Back to School!

I wrote this as an article for a site last year but as I looked at it - it made me smile - so I updated the stats, and I'm posting it here.  Hope it makes you smile as well!  ~ Ellen

 A kid’s foot grows a full shoe size nearly every 6 months... which is kind of ridiculous because it means they barely put on a pair of shoes before they’ve outgrown them!  As they grow, most kids also partake in a multitude of activities: soccer, t-ball, ballet, basketball, etc… meaning they continually need new shoes for each sport, season, size and so on.  Let’s not even talk about the fact that it’s in most children’s natures to whirl though everything in their path: Grandma’s antique heirloom vase, hamsters, goldfish, Dad’s glasses and the latest fads and fashions; at times they really are just one step up from puppies.  As a result, their footwear needs change in an instant; something fashionable one day, is freakish the next.  

    

Because of these truths, it’s safe to say that a kid goes through shoes like Lindsay Lohan goes through court dates. Basically, this means that around at least once a month their bedraggled mothers and bewildered fathers are stuck dragging Little Susie and Baby Billy to the shoe store, putting up with their wiggling, patiently dealing with kicks to the shins during fittings, to pick out new shoes AGAIN, and footing the ever growing bill (pun most definitely intended).      

Raising a child has always been expensive; and the cost of raising a child TODAY is frightening. According to the National Retail Federation, parents will spend an average of $603 on back to school supplies and $104 on shoes alone this year. Kids want the coolest clothes, the newest iPhone; they want to play on travel tournament teams and text until their thumbs fall off.  Not to mention the cost of that brand new, and very safe SUV to tote said kids around, the gas to fill it, food and grocery costs. Dad can kiss his once a week golf habit goodbye and Mom’s just gonna have to deal with her gray roots growing in, cause a pricey professional dye job just isn’t in the cards.  

Being a parent today is starting to sound grim…but parents can stop pulling their hair out and shop for shoes online at an auction site like If The Shoe Doesn't Fit an online auction site dedicated to shoes and shoe related items only. A website like this can give Moms and Dads a way to save on that never-ending expense of shoes.  It has a continually changing selection of children’s shoes at affordable prices AND help Mom avoid the dreaded trip to the shoe store (trying to get a seven year old boy to sit still while attempting to fit shoes on him is straight misery).   

Moms and Dads can also make extra money by selling those outgrown, barely or never worn shoes online as well.  So parents have options when Target won’t return that pair of pink Mary Janes that their daughter never got to wear. So while back to school can be code for "how much does that cost?" it can now be a time to start clearing out closets and making cash!  It's all how you look at it!