Childrens' shoes

As the last week of the holidays started, we began going through lists of items and finding things for school - pencil cases, rulers, books etc and sharpening a mountain of pencils. With everything found and labelling completed, this only left the task of ...... buying new school shoes.

Simple, you would think, but not so. In the UK, we'd go to Clarks. We'd wait our turn, have feet measured (length and width) and be presented with a range of suitably sized shoes intended for the purpose we required - school, sports, sandals, etc. The assistant would take over the trying on session, advising on fit and suitability and we'd depart with new, correctly fitting shoes, albeit our wallets somewhat lighter.

Here, I greet the prospect of shopping for childrens' shoes wtih great trepidation.

We go to a shoe shop and browse the childrens ranges. An assistant comes up and asks what size we'd like. This is where the problems begin. For a start, there a numerous scales here - UK, European, centimetres... and, I'm sure, others. Hannah has just outgrown three pairs. One a size 8½, one a size 24 and the other a 15. If I don't know the size, the assistant starts to wander off, disinterested, so frantically, to get their attention back, I guess wildly at what I think they may be wearing in UK sizes - "umm, well, I think around a size 9, in UK sizes, but I don't know what that is in these......" I finish lamely, waving around a size 37 or 14 or something.

"Can we measure them please?" I suggest.

At this point, the assistant usually looks at me as if I'm from outerspace "we don't have a measure".

Having narrowed it down to a vague size range by discussion, we start trying things on. I have two children with narrow feet. Here, all shoes come in one width - wide. So even if they fit one way, they rarely fit the other.

So, nothing fits and at this point Hannah "Imelda" Landau will have fallen for a totally unsuitable pair - cue tears, because there is no way they will ever fit and she simply can't have too many shoes in her wardrobe. Meanwhile, the assistant thinks I'm completely paranoid when I start feeling for toes and saying pairs are too big/small/wide etc.

I did, finally, start to track down a very small number of shops that stock some Clarks shoes. Their stock is random and very imcomplete but one actually has a measure, albeit with limited undestanding about the width - but it's a start! More frustrating, if we get the size sorted but there is nothing that fits in stock, the other shops I've found are scattered far and wide in different parts of the island.

I'm given advice by the assistant such as "try Tanglin Mall". I say, "no, I went there two months ago and there are no Clarks shoes now. The shop has closed. I found some in Robinsons."
"No, won't find in Robinsons. No childrens' shoes there. Go Tanglin Mall" But two months ago, I bought some there....so where to try next?

So, after just two days of travelling around, trying on and shopping, and we had finally bought enough shoes for Hannah and Adam to start school in, do PE etc. What's more - they fit, in both directions, and seem to be comfortable!!!

Best of all, whilst looking for some school stationary, we found a small shoe shop tucked away in a large shopping centre that only stocks Clarks shoes and has a measure. Of course, we'd managed to buy almost everything by then -but it will be there for next time. However, as September approaches, with Clarks being a UK outlet, they are getting a nice range of winter stock in. But right now, if it fits properly and takes less than 2 days to track it down - do I care if it's a snow boot?