Just A Quick Trip For Shoes With A 9 Year Old

He was so over it!

Have you shopped for shoes with your 9 year old? You did make it a quick trip for shoes he needs, right? Lucky you. How exactly is it done?

First of all, the kid will not want to go to the store in the first place. What little boy just can’t wait to stop playing with his Lego® City Police Station or his Sims™4 or laughing through another episode of Larva and go to a shopping mall with Mom and Nana where they sell handbags……and jewelry…..and clothes?

“But Mom, we’ll be there forever!”

In the first place, he needs to have some high top Black Converse sneakers. This will be a part of his costume in his Hip Hop dance recital this spring. All the dancers will have the same outfit and so it is a necessity.

Mom just happens to need a new top…and maybe some boots too. So I am recruited to go along and help. We persuade the 9 year old that this trip will be faster if Mom goes ahead and shops for her things while Nana takes him to the shoe department for the Converse shoes. Sounds like a plan!

Yeah, good luck with that, thinks the 9 year old. He’s been there, done that, and it just doesn’t work that way.

First of all, he knows that his Mom has NEVER passed the handbag department without lingering for a while, looking inside each zippered compartment and posing with the strap over her shoulder and hooked on her elbow. He’s seen that from his stroller view since way back when he was a toddler.

He knows she’s going to pick one or another, start moving on to the shoe department, but then stopping, “Oh, I shouldn’t..”  and “Look, pebbled leather in camel!” Several minutes spent discussing the difference in mushroom and light mushroom….and brown sugar….It’s a brown purse. Pick one!

After much stopping and lingering and Mom and Nana assessing  every item and color in every department, I finally go ahead and take him to the shoe department.

He goes straight to the selection of Converse high-tops. He gets a size 5 and tries it on but it seems a little loose, so he grabs a size 4. After he puts this one on, he pronounces it is just right. He is done!  Typical male, right? says Nana.

“Ready to go?” He asks with a woebegone expression. Typical male, I say.

So we call Mom on the cell phone and find her in the lingerie section, and after a short period of time looking through a few items, we all start toward the checkout desk. The kid is marching quick-time to get to the checkout desk. Typical male, I say.

 

But the 9 year old looks up ahead of him. It is there: The Perfume and Make-up department. He glances up to see the look of delight and anticipation on Mom’s and Nana’s faces.

It going to take a little longer to get home.  Typical women, the 9 year old says.