Follow up

I am afraid I have a follow up story to ‘Husband buys GIGANTIC trainers for Son.’ The need to buy trainers was precipitated by the loss of Son’s PE kit at school. I waited a whole week for PE kit to re-emerge. It didn’t.

This is an excerpt of an email from Husband to his sister. It is stolen and reproduced without any permission whatsoever. (I was copied in on it – I didn’t steal shamelessly from his inbox!)

"The last time I bought him trainers they were kiddie sizes, now he needs 10s+. So as a good dad doing my switched-on in-touch-with-the-youth-of-today type thing, I took him off to the store for a new pair...Now, a bit of history here - that I'm sure you don't need reminding. Our dad was a little on the practical side, and fashion or branding was not as high a priority as hardwearing and cost. And trainers was one area where I suffered a little, Adidas was not cool in 1980, but Adidas was all I could have. I promised myself, many moons ago, that I would remember that brand of trainer does matter, and that sometimes you just need to put social acceptance over sensibility.

And so there was I, standing in the middle of this big sports department, surrounded by Nike, Reebok, Sketchers, Adidas, etc and I said to Son, I said "Son (arh)" I said "Son - you can have any trainer you want in this shop, what is the coolest, hippest, in-trainer today? What is the ‘must have’ sports look at school? I don't care how much it costs, coz sometimes it is important to buy the right brand, and I understand that - Son - I am on your wavelength man, I am in touch with the youth of today" and I did that fist thing, where you punch each other's fist in midair. (Son didn't punch my fist, and looked a little embarrassed to be seen out in public with me).

Ok, so maybe the fist thing, and the wavelength reference might be a bit sad, but I assumed he got the point. This was his opportunity to shine, to be ‘in’, to not be tittered at for wearing GOLA, etc, etc.

And do you know what he said. He said "I don't really care about brands, I don't mind, I just want a pair that are comfortable, and not too expensive". Oh my god, OH MY GOD, what have I done, where is my son, who has swapped him for this reasonable, sensible impostor? Anyway I made him try on all the Nikes and eventually ended up forcing him to have a reasonably expensive pair".

And guess what? Not only am I irritated at the ruination of my careful training of Son to see through things like brands and what’s ‘in’ but after a week the original PE kit, complete with perfectly good, old (and cheap) trainers has turned up at school.

Aaagggghhhhh.