I'm a firm believer in the kids having school clothes/play clothes and school shoes/play shoes. After one too many times of them coming in from playing outside with a new pair of jeans or shoes covered in grass stains or torn with holes, we implemented this policy and it's pretty much been the golden rule around here for years. If you're going outside to play after school, you're changing into some older, more worn clothes to do it. Going to a restaurant or a movie would qualify for the good school clothes or shoes, as would a party, unless it was an outdoor event. It's really a pretty simple concept. Well, it is for everyone but my son. He tends to take it to the extreme.

We were in the car on the way to a big crawfish boil back in April that was being thrown by some old friends of my husbands, who we hadn't seen in years. We were all dressed casual, but I'd made sure everyone looked nice. About half way there my oldest daughter, the 18 year old, gasps in horror and shoves my son's foot in my face asking if I'd seen his nasty shoes. Well, in the rush to get out of the house I guess I never looked past his shirt to inspect his feet. He had on his play shoes and even they were a little too shabby to wear the title of play shoes. Part of the sole was missing & ripped, hanging open exposing 3 or 4 of his toes. He wiggled them all at me through his sock while she held his foot up. I shreaked and insisted that we find a Payless immediately and then warned him that he was never, ever to wear those out of the house again. Well, we had a long drive and never passed a Payless and my husband insisted that it was no big deal. I reluctantly let it go and tried not to let myself think about his feet or what people might think about those ratty shoes at the party.

I tried to explain to him that it was April and with only a few more weeks left of school that it would now be okay with me if he started using his school shoes to play outside in. Well, he's mostly been wearing flip flops since summer hit and I really thought the old shoes had been buried and long forgotten.

That is until Sunday evening at the dinner table when my son mentioned something about my friends husband having taped up his shoes for him. Apparently, earlier that day he'd been invited to go swimming and he couldn't find his flip flops. He was trying to abide by the golden rule, so he wore the "forbidden shoes" when he left with my friend and her kids to go swimming. When they later went back to her house her husband immediately noticed the toes hanging out the front of his shoes and called him over to check them out. Then he went and got some duct tape and told my son he'd fix him right up and that "he'd get at least another month out of those suckers". Gee, thanks!