<strong>By LEE SCOTT</strong>

This past week I was in one of those stores that has “dollar” in the name. There are so many of them that I really do not have a grip on which one I was in that day.

As I was walking around, I saw a little boy running up and down one aisle. His mother told him to knock it off, and that is when I noticed some very cool sneakers. They were the kind that had lights shine when he walked.

He was obviously trying out the speed that these new sneakers could take him.

I smiled at the mother and said to the little boy, “Are those new sneakers?”

“Yup!” he responded.

I asked if he thought he could run better with those new sneakers on and he said, “Yup” again.

I told the mother that when I was a child, we used to get Keds sneakers and everyone said you could run faster in them and jump farther. Naturally, we would practice our running and jumping whenever we got new sneakers. Keds sneakers were the sneakers of Champions!

She said that the she grew up in the era when the girls’ Adidas sneakers were popular. Her brother had Air Jordan’s.

She had to save her allowance to get the sneakers she wanted because her parents would not spend much on shoes. Sounded fair to me. If I recall they were running around $125.00 at that time and as a mother, I would not either.

Then I showed the little boy my brand-new sneakers.

“They are Under Armour sneakers and I can run much faster too.”

I refrained from accepting his challenge of seeing who could run faster.

Then I said to the mother “I only paid $32 for them at TJ Maxx.”

To which the little boy responded, “I didn’t pay anything for mine.”

“Wow, that’s great,” I said. “Where did you get them?”

“I asked Santa Claus for them.”

I shook my head and said, “I should have asked Santa Claus for some too. Maybe then I might have gotten lights in my shoes too.”

It wasn’t til afterwards that it dawned on me that this kid’s mother told her son if he wanted the sneakers, he had to ask Santa Claus. Instead of a Nintendo Switch or new electronic game, this kid had asked Santa Claus for sneakers.

What a genius approach to parenting. I wish I had thought of it when my kids were little. If you are going to have to pay for something, anyway, why not cover it under the “Santa Claus gifts.”

Afterward, when I got into my car I thought, “I totally could have beat that kid down the aisle with my new ‘unlit’ sneakers.”

<i>Lee Scott, a writer and recent retiree, shares her everyday observations about life after career. A former commercial banker responsible for helping her clients to reach their business objectives, Scott now translates those analytical skills to her writings. She lives on St. Helena Island and enjoys boating, traveling and reading.</i>