To be surprised how many parents can't afford children's footwear?

[moita]

I must have been living under a rock but: I recently started volunteering for a charity that donates coats to children who need one.

I live in a village just outside a deprived city and we have lots of requests for coats from struggling parents.

It was eye-opening. We then started having the same request: for footwear, most specifically wellies. We put out social media messages for used but good condition wellies. Lots of people donated and they were all pretty much snapped up.

I've got to say: I was surprised, naively so? I felt guilty buying my toddler wellies from the supermarket but here were parents happy to take used ones away. And a lot of the people who came to use are single mums who have fallen on hard times.

I don't know. I just feel so sad that our service is so needed.

I see it first hand. Children in coats 2 sizes too small and not warm enough and shoes falling apart. It's very very sad

@kowari - yes and fur trim on the bottom of my coat to make it last longer I think?

Not up to date with children's shoe prices, but I recall paying over £45 a pair for clarks school shoes, for my son in primary (hes now 22), so I would imagine £60? Which is a lot of money really .
Heartbreaking about the girl with an elastic band on her shoe, so sad

Buying shoes that are too big is bad for children's feet though. You'd be better just buying cheap shoes that fit.

(Or not having to buy shoes just so your children can go to school. I mean that would be quite a substantial saving. But isn't going to happen any time soon. )

[quote woodhill]@kowari - yes and fur trim on the bottom of my coat to make it last longer I think?[/quote]

Kowari - This was back in the 70s but your post reminded me and I remember growing into things

@woodhill

Kowari - This was back in the 70s but your post reminded me and I remember growing into things

I was a child in the 80s and 90s so never had that experience, was confused what you meant!

@MissMarpleDarling
I can afford them but if free wellies were advertised to single mums I'd go take a pair. Why not if your advertising.

If you can afford to buy wellies wouldn’t you feel a little bit guilty for depriving a family who genuinely couldn’t afford to go and buy a pair if you take the free ones on offer just because you can?

I’m lucky (at the moment) that my kids seem to have fairly slow growing feet, as i have three, two of them twin pre-teens. I always get Clarks or similar for their school shoes, I felt so guilty about buying supermarket shoes - I guess having it drummed into me as a kid really made its mark!

DH comes from a poor family where it was a source of pride to have new uniform every year, regardless of whether anything still fits. He struggles with not buying new every year, even when it was like handing down pristine school sweatshirts.

I had a point when I started posting that I promise....

Oh yeah, it doesn’t surprise me that people are struggling, especially if their kids are growing fast.

I bought Clark’s shoes twice for my dd and twice they fell apart after only a term.
Then we discovered Primark and I got her school shoes from there.

I think the real problem is affording rent and utiities andthen having the money spare.
It also depends on priorities my mum spent everything on proper shoes and decent food for us and then we went without carpets and a tv. Some families in our street bought better tvs and videos and theyre kids had worn out shoes and half mast trousers. Parents priorities is a thing. I got called Oxfam reject at school for wearing coats from the lost property sale at the end of term. I wouldn't have that for my kids i would buy on store cards if i needed to - that was not a solution. Poverty has always been a horrible way for families to live and for kids to grow up in.
You would really hope in the 21st century kids weren't growing up like that. It is heartbreaking that things aren't different.

Kowari - oh I see

@DifficultPifcultLemonDifficult

My kids school needs outdoor shoes, indoor shoes, and PE shoes for wearing in the hall. Those plus wellies all add up to a crazy amount to replace every time they go up a size.

Many peoples financial situations have changed recently, so its not surprising at all, sadly.

Schools need to get over themselves. When I was in primary school we changed in to plimsolls when we arrived at school. Sometimes we even wore them for the walk to and from school when weather permitted. Saves all the above nonsense and the competitive trainer buying.

@Luddite26

Kids shoes and clothes aren't any more expensive now than they were 30 years ago or 40 years ago - cheaper in ratio to wages. We got extra shoes like trainers for pe football boots even wellies for xmas and bityhdays. There weren't supermarket shoes to buy. I remember regularly crying in August trying to get the money together for new shoes.or half killing DS1 for ng his shoes after a coiple of weeks or losing his coat . It's a good recycling service you are offerring but it is not a new thing. One would have just hoped there would be more equality now and poverty should not be so rife especially in work poverty.

Kids shoes and clothes may not be more expensive, but everything else is. Especially housing and childcare. People are no better off, very often they’re worse off (two wages now often still doesn’t run a house and family in the way one wage could have years ago) so they struggle in the same way, and often they struggle even more.

Sadly not surprised given things such as period poverty, fuel poverty, and the nature of the low wage gig and zero contract economy.

JustLyra i agree with you. But i didn't grow up in the world where father went to work and mummy stayed at home - father never turned up and mum gave us a key to let ourselves in cos she was at work. I'm just saying that poverty in families isn't new. The poverty in 80s Britain was a harsh division of haves and have nots. Bills were expensive life for some has been a constant cycle of robbing peter to pay paul. All i'm saying is it shouldn't be like that in this country in this day and age.
I do know the humiliation of queuing in a different queue because i had free school meals there isn't a golden time in British history where children didn't live in poverty. And there isn't really a time where women didn't work it's a myth pedalled by institutions like the BBC who like to think we are all jolly and middle-class.
Childcare has always been expensive rents have utilities have. The poverty isn't any worse now it is more unacceptable now. It is wrong. But desperately trying to make your finances stretch to clothe kids is not new.

@Luddite26 is correct about the price of shoes 30 years ago, they were more expensive than they are now. Uniforms were also very expensive, my older DD's school jumper was £22 in the earlier 90s. However, wages in many areas of work have been cut to the bone; my take home salary in 2005 was over £30,000 yet similar roles today don't pay anywhere near that gross. House prices and transport costs have increased exponentially and I pay as much for a tiny 2 bed terrace as I did circa 2006 for a detached house with over an acre of garden, land, stables and outbuildings. Over years of Tory austerity has increased the divide between haves and have nots exponentially & its a disgrace. Academy schools don't help as they often change uniform into something similar to a 70s grammar school, impractical, over embellished with crests etc., expensive and bought several sizes too big!

@Luddite26

JustLyra i agree with you. But i didn't grow up in the world where father went to work and mummy stayed at home - father never turned up and mum gave us a key to let ourselves in cos she was at work. I'm just saying that poverty in families isn't new. The poverty in 80s Britain was a harsh division of haves and have nots. Bills were expensive life for some has been a constant cycle of robbing peter to pay paul. All i'm saying is it shouldn't be like that in this country in this day and age. I do know the humiliation of queuing in a different queue because i had free school meals there isn't a golden time in British history where children didn't live in poverty. And there isn't really a time where women didn't work it's a myth pedalled by institutions like the BBC who like to think we are all jolly and middle-class. Childcare has always been expensive rents have utilities have. The poverty isn't any worse now it is more unacceptable now. It is wrong. But desperately trying to make your finances stretch to clothe kids is not new.

It shouldn't be like that in this day in age, but it's not remotely any better than it was. That's a misconception that so many people have.

I also didn't grow up with a SAHM and working Dad. I grew up with Grandparents after being removed from abusive parents. I wasn't saying that there was a golden time, but it's absolute nonsense when people suggest it's better now than it used to be. Especially in the last few years when the welfare safety net has been decimated to the point that it doesn't even cover bare essentials for families in the worse position. Things are getting worse as well.

I can't talk about salaries but i know in the mid 90s when i was paid £1.50 per hour i couldnt buy shoes from places like Primark. My wage currently has not gone up since 2008.

There is VAT on kids clothes as well. If you have tall genes you are taxed for it and can pay 20% more than parents with smaller children VAT on school uniforms is disgusting.

I think there was a time in the late 90s and 00s where house buying was possible for more people.
I don't think that will ever return in this country. The gap is getting wider.
But the landslide victory that BoJo got last year shows to me that not that many people really give a dot about child/family poverty today.
People voted with the thought that they have more chance of becoming millionaires than homeless.
The reality is very different.

I have nowhere said that ii is any easier today i have said it is more unacceptable in the 21st century.

My first job in the 70s paid £80 per month. A pair of jeans were around £10 for really cheap pairs.
My rent was £10 per week + bills. Imagine if a pair of jeans was the equivalent to 1 weeks rent or vice versa.
I think the difference isn’t that clothes are cheaper or the cost of living has gone up but the fact that benefits need to be claimed alongside full time work because companies now don’t pay enough

@Bythemillpond

I can remember saving up for a denim mini skirt from Dorothy Perkins in about 1981! It was £10. And I was earning 60p an hour...

Agree with you that clothes were expensive. There was nothing like Primark in those days and teens/young people couldn't afford many clothes. I had a very limited wardrobe.

There was Martin Ford and Mark one but yes i didn't have that many clothes and one pair of shoes for "best" then school shoes