The shoe cast system...

Mini-me has grown out of all the fabulous size 9 shoes I bought her over the past few months... These have consisted of but were not limited to:

1. Navy Blue Tribal ugg style boots (which were greatly admired and sort after by mothers and teachers alike at nursery).
2. Beige side tie ugg style boots, I initially bought a size 9 which seemed to be too small until I bought the size 10 which fell off one evening on the way home from school, it turned out she just didn't like them and found excuses ie: they're too tight, my feet hurt etc... so she didn't have to wear them. I now have 2 pairs, neither of which can be returned as they were both worn...
3. Beige square toed boots with little embroidered pink flowers on the side, which she named 'the clunkies' as they had a tiny wedge/heel bit which was neither a wedge nor a heel really as she is only 3 and I would never do that, but they made a clunky noise, and I wished they had them in my size so we could wear our clunkies together.
4. Black and Yellow Pastry trainers, highly sort after in Hip Hop circles as they are made by the daughters of none other then the Rev Run himself from Run DMC (HipHop royalty don't you know).
5. A pair of shoes that vanished whilst moving, but she neither liked nor wore them so i'm guessing she hid them and various pairs of slippers and flip flops.

I liked every single one of these shoes and if they made them in my size I would happily have dressed mini-me like a mini-me and we would have ‘clunkied’ our days away... But alas it is time for new size 10 shoes and here is where I reach my dilemma... Mini-me has reached a milestone of sorts, she has started to develop her own sense of, not so much 'style' but a desire to wear certain things and not others and to have the same things as her friends... Woe is me!! All her friends have shoes bought from 'start-rite the wrong way' and 'one giant leap into clarks' type shops and I cannot bear them. Worse still they have LELLI KELLY shoes. When she came home and said 'mummy I want Lelli Kelly shoes like Evelina' it was all I could do not to burst into tears.

Many a blissful day has been passed trawling websites for amazingly cute original shoes, (I very rarely see other children in the same shoes as her and always get asked where they are from) without over-dosing on pink, ribbony, flowery style acoutrements that seem to infiltrate the factories of every girls shoe maker. Her little tootsies have been kitted out in some of the most fabulous shoes.... From silver kickers, to black mary janes with white butterflys, red converse with diamante's at the front, classic adidas nizza’s, double tongued converse, red mary jane's with white flowers, beautifully crafted blue and green buckle my shoe sandals, patterned espadrilles with ribbon ties.... The list goes on and on and on a bit more... But these were all my choice, through my desire for my child to experience only the best that footwear could offer. And now she wants to stamp on everything I have been trying to teach her, the education her feet have known up until now will not prepare them for the distress they will experience at the hands of the pink, sugary, flowery, fairy style extravaganza that errupts volcano style onto Lelli Kelly shoes. The princess, diamante style happy ever after, rainbow world of teddy bears and pom poms has infiltrated the elf and the shoemakers and made it’s way onto the high street… But this is what she has asked for, in order to fit in with the other children in her class (I am giving this as the reason rather then the fact that she may actually like them herself, because she couldn’t possibly? Could she? Has she learnt nothing in 3 years of fabulous footwear?)

Do I give in to MY desire for the adults to swoon at MY choice of classic, fabulous, painstakingly chosen shoes at the risk of my child being made a social outcast in Nursery School 2? Or do I give in to HER desire to be accepted by HER peers and have the footwear coveted by 3 year olds the world over? I cannot make this decision alone...

I could be setting my daughter up to be shunned by her peers for having footwear desired only by adults with no fairy dust or fantasy flower throw up anywhere in sight, but on the other hand I could be setting her up to know, love and understand all there is to love about a fabulous pair of shoes, which will bode her well in the future... HELP!!