Too Stupid to Tie His Own Shoes

[drwex]

This year in school they're teaching K to tie his shoes. Good, practical skill that. Pygment has gotten him some lace-up sneakers (as opposed to the velcro-close ones we've had in past) and he's digging right in. Except...

This morning we're in a rush and he comes to me for help with tying them. Now "help" means "show me how to do this" not "do it for me" (a notable difference between 6-year-olds and 3-year-olds, in case you were wondering). So here I am trying to show him how to tie laces and I realize several things:

(a) I've never taught anyone to tie their own shoes.
(b) doing this in mirror-reverse is harder than just tying something for someone else (like laces on the back of a dress or corset)
(c) I have no frelling clue how to explain what I'm doing. I resort to breaking it down to step-by-step with us passing the laces back and forth because I can't do it without laces in my hands, which leads me to realize
(d) the way I tie my own shoes is full of wasted steps and things I oughtn't do, like picking up one of the laces to make a loop when I'm just going to drop that loop anyway.

All day today my own laces have been coming untied, which I suspect is a side effect of me actually thinking about typing my shoes, rather than just tying them.

Which goes to prove I'm clearly too stupid to tie my own shoes.

Comments

[edichka2.livejournal.com]

*laugh*

- Eddie

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

-Hey, it's a new version of the Centipede's Dilemna. "A hundred feet? Wow, how do you tie your shoes?" "Uhh . . . "

[catya.livejournal.com]

I tie my shoes mirror image :)

[tisana.livejournal.com]

I realized--first back when they thought I was a dunce in geometry and later when my mother who'd been driving 40 years tried to teach me to drive stick--that it isn't how good you are at a skill that makes you a good teacher. It's knowing how to break it down into steps, as you said. In that case, it's often those who had difficulty learning something, not those who picked it up easily, that are better teachers--because the slower learners got a better look at the process, and making mistakes makes you less likely to forget later.

I also figured out I should never be a teacher, since I'm terrible at breaking things down. I'm decent at learning by copying (in which case, mirroring can be confusing), but not everyone is, and it's not a fair expectation.

Anyway. It's probably a good bet you don't remember the process of learning to tie your shoes. I only kind of do, and what I remember is that 1) I had difficulty, and 2) the fact that there's more to one way to do it confused me considerably, because no one thought to explain that part. Gods, I loved it when, shortly after, velcro became popular on shoes.

Um. Yeah. Sympathies for both of you.

[donnad.livejournal.com]

Learning to tie ones shoes ranks right up there with learning to tell time on an analog clock.

Have you showed him how to do it with you standing (or sitting) behind him and reaching around to the front of his feet. So he can see it as he would see it happening as he does it rather than in reverse?

Also the two loop method works. Make a loop with each lace then tie a simple overhand knot with the two loops.

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

I hate trying to explain to Ilana how to tie her own shoes. When I do try, and I always do it facing the same way as her because the mirror-image thing gives me trouble. I always double-knot shoelaces when I tie them. It's not pretty but it keeps them from becoming untied so quickly.

[drwex]

The being-behind is a good idea, haven't tried that. Pygment uses the two-loops method. I use one that's roughly described as "make a loop, throw the other lace over it, then shove it through there."

[rdhdsnippet.livejournal.com]

This made me giggle. :)

According to wotw, I have been tying my shoes wrong my entire life. We had a several day investigation into the whole thing a few years back. Apparently my way results in a "granny knot" instead of the proper knot, whatever that is.

I second the idea of having him next to / behind you when you do it, so he can follow you rather than mirror you.

[ceo]

I learned a better way to tie my shoes as an adult, the "Better Bow" method detailed here. It's far more secure, especially with slippery round laces.

Of course, I also lace my shoes in a double-helix pattern, like this.

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

My own father's shoelaces always had the loops perpendicular to the laces, as he learned to tie them as a mirror image of his own father's behavior.

As a result, my loops and my brother's loops lay parallel, as we learned to tie them as a mirror image of what he was doing.

Effectively, we tie our shoes the way our grandfather did; we never met him, as he died months before I was born.

[pancua.livejournal.com]

you type your shoes? o.O


;)

[marmota.livejournal.com]

http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm

[marmota.livejournal.com]

which ceo already pointed out. nevermind.

[awfief.livejournal.com]

How is the double-helis pattern different from regular lacing? is it just "if it comes out under the eyelet then it goes in under the next eyelet, same with over" as opposed to "always go through the bottom" or "always go through the top"?

[slfisher.livejournal.com]

I'm right handed and my dad is left handed, and since he's the one who taught me to tie my shoes I apparently tie my shoes real weird.

I didn't discover this til 10th grade, when we had an assignment to describe a process, and the teacher said if we wanted something really challenging do tying your shoes, so I did, and he carefully followed my directions and ended up with tied shoes but he said it was very different from the normal way.

Consequently, when I had a child, I told her dad, you teach her how to tie her shoes, because otherwise she'll learn weird from me.

Which is why I have a six-year-old who doesnt' know how to tie shoes.

[ceo]

Yes, with the addition that the lace is first threaded under one bottom eyelet and over the other one, so all the left-to-right laces are on top and the right-to-left ones on the bottom, or vice versa&mdash I do one shoe one way and the other the other way, for symmetry. The effect is a series of diagonal lines running up the shoe. Ask me next time I se you, now that it's cold enough I'm usually not wearing sandals.