Is it that time already?

My oldest, 8 in a couple of weeks, got very tearful and upset this morning when I suggested she wear wellies for our walk round to the school. It was caning it this morning, and the shoes she'd chosen for her MUFTI day were suede or nubuck, one of those leathers that doesn't like getting wet.

We live right next door to the school, but it's still a hundred meters or so and it was chucking it, and we now have to walk round the corner and up and alleyway and across to the school from another entrance because, apparently, the FUCKING COACH DRIVERS can't be trusted not to - oops - run kids over. But I digress.

Anyway, she wouldn't put them on, and would rather get wet feet than wear her red wellies with the heart pattern on, which are quite cool as wellies go, and which she loved last year. But now she's afraid of being "the only one" in wellies, being laughed at by her so-called friends.

How many years of that kind of shit do I now have to look forward to?