Heeled Dress Shoes For The Holidays: A Little Girl’s First High Heels?

I first started wearing high heels regularly when I was 20. I had just moved to Paris for the year, and even though I wandered around my college campus in nothing more than sandals and sundresses, I was not about to go pronouncing myself as painfully American in a foreign country. So I quickly took notes from the French girls in my classes and learned how to wear heels over cobblestone roads older than my own home country. Yet, if I’m really honest with myself, I started wearing high heels long before that. In fact, if I really think about it, I’m pretty sure I started wearing high heels at about seven years old.

I generally liked dress shoes as a little girl, but the holidays presented a time in which ever dressier dress shoes were appropriate. And even though my holiday dresses were always pretty age-appropriate, there was usually always a pronounced heel on my shoes. They were of course only worn for the day or evening and it’s not like I was pairing them with any mini skirts. But I’m certain my parents didn’t think of the kitten-heeled mary-janes I wore with my Thanksgiving dresses as my First High Heels — nor do many parents.

But when I look back, they absolutely were. With every click I liked to hear on the kitchen floor and the way all the grownups said that I was just getting so big these days, I was aware that they were somehow “big girl” shoes. Those kitten-heeled shoes announced that I was a young lady getting on into young lady habits. [tagbox tag=”children’s clothes”]

It’s a tough terrain for parents considering that there are much worse apparel choices for girls out there. And I’d say that if your little girl wants nothing more than to wear a little high heel during Hanukkah, than that should be the least of your troubles. Pick your battles and let her have the heel but certainly draw the line at crotchless thongs.

Obviously little girls shouldn’t be kept in shapeless brown sacks until they’re 18, and letting your daughter wear a high heel at Christmas time could definitely appease her so that she won’t be asking for lingerie by her eighth birthday. But, I suppose it all depends on your daughter.

(photo: Shutterstock)