Ive had enough experience with parenting to know that this guy is still waiting for his kid to put on shoes.
this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2026
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I've never understood why that is such a universally difficult task for children. Usually not so much the physical action but just the attention span required to find them and get them on their feet. They seem to do other similar tasks without much issue but the shoes are a guaranteed slowdown every time.
It depends on the age.
You’re not asking them to “put on your shoes” you’re asking them to “go find your shoes, bring your shoes to sit down, sit down with shoes, put shoe one on foot, put shoe two on foot.” It’s like telling an adult “go build a house” and being confused when they can’t just do it.
That’s a lot of shit to hold in your head, and all the while the toy you walked past is interesting, the cat just meowed and ran past you, there’s a spinny thing on your rain boots, and oh look some sunlight is moving around a little!
It’s just too much for tiny brains to process. You’ve lost them after “go find your shoes”.
Give them small tasks one at a time. Build out that task board as they are capable, but remember that the thing you see as “just one thing” is very likely ”ten to 100 things” that you’ve boiled down to a single instruction.
You could have a series of pictures that the child can follow to put on shoes or put on outdoor clothing or what ever. Pictures don't have to be exact thing they'll do but symbolic i.e. "find shoes" could be a picture of shoes with a questionmark. "Sit down" could be a picture of a stool.
Children will handle it themselves after you've used the picture board a couple of times.
In my experience it’s not the task itself, it’s the reason for it.
Going to a birthday party? They’re dressed and shoes on waking me up before the sun is up.
Going to some event they don’t care about? See post.