Only Parents Understand: Crocs Are a Heaven-Sent Savior of Your Sanity
I get it. Crocs are a polarizing fashion choice for many people. They firmly fall into the camp of "love 'em or hate 'em." I used to be one of those people who thought Crocs were up there with the laziest, most unsanitary and ugliest footwear fashion choices a person could make. And then I became a parent. And boy has my opinion changed and then some.
RELATED: Not Everyone Loves Crocs
For us, it all started when my 3-year-old's friend constantly wore them when she would come over to play. At first, I quietly would whisper to my wife about whether or not our daughter's friend's mother — a friend of ours — had just given up. I always pegged her as pretty hip and fashionable but couldn't grasp why she would consciously send her daughter out in, well, Crocs.
So I asked her one day. And she gushed over Crocs in general, for her daughter, for herself and her husband as vessels of ease and tranquility, more than anything else. Crocs are built for utility, if not for fashion. Though, to be fair, they've come a long way in that department, too.
Mostly she sold me on the concept that my own 3-year-old daughter would love them because she could easily put them on by herself, and they wouldn't hurt her feet like flip-flops or sandals. So we caved and bought her a pair of Crocs. She instantly loved them, and they became the only shoes she ever really wants to wear.
Her rainbow "rockers," as they've affectionately come to be called, have a lot of miles on them now, so many in fact that they've been replaced twice by new ones. She's even got Jibbitz on them — that's a real thing, by the way — and I always find myself buying her new ones whenever I find some cool ones.
Crocs, of course, is a Colorado-based company that really has done some big things in its 20-year history. They sell more than a billion dollars worth of shoes annually to more than 90 countries worldwide and have built a very loyal fan base just like my 3-year-old.
She, by the way, fell in love with TikTok sensation and professional dancer Kelli Erdmann one day when I caught her scrolling through her Instagram on my phone. She stopped, showed me the phone and screamed, "Look, Daddy! Crockers!"
Erdmann is a big Crocs fan and frequently dances in them in her videos, in addition to doing paid placements for them on her social media.
My daughter became obsessed with all of us having Crocs too.
Here's where the story gets interesting. My daughter wanted me to have a pair. I didn't know how I felt about it. She insisted and persisted and convinced my wife to buy me some for my birthday back in September. I didn't know how I'd feel about them, but she went to great lengths to pick out a black and tye-died pair, complete with a few Jibbitz of my own, for me. Day one, wearing them, I was hooked. Holy smokes, they're easy to wear and super comfortable, if you're like me and don't want to wear hot slippers around the house but don't want to go barefoot either. I don't wear them out, by the way, just around the house. In public: That's one step too far.
Our 1-year-old wants to be like her big sister. So guess what she got for her first birthday? Her first pair of Crocs. She's very, very proud of them.
And for Christmas, my wife has joined the tribe, even though she never thought she would. She is hooked too.
I used to say the little holes on Crocs were made specifically for your dignity to escape if you were wearing them. But since then, we have become a Crocs family, and I am not ashamed to admit it. The ease is worth whatever judgment you might receive from the non-Crocs people. If you're a parent, you already know this. And if someday you become a parent, you'll learn. Give it time.
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