Are shoes off people a bit weird?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is so strange to me. I come from a typical suburban family background. Live now in upper NW DC with kids in DC private school. Lots of friends and neighbors who are professionals in this area. Doctors. Lawyers etc. I’m my 15 years of living here - attending parties, dinners, visiting with friends, play dates etc I have never once been asked to remove my shoes. The kids usually kick them off as soon as they get into the house. But adults are always wearing shoes …. I have never once experienced this request. In our own home we all take our shoes off. Just for comfort more than anything. Not because we are thinking about germs and dirt. We have a fairly clean house with weekly visits from cleaners … I don’t know a single family in our circle who demand shows off when we stop by for a visit ….and have never ever experienced this request. Strange.

And I have never been to a home where we HAVENT taken our shoes off. It’s gross if you don’t have people take them off in your own home. All the poo and pee and dirt and vomit goes in your home

What exactly has happened to you or family friends when you have encountered all this fecal matter and vomit in your or others' homes? Bacterial infections? Viruses?

You are the reason we will never end disease in this country.

So you or loved ones have come down with a disease by encountering pee and vomit tracked into your home on others' shoes? That sounds horrible.

Why take the chance? Someone might track in the bubonic plague? Is that what you want?

For my house it's not a matter of disease. It's just that it's gross. I often sit on the ground in my house so I like to keep it as clean as I can, within reason. Same reason I close the toilet lid before I flush. And run my pillows in the dryer. It's just... cleaner.

It's cleaner because you say it is cleaner? You don't really have any evidence for this except a feeling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are an International Family. Shoes off please!

My parents grew on a farm in Europe with mud and and shit everywhere outside so they took their shoes off.

In America my father left the office, in his business suit and dress shoes and drove his new Cadillac home and came in to house shoes on.

We don’t live in a third world County. Taking shoes off is like saying in India we took a crap in an outhouse so we crap in an outhouse here. Why?

I grew up in a house that was agnostic c about shoes but now run a shoes off house because we live in the city and walk everywhere and I know enough about what is in city sidewalks to know I don't want it tracked through my house.

I also wipe down bike tires before bringing them in the apartment where we keep them.

Never used an outhouse in my life.

I have used an outhouse but I grew up in the US. Rural America is rural.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a shoes off household but I can’t walk barefoot, I have plantar fasciitis so I have my cushioned house slippers. My husband kids too wear house slippers, strictly to be used only inside the house.

I think people who wear outdoor shoes inside their house are super weird, also, how can you relax in those shoes???

Maybe you have plantar fasciitis BECAUSE you spend so much time walk-in around in slippers rather than real shoes

Supportive slippers exist, you know.

[Anonymous]

Why can ppl just leave others alone? If a family chooses to be a shoes off family, leave them be. No judgement is needed from others. If you don’t want to visit that house and take your shoes off, feel free to take yourself off the invite list.

East Asian family and yes SHOES OFF when you step in the door!! It doesn’t matter where you have been, whether you used an out house or not, leave those shoes at the door. We provide slippers or footies to handyman or they will roll out floor protectors. For those who refuses to take their shoes off and give me some BS reason, then thank you for coming and we will call the next guy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in Seattle. Everyone is shoes off. Everyone. Every party. I actually specifically tell people not to take their shoes off when I have parties and no one listens to me. It's so weird.

I live in Seattle and the only people who aren’t shoes off are very recent transplants. I think it’s the combo of having a lot of people with Asian ancestry and the weather. No one wants to track the wet inside and we have crumbly streets and sidewalks that seem to shed gravel into shoe soles. I lived in Vermont and it was also a shoes-off place for weather reasons.

Anyway, it’s not a big deal because most people in Seattle aren’t hosting the kind of parties where your outfit would be ruined without shoes, or if they are their houses it’s such a formal party that it’s obvious that it’s shoes-on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why can ppl just leave others alone? If a family chooses to be a shoes off family, leave them be. No judgement is needed from others. If you don’t want to visit that house and take your shoes off, feel free to take yourself off the invite list.

East Asian family and yes SHOES OFF when you step in the door!! It doesn’t matter where you have been, whether you used an out house or not, leave those shoes at the door. We provide slippers or footies to handyman or they will roll out floor protectors. For those who refuses to take their shoes off and give me some BS reason, then thank you for coming and we will call the next guy.

Seattle shoes-off PP here: one thing I noticed about workers here is that they take their shoes off without me having to ask or they have booties in their pocket at all times. Of course, you have to wait 3 months to get an appointment, but at least they take their shoes off.

[Anonymous]

I’m canadian and it’s considered incredibly rude to wear shoes inside someone’s house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are an International Family. Shoes off please!

My parents grew on a farm in Europe with mud and and shit everywhere outside so they took their shoes off.

In America my father left the office, in his business suit and dress shoes and drove his new Cadillac home and came in to house shoes on.

We don’t live in a third world County. Taking shoes off is like saying in India we took a crap in an outhouse so we crap in an outhouse here. Why?

I grew up in a house that was agnostic c about shoes but now run a shoes off house because we live in the city and walk everywhere and I know enough about what is in city sidewalks to know I don't want it tracked through my house.

I also wipe down bike tires before bringing them in the apartment where we keep them.

Never used an outhouse in my life.

I have used an outhouse but I grew up in the US. Rural America is rural.

DP here. Just because you used an outhouse, does not mean that everyone else has to be subject to your lack of standards, least of all, in their own home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m canadian and it’s considered incredibly rude to wear shoes inside someone’s house.

+1

Same in many cultures, including certain U.S. cultures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm south Asian, my husband is eastern European, both of us are from "shoes off" cultures. Wearing dirty shoes, with mud and animal poop on them, makes your floors dirtier. It's just obvious.

I will say all of our immigrant parents wear house shoes/slides that never leave the house. Our relatives in India/Poland do this, too. Their houses are all immaculately clean.

When my husband went to school, in eastern Europe, the kids would all take off their outside shoes and put on slippers. so maybe that is something that would ease OPs aversion to "sweaty feet." This might be a cultural norm in "no shoe" cultures that for some reason didn't make it to America.

Curious do Asians wipe the dogs feet when the dog comes in the house?

Mixed Asian and white family that lives in Seattle here. We have 3 exterior doors and keep towels at each door to wipe our dog’s feet when he comes inside. We’ll also have a damp rag there to get the worst bits off if it’s not the dry season. We wash the towels 1x/week, sometimes more if it’s muddy. Dog is actually black with mostly German heritage so this isn’t an ethnic/racial thing as far as I know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can ppl just leave others alone? If a family chooses to be a shoes off family, leave them be. No judgement is needed from others. If you don’t want to visit that house and take your shoes off, feel free to take yourself off the invite list.

East Asian family and yes SHOES OFF when you step in the door!! It doesn’t matter where you have been, whether you used an out house or not, leave those shoes at the door. We provide slippers or footies to handyman or they will roll out floor protectors. For those who refuses to take their shoes off and give me some BS reason, then thank you for coming and we will call the next guy.

Seattle shoes-off PP here: one thing I noticed about workers here is that they take their shoes off without me having to ask or they have booties in their pocket at all times. Of course, you have to wait 3 months to get an appointment, but at least they take their shoes off.

Same. DP here. Guessing that most people/households prefer shoes off, given that it seems to be a policy with every worker I have used in recent decades.

If there a reason this old thread was revived?

[Anonymous]

Shoes on/off is one of the signs that fall is on the way. Thank you for the reminder on this unseasonably steamy day!

(PS but you're all loons)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A co-worker who is a big shoes off person mentioned he had a party and 40-60 people bare feet or in socks all waking around his house. I know they have wall to wall carpet and having some sweaty guys bare feet in my rug sounds a bit gross.

We were in the office which is nice, vacuumed every day and I said why wear shoes in the office, why no go shoeless here? He looked grossed out and said that’s disgusting.

To be honest I don’t see difference. Me personally I rather walk barefoot in office than on his rug at his home with 40 other smelly feet

No, they're Canadian. Seriously, go to a party in Canada in the winter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m canadian and it’s considered incredibly rude to wear shoes inside someone’s house.

I grew up in Canada, but I find it kind of rude to demand that guests remove their shoes. Our family all have slippers or flip flops for around the house, but we don't really care if our guests keep their shoes on. It's not like they're walking around our bedrooms, and we don't have carpets anywhere in our house. Cleanup after a party is pretty easy- it takes maybe 15 minutes to mop the floors on the main level.

And what do you have your guests do if the party is both outdoors and indoors, like a barbecue party?

It is interesting that there are some social groups where shoes off is the standard for guests. That hasn't been our experience at all in the DC area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is so strange to me. I come from a typical suburban family background. Live now in upper NW DC with kids in DC private school. Lots of friends and neighbors who are professionals in this area. Doctors. Lawyers etc. I’m my 15 years of living here - attending parties, dinners, visiting with friends, play dates etc I have never once been asked to remove my shoes. The kids usually kick them off as soon as they get into the house. But adults are always wearing shoes …. I have never once experienced this request. In our own home we all take our shoes off. Just for comfort more than anything. Not because we are thinking about germs and dirt. We have a fairly clean house with weekly visits from cleaners … I don’t know a single family in our circle who demand shows off when we stop by for a visit ….and have never ever experienced this request. Strange.

And I have never been to a home where we HAVENT taken our shoes off. It’s gross if you don’t have people take them off in your own home. All the poo and pee and dirt and vomit goes in your home

What exactly has happened to you or family friends when you have encountered all this fecal matter and vomit in your or others' homes? Bacterial infections? Viruses?

I mean, maybe if I knew my friends were coming over straight from a punk rock concert, I'd ask them to take off their steel-toed Doc Martens. But, people we know typically get in their cars in the garage in their house, and then drive over and park in our driveway and walk up our steps. So, not much of a risk that they're walking through Bourbon Street on a Sunday morning on their way over.