Shoes That Stay On

There isn't a pair of shoes out there that my kids could not figure out how to get off. It's just one of those things when it comes to kids.

I have a very stubborn (and very strong) 3 year old, so I get what you're saying. What I sometimes do if we have to go somewhere is carry him out to the van, strap him into his carseat and put his shoes on (while he's kicking and screaming). He can't get them off, but after a minute or two he's forgotten about it and by the time we get where we're going he's good to go.

Any kind of distraction you can use for a minute or two after you get the shoes on will help. It's those first couple of minutes that you need to get past.

how about tie shoes that he can't undo?

Most kids this age should be barefoot as much as possible, well at least indoors or a safe area without glass or stickers. They need to feel the surfaces under their feet. It helps with their development and with balance stuff. Shoes keep them from feeling and being able to grip the surface below. This helps them develop the ability to develop/use those foot muscles. This is probably just a innate thing he needs to do.

When you are going somewhere it often made my time more effective to just put their shoes on when we were about to get out of the van and go in. Then you don't give them a choice. You put on shoes that tie, like hiking boots that can't slip off, and they throw a fit a few times but the get the idea.

Once he is over 2 or 3 you can use love and logic to break them of this. I would constantly be fighting my granddaughter over her taking her shoes off. I was so tired of having to hang upside down over the back of the middle row seats hunting for shoes she threw back there.

I kept telling her if she didn't have her shoes on her feet would get cold in the snow.

Finally I had had enough and I took her out and plopped her bare footed into the snow then I walked towards the house. She of course screamed and panicked. I told her that she needed to keep her shoes on so that her feet would not get cold and to get on the deck.

She took off and ran onto the deck that was just a few feet away. She lived through it. She did not get frost bite. She did not suffer in any way, she had a natural consequence, if you don't have shoes on your feet will get hot in the summer or very cold in the winter.

She learned a very important lesson and to this day does not take her shoes off in the van. She is almost 9 years old and that one lesson with natural consequences taught her what she needed to know.

She was probably 2 1/2 or 3 when this happened though. I think she was cognitively able to associate the cause and effect of wearing shoes vs not wearing shoes. A toddler is not able to understand this yet.

Robeez! Absolutely the best baby/toddler shoe ever made!!!