Everybody Says Don’t

So, I’m having a fairly decent day.

Nothing to complain about.

The usual outrage over politics with my morning coffee was easily quelled when a reporter from FOX news (no, really) actually fact-checked Paul Ryan’s speech from last night!  Then, I got word that Sarah Palin’s fifteen minutes may finally be up.

Oh, I left my house a happy little mommy.

Took my little guy to the park for the afternoon and finished it off with a visit to Bareburger. I know I shouldn’t have done it, but the lamb sliders. Oh, heavens, the lamb sliders!

But as I was finishing up my cranberry blue salad (Seriously, I took some of the spinach leaves and blue cheese and put it ON the lamb sliders before inhaling them), I checked my Facebook for news of the day and a friend of mine exhibited her frustration over shoes.

Not like you’re thinking.

You see her son, like mine, loves to dance. But hers moreso.

Her boy has the bluest eyes, the rosiest cheeks and the most dancin’-est feet around. He loves it so much, he asks his mother constantly when he can go back. I hear tell his school wants to enter him in competitions, for crying out loud! So naturally, as the new dance season begins, she prepares to buy him tap shoes. She doesn’t want to go crazy with the price tag, though, because every mother knows you buy your boy new shoes, you take ’em home, you sneeze and by the time you reach for a tissue, he’s already outgrown them.

So, first stop on this crusade: Payless.

Well, why not? I see they have dance shoes for girls all the time!

Not only did they not have any, they practically scoffed at her for asking.

Dude, 80% of your shoes are made out of sawdust and lacquer. Don’t get cocky.

So, she starts looking for friends who might have some or even dance stores in her area. Nothing.

She finally finds a dance supply store in her town of Brooklyn. Heck, it’s the same store recommended by his school! They’re bound to be cooperative, right?

Wrong. Not only did they not HAVE the shoes she needed, they actually REFUSED to order them for her.

But what I love, is the reason they gave her for not complying with her request:

Boys. Don’t. Tap Dance.

Oh. No. They Didn’t!

Where did this insanely un-based theory get it’s origins?

And why the Dulè Hill is she getting this kind of flack from the dance supply store?!

As a mommy with a creative Little Man (how many 5 year olds do YOU know are familiar with movie composer John Williams?), I can understand Payless not having any. Whatever.

But for a place where they thrive, where they are completely dependent on kids going for their dreams and the parents who want to help them reach for those stars, for THAT place to deny her freaking SHOES is really damn ridiculous.

Is it a big, popular thing with boys? no.

But no one has the right to tell that mother and her child that he can’t.

That he’s not supposed to love this because no other boys do, which I know is not true.

And as a dance supply store, have you never heard of: Gene Kelly? Donald O’Connor?

Fred Astaire?

Gregory (and Maurice!) Hines?

The Nicholas Brothers?

How about Savion Glover?

Any of these names ringing a bell?

Fitness Underground, is it?

Congratulations. You’ve earned the crown.

You are the prime Dumbass of today.