And I Thought Horses Were Bad

If my horse had shoes (I keep him barefoot, but trimmed), he would be getting new shoes every 6-8 weeks...but my son's shoe turnover is rivaling that!  He is on his way to his third sport of the school year - and track will be the fourth sport.  

For XC, there were trainers and racers.  He left his racers at an away course, so those were gone (he left last year's shoes on Molokaʻi - the boy has an issue with leaving shoes places).  I got them cheap at a discount store, but still $15 is $15.  I bought him soccer shoes for regular price - although I steered that on-commission salesgirl right away from the $75 shoes!  The other day he showed me his trainers, which somehow morphed into school shoes - they have pukas (holes) on the bottom, so he'll need new shoes for track.  Sigh.  He'll need spikes for track, too. 

Now he's headed into the wrestling room - and those have specialized shoes, too.  This is getting as bad as a racehorse - where they put racing plates on before a race and then re-shoe with regular shoes after race day.

My first two kids only ran - track in the Spring and XC in the Fall.  Barring different sorts of racers for those, one pair of running shoes would last the year.  I would just replace the pads in January on the trainers - not ideal, but no one died.  I haven't had a kid who played so many different sports with specialized shoes!  At least with horses the farrier comes to your house to put the shoes on - I think I am just as frustrated with the thought of going to the shops and trying to figure it all out (been in an athletic shoe section lately?)  as with the figuring out where the money is coming from.