As I sit on my front stoop every weekday morning with my girl, waiting for the school bus, I check out the fashion statements of today's children. Our bus stop has swelled to eleven kids from three in one year, thanks to some large families moving in. That's a lot of shoes.

Something seemed odd about those shoes for the longest time. Then I realized what it was -- they rotated.

I don't remember which grade I was in, but one year I had burgandy Kangaroos with Velcro AND THE POCKET. God, I was so cool. When I got a little older, I had a pair of white Nikes (NIKE! SQUEE!) with white pinstrips on the nylon. White on white, dude. I thought I was the queen of Sheba with those white-on-white pinstriped Nikes.

I don't remember wearing other shoes to school until I hit at least middle school. Elementary school was tennies, unless you were tromping around the halls in your moon boot liners in the dead of winter.

You had to choose your tennies carefully and with an eye to all outfit possibilities. All my outfit possibilities were jeans, because I also don't remember ever wearing a skirt to school on a normal day. Maybe cords, but those would also go with my tennies. My mother will read this and maybe be able to inform me if I actually wore more than one pair of shoes at a time to school in elementary, but I really don't think I did. In fact, this line of reasoning has continued on well into adulthood. Every season, I tend to buy a pair of black whatevers or a pair of brown whatevers. Maybe I'll add something cute if I see them at TJ Maxx or the rich people Goodwill, but the fact I don't buy shoes has less to do with my ability to afford them and more to do with my mindset of the One Pair of Shoes.

I realized this yesterday when I pulled out my black booties for the seventh time in a row since it got cold. I'm a shoe child of habit. A fashion nightmare. I keep wearing the same pair of shoes over and over like I'm twelve.

But these children! They have awesome shoes! Ballet flats and Converse that lace all the way up to their knees and Uggs with GLITTER. And some tennies, of course, but only on P.E. days. My own daughter alternates between tennies, purple tall Bearpaws, cowgirl boots and hot pink patent leather ballet flats. She puts me to shame.

She is nine.

I think I'm still searching for those white-on-white-pinstriped Nikes that went with everything, were comfortable and yet still made me feel refined, if there is such a thing as a refined Nike. I wasn't the only one who wore the same pair of shoes all the time -- it seemed everyone did. The standards were so much lower then.

It was easier with lower fashion standards. Bring back the one pair of shoes, people.