Twinkle: Star-Spangled Sketchers

Y'all are going to think I'm crazy. And I probably am.

So, Twinklette spent the night with my in-laws this weekend, and came back with a new pair of Sketchers covered with star-shaped holograms. My MIL threw her hands up and said, "She picked them!" so as to rid herself of blame for the hideous shoes (which are sort of funny...and it's really OK with me if Twinklette picked them. I recall a certain purse that depicted a giant pig face, that I fell in love with as a child, and carried everywhere). So if she really picked the shoes, that's cool. The way the story was presented to me, they just happened to be in the Von Maur shoe department, and Twinklette saw the shoes and fell in love and had to have them, and her generous grandparents obliged. It's a scenario I've lived, and while Twinklette doesn't get everything she wants, if it's obvious that she's truly in love with something, and it's something I can give her, it gives me a lot of joy to give it to her. I just assumed that's what happened with the star-spangled Sketchers.

Well, digging deeper always reveals more, doesn't it? Just a few questions to Mr. Twinkle about how the whole tennis shoe thing went down, and it became clear that my MIL had an agenda. When I wasn't around, she brought up the issue with Mr. Twinkle. It seems she doesn't like the mary janes I always dress Twinklette in. She thinks Twinklette needs some shoes she can "play in." (By the way, Twinklette runs and plays and does whatever in her mary janes, and I never tell her she can't do something because of her nice clothes and shoes). Mr. Twinkle told his mother that she plays in the shoes she has now, but as usual MIL ignored him and proceeded with her own agenda, taking Twinklette to the tennis shoe department of Von Maur and telling her to pick some.

And I know that they'll be easier to run in, but I just hate the implication that I'm somehow an unfit mother who cares more about how Twinklette looks than whether or not she can run and have fun. That's not it at all--I just like nice shoes. Maybe I'm taking it wrong, but it feels like MIL thinks I'm (once again) not meeting my daughter's needs, and it's up to her to swoop in and do it.

And maybe Twinklette can wear the shoes when we go to the playground this spring, but for school days and normal times we're sticking to the mary janes (or her adorable polka dotted rain boots, which she wore today).

I know I'm crazy, by the way. I just don't like being told what my child "has to have." I know what she wants and needs, and with or without tennis shoes, I'm doing the best I can. It's never good enough for MIL.