How many pairs of shoes do you need?

More specifically, how many pairs of shoes does an 8 year old boy need?

I thought 2. He has a pair of sneakers and a pair of sandals. In case of emergency, he can wear the other. It might not always be ideal, but we live in Texas, and you can pretty much wear sandals all year round.

Then he got the sneakers COVERED in mud and filth. Monday morning came -- and they were still foul. I told him to wear the sandals. He told me they had poop on them. He showed me a VERY small stain -- could be poop -- but they're not stinky and we had to leave.

He refused to put them on. Stubborn child. He walked up the hill to school in his socks. There, my husband met us (he works at school and was meeting me to pick something up, thank goodness). Problem solved.

But I went home guilty, thinking, "am I an evil mom? Am I stingy with my kids because they only have 2 pairs of shoes? What's the norm?"

I tried to google an answer. I discovered that adults have WAAAAY too many shoes. But I couldn't find a solid answer for kids. So I asked a mom that I respect. She told me that her kids have 2 pairs. I don't feel so guilty anymore.

I think that all of us have become used to having way more clothes than we need, tons of extra shoes, socks, etc. And it leads us to not really take care of the things that we have. If I had really been thinking, J's shoes would have been washed as soon as we got back. But I was tired. If he had had an extra pair of sneakers, chances are the muddy ones would still be at the front door. But we don't really have a choice. We have to take care of them.

Some years ago, I traveled around South America with a small backpack. I'm a wimp, so I couldn't carry. Here's what I had for clothes:

Hiking boots
Sandals
3 pairs of socks (washed the socks at the hostal each night)
underwear -- probably 5 pair -- can't remember
3 t-shirts
1 pair jeans
1 pair shorts
1 pair PJ pants
fleece
long underwear

I traveled for months. I washed my clothes by hand and hung them to dry, or paid someone to do the same. I had to be careful. If I dripped something on my shirt, I had to quickly clean it up. I had to think about what I wanted to wear and where. If I knew that I would be visiting a cathedral, I couldn't be left with only shorts. Sometimes I wore multiple layers to keep warm. (South America can get very cold, especially in the mountains.) But it was a great feeling -- I could easily carry everything that I needed. I never had to pay a porter. I could carry my backpack onto the bus or airplane -- no checking necessary. In the whole time, there were only 2 problems:

1. On a camping trip in Ecuador, someone stole my boots from outside my tent. Luckily, I had my sandals, but I was not able to get new boots until I got back to a major city a few days later.

2. My brother and I went on a jungle tour and came back enlightened but disgusting. We stayed at a hostal to rest and wash EVERYTHING. Unfortunately, it started to rain. And didn't stop raining.... we had to pack our wet clothes back into our backpacks and travel to Quito in pajama pants and t-shirts... not exactly appropriate attire. So I guess the lesson is -- if you have a limited supply of clothing, you don't want it all wet (or muddy and/or poopy) at the same time.

P.S. How many pairs of shoes do YOU think is reasonable?