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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Only One Shoe

Think for a minute about taking your shoes off. Some of us remove our foot attire as soon as we enter our homes. Others may leave them on all day until bedtime. But as you picture yourself taking your shoes off, I'd like you to think about whether you take one off followed by the other in quick succession, or just kick off one shoe and walk around with the other for awhile and then slip off the remaining shoe. Although I've never seen anyone have a significant time lag between removing the left and right shoes, that's the only explanation I can come up with for why my children can only find one shoe. Personally, I always remove my shoes together and almost always put them - together - in the same place. I can usually find my shoes, but if I've misplaced them I've always lost both shoes not just one. My children have repeatedly been able to find only one shoe, usually when we are in a hurry to get out the door to an appointment. We have a designated spot for shoes when they are not being worn, and usually ONE shoe would be there. When the dog was a puppy, I thought maybe he was running off with them. But after his puppy year he really wasn't interested in shoes anymore and stuck to his own toys for the most part. I can imagine my children beginning to take off their shoes but then getting distracted after the first one and bounding off until it registers that they still have a shoe on, so they remove it wherever they happen to be. The children are usually baffled as well. Josh, who is my only son, would stand with one shoe in his hand and announce that "Someone took my other shoe." Since his shoes did not fit any other family member, it did not make sense that any of us took his shoe. Is it possible to go sleep walking and hide shoes ( or should I say "shoe") while being totally unaware of doing so? That seems about as feasible as taking off each shoe at a different time and location. Perhaps that's just another reason that the sports my kids were involved with were a good match for them. Swimming and martial arts are done barefoot!

2 comments:

Steve said...

I believe I have the answer for this one.

First a child kicks one shoe off, and it flies forward and to the right, landing near the edge of the couch, and the other shoe gets kicked off in another direction landing somewhere near the front door... then gets kicked into the hall when one of the sibs is kicking things out of their way after being called to come in for dinner while they were in the middle of a basketball game.... then kicked into the master bedroom, and under the computer desk... Voila! One Shoe Found (in the Living Room) and one shoe lost... and may never be seen again.

HUMom said...

Aha! This makes perfect sense now. I also think it might be a good strategy to buy the same style of shoe for all the kids. That way, they can each grab two shoes on the way out the door and once they get in the car they can practice their negotiating skills to obtain the shoe in their correct size. Of course, the missing shoe is still a problem and this could end up being like "musical chairs" leaving one child without a shoe. Let's keep brainstorming, folks!