Taryn And The Big City: Why Bother With Shoes?

My middle child has inherited a trait from her paternal grandmother (we called her Ma)...it's an aversion to footwear...if Taryn never had to wear another pair of shoes, her life would be just about perfect...

This afternoon Mark got home early from work (love those three day holiday weekends!) and since Hayden was going to the high school football game (which is away this week), we decided to take Taryn with us into town (the big city).

We needed to get a couple of things...
a front porch swing and a pinata...truly
(its never normal stuff with us)

Anyway, we were driving down a busy road in the big city and Taryn says, "Hey! That's the place you MADE me buy a pair of shoes from!" and she points to some shoe store I'm sure I've never been too. "What are you talking about Taryn?" I ask, and she says...inhale...

"you know, when we went bowling that time and I opened the door of the van and my shoes fell out and I didn't say anything so when we got done bowling and we were going to eat I said I didn't have any shoes so we stopped at that store and you made me use my own money to buy a pair of shoes at that store."

and exhale...

Now the only time I remember a situation close to this is about 7 years ago. I loaded all three of the kids into the minivan and drove 40 minutes to a craft store that I rarely went too. Interstate driving, traffic for miles, and August in Florida all made for a lovely afternoon drive. But we finally arrived and as we started to get out of the minivan, I hear a voice from the back say,

"Mommy, I don't have any shoes."

Now I don't remember the first 5 minutes after I heard those words, because I think I might have blacked out. But when I came too, I said, "Taryn, why don't you have your shoes?"... inhale...

"I didn't bring any, I didn't think I had to go in the store, I thought I could stay in the car."

and exhale...

The big city, 112 degrees outside and I'm gonna leave her in the car.

So as most moms would do, I piggy-backed my child, barefooted, into the Payless/Shoe City/ Famous Footwear store that was next to the craft store and bought some flip-flops (which, yes I made her pay for...aren't you glad I'm not your mom?)

So fast forward 7 or 8 years and this afternoon we hear the story of the missing shoes at the bowling alley...and I say to Taryn, "hon, I don't think that happened. I think your thinking about the time we were going to the craft store and..."

and she says, "no, I'm remembering right, it just happened twice."