To think most dc don’t have a ready supply of old shoes

[Beforetheend]

School are planning a messy adventure trip next week and requested that the students bring old clothes and shoes. I don’t mind the clothes so much, but old shoes are a tall order. Ds has runners, school shoes, hiking boots and football boots. Even if I had the room to store old shoes, they’d probably be too small.

This request has come up about 5 times across my dc’s combined 20 years in school so far, and it always makes me wonder if I’m a bit odd for not having a supply of old stuff, or they’re a bit unrealistic to expect it.

Rubber boots are highly inappropriate for many activities. They need trainers. Doesn't matter if they're second hand for the short duration they'll be needing them.

If rubber boots are inappropriate then school should say that. Lots of children won't have spare trainers or the money to buy some.

My youngest usually does have a pair of spare/old shoes, these are whatever my oldest didn't totally destroy when they were that shoe size. With eldest it's hit and miss, but often we will have something handed down which I wouldn't use all the time, due to them molding to first owners foot, but I keep for occasions like this (or for when DC walk through a river in their good shoes, and it takes a few days to dry out)

Mine usually have a decent pair of running shoes plus a pair of cheaper supermarket trainers because they need more than one pair of not smart shoes thanks to wet climate (Glasgow) and doing a fair amount of outdoor stuff (dog walk is part of it).

Or "second" pair is hand me downs from older siblings. Older one (9) does tend to wear sports shoes out before outgrowing now, so she does tend to have something suitable for muddy things.

Wed perhaps have a 6-8 week period where we keep the older shoes that can be squeezed into before sending to the charity shop. At other points we probably wouldn’t have a spare pair. What bugs me a bit is that we have to have school wellies and trainers that don’t come home and then need a home pair so need double.

Charity shop or Vinted will do them.

Surely they just mean suitable shoes that you don’t mind getting messy. That’s it.

The cost to the environment is easy to forget about.

I get messages like this from Cubs and never sure whether the clothes and shoes will just come back a bit muddy or annihilated 😆. I usually send him in slightly too small school trainers.

The cost to the environment is easy to forget about.

But if they'd worn old shoes that got ruined, wouldn't they still need replacing anyway? So what's the difference?

Did you not read the post I was commenting on?

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@gottoget - yep. What's the difference (environmentally speaking) between chucking out an old pair (and replacing them with new) and just buying/chucking out a new pair?

Either way a new pair of shoes is bought and another pair is binned

This is so true.

This used to annoy me so much

It's frustrating to see how 'annoying' some people are finding the request for old shoes (although I accept that if someone is autistic they may take it too literally).

If you don't have a pair of suitable footwear to send your child in, then buy a cheap pair online or from a charity shop. Or don't send your child on the trip.
But what is it you want from the teacher/brownie leader/cub leader? Not to run any trip that involves a bit of mud? Not to warn you about the need for shoes that will get muddy? Or do you just want to complain.

As a child I had one pair of shoes and some cheap trainers for PE. I would have been stuck.

There's a big difference between "might be a bit muddy" and "your kids shoes may come back completely destroyed", though.

Most kids have a pair of wellies (or can borrow some) as a one off, but there are plenty of families who genuinely couldn't afford to have a pair of shoes ruined on a school trip.

Curious- what would you have the teachers do then?

I don't think that teachers should change anything - just that I understand why some parents dread getting letters like this sent home, that's all.

If you're already struggling, it's not great being told that in order for your child to attend a trip, you have to be prepared for them to come home with ruined shoes and clothes.

I must admit we do buy DD a cheapo pair of trainers specifically for getting mucky/trashed. She's 7 but we live close to muddy woodland and several free animal farms. Plus when she paints she seems to cover everything in a three mile radius! So she has "decent" trainers and utterly trashworthy ones at any given time!

In addition to the above I realise we are lucky to be able to afford this. Sometimes FB groups are a good ask as parents that are having a clear out may have some spare shoes that no longer fit their DC that they're happy to pass on.

I hear you!

It’s tough for us because if we don’t say anything beforehand/give a bit of a heads up, we get so many parents complaining that their child’s brand new shoes have been ruined. We can’t win really!

Mine always have at least two of pairs of trainers on the go.

1, smart (ish) the newest pair they wear anywhere that isn't muddy
2, PE trainers (double up for the park etc)

So mine would wear their PE trainers and I'd buy new ones if they were ruined doing whatever the activity is.

They also have school shoes, Crocs, water shoes, Astros, football boots, sandals & wellies.

I don't think we're that unusual 🤷🏽‍♀️

Just to add I work in a school with high levels of deprivation, we have loads of spare, old, trainers and wellies. So anyone that didn't have 'old' shoes can always borrow a pair.

So if you're having a clear out always donate to school!

Yep, I absolutely feel sorry for teachers in this scenario, lol.

I’m guessing you’re being sarcastic and if that’s the case, I wasn’t asking you to feel sorry for us,
just saying from our perspective, whatever we do, people will complain.

*There's a big difference between "might be a bit muddy" and "your kids shoes may come back completely destroyed", though.

Most kids have a pair of wellies (or can borrow some) as a one off, but there are plenty of families who genuinely couldn't afford to have a pair of shoes ruined on a school trip*

| accept that, but as a cub leader, if a parent approached me to say that they don't have any spare shoes, then we would put out a plea for a spare pair (parents often seem to have some old ones at the back of a cupboard that they can dig out), we'd check our supply of second hand ones, or we might even be able to provide some new, cheap ones from our camp funds for those who genuinely can't afford them - we could then keep these for future use.

I'm not sure what the alternative is? Not run these sort of trips? That seems a shame that other kids should miss out all for the sake of a pair of cheap trainers. I've run over 30 activity weekends away - some have involved a massive amount of mud!, as well as stomping through streams etc. But I'm not sure we've ever had a pair of trainers so trashed that they couldn't be used again for similar activities. I accept they'd be no good for day to day use though.

We had one child leave his trainers in an absolute quagmire - I've no idea how he made his way out of the mud without noticing he no longer had his trainers on his feet! We found them after the cubs had all packed up and gone home. I took them home, washed them in the washing machine, and returned them to the cub. While they certainly weren't good as new, they were in surprisingly good shape considering, and would still have been ideal as a pair of 'old' trainers.