Two shoes, two brands, two sizes - one very long first day of school
What started as a simple social media post ended in a hilarious comments section as parents bonded over the chaos of school reopening, sharing stories of mismatched socks, missing pencil cases and children confidently walking home in the wrong shoes.
Image: Facebook
By the end of the first day of school, one parent had reached a very specific emotional destination: finished. Cooked. Spiritually exhausted. And instead of a long rant about stationery lists and school fees, she simply posted a picture on social media.
Two shoes, same colour, different brands, different sizes.
One Woolworths size 6; one Toughees size 10.
Caption: "So, how was their first day at school?" Followed by a line of laughing-crying emojis.
The parent may have posted the picture, but it was the comments section that did the real work, a masterclass in first-day-of-school humour.
Parents shared their own first-day disasters in the comments, from missing shoes to lost pencil cases.
Image: Screenshot from Facebook
"That moment none of those two shoes belongs to her all wrong," quipped one commenter.
Another parent raised the stakes, claiming she "saw one walking to the bus station with white socks only, no shoes. The sister was asking 'where are your shoes?'"
Others compared notes.
One child arrived home wearing one long grey sock and a short one, with the longer sock described as "way too long for him."
Another parent said: "Siya came back with bubble gum on his pants, nahana motho wa grade 9."
Other parents reported wrong school bags and missing pencil cases. The child could not recall when the pencil case was last seen, where it was left, or how it disappeared - only that it was gone.
The most practical advice of all came from a commenter who suggested a simple solution to the mismatched footwear. The most practical advice of all came from a commenter who suggested a simple solution to mismatched footwear: "She must just walk faster no one will notice."
By the end, the post had turned into a communal laugh over the reality of school reopening - where parents spend money, children test limits and the comments section becomes the safest place to cry and laugh at the same time.