The perfect shoes

The difference between the boy and the girl is that one could not care less about what he wears as long as he is adequately covered ... so, very short trousers don’t matter, holes in tshirts or shorts are irrelevant and it matters not if those trousers do not ‘go’ with that tshirt. He has never declared an item of clothing ‘perfect’. Everything is simply ‘Ok’.

On the other hand, the girl knows exactly what she likes and what she wants. Her wants are vocally declared as needs.

“I need a biscuit”

“I need sweets”

“I need to wear my blue dress”.

I think she feels that the word ‘need’ emphasises her desires more accurately than the word ‘want’.

We had popped out to the shops to buy Dinoboy a pair of cheap and cheerful trainers (depending on where you’re from, you might know them as running shoes or sneakers or joggers or sports shoes) for outdoor sports sessions at school. As I was watching him try them on, I heard Missy Moo loudly declare “I NEED those Perfect Dora shoes!” She’s never used the word ‘perfect’ to describe anything before this.

She had found some Dora trainers. And apparently, they are “Perfect”. I tried to convince her that she really did not need a pair of shoes as she had serviceable shoes already.

“But I do, Mummy! They’re perfect!”

She spent the next 2 minutes gushing about the perfectness of these shoes to the amusement of the staff at the shop. So we try them on and she declares “They are PERFECT!” Mr Crafty Ady walks into the shop and she’s yelling “ Daddy – look at my PERFECT Dora shoes!”

I relent and we purchase them. She wears them proudly, declaring to every one “Look at my perfect Dora shoes!”



We get home and she refuses to take them off. She wears them all through the day and ever so often she declares “I love my Perfect shoes.” And if any of us asks “How are your shoes?” She would reply “Just perfect!”



Mr Crafty Ady thinks it’s a girl thing. He thinks it is the shape of things to come. What do you think?