This past weekend, my four year old’s life became a Sex in the City episode.

In A Woman’s Right to Shoes, Carrie goes to a baby shower hosted by her friend and new mom Kyra. Kyra makes everyone everybody take off their shoes and Carrie’s signature Manolos disappear. Kyra offers to pay for them until she finds out they cost $485. She claims the shoes are an irresponsible waste and will only pay $200.

So how does this apply to my four year old?

My girl attended a birthday party at a local trampoline park this past weekend. The trampoline park makes everyone remove their shoes before hitting the trampolines. My girl removes her $45 Jefferson Bling Glitter Native Shoes (pictured above) and places them in one of the shoe cubbies as instructed by the employee who checked us in.

One hour later when we are ready to leave, the shoes are nowhere to be found. When I asked for assistance from the employee who checked us in, she shrugged her shoulders and said, “Yeah, that happens all the time” and walked off.

Okay, it’s not the end of the world to lose a $45 pair of shoes. But kid shoes are darn expensive and that employee’s dismissive attitude really irked me.

Is the trampoline park responsible for my kid’s shoes?

If you ask this law mama, the answer is heck yes.

Why?

• My kid was forced to remove her shoes as a condition of entry and told to place them in a particular area (the shoe cubby).
• The designated shoe area was not monitored by any employee (or cameras).
• We were not given the option to place the shoes in a more secure area (like a locker).
• There were no “not responsible for lost or stolen items” signs posted. It’s not on their website either.

Am I overreacting? Probably. And to be honest, if that employee has just said “sorry” I probably would not have gotten so ticked off.

So what am I going to do?

My husband (who is also a lawyer) and I have a no more than two “playing the lawyer card” a year rule in our house. This means that no more than twice a year are we allowed to act like a$%hole lawyers with some issue going on in our personal lives. Believe it or not, we are both pretty conflict adverse at home and chose to leave the battles for work.

We “played the lawyer card” once this year with a denied insurance claim (for more on that, read Insurance Company Won’t Pay? Here’s What You Should Do).

Watch out trampoline park, you’ve earn slot number two.

That’s right, I’m playing the lawyer card at the trampoline park over a $45 pair of kid shoes.

Will I get $45 to replace the shoes? Will I get a couple of free passes (I’ll push back for four since I have four kids)? Will I be dealing with a teenage employee who just wants the crazy mom to shut the heck up so he can get back to checking out his co-worker?

Stay tuned to Lex Mater this week and see what happens.

Copyright © 2018 by Siobhán Fitzpatrick Kratovil. All Rights Reserved.