as they do all the supporting for them. There's a lot of literature out there in regards to this and it makes sense to me. I know my mother put me in those classic white leather hard-soled shoes when I started walking, and I do wonder if this had anything to do with my resulting flat feet as the rest of my family has arches. The best thing I do for Michael is have him go barefoot as much as possible, as the shoes I get for him aren't allowing his feet to strengthen themselves. I don't want the kid to necessarily have high arches, I just want him to have the arches he's supposed to have.

The quality of the shoe is important to me more for durability and support when shoes are necessary, those plastic crap shoes don't do a thing for a kid's feet...or an adult's, for that matter. Also in my case, warmth, as living in Maine it's necessary to have shoes that insulate properly or else you'll be miserable.

I've had many a pair of shoes in my day and I've found that every single pair of Payless cheapies I buy I either end up destroying in record time, or there's some comfort problem with them and they end up in the back of my closet. I went through a lot of cheap shoes to learn this lesson, come take a look in my closet some time. The shoes I wear over and over again are my Merrell hiking shoes for the outdoors, my leather Earth shoes for times I need something slightly more dressy, my Simple sneakers for everyday wear during the warmer months, and my Birkenstock sandals for hot weather, simply because they feel the best out of everything I own. That's why I now buy better-quality shoes...though they may be more expensive intitially, I save money in the long run as I don't buy four pairs of cheapo shoes looking for something that fits right and don't suddenly start rubbing in the wrong place a few hours after leaving the store.

It all comes out in the wash, especially as I now have a full suite of shoes in excellent shape for the next kidlet.

Now I totally want to go back and check out those womens' fleece-lined Merrell clogs I saw when we were getting kidlet's shoes.