Spoiled?

After work yesterday I took my daughter for a haircut. I had scheduled the haircut for 5:30pm because that was usually the earliest I could manage to get there. My group was cleared out by 4:30 yesterday so I left myself around 4:45. Zoë and I arrived at Sharkey's Cuts for Kids by 5:05pm and there was about 4 kids already there waiting to for their turn so no chance of getting in early. Conveniently there is a Stride Rite next door to Sharkey's so I decided to take Zoë there for new shoes while we waited. I wanted to get here some sandals, but it turns out that is was too early and most of the sandals were not in yet. I found this odd since you can't even find a long sleeve shirt at Baby Gap these days -- summer merchandise is all that is available. After the disappointment of not being able to get a haircut right away and having to explain at least 4 times that we were coming back, but we had to wait our turn, I could tell that my choices were buy the kid some shoes or face major crying/tantrum episode and possibly missing the haircut altogether -- a hair cut she really needed. Sigh. So I bought her some cheap sneakers. She now has 3 pairs of sneakers. If they had had some flip-flops I would have done that, but $35.00 sneakers was the best/cheapest I could do. The rest of the evening proceeded crying-free and Zoeë wasn't;t even fazed by the fact that another little girl was already in the Barbie Jeep so she had to sit in the tractor for her haircut. The haircut came out very cute, by the way. Even so, I was a little uneasy about the sneaker purchase.

Then after Zoë went to bed last night I happened to be flipping through the latest issue of Reader's Digest (which they are still sending me despite the fact that I am no longer an employee) and came across an article about saying no to your children, etc. It was a good article surprisingly and I immediately thought of the earlier sneaker incident. Was I spoiling my child by buying her new sneakers that she did not need just to prevent her from getting upset? I largely did it for my own peace, I know. At the same time I didn't buy her any of the 7 or 8 toys she played with that they have on display at Sharkey's and she didn't ask. She rarely asks me for anything. Had she asked for a toy I would definitely have said no. And I know she would have been OK with that. She might have asked "why?" a few times and that would have been it. But there is no pattern of her getting a toy when we go for a haircut. When we go to the shoe store she always leaves with new shoes on her feet. I don't want to raise a spoiled child and I'm not sure I did the right thing in regards to buying the sneakers. What's done is done now, but it is food for thought. That is probably the first RD article to ever make me think so much. Weird, huh?