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Strollerderby
Kick Off Your Shoes For The Kids
Is there something wrong with me that a story about babies and footwear in the home over at CafeMom made me think of a Sex in the City episode?
Really, you’ve never had a WWCD moment (that’s what would Carrie do, by the by)? Here’s the sitch: SJP carts a kiddie present over to a birthday party (or maybe it was a christening – on that my mind is fuzzy) only to have the Mom of the house eye her Manolos like they’re a squirming bacterium with spiky points.
Carrie slips ‘em off, does her best single gal attempt to enjoy a party for a little kid, then hightails it back for her heels . . . to find them missing.
OK, whole point? She thinks the mother’s a raving lunatic. But CafeMom pointed out the other day that the germs in shoe’s clothing are best left in a lump at the door (where hopefully no one will be tempted by a paycheck’s worth of footwear and make off with the loot). As guest poster Alison Neumer Lara says “Like, consider where you walk each day—sidewalks, lawns, public transit. Would you want your kid to lick the bottom of your shoe?”
Well, when you put it that way . . .
Lara was coming at the shoeless household thing as a mother of a crawler, but we’re four years in and still largely shoe-free in the house. She might not be scooting around on hands and knees anymore, but that floor is where she lays out her toys, sits a large portion of the time (remember when you preferred the floor to the comfy couch? me neither) and rolls around in wrestle mode with the dog.
If she drops a piece of food on the floor, she’s still young enough that she’ll scoop it up – if the dog doesn’t get it first – and it enables me to be less neurotic about the five-second rule when we’re shoe free.
I’ve gotten the “are you crazy?” look – but it’s more likely to come from homeowners when I offer to kick off my kicks on their doorstep. Coming to chez Sager, they’re it’s no big deal. I promise no one will steal their shoes.
Do you let the tootsies hang out at your house?
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esthermaker commented on Sep 17 09 at 1:31 amOnly in America would people be offended by a request to remove their shoes. In Asia, the Middle East, and much of Europe, shoes are for outside, not the home. It would be the height of rudeness not to remove your shoes in Egypt, Japan, etcetera.
Apparently, some huge percentage – I wish I could remember how high – of the lead dust found in peoples’ homes is tracked in on their shoes. I live in NYC, and would never dream of wearing shoes inside – you want to track that crap into your home?
Citizen Mom commented on Sep 17 09 at 7:46 amMy MIL – whom I adore – not only requires people to take off their shoes, they must wear slippers she provides before they are allowed to step on the carpet. She’s not Asian.
People need to mellow out. take your shoes off and relax.
BTW – in S. Korea, students take off their shoes and put on slippers before they enter their classrooms! Imagine, no snow, no salt, no dirt being tracked through every room! I like it.
Manjari commented on Sep 17 09 at 11:13 amWe always remove our shoes at the door. No guest has ever had a problem with that. I don’t want everything everyone has ever stepped on to be in my house.
Marj commented on Sep 17 09 at 1:34 pmI remove my shoes at home, my husband doesn’t. I just don’t have strong feeling on it either way. At other people’s homes, I follow what they’d like…I mean, it’s their home, their rules.
virginia commented on Sep 18 09 at 12:37 pmComments.I grew up with the custom of taking shoes off and putting slippers on, and we also were not Asian. Its a practice I have carried through with in my own family and guests.
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