Too old for this, too cool for that

The school year begins in a few short weeks, so I've begun buying some of the stuff my daughter will need for the coming year. She needs shoes, so I took her to a shoe store after work on Friday. When she was a toddler and was just learning to walk, I bought all of her shoes at Stride Rite because I wanted to make sure she had the proper fit for her first fledgling steps. Now that she is six and beats the shit out of her shoes no matter what brand they are, I've gotten a little more frugal about the whole thing. I couldn't help but notice that $40 shoes get just as scuffed up as the ones from Payless. Hence, we headed there on Friday. I had been waiting for the BOGO sale because the kid needs two pairs of tennis shoes - one that stays at school (for gym class) and one for at home.

Immediately, she spotted these:

And then started speaking in tongues.  "Shake it up, ohmomiwanttheseshoespleaseihavetohavethem, something something shake it up something oh please please please." There was a lot of breathless urgency about the whole thing.

Apparently, Shake It Up is a show on the Disney Channel. The fact that I had never heard of it makes me think I need to start monitoring TV time a lot more closely. All I know is that she was desperate for these eyesores shoes.

"Let's talk about this," I said. She nodded solemnly. I pointed into the box.

"They're black. You don't really wear anything black."

"I know."

"Also, they're ugly as homemade sin."

"Mom! No they're not! I really want the Shake It Up shoes." Again with the pleading eyes and the desperation.

"Here's the thing. They have laces and YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO TIE."

She shrugged and then vowed to spend the rest of the summer learning to tie her shoes. Also, there is one boy in her class who does know how to tie so she figures she can use him as back-up.  There was one final problem. They didn't have these monstrosities in her size. I asked a salesperson if there might be any in back. I started to feel a little hopeful when I saw the "I doubt it" expression on her face as she headed to the stockroom. Moment later, she was back.  "We sure do!" she said cheerfully, handing me the box. Crap.

A was over the moon.  Just seeing her expression caused me to have one of those "pick your battles" moments. I'm sure my parents let me wear a few things that made them queasy. "Okay, let's pick out a second pair," I said.  I pointed at some Disney Princess sneakers. "How about these?"

She frowned. "I'm too old for princesses, Mom."  Too . . . old . . . for . . . princesses?  'Scuse me while I extract this tiny dagger from my left ventricle. :::sniffle sniffle:::