All roads lead to Stride Rite

All three of my kiddos have wide feet. I have no idea where they got them from as neither my husband nor I have them. This makes for expensive shoe shopping and basically we are limited to one place. Stride Rite. The cadillac of shoes for children. The average pair of shoes or sneakers there run around $54. I don't like paying that much for my shoes never mind shoes that will most likely be trudged through the nearest mud puddle 20 minutes after wearing them for the first time. Not to mention the fact that said shoes will most likely need to be replaced within a few months due to the rapid foot growth of small children.

My mother always makes the same remark after she finds out how much the kids' new shoes cost. "Well, you wouldn't see your (notoriously frugal) sister-in-law spending that amount on her kids' shoes". Well, her kids don't have wide gargantuan feet either.

Just to appease my mother, I have done countless searches on the internet to find out who else might possibly carry wide widths in children's shoes. I have typed in every possible combination of "toddler", "shoes", "wide widths", and "discount". I do get dozens of hits for online shoe stores who claim to carry wide widths for children. At a discount no less. I excitedly click on the link and discover.....they are Stride Rite shoes.

Offered at a 20% discount.

But factor in shipping and I might as well just go to the damn store and buy them myself. Seriously, there has got to be another brand of not-so-expensive wide width children's shoes. I will make this my highest priority.

Until I find them I guess I will have to just shell out the cash and stick my fingers in my ears to drown out my mother's comments.