Last week I discovered that I'd been stuffing W's 8.5 size foot into a size 7 shoe.  As such, I made a mental note to go shopping for him.  Then, as luck would have it, a Stride Rite 15% off coupon magically appeared in my mailbox.  Score!  Or, so I thought. 

Today as I was cleaning out our coat closet and shoe rack area by the front door, I came across a pair of old Superman tennis shoes that used to belong to N.  The're a size 9 and in great shape.  I remember when N had these shoes and vividly recall that he wore them just a handful of times because it was summertime and we had begun loading him up with flip-flops instead.  I decided to show them to W and asked him if he wanted to try the shoes on.  He replied, "No…thay, thay's!"  He instantly recognized them as being N's, but probably only thought so by default because he was just a sparkle in my eyes when N was wearing those shoes.

W finally decided he'd give the shoes a try after some convincing him that they were not N's anymore.  He was super excited to hear that!  We walked over to the couch and put on his socks and then tried the shoes.  "Yeah, it feeeits!" W shouted once he had them on and the velcro straps securely in place.  He immediately began jumping and running as if to test his new shoes out.

For some reason, I couldn't help but feel a little guilty that I had, in that instant, decided against buying him new shoes because he could simply wear N's perfectly good used ones instead.  Am I weird for feeling this way?  Should I just get over myself and not feel like he's got to have a new pair of shoes every time he outgrows his former ones? 

Incidentally, as I dug further into the closet, I also came across a great pair of brown boots that were N's too.  W will certainly get some great use out of these too, as they are pretty much brand new!  I know I just need to get upstairs and go through the many pairs of shoes I have boxed up in the guest bedroom and figure out which ones we can reuse and recycle with W, but there's something about buying your kids a new pair of shoes that I just get a thrill out of. 

For now, the Superman tennies will have to suffice.  W is so completely stoked about them and I know that it's really more earth-friendly for me to recycle and reuse them so I'll just save my money and splurge on some really cool snow boots for the boys this winter! ♥

For those of you with more than one child, how do you handle hand-me-downs?  Do you reuse and recycle your kids' old shoes, clothes, toys, etc.?  I realize that having kids that aren't the same gender may play a role in whether or not you do, but how do you generally handle buying your kids new versus having them use their siblings' hand-me-downs?