PRACTICAL PARENTING â—½ HOME
In Our Shoes
by Marcy Lytle
I think every single kid does it. They see their parents’ shoes lying around and they walk over and step into them. It’s so fun to watch. And then they try to walk. And if the child is a toddler, he can’t walk at all. He tries but he steps out of the shoes or falls over. But when he can master walking in the larger shoes, this big grin emerges on his face!
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There’s such a good lesson for parents when they’re sitting on the sofa smiling at their little offspring trying to walk in their mom's or dad’s large pair of sneakers, when these kids have such tiny little feet.
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We have to be careful where we’re walking, because little eyes see and observe our paths, and they try them out when they’re young.
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Let’s look at our shoes and see what they show and tell our kids when we’re getting ready to go places.
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​If they see us wear sneakers, head out the door for a walk, to the park to play, and we place little sneakers on their feet…they will associate sneakers with play time.
If they see us slip on slides and grab a beach towel, the little kids will squeal with delight, because those types of shoes mean swimming at the pool! They run with delight to grab their own pool shoes.
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If they see us add socks before we put on our shoes, and grab a pair of warm boots, they associate those shoes with cold weather. They might squirm and not want to wear their heavy boots, but when they step outside and realize there’s snow on the ground, they will be thankful for warm toes.
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If they see us search our closet for our prettiest and nicest pair of shoes, and we are dressed up as well, they will observe perhaps that Mom and Dad are going on a date. Dressy shoes are for fancy places and they want to play in the closet later and “dress up” too.
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In this photo I’ve included for this picture, Camp (age 22 months at the time) saw my sneakers and he tried his best to step into them, only he lost his balance and he couldn’t get his toes all in at the same time. He looked at me sweetly and said, “Help,” which I gladly did. We sat on the floor and placed his chubby little toes in the shoes and I helped him stand up.
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He tried to walk but it was really impossible, and I could see that he enjoyed the process of trying out Ella’s shoes. They were fascinating to him, and he was curious if he could walk in them.
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A few days ago, I took 11 year old Ayla shopping for boots. She said a girl needs at least five pair of boots for the season! But we only shopped for one. A year or so ago she was so excited that her feet were finally large enough to move from the girls shoes to the adult shoes…a size 5. And this time she was wearing a 6, which opened up a whole world of possibilities for boots that she’d not had before. She had arrived!
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As parents, think about the shoes you wear. Talk about shoes with your toddlers, your tweens, and beyond. Go shopping for shoes as their feet grow and talk about where these shoes take your kids. Share with them how shoes are for safety, to look nice, and that they take us places…but then we take them off at night to rest our feet. Start this early, when he first steps into those sneakers you left by the sofa. Hold his hands and smile with him as he feels "so big” that he can walk in your shoes.
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And pray daily that your feet take you to places where you are a light to others; that they fit you nicely as you serve others, and that you wear them often to nice places with the ones you love. And your kids will not only step into your shoes, but they’ll walk and serve and be good walkers and runners and givers…as their feet mature and they find their new shoes all their own.