My son's mother finally decided to stop being a tyrant, and she called me last to say my son needed basketball shoes for the upcoming season. I immediately got her off the phone, and I spoke directly to him about what he wanted/needed. I know all about this game, because I used to play it with my father. I would tell him that I needed Jordans
because they were the best shoe out there performance-wise, and he would say until you have a job, I am not buying you $150 shoes. I'd end up getting shoes half the amount, and of course once the season started I didn't even notice. It didn't hurt that I went to high school in a mostly white neighborhood, and they really weren't making fun of kids who couldn't afford Jordans, because most of them didn't even know the fashion statement that went with wearing them. My son goes to school in a predominantly black neighborhood, so I realize that he MAY face a little peer pressure about his shoes, but I am not succumbing to that..not yet anyway. If I start that trend now when he's 10, I have to keep it up for 8 more years.

Anyway, once I get young Carlton on the telephone he tells me that he wants Michael Jordans. Remembering a tactic that my father used on me, I asked him to give me three choices of shoes he wanted, and I asked him to rank them. There was a 30 second pause on the other side of the phone, and then he said his first choice were the Lebron James shoes, his second choice were the new Jordans, and his last choice were the shoes of Paul Pierce. He will be getting the least expensive of the three, until he shows he is as passionate about basketball as he is football. If he is a basketball prodigy, I'll buy him an impressive spread of baller ass basketball shoes that he has never seen before. Or I could compromise and get him the new Starbury(aka Stephon Marbury) shoes that cost a whopping $15. The possibilities are endless. But the key is to make him happy, teach him a slight lesson, and to not come off as a pushover of a long distance parent. We shall see what happens.

Miles Jaye - I've Been A Fool