To be sad at how boring little boys' shoes are?

[CrazyOldCatLady]

We brought DD (3.10) and DS (2.2) shoe shopping today in the shop with the biggest range of kids' shoes within 60km of us.

DD looked at loads of shoes, pink or purple or yellow or white or blue or orange, with sparkles, sequins, embroidery, patterns, lights, all sorts of decorations. Or even naice black patent ones, though she didn't waste much time looking at those ones. She picked out a pink and yellow glittery pair which for some reason stood out for her against all the other pink and yellow glittery ones, put them on, and was immediately so madly in love with them that we couldn't take them off. She came home ecstatically happy with her shoes and is delighted with life.

For DS, we were shown all the boys' shoes available in his size. They were all brown or navy. The styles varied very little and there were no sequins, glitter or interest. One pair had a picture of a dinosaur on the side but that was as interesting as it got.

He had actively taken part in picking out shoes for DD (he knew exactly what she would like and picked up the pair she went for in the end, saying 'Roro like this one!') and was really interested in the whole thing, and was baffled when he was only offered boring navy and brown ones. He kept asking for the pink glittery ones he had chosen for himself, and (awful mammy that I am), I went along with the shop assistant who said he couldn't have them. He ended up with a boring navy pair which he refused to wear, and cried to have his old shoes back because the new ones weren't what he wanted (he wasn't tantrumming, just very, very sad).

AIBU to be sad at how little choice boys have? And also for despising myself a little for not going with my gut and just buying the poor little guy his beloved pink sparkly shoes?

I think you could probably extend this to boys' attire in general. I had a totally unreasonable go a few years back at the poor woman at Petit Bateau in the run up to Christmas because they had all these beautiful smocked plaid dresses for the little girls, and a whole line of camouflage for boys.

I really like Sperry's topsiders, Havianas in the summer, and Converse for my kids. I am very fond of a sports jacket/button-down/tie, braided leather belt & converse for dressy occasions.

I find my boys have as much choice as they or I want. So yabu.

My boys have always worn bright, varied colours and have had various cool trainers/shoes/boots since babies (they are 9 & 11 now).

If your boy wants pink glittery things then buy him pink glittery things, but most boys don't want that style of shoe, hence the shops don't sell them.

I actually think girls clothes can be pretty limited in that they are often 'girly', it can be quite hard to find things without 'girly' colours and sparkle.

I agree op, tge girls selection seems to be more variety than the boys. Yes I bought ds 2 those ones with a dinausaur. But tbh Clark's is really boring for boys shoes

YANBU - I've always found the boys' shoes selection in Clarks and in JL (which basically sells Clarks only) massively depressing. As other posters have suggested, you need to find an independent stockist of European shoes. One Small Step are great - mostly London shops but they have a franchise in my local House of Fraser. He's had some fab shoes from there - not vibrant colours or sparkly but at least a bit more stylish and less generic.

Also, you can get brightly coloured boys Crocs and Converse for the summer and wellies for the winter which break things up a bit.

Yanbu. Dinosaurs, cars, and the odd football. Choice of black or brown and great clunky soles.

We just buy the girls' ones. It makes DS happy!

I prefer boys shoes to girls shoes. At least boys shoes are practical. DD has to wear black patent shoes for school and she ends up with wet socks in winter. Pink glitterly shoes may look cute, but they get wrecked if you little girl plays outside.

I just got ds2 aged 3 a lovely pair of grass green trainers, he loves them!

www.mylittleshoebox.co/geox-kiwi-casual-trainer-for-boys-green/p716

link to 'Next, younger boys shoes and trainers'

There's a huge selection of colours and styles on the next site, and not hugely expensive.

link to Clarks' online shop

There's some cool stuff from clarks too if you order online.

Check out panache kids footwear selection

Google stomp, it's a fab kids shoe shop my friend introduced me to
DS currently has a pair of kickers which have about 5 different colours on them- only seen them there!

DS1 (3.5) has a boring brown pair from Clarks but at the moment he mostly kicks around in these He calls them his 'cool red shoes'. They come in lovely bright colours and are a fraction of the price of proper Converse.

yes I completely agree, although now mine are older I indulge them with fancy dan trainers like addidas which come in a huge range of neon colours and cost similar to bastard clarks/startshite etc

Since when have shoes had a gender? Just get him pink sparkly ones if that's what he likes :)

I wouldn't dream of buying husbands grandchildren shoes unless they where being measured and fitted

Poor DS has inherited my feet which negates the point of looking at the display, and requires asking what shoes they have available in size ultra tiny, mega wide, then taking your pick from the two available. A slight improvement from when I was a child and had to take the age inappropriate shoe that was available for the umpteenth year in a row. Thank goodness I grew out of babyish T bars just in time for secondary school, abd finaly made it to the coveted lace ups that my friends had worn for years. He had to walk around in cruisers until he was 22 months before he grew into the shoe range.

Clarkes is the only option near here. I'm loathe to buy online as my experiences of buying without trying is a waste of money when you realise youve bought another pair of foot shredders, and returning the blasted things is a faff and waste of postage and packaging.

Can you tell I hate shoes? Actually that's not quite true, I'm a repressed shoe lover waiting for somone to invent my shoe size.

Actually, DS got lucky this time, he fell in love with the airplanes on his current pair. I had no choice in the face of his strength of feeling. Every pair so far has been the same style, just variations in colour and trimming.

Max & May are the own brand range that One Small Step chain of children's shoe shops have introduced.

DD had a pair of red shoes from there and lots of people commented on how they were the sort of things that used to be around when we were little.

I never had a problem, I liked boys shoes better.

We have never had a choice problem such big wide feet it was always the single pair that fits that had to be bought.

I live in Ireland so we don't have as big a range of shoes available. I don't like buying them online, yesterday even shoes that were his size weren't all a good fit so I wouldn't take the risk, plus P&P from any of those nice sites to Ireland (and returns) would probably be exorbitant.

Next time I'll just get him the glittery ones.

DS has these by Superfit which we got from an independent shoe shop which had lots of nice options. I forgot to ask the price before I got to the counter or he might not have had them... Kind of glad as he loves them and we get lots of nice comments about them.

What shop did you go to crazy? I'm in Ireland too. HoF in Dundrum is ok for boys shoes. Not amazing but miles better than Clarks.

Marking place, although how to you measure their feet properly when buying online. It's especially difficult as they often give European sizes for example and I don't think I even know what width ds's feet are!

I hate the way girls shoes are often flimsy and let the rain in. I prefer boys shoes!