Children in Heels

When it comes to kids, especially girls, getting into more adult things like makeup, often people ask

These are for children.

“How young is too young?” Now apparently we find ourselves asking that about heels.

Are heels OK for a child to wear?

As soon as this question comes up, people automatically talk about Suri Cruise and her high heeled shoes. I would like to take a moment and point out that Suri isn’t a normal child, and nothing she does, now or ever, should be considered normal. The child of an arguably insane father and a mother who only recently started looking like an adult (seriously she looked 16 until she was like 30), the kid was born into more money than God and will never be “normal.”

Let’s not use Hollywood’s children as a fashion barometer. That’s a really slippery slope.

I know adults who won't wear wedges
this high. 

Regardless of whether or not heels on a child who only recently stopped crapping their pants seems somewhat strange to me. Aside from the whole Toddlers and Tiaras nonsense, do we really need wedges for our first grader? Or how about a two-inch stiletto heel for little Sally to wear during the school Christmas program?

I’m going to come right out and say it. No, we don’t need this and this whole phenomenon is weird. And I'm not talking about chunky, one-inch heels like on a kids dress shoe. We're talking pumps for your third-grader. 

I get that little girls want high heels. I was no different. I used to jam my feet into my mother’s heels and shuffle around the house in them, wearing costume jewelry and convinced that when I wore them I was the most beautiful person in the world.  My little sister got to go one step further and had “her wuby wed swippers” (and a slight speech impediment) that she wore all over the house. Made of red, glittery plastic with a modest dress up shoe heel she thought they were the most beautiful thing in the world.

Regardless of how we felt about our amazing heels, when it came time to leave the house we could keep on the scarves and costume jewelry, but the shoes had to be changed. Kids in heels simply isn’t practical when you’re going to the grocery store.

Then there’s the whole argument (that no one seems to be having) about what heels on kids are doing

This happens every time my niece
gets around my heels. 

to their feet. I’m not a kid and constantly get people telling me about how heels are ruining my feet, and I’m going to get x, y or z ailment and wait until I’m old. What do heels do to feet that aren’t done growing? Are we built for a lifetime in heels? 

I’m no podiatrist, but I’m going out on a limb here and saying no.

I’m not anti-heel, or anti-dress up. It cracks me up when my niece puts on my shoes and shuffles around in them, or when she tells me that she’s going to get shoes like Glitter Barbie and me one day. (Seriously, I have that on video). And one day I promise I will take her out and buy her the most ridiculous, ankle risking stripper heels that her heart desires. But not until she’s done growing, her mom won’t do call me yelling (so probably never), and she can walk in them. Until then she, and little girls everywhere, should just go on playing dress-up, and leave the heels to the adults.

Heels aren’t very good for playing outside in anyway.

The Today Show discussed this as well. If you want to hear a really boring conversation about kids in heels, you can click here.