2 year old DD will only wear one pair of shoes, any tips??

[miniworry]

DD loves her 'flashy unicorn boots' and will only wear these shoes despite having a better collection of footwear than me. However they are now far too small after having her feet measured in Clarks a couple of weeks ago.

We spent ages measuring her feet, letting her pick out some shoes she liked, getting the shop assistant to check them and now she point blank refuses to wear them saying 'I don't like them, they're too big.' Meltdown ensues and then she pulls them off.

We've been to every shop you can think of and she will not entertain the idea of new shoes; I only need to get them off the peg and straight away 'no they're too big/small'.

Any voodoo tips for this?! I'm going out of my mind every time we leave the house 🤦‍♀️ She goes to nursery and I hate the idea she's wearing boots all day as it is, let alone ones that are a size and a half too small.

I should add, of course she's happy to parade around the house in mine or her dad's shoes on any possible occasion, normally on the wrong feet.

Toddlers!!!

Did you get the same flashy boots in the bigger size, or completely different shoes ?

Can you buy a bigger pair of the ones she loves?

Buy her same boots the next size up

Bribe with sweets

Get next size up? Try Vinted or eBay if they don't stock at Clarks anymore.

Don’t give in. Get the unicorn boots out of the house so they’re no longer an option. Give yourself as much time as you possibly can next time you’re leaving the house and offer her 2 choices of shoes that fit. Ideally you’d be going somewhere she wants to go - potentially with cake on offer when you get there. Nice breezy tone, don’t engage, try to persuade her or get cross. Just, “time to go for cake DD, will you wear trainers or wellies?” If she has a tantrum, stay close, don’t engage and say something like, “oh dear, well we can’t leave until you’ve chosen some shoes”. Don’t do anything else until she’s got through the tantrum. Unfortunately giving in just reinforces that she was right to kick off.

All assuming she’s NT and no additional needs. If you suspect additional needs you need a different strategy.

@Flangeosaurus no additional needs, just a very very stubborn 2.5 year old (she gets it from me).

That was my first idea with the boots but they're out of stock and I've looked everywhere for second hand ones!

I would "lose" the boots then it's not an option anymore

For a while Ds2.5 wanted to wear his slippers to most places so he ended up leaving the house in the buggy shoeless. If he wanted to get out and enjoy what ever activity we were at he had to put on whatever shoes I brought with us.

We do not negotiate with terrorists 😵😑😅

I once had an epic 3.5 hour battle of wills over suncream with DS I think he was so bored of me repeating “we can’t leave the house until you have cream on” that he let me do it just so I would say something different

@HairsprayBabe slippers are the only other thing she will wear actually but why do they make toddler slippers THE most granny'fied things ever.

Never a truer comment than them being terrorists in pint sized form 😆

My DD was the same at that age. I just hid the too-small ones and told her the new ones were her shoes now. We had a few strops but missing out on going out soon got her past it. She's still very funny about new shoes and only wears one pair all day every day and she's almost 5

If the slippers fit and have a firm bottom I would send her to nursery in them (with a spare pair of normal) shoes and see if nursery can convince her to wear them

Assuming she isn't at a forest school type place!