Sometimes You have to Let Those Hand-me-downs Go

My youngest son has not had many new clothes in his 2 years of life. He generally wears all his older brother's clothes that have most likely made their way to another little boy's closet before they made their journey back to our house. We use it all - socks, t-shirts, play clothes, church clothes even underwear (only worn by my oldest son). It has not been often that I have been able to recycle shoes because my oldest was so hard on them by the time he was 12 months old. Yet, somehow we still have a few to choose from.

We are now at the point where we are having to buy shoes for him. As usual, I try to remember before I buy anything to look through our stash or as I call it in our house---the treasure chest.

I found a pair of NIKE shoes. They looked good, didn't smell bad and I remembered I had actually received them from a friend who has a son older than my oldest son. So, these were serious hand-me-down shoes. If memory serves me correct, they were worn very little by my son and worn very little by my friend's son, as well. So, I knew these shoes would last some time or at least until I was prepared to buy more. Shoes for little boys are expensive. We do not sport cartoon character shoes in my house, so shoes for my boys will always be expensive.

Call me a shoe snob and I will say thank you (only for my boys--me, I could careless).

I put his shoes on the morning after the big FIND. When I went to pick him up that afternoon, I saw pieces of rubber in his cubby. The soles of his shoes had come apart. Oh my gosh! I sent my baby to school in horrible shoes.

I had no idea what the rubber was at first. I asked his teacher "What is this?" She responds as if she is embarrassed for me "Well we saw some of the kids playing with the rubber parts of shoes and we had to search whose shoes had fallen apart. We saw your son was missing his soles and figure maybe you wanted to salvage what was left." Ummm, why would I want to salvage a run down shoe....is what I wanted to ask her but I didn't. When I noticed she was embarrassed for me I responded "Yeah, I bet I can have those up and going by tonight--we're in a recession." She seemed surprised. I was glad because I do not embarrass easily and do not take kindly to those trying to make me feel that way either.

Let me just take time to say that my baby looked like he had on socks with a NIKE check. The soles were completely gone, GONE. My husband claims that we should have been embarrassed. Whateva....

Needless to say, I did toss the shoes, but I had to replace them immediately because we were on our way to big brother's baseball game. What store was on the way?




I have never bought my kids shoes out of Payless. Me, yes. Them, no. There I am, again. Shoe Snob.

I found a pair that I actually liked. I was really impressed, but I let me tell you there is slim picking for little boys at Payless unless you are into cartoon characters for your sons. I am not but to each his own, just not mine. Do you know his shoes cost me $19.83? WTH?!?! This is Payless! Boys shoes cost too much anywhere you go. I saw the little girl's shoes going for $5, $6, and $7. Did I mention they took up the most of the wall.

This is why I keep my treasure chest around. My husband hates all those extra clothes junking up our attic but, I look up there and see dollar signs---MONEY SAVED!

You just have to know when to let them go!