Look at this shoe. Is it not the most adorable, bright, fun-looking shoe you have ever seen?
Bloo shoo.
No, it’s not mine. It’s Arlo’s. THIS is my shoe:
“Does this shoe come in ‘cute’?”
Maybe I like the blue ones so much because they are the size of my big toe? Anyway!
Traditionally I buy cheap runners for my kids. I don’t want to spend adult shoe prices for kids’ shoes, so I don’t. But they are getting bigger and more active and harder on their shoes. Now that I’m pondering spending cheap shoes x 3 per year maybe the good quality shoes are a better idea? Hm.
So today I bought the awesome running shoes for Arlo.
“I love them, but,” he said, “I don’t know how to tie laces.”
“That’s OK,” I said, “we have those curly no-tie lace thingees. And anyway, maybe it’s time you learned to tie laces?”
He looked skeptical.
When we got home I found the curly no-tie lace thingees and at great expense to my knuckles and fingertips, threaded one through the eyelets of the shoe. It looks awful; the laces are black and the shoes are neon. Just dumb. This is dumb, I thought. Everyone learns to tie a shoe some time. The entire world is not made of VELCRO. Why, back in my day you had to tie a shoe before you could start kindergarten! Dude is going into grade two!
Being a modern parent, I googled “teach kid tie shoe” and that’s how I came to “The Magic Fingers Technique.” Apparently it’s a way to learn to tie your shoes in FIVE MINUTES! Well! I thought. Here we go. Saaaaved by the Internet. I watched the video, a little six year old girl tying a shoe. I watched it all slowed down. I tried it. I totally failed to tie the shoelace.
What? The heck?
I watched the video again, paused it, went slow. Great news! I have a missing part of my brain. It’s the part that lets me interpret “put your thumb and first finger in front of lace.”
I tried it five times and it didn’t work. So I tried tying a shoelace very slowly, the regular loop, thread, pull way, just to make sure I can still do it, and I can. Whew. The plan now is to a) try it my way first and then b) show him the video and see if he perhaps has the part of my brain I am missing. It would explain a lot.
Do you have thoughts or tips on shoe tying? Are your kids eighteen years old and still have no idea how to tie? Or did you teach them at age 3? Let me know!
I’m trying to figure out how tiny wee Trombone is a 2nd grader with feet nearly as big as yours. He does have great blue shoes, though!
And man, I remember the teachers at my catholic kindergarten being VERY SERIOUS about us learning to tie our shoes. VERY SERIOUS. My best friend had to skip recess one day to practice and I’m fairly sure my mother was called because I had Velcro shoes and I was Too Old to not know how to tie. (I knew how to tie, but the Garfield shoes I wanted only came in Velcro.) Schools these days! Slacking! *waves cane*
My husband & I are right-handers and both our sons are lefties. The only reason they can now tie their shoes is because we made them watch youtube lace-tying tutorials for lefties.
I could not parent without youtube.
Holy cow yes. Thank you dear sweet internet for thinking of everything.