The Great Arch Support Myth and Stride Rite Baby Shoes
The lady in the shoe shop was looking at me with a mixture of pity and mild alarm. I was kneeling on the carpet, wrestling with Twin A's left foot, trying to compress what looked like a perfectly round, dimpled...
The Truth About Baby Feet: Why Everyone's Advice Is Dead Wrong
I swear, the minute I brought my oldest, Jackson, home from the hospital, it was open season on his toes. My mom took one look at his bare little feet on a perfectly pleasant 75-degree Texas afternoon and shrieked that...
Why buying your first baby boy shoes is a complete medical scam
Dear Priya from six months ago. You're currently standing in a boutique in the West Loop holding a pair of miniature high-top sneakers that cost more than your favorite nursing scrubs. You're tracing the stiff leather with your thumb and...
Why Hard Baby Shoes Are a Trap (And What to Use Instead)
There was a moderate amount of blood on my living room rug. It was February in Chicago, the kind of cold that seeps up through the floorboards and makes your bones ache. My son was ten months old and wearing...
The completely honest truth about buying baby walking shoes
I was standing in the middle of a high-end boutique holding a pair of tiny, structurally rigid leather high-tops that cost more than my weekly grocery haul. My daughter wasn't even pulling to stand yet, but the footwear had these...
Dear Past Me: What I Wish I Knew Before Buying Nike Baby Shoes
Dear Tom from six months ago, You're currently standing in the pouring rain outside a shop window in Covent Garden, staring at a pair of miniature high-tops while your twin daughters attempt to dismantle the rain cover of their Bugaboo...
The Ridiculous Truth About Buying Baby Uggs For Your Newborn
November 2017. I was sitting at a crowded Starbucks on 4th street, wearing yoga pants that were definitely covered in spit-up, frantically wrestling a tiny, caramel-colored sheepskin bootie onto seven-month-old Maya's left foot for the eighth time in twenty minutes....
Dear Past Tom: The Expensive, Absurd Reality of Baby Jordans
Dear Tom of six months ago, You're currently sweating through your grey t-shirt, pinning Florence between your knees while attempting to force her inexplicably square, fleshy foot into a miniature, stiff leather basketball shoe. She's screaming as if you've suggested...
The Truth About Baby Crocs: A Tale of Sweaty Feet and Tears
There's a very specific sound a toddler makes right before gravity wins. It's a sharp intake of breath, followed immediately by the distinctive, hollow thwack of foam rubber failing to grip damp pavement on a slight incline. It was a...