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Looking way back, I surely remember the "threat" of the belt or wooden spoon, but don't remember actually being punished with them. Granted, I was the last of four kids, so the parents were probably burned out on parenting...."Go out and play" was the rule of the day for me... I did my best to fly under parental radar as well...

Same with football with these vicious crunching tackles. I remember a particularly egregious one in an Australian Rules match once and the announcer saying, as they replayed it in loving slow motion at least a dozen times, “Boy, that’s something you never like to see …”

The runner up for the most miles on a single pair of high heels is my Nine West Sizzle oxfords. These have the distinction of being the only non-mule in the bunch, and also the only closed toe shoe in the high mileage bunch. Sporting a 4 3/4"(12 cm) heel with a 3/4"(2 cm) platform, they are a full 4 inch (10 cm) heel, and is among the oldest pairs of heels in my collection. Or was among the oldest. I wore them from January of 2013 until January of 2024 when one of the heels suddenly decided that after 11 years and 196.1 miles (316 km), enough was enough, and promptly snapped in half, a mile and a half from home. This was the first of three similar failures I was to have with Nine West shoes of this vintage and heel style. There is a reinforcing metal rod or tube inside the heel, but it only goes about two thirds of the way up, for some reason. Where it ends is where the plastic heel snaps in two, suddenly and cleanly. And naturally, just after I'd paid to have them resoled. I have been unable to find replacements for these in any color, and I believe they were made in 5 or 6 different colors.

A few years ago ABC News had a very early morning news segment, and for some reason part of the routine was to catch the news anchors walking to their seats to begin the broadcast. It was not difficult for the man, but you could see the angst on the woman news anchor's face as she treaded out. This was verbalized as several times she would say, "I am always so scared I am going to trip". I never saw her do that, but after about a year her protests must have been enough to stop the practice and the program started with them already seated. I am glad for her though as I am sure 75% of the viewing audience was like NASCAR fans and really just hoping she would trip, just as NASCAR fans are hoping race cars crash horrifically!

Ha, that was a new one on me and momentarily confused me. But then it took me until a few weeks ago to understand that "trainers" were just sneakers in UK Speak! 🙂 I am jealous of your wife making curtains though. My wife buys her's and renews them about every three months. Since there are 54 windows in this house it gets expensive! But she doesn't save the old ones, she throws them out. We are in the midst of selling this Victorian and bought a smaller house so to make it look good I asked her where all the matching curtains were for the room colors and whatnot that we had. "Oh, I threw them all out". Grrrrrr.... We like this house. It's right on a river and has a barn and all that, but it is just too big for the two of us now our children have grown up. Kind of scary to move to a much smaller house, but its out on an island, on a point of land so has the views but is much cheaper to heat and cool.

On TV last night, I saw part of a quiz programme with 'celebrity' parent and child teams. The attractive daughter (19) of her (equally attractive) TV sports reporter mother had long legs in long trousers (a little baggier than bootcut) which partially concealed her boots, with what looked like a close-to-4" slimmish block heel. It was good to see a pretty teenager wearing 'proper' heels but, alas, she did not walk that well in them when striding to and from the podium. I think that her mother (usually in 4" stilettos for formal appearances, as last night) needs to give her some lessons.

My Victorian house has 10' ceilings on the ground floor; steps are essential for any overhead work; heels would not suffice. My wife is a skilled seamstress and has made some beautiful (and quite elaborate) curtains for the floor-ceiling drop in those high rooms. They are heavy and take two people to fit or take down. I recently described my wife to a friend as someone 'who readily runs-up curtains' - and maybe I should have added 'but not in high heels', to further confuse the listener. (I'm assuming that 'runs-up' is generally understood outside the UK to mean 'makes', as by sewing or carpentry.)

That sounds like quite the quest. It must have been a fun to do all that it took to get such a pair in your closet. Figuring out what brand they were, what style and then who sold them and for how much. If they had the proper size and then watching it track from online store to your home. Kind of like a shoe-mystery played out for your personal enjoyment. Not sure if it is the same thing, but my wife has a pair of pumps that changes color. In some light they are gold, but then in other light it shimmers and changes to silver. They are one of my most favorite pairs of heels she wears, and lucky for me she wears them often. A question though. Going by your username, are the shoes you bought Mary Janes? Just curious?

Good for you on so many fronts, from your pedi and mani, to the color choices, to the support for breast cancer awareness. I had a sister-in-law pass away from breast cancer, a terrible death, and myself have had three back-to back episodes of cancer, so awareness of such a killer is always great to be supported against. I get pedicures myself, although without color. It stemmed from a infected ingrown toenail that so many people scoff at, but it was a lot of pain at the time. My doctor suggested I not only get it fixed with a professional pedicure, but to prevent them, to keep going long afterwards. She said she does it herself, and brings her boyfriend along because she recommends it for everyone. Once I went that first time, laughed and joked with the workers, and laughed it up with the other patrons, any awkwardness of a man having a pedicure was gone, so now I get one every six weeks or so. I recommend both men and woman get them for health reasons and have for years.

Just got my October pedi and mani, a couple days ago. On my toes I got hot pink color for Breast Cancer Awareness which I get every year in October. Otherwise it's bright red the other months. On my hands my usual clear/pink gel, with the right pinkie a white base and a pink Breast Cancer Awareness logo and the left pinkie with a pink base and a white Breast Cancer Awareness logo on it. Got some compliments on both my pedi and mani from other women at the salon. Incidentally, because it was a cold rainy day,, I wasn't able to wear my usual skort. I wore a pair of white capri jeans, with a pink polo shirt with a white Breast Cancer logo on it. I did wear my Nine West "Gemily" sandal slides in hot pink color. My nail tech liked my ensemble especially my heels . She said that they showed off my new pedi to a T. Happy Heeling, bluejay

I am not sure what constitutes a high tolerance of high heel wear. I say often, "my wife lives in her high heels" and it is true, she wears them often, but her tolerance of them depends on what she is doing. Most times it is to church where she spends only brief amounts of time on her feet before she can rest by sitting down. Or even that at a restaurant or on a dinner date; it is not a significant amount of time standing. One time she wore high heels to a hockey game and that was difficult for her to tolerate. Between the walk from the hotel to the arena, then standing in line to get in, then back to a place to eat; it was just too much. Halfway back from the hockey game, despite it being very cold outside (20 degrees f) she took off her shoes and went barefoot. All total, it was probably a mile of walking in her high heels. Another time I remember where it was too much, was at a funeral for our friend where there was standing room only. But being taller or shorter than your wife is just one of those things where some men are more comfortable with it than others. I cannot say. I am not tall, but not short either so my perception is far different than some men's, so I cannot judge. For her ex-husband; being shorter really bothered him. I don't hold anything against the man because it did, but forbidding her to wear heels then is the driver for her enjoying wearing them now.

Funnily enough only yesterday I bought a pair of boot cut jeans - to wear with my ankle boots with 8cm chunky heels, and because they also look better with hiking boots. Yes, the boot cut partially obscures the heels on my ankle boots, but then I don’t wear them to show off or make a point, and actually the boots looks really good with these jeans.

My ex-wife was/is a good two inches taller than me in bare feet, and I encouraged her to wear heels as much as possible, which she often did. I really don't see what the big deal is. Unfortunately or indifferently, she was unable to hack wearing anything over 2 inch heels for very long. We had very different ideas about the significance of heels.

I decided a long time ago that I look better in slimmer cut jeans/pants. I can pull off skinny jeans, and I like them, but they sure can be a pain in the neck to get on and off. I used to wear boot cut pants all the time for the reason that @Puffer mentioned, as an attempt to minimize attention to my heels, but I guess I got over that some time ago. Because I like to wear mules, I was glad to get rid of boot cut jeans, as the two don't live together in perfect harmony. Perhaps I am mistaken in my self-assessment, because my 40-something woman friend, mentioned several times elsewhere, wears boot cut jeans all the time with 3 inch heels, and she looks awesome. She's a very tiny woman, as well. The downside is, you can't really see the shoes. That was definitely the style in the early 2000s, when she would have come of age. I can remember working at the Iowa State Capitol building in 2004 and watching for heels, which were very common at the time. It was sometimes frustrating, because all you could see was just a sliver of a stiletto sticking out the bottom of a pair of pants that were very nearly dragging the floor. It was against this backdrop that I started my high heel journey, thinking I could do the same.

I could see that. Generally, whatever we are forced to do under duress we begin to detest. Not always of course, as some things we were forced to do as kids, as we grow older, we begin to have a nostalgic look back upon it, but mostly we detest what we were forced to do, or in this case wear. My wife, she is rather the opposite of Vanna. Her first husband was short and thus forbid her to wear high heels, so when allowed kind of went crazy on the wearing of them.

In the 1980s, I can remember watching Vanna White on "Wheel Of Fortune." She always had on high heels for the show, and her letter turning job always showed them off well. I can remember reading some interviews with her at a later time, where she basically said she hated everything about wearing heels.

I am glad you did/do compliment parents for well-behaved children. I remember the first time a restaurant owner approached me and my wife and said something similar. We were taken back because it didn't seem as if our five young daughters (at the time) were doing anything really obedient. But apparently the restaurant had some wild kids in the past. The other day my 19 year old semi-apologized for being bad while growing up, and I told her I did not think our daughters were bad at all. She mentioned a few times we spoke up and stopped some sibling-rivalry but I explained to her that we stopped sibling-squabbling early just so it did not turn into a bigger problem. But growing up... wow! That was over the top. I remember sitting in church and a family-friend asked my dad how us kids were so well behaved and he said, "Oh, I just use a length of garden hose on them". The problem was, that family-friend, teachers and everyone else thought he was joking. My dad had a 4 foot length of old garden hose he liked to wail on us kids with. The real question is: did we turn out good because of it, or despite it? Considering my daughters turned out well so far, and I did not wail on them at all, I think the latter.

I could never quite figure out why kilts never caught on, at least not in terms of being practical. I watch my wife wear skirts and it just seems so easy and practical, lounging around the house and we decided to grab some ice cream; she says, "I'll throw on a skirt", and does. While I am dragging a pair of pants up over my legs, she has slipped on a skirt, stepped into mules and waiting in the car while I am still hitching the button on my jeans. And while I won't get into the exact details, hiking or exercising with "junk" that chafes and sticks against pants seems ridiculous since I have to wear boxer/briefs to prevent it... of just the right type too mind you lest they cause their own issues, when a kilt would prevent all that. I don't know, just seemed a kilt should have become standard wear for men by now in terms of practical items to wear versus pants, but maybe I am missing something.

Somewhere on this website there was a discussion about this very thing: some little things that were easier to do in high heels. The list was not huge I admit, but rolling out dough, painting, and a few other things were brought up by me, but others on here as well. One of my houses is an old Victoriam home with 9 foot ceilings. It is just enough so that even stretched out I cannot get to the crown molding, but yet a folding set of steps is overkill. But wearing high heels... yep that would work out just right. Putting up curtains wearing high heels would help as well.

I love replies like this, and have used them a few times as well!

How about a lift in the floor?

Very impressive! Long, long ago when I was running marathons - way back when Pheidippides was still running for the Athens Under-9s Track Club - I used to keep track of the mileage on my running shoes. I was running between 70 and 100 miles a week so it was a matter of interest to me to know how long they’d last. Clocking over 100 miles in a pair of mules seems like pretty decent mileage. Happily with boots i don’t need to worry about the flapping sound, or at least not usually. Last year the front part of the Vibram soles on my old mountaineering boots came loose and I had to listen to the flip flop sound all the way back to my boat. Fortunately some epoxy glue sorted out the issue

At No. 3 we have. . . BCBGirls Bonny beaded wooden mules. . . Wait, didn't I just list that two posts ago? Yes, I did, but this is pair No. 4. The above was pair No. 2. Pair No. 4 has somehow managed to survive and squeak by pair No. 2 at 117.3 miles (189 km). I honestly didn't think they would make it, because pair No. 4 has had what I perceive to be weak shanks from Day 1. The heels on this particular example of the breed have always been more flexible than what I would like. I would never have guessed that they would last longer than pair No. 2. However, since 2022 when pair No. 2 yielded up the ghost, I have changed my walk significantly, and I do believe I am much easier on heels than I used to be. But wait, there's more! In the very last miles, right before I was to surpass my previous Bonny record, I tripped on an uneven part of the pavement, and both shoes went flying. Somehow, I managed to stay upright, but I lost both shoes rather violently. I thought to myself, "Well, that's the end of those, and right before I broke the record, too!" Amazingly, there was no damage to either the shoes or to me. I do not know if anybody actually saw this happen, so it may be that my pride managed to escape damage as well. A word about mules in general, as @higherheels alluded to elsewhere. To me, there are two broad categories, and I'm not talking about open toe vs. closed toe, stiletto vs. block heel. I'm talking about flappy vs. non-flappy, categories that I am claiming creation of, because I've never heard anybody else refer to them that way before. To me, it's THE most important distinction. The Bonnys are flappy mules and have but a fairly thin leather band across the toes, which means that with every step, the insole of the shoe comes away from the bottom of the back half of your foot (similar to the much-hated flip-flop), then returns with a flapping sound. We'll save sound preferences and dislikes for another time, that being an intrinsic part of the flappy mule experience. Non-flappy mules typically come up much higher on the instep, and in this way, full contact between the bottom of your foot and the insole of the shoe is maintained at all times. Non-flappy mules have a sound that is indistinguishable from any other high heel with the same heel type. Despite being flappy mules, and being very easy to kick off (and put back on) at will, they are very good walking shoes. Don't ask me to explain it, but among four pairs so far, I've got 350 miles of walking experience, and I still enjoy them for that purpose. They've even been to Chicago on vacation! Stay tuned for the runner-up spot, and the winner, coming to a forum near you.

Oh dear, that doesn’t sound good! I’ve been some good indoors practice this week. On the subject of height in heels, I fielded a funny question this week from a passer-by (those of us who live in narrowboats are objects of great curiosity to non-canal folk) who wanted to know if it wasn’t rather tiresome having to crawl around inside all the time! He thought that the height of the cabin was what he could see above the gunwales and that living aboard was like living in a tent. I explained that the ceilings were quite high and that even a six-footer such as I could stand upright in high heels. He believed me about the ceiling height, but assumed I was kidding about the heels.

I have recently been doing a great deal of work in my middle stepson's rebuilt and extended house. My wife has also been there, doing painting. I have lost count of the times she has taken away from me my short stepladder or hop-up platform because her painting target was just - only just - out of reach. My suggestion that a pair of comfy 4" wedge heels would have been her more convenient option was not well-received, alas.