Why don’t Americans take shoes off inside the house?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blue blood easterners in the business and professional classes would think it exceptionally gauche to remove shoes and walk around a house in barefeet or in sweaty socks.

This is it exactly. I’d never thought of it like this, but my Dad would be so confused and a bit offended if you asked him to remove his shoes. And the whole “barefoot is a class below me” side had never really occurred to me but….it tracks. A bit of the WASP culture.

Eh, I don’t know anyone who over 60 who removes shoes at the door outside of Asian culture.

I’m younger than that and we picked up the habit while living in Asia 20 years ago. I can’t stand the idea of shoes that have been in public bathrooms walking all over my rugs. Makes sense to me. But PP had a point that were missing the heated floors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - do you wear shoes in your in-laws "shoes on" home or take them off? If you take them off, do you then clean your feet when you get home?

DP. I frequently visit a shoes on household and still take off my shoes. My socks are always filthy when I leave. It’s a clean, beautiful home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m Asian American and we are no shoes at home. But I wear shoes all the time when visiting in-laws because they have dogs. If you have dogs, it no longer makes sense to be no shoe. Ugh.

I clean my dog's paws after we've been outside.
Shoes in the house is weird.

[Anonymous]

I think this is generational. Nearly all of my friends (Americans) take them off at the door. This was not true when I was little. And when you have guests it may not be appropriate, like if it’s a dressy event. It would feel less respectful and appropriate to be to show my bare toes at someone’s house, for example, if it were summer and I wasn’t wearing socks or it was a dressy dinner and I was wearing heels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't we have this same thread every month or so?

We do. Speaking of boorish, BTW.

[Anonymous]

I have indoor shoes and outdoor shoes. I change in the front hall. If I have to run back onto the house, I sanitize the bottom of my shoes with disinfectant first. Like many people over 60, It hurts my joints to walk around without supportive shoes. Maybe you should pick out some nice house shoes for your in-laws and leave them at the door.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You yourself said you’re American. Puzzling how you ‘other’ Americans when it is convenient for you, but probably get all up in arms when people ask you where you’re from.

This was uncalled for. tRumping much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blue blood easterners in the business and professional classes would think it exceptionally gauche to remove shoes and walk around a house in barefeet or in sweaty socks.

Maybe I’m not blue blood or east coast enough, but I don’t wear shoes inside my own house but not because of hygiene, just comfort. I don’t expect guests to remove their shoes and don’t find it appropriate unless they’re close friends and it’s a less formal gathering. If it’s raining or sloppy outside, I think people do generally take their shoes off if it’s easy. But it’s definitely not a hard and fast rule.

I get Asian cultures that have been doing this for centuries insisting on it. But people not from a culture like this just come off as pretentious and/or irrationally afraid of dirt when they insist that guests remove their shoes.

Irrational?

No, irrational is wearing your footwear outside where you're stepping on feces, vomit, spit, human waste, animal waste, pollutants, dirty, mud, grime, insects, and then still thinking there is no problem wearing that in your house. So nasty. That's what's really irrational.

Irrational is expecting to be completely 100% clean all the time. Right now I'm confident your kitchen and bathroom and beds and staircase railings are covered with germs and dried snot and follicle hair. If you have kids, enough said.

Agree the idea that you are being cleaner by never wearing shoes indoor is psychological, not reality. It's like people still hanging on to their COVID masks. It's an act of self-deception, tricking yourself into thinking you're being safer when in reality it doesn't do anything because the real world isn't a climate controlled science lab. You do it because it makes you feel better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have indoor shoes and outdoor shoes. I change in the front hall. If I have to run back onto the house, I sanitize the bottom of my shoes with disinfectant first. Like many people over 60, It hurts my joints to walk around without supportive shoes. Maybe you should pick out some nice house shoes for your in-laws and leave them at the door.

This. My husband and I are both from immigrant cultures -- he in Europe and me in South asia -- and no one wear shoes in the house, but everyone in our home countries wears indoor shoes (shoes that only live indoors, usually slides). Our parents (fresh immigrants) all do, too.

I actually think this is one of these weeks things that got lost in translation over a few generations of living in America. I really think everyones ancestors in both Europe and Asia are taking off their outdoor shoes at the door, and wearing indoor shoes indoors

[Anonymous]

I’m American and I’ve always lived in shoes off houses my whole life. My parents and siblings and I didn’t wear shoes in the house growing up and none of us do now and my spouse (also American) and his family don’t wear shoes in the house either. We are either barefoot, in socks or in house slippers that never go outdoors.

[Anonymous]

It’s just so uncouth. Clean the floor afterwards

[Anonymous]

It’s a class thing. Would never cross my mind to ask someone to take their shoes off

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am Asian American and grew up without shoes inside the house and assumed this was the norm. My husband is American and is used to a no shoes household, but he’s not as fastidious as I am about it - if he needs to pop back into the house to get something he will leave shoes on. I don’t make a big deal about it.

His parents however, wear shoes inside all the time, unless it’s something like rain boots or snow boots. Otherwise they’ll put on sneakers or dress shoes, go about their business outside, and keep them on when they return. This includes wearing outside shoes in their bedroom and bathroom, not taking them off until bedtime.

I find this very puzzling as they are very neat and hygiene minded people. They live in a beautiful, expensive house, they pay for weekly cleaning and specifically ask the cleaners to mop all the floors, and they are generally pretty paranoid about things like germs. So how come they don’t mind all the gunk that’s on the bottom of their shoes? They live in a very urban part of DC so it’s not like they only go out to drive , and use public transportation, too.

Is this common among Americans ? If it’s relevant they are in their early 60s. Every time they visit and wear shoes inside our house I am so uncomfortable but I don’t want to be rude and repeatedly ask/remind them.

Born and raised in Maryland (western MD / country small town) and we absolutely take shoes off in our house. This was the way in our household growing up, my mother would not allow any shoes anywhere in the house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s a class thing. Would never cross my mind to ask someone to take their shoes off

But the anti-shoe contingent thinks it's the slobs and the rubes who wear shoes indoors

[Anonymous]

It is a class split pretty cleanly amongst the white folks.