To buy velcro shoes for my 10 yo DS?

[oriel2013]

Overheard football mums talking about how there's no way they'd buy velcro shoes for their DS. Our children are still in primary school at the moment but some have older DS's who've gone to secondary school this year. Consensus was they'd look 'ridiculous' in velcro shoes.
It's not occured to me at all, my yr 5 and yr 3 boys both got velcro shoes in September and I'd probably look at the same again next year, it's easier and they are happy with them.
I'm now wondering if this is a 'thing' or just these mum's opinions? Don't want my sensitive lad getting picked on at secondary for my lack of thought!

From when my DS was 6 or 7 he had lace ups. So whenever they can lace them I'd buy them then.

And if they can't lace them up yet I'd work on teaching them.

Yanbu OP. Honestly it can be one of the harder things for some kids to learn (and not a marker of intelligence either way!). And given how bloody long it takes kids to put on a pair of lace up shoes YANBU to go with the easier option until your DS is ready. Unless you want to waste several minutes a day faffing around in the morning before school while you're struggling to get ready!

I might be out of touch, but there’s no way I’d send any child to secondary school with Velcro shoes! You’d be setting themselves up for utter grief from day 1 imo.

Mine wore velcro shoes up until the end of primary, I would not have sent him to secondary school with them though. Can your DS do laces?

Secondary age children don't wear velcro shoes - please don't do that to your child!

They need to learn how to lace up shoes. Sadly, they may be bullied if they don’t, but it’s a reasonable life skill to learn at primary age.

I didn't send my dyspraxic child to secondary with velcro. You can get slip ons with no laces or velcro.
MENS Howard Edge Black Leather Slip Ons | Clarks UK

My boys are both dyspraxic.

Eldest wore velcro until they didn't make them his size anymore 😭 age 10 or 11.

9 year old still in velcro.

Ds1 is now 12 and can do his laces but not hugely successfully. I do them first thing in the morning and before his tennis training/matches. He does them after sport at school.

From 11 til 12 he wore elastic laces which were brilliant. But this year he's broken 3 pairs already so ive given up.

I've always just bought the ones dc wanted. 14yo still has velcro school shoes as he CBA with laces.

Has lace up trainers which he never undoes the laces on

I wouldn't send mine to secondary in velcro

DS2 is in year 9 and still wearing velcro - he looked up and the average person spends 2 years of their life doing shoelaces up and he's "got better things to be doing" with his time. He's also got ASD and is left handed and somewhat uncoordinated. He also wears size 10, Clarks do Velcro in a number of styles up to an 11 or 12 so he's not alone.

I think you will find by secondary school, velcro shoes wouldn't come in a big enough size anyway.

My ds asked for laces this year (he's yr 5) and he can do them but it's SO slow when he puts them on!

My 6 year old still wears velcro and slip ons and will be for the foreseeable.

He has ASD, ADHD and suspected dyspraxia and really struggles with fine motor skills.

From my POV, he will be teased more for not being able to do up laces rather than avoiding them entirely in the first place.

I think it is a thing with some parents but, as a teacher, I can tell you that many people jump the gun.

I do laces for pupils every day, dozens of times. Usually the kids are adamant that they can tie them despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. If I gently suggest to a parent that their child might need a bit more practise, they get very defensive. It is just one of those weird things that some parents think makes their kid look clever I think - they get competitive like they do with when their child first walks, talks, writes their name, moves up a book band.

Keep your kids in Velcro until they're confident. If they're not confident in y7 they need to practise!

DS wore velcro shoes until he went to secondary school, where they insisted on lace ups. He could tie laces before that, but it took him ages and he invariably didn’t tie them tight enough.

Zubits are your friend, my husband uses the on his proper work shoes and his trainers!

www.amazon.co.uk/ZUBITS-Magnetic-Solution-Shoelace-Magnets/dp/B09C58PMSJ

My ds had Velcro ones until he left school in yr 11!

His were sports direct shoes. Perfectly acceptable. They don't need posh lace ups to scuff 😂

I bought laces when mine went to secondary.
My Y10 wears laces still.
My Y8 has gone back to velcro. Not because he can't do laces, but because the shoes hold up to football better!

I’ll never forget a poor boy in junior school having the whole class sing a horrible song about him wearing Velcro shoes. He was hideously bullied (not by me, he was in a different year).

It’s so stupid, but unless they’re something popular like Nike’s or whatever (🙄), I wouldn’t go Velcro.

I saw some pretty huge Velcro school shoes in a Clark’s outlet recently. Maybe size 8 or 9.

We had the opposite problem, trying to find lace up shoes for DS in size 1 when he started secondary.

But completely normal to gave Velcro shoes in year 6.

DS (12) has some velcro weekend shoes I bought about a year ago but were quite big then and still just about fit. He has ADHD and isn't very coordinated, but TBH from starting secondary I didn't buy velcro school shoes as I thought that might be looked down upon by peers, but I would extend that to casual shoes from now on. As has been said, I don't think I'll find any in his size from now anyway.

He's not very mature for his age and especially for his school year as he's also August born and he'd probably happily wear dinosaur t-shirts etc on his own time, but since secondary I am generally making moves to buy him slightly more mature stuff - he doesn't go in for sportswear that's the fairly neutral tween/teen uniform, but I'm buying him fairly plain hoodies, plaid shirts etc

Is there a reason you can’t teach your kid to tie a shoe lace?

Buy locklaces or silicon no tie shoe bands www.feetunique.co.uk/light-grey-elastic-silicone-shoelaces so they can wear laceups but slip them on.

My Yr8 girl chose velcro school shoes this year... shes got very narrow feet and these fit which is the most important thing (ballet flats for example she just walks put off... her shoes just have the extra strap.

No bullying about her shoes!

She has been able to tie her laces since 7yo. Her pe trainers obviously have laces!