Barefoot Bobby

For the first 6 years of Bobby's life he did not wear shoes.  He didn't really get his first pair of shoes until he was one.  He had the little fabric type shoes that come with baby outfits, but they don't really count.  I took him to Stride Rite and had his foot measured and he got a pair of tennis shoes and a pair of dress shoes.  I left the store spending around $100 on toddler shoes.  I should have just thrown the money into the trash because he wouldn't leave the shoes on. 

Bobby trying to get his new shoes OFF!!!

It was a never ending battle.  I would put his shoes on (and finally he would just let me) and then he would take them off.  People were always coming up to me in stores and handing me shoes that Bobby dropped on the floor from his seat in the shopping cart.  I finally just gave up and Bobby spent most of his time shoeless.

Shoeless Baby Bobby

Barefoot toddler Bobby

Since Bobby lived his life without wearing shoes, he had tough little feet.  He played outside in the mulch, rocks, woods without shoes on.  Here he is climbing his rock wall like a barefooted champ!!

A barefoot Red Power Ranger

Now don't get me wrong, Bobby always had shoes and the battle continued.  I would put them on him to go outside and he would take them off and leave them in the yard.  He wore his shoes back and forth to school but would take them off on the bus ride home.  Since he wouldn't leave his shoes on at school (for his 3 years of Pre-K), I finally bought Crocs to leave at school so that he could slip them on and walk down the hall to speech therapy, occupational therapy, lunch, recess, phys ed.  Funny thing is he would leave the Crocs on for big parts of the day.  So, Bobby's Croc period began.

I bought real crocs, fake crocs, blue crocs, orange crocs...you get the idea!!  Bobby wore these plastic shoes everywhere and he had the independence to put them on and take them off himself with ease.

Bobby played outside in his Crocs until they became too filled with mulch, dirt and rocks and then he would take them off and leave them in the yard.  There were many mornings before school when I was running around our yard looking for his shoes because he had left multiple pairs outside.

When it was time for Bobby to start kindergarten, I decided to try again and find a pair of tennis shoes that Bobby would wear because I didn't want him to stick out even more from the other kids by wearing Crocs all of the time.  Taking Bobby to a shoe store is out of the question.  The lines of shoes on the wall, the stacks of shoe boxes is just too much for him.  I would not be able to look while he was destroying the inventory.  Someone getting him to cooperate while they measured his foot was even more out of the question.  So, I again took to the internet to look at shoe options.  While on Stride Rite's website, I noticed that they had a shoe sizer that you printed off to measure at home before you ordered.  So, I printed off a shoe sizer and measured Bobby's foot.  It said that he needed a 2X wide.  I had bought him wide shoes in the past with no success. I took the measurements and went over to the Stride Rite store.  They had one double wide in stock. I paid $60 for shoes for Bobby (thinking to myself that I should just shoot myself for paying this much for a kid who won't wear shoes). 

Bobby wore his new shoes to school the next day and I stuffed his pair of Crocs into his backpack.  He wore his new shoes all day. NEVER took them off ONCE!!  It wasn't shoes after all.  It was that his shoes were TOO NARROW!!  My child's feet had been hurting in shoes his whole life and he couldn't tell me.  I felt like the worst mother in the world. 

Bobby now wears shoes when we leave the house.  He has school shoes, play shoes, still has a pair of crocs, and even has started wearing flip flops.   His feet aren't as tough as they used to be, but he can still out run anyone through the rocks while barefoot.  Now, if the rest of his issues were this easy of a fix!!