In thinking that your love of tacky pinkness and princess nonsense...

[wahwah]

...means that I can't buy my daughter a pair of shoes without having rows of pink, floral and glittery nastiness paraded before me and that's YOUR fault for buying it and buying into all that sexist stereotyping.

I disagree about shoes - they seem particularly tricky. Not impossible, though. Having said that, DD had boys' sandals last year. And possibly boys' Doodles. This year there was 1 single pair of Doodles that weren't pink or/and covered in unicorn vomit.

I do think that first shoes should be free of glitter and stuff and be a practical colour given how much time the child is going to spend falling over and crawling.

Most of my DDs clothes are steadfastly unisex and some are boys - her trainers are boys etc.

She is nearly 2 and has already started to ask for "big girl dress" that her granny bought her. I reckon it's less than a year before she is dayglo sparkles from top to toe.

But until that day, every time she asks for her t-shirt with the car or the dinosaur it makes me

If its first shoes time, then get the ones you like and at anyone who questions your excellent judgement.

Hmmm...when they get older the branded goods thing becomes slightly more difficult (hence only mentioning the toddler and icky ones).

Marvel characters i have a soft spot for, as our whole family enjoy most of the films and we've read the comics in the past too (had to stop due to rubbish finances). But even still, the only clothes we have had in the house with Spiderman etc on have been pjs and socks!

Ewe, I worry about many things for myself and my daughter. Pink shoes are possibly the first step into fluffy world where she will demand a brazilian at 12, implants at 14 and get knocked up by a footballer at 15. Seriously, i know they're only shoes, but they represent so much more...

For eg these are nice and I would say unisex, although officially i expect they are for boys...

I worry too.

However, I don't really think caring this much about shoes is the solution. Do you not see the irony? How many men do you think care about the colour of their child's shoe?

Ewe, they don't need to (although my Dh was as fed up as I was by the shit choice) their power is affirmed by their practical shoes, shoes that can be taken into activities without concern that the pink will get muddy or the spangles will come off.

Oh and on the start rite website only 6 out of 15 pairs of first walker shoes are pink. They have green, brown, navy, red, purple and black. Plenty of non pink glittery options!

I have to agree with wahwah that the whole glitter princess thing is a slippery slope.

Why don't men care about shoes? because their worth is measured in terms other than their appearance.

The shoes clothes etc are an early first step into the social conditioning of attractive = everything for girls.

But bugger all for a 4 1/2 H with a bumper, that are open enough for the summer without being a sandal and having toes exposed. Hmm, am I being a little bit demanding?

But muddy shoes are muddy shoes, whether or not they start out pink or blue or multicoloured!

My DD has some pale pink first walking boots from geox, they are now brown. If you're child is only just walking I doubt she cares about the pink getting muddy or not and you shouldn't either. Shoes get muddy regardless of colour.

Worrying about getting them dirty is gender stereotyping more than the colour of the shoes.

To clarify - I have no problem with filthy shoes. However, I like them to clean up and that's why i choose a 'sensible' colour.

I agree my daughter does not give a toss about her shoes (when she does I shall probably have to give way a little) but while i have complete control over her footwear I do not want to compromise. In the grand scheme of things, i do agree that shoes are a nonsense, I mean 1 billion people go hungry, little girls suffer FGM... but it is a slippery slope...

How strange. I have a daughter and have never bought her a pair of pink shoes (apart from ballet shoes) and have never had any trouble buying her a non-pink pair of shoes. Do you all live somewhere else?

A flimsy open toed sandal does not however lend itsef to struggling through mud...

wahwah those ones I linked to come in a 4.5H - don't you like them? [sob]

re "open enough" most boys and adult males and many women swan around in trainers quite happily, doesn't seem to do them any harm AFAIK..

We are having a nightmare finding DD shoes at the mo she has a very narrow foot and we are stuffed...

no, I join you there, 3 daughers down and not a pink pair between them....

i had to buy DD sandals as they were the only ones which fitted her in the shop, and i refused to buy her pink, glittery or gold, or anything with lights in.

So she has red sandals and red/blue/white spotted wellies.

I have to say that when I was growing up my Mum was very anti-pink girly stuff as she obviously thought encouraging me in this would mean I would turn into the sort of woman who can't string a sentence together.

As a (now 36 yo woman) I feel a little bit angry that it didn't seem to matter what I thought (and this was in the 70s when supposedly all that gender stereotyping wasn't as virulent). It was always, 'That's silly', 'What a horrible colour' etc etc. I think most little girls go through a 'pink' stage and there is nothing you can do to deter them. Why make them feel as if they are doing something wrong?

I can't stand top to toe pink and I hate the ELC choice of blue or pink - I tend to get blue even though I have a DD because it seems more neutral somehow, but if your child actively wants something, albeit as a result of peer pressure, then just deciding they can't have it because it is a marketing ploy etc is not the answer imo. They will grow out of it like we all did - even those of us who didn't get pink stuff.

OP, you just need to learn how to shop lady.

I direct you to here

here

here

and here

That's assuming you can afford those prices

Actually, pretty much all of those are on sale at the moment, so a third or half off.

We are actively looking for red sandals godzilla!

I thought it was a good unisex colour but apparently girls can only wear red footwear for the autumn/winter season...

Oh..were you looking for sandals lol!

Well they were in Clarks if that's any help - the only semi-affordable shop which does fitting that i live near!

LovelyTinOfSpam - I loved your comment about the cars and dinosaur. I do exactly the same .

My younger dd (9) got boys' trainers from Clarks (scarlet, shiny) this time, partly because she found the girls' ones unacceptably flowery, but mainly because she wanted them for sport and only the boys' ones had proper treads. Perhaps we didn't see the whole girls' range, but we looked at several styles.

My older dd (11) usually wears boys' school shoes for the same reason, after falling heavily in the playground in her thin-soled girls' shoes while playing football. Now that's a shame - whatever the colour, girls should be able to race around safely if that's what they like to do.

godzilla it's these ones isn't it !!

they are lovely but no I went wonky in my post - I wanted something that she could wear for the next few months and at those prices she's only having one pair so light shoes but closed is what i meant, not sandals...

But those red ones are really nice...

sycamore I'm not the OP! really like those first 3 links though...

I often buy DD boys stuff. Like Clarks last year did those strapover sports type sandals and the boys were black grey and red and the girls were vile cheap looking pink monstrosities.

I bought the boys and DD never knew the others existed..as she would DEF have gone for them.

This just go with everything better and look new for longer.