Guest wrote:Before charging you with neglect because your daughters choose to go to school barefoot, the authorities should take a look at my next door neighbour.
Her poor daughter who must be about 12 has been brought up to be a miniture version of her mother. She even has to wear the same clothes as her mother (albeit in a smaller size of course) whenever they go out.
Mother has bleached blond hair, daughter ditto.
Mother has multiple earpiercings and wears one pair of large hoops and three pairs of diamond studs, daughter ditto.
Mother has a pierced nostril daughter ditto.
Mother is bare legged and wears extremely high heel sandals, daughter ditto, despite her young age has been wearing heels vitrually all her life.
One day she confided to my daughter that she would love to have a pair of trainers and be able to run around and play in the park with the other kids but of course she can't in 3" heel sandals.
Now that is surely neglect!
My mother did the same to me as well and I have been wearing heels for as long as I can remember.
I did have respite at my infant and primary schools as heels were banned but if I was going out with my mother, even for shopping, then I always wore heels. Until I was about 8 they were not very high but often had a narrow heel so I did have to be careful wearing them.
I remember travelling to Salisbury one day when I was eight. The train was really crowded and we had to stand for about 1 ½ hours. I was wearing some black strappy sandals for the first time and with the highest narrow heels I had ever worn and I was finding them challenging to walk in and my feet were really sore by the time we reached Salisbury. The following day she gave me the same sandals to wear and I begged her for lower heels but when she told me they were the only ones she had bought for me I cried my eyes out.
I was usually allowed to wear my school shoes or trainers when out playing with my friends but knee socks and bare knees was the rule when wearing them. When I was nearly 11 I got some lace up shoes with a small block heel and getting fed up with the bare knees rule. I quickly found out that I could do most of the same things as my friends with these shoes and wear jeans so I pretty well lived in these shoes until school
I went out with my best friend's parents and her sister quite often and I was always required to wear heels. Their parents were very restrictive about their clothes and ankle socks didn't come until they were nearly 15 but even then they still found themselves wearing knee socks aged 17. I can imaging how the elder girl felt wearing Start Rite Mary Janes and knee socks when she was 13 whilst 8 year old me was in
tights and high heels.
My school shoes disappeared the day I left primary school as did one or two of my lower heels. When I was with my friends I generally wore sandals with about 3 inch heels but if I left in a hurry I slipped on some courts which were a bit higher but I still had the block heels so I could still play with my friends. Those were the lowest heels I had but my mother always made me change into mu h higher heels with her.
My secondary school did not have any rule regarding heels and many of the elder girls tried to out heel each other. Some of the first year girls wore small heels but nothing like mine. For the first few weeks I wore boots with 4 inch block heels and trousers. My feet got a little sore at first but not for long. Soon after this came some shoes with even higher heels. As I usually wore these with a skirt everyone found out how high my heels were and not many of the girls had higher heels without a platform.
My mother was very careful and frequently checked that my shoes were not too small and my lowest heels were deemed too small not long after I started secondary school and, not for the last time, found myself without heels lower than about 4 inches. I was now like your neighbour and often unable to play with my friends in my heels.
