Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I am shocked how many people ask guests to remove their shoes!! RUDE, RUDE RUDE!!

Do you also ask them to wash their hands? God only know what they've touched and now they are in your house touching your door knobs, faucets, etc!! What about those face masks? Do you have those in a nice basket, perhaps next to the "remove your shoes" sign?

As someone up-thread stated, if you are that germ-phobic perhaps you shouldn't invite people over. Germs are everywhere. Your kids (I assume) sit or lay on the carpet or floor at friend's houses, school, etc.

So thankful I don't have any friends like this!

I am not germ phobic, but I politely ask people if they wouldn’t mind removing shoes. They are free to decline. It is cultural and I also have a baby who is crawling around. It’s offensive to me if people are dismissing a cultural norm as germaphobic.

It’s “cultural”? Since when? Not in American culture.

There are plenty of Americans from different cultures

It is not rude at all. We live in a city and walk around a lot. I see people throwing lugies on the street, spitting, vomiting all the time. I do not want that in my house. We ask everyone to take off shoes. I guess if they don't like it they won't be back. Fine by me.

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I am shocked how many people ask guests to remove their shoes!! RUDE, RUDE RUDE!!

Do you also ask them to wash their hands? God only know what they've touched and now they are in your house touching your door knobs, faucets, etc!! What about those face masks? Do you have those in a nice basket, perhaps next to the "remove your shoes" sign?

As someone up-thread stated, if you are that germ-phobic perhaps you shouldn't invite people over. Germs are everywhere. Your kids (I assume) sit or lay on the carpet or floor at friend's houses, school, etc.

So thankful I don't have any friends like this!

Why, yes, absolutely. If someone comes over and wants to hold my baby, I absolutely ask them to wash their hands first. I don't really care if people think it's rude. Luckily, our friends are clean, well groomed people and aren't horrified by the idea of exposing their feet or washing their hands with the excuse of "germs are everywhere".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Why is being without shoes uncomfortable for them? Do they have untreated fungus? Do they neglect their hygiene and stink to high heaven? Have you had your last pedi appointment a year ago? What is the issue here?

I can't imagine wearing shoes (that are not slippers or flip flops) all day. I'm lucky in how much I can get away in a casual work environment, but even wearing super comfortable shoes all day I want them off in the evening.

Why can't you find something comfortable enough that you don't mind wearing it? Can't you afford well-constructed shoes? Do you have corns or bunions from cheap brands?

Whatever. Next time I'm on a plane next to someone who's decided to go barefoot, would you please change seats with me?

Ha-ha, so stinky feet it is, PP. You know there are remedies for that, right?

Anonymous wrote:Eastern European here. Not rude at all per how I was raised, and my American-born husband agrees. We don't have a sign but are a shoe free home, and most people who visit already know this. My Western European MIL is of the same mindset, as is my South Asian best friend.

Meant to add - we do keep slippers from the dollar store (that we do not reuse!) in case people object to going barefoot. We've never had anyone object so far.

If we host a very large party, we generally let people leave their shoes on and then have cleaners come within the next couple of days.

Eastern European here. Not rude at all per how I was raised, and my American-born husband agrees. We don't have a sign but are a shoe free home, and most people who visit already know this. My Western European MIL is of the same mindset, as is my South Asian best friend.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I am shocked how many people ask guests to remove their shoes!! RUDE, RUDE RUDE!!

Do you also ask them to wash their hands? God only know what they've touched and now they are in your house touching your door knobs, faucets, etc!! What about those face masks? Do you have those in a nice basket, perhaps next to the "remove your shoes" sign?

As someone up-thread stated, if you are that germ-phobic perhaps you shouldn't invite people over. Germs are everywhere. Your kids (I assume) sit or lay on the carpet or floor at friend's houses, school, etc.

So thankful I don't have any friends like this!

I am not germ phobic, but I politely ask people if they wouldn’t mind removing shoes. They are free to decline. It is cultural and I also have a baby who is crawling around. It’s offensive to me if people are dismissing a cultural norm as germaphobic.

It’s “cultural”? Since when? Not in American culture.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Why is being without shoes uncomfortable for them? Do they have untreated fungus? Do they neglect their hygiene and stink to high heaven? Have you had your last pedi appointment a year ago? What is the issue here?

I can't imagine wearing shoes (that are not slippers or flip flops) all day. I'm lucky in how much I can get away in a casual work environment, but even wearing super comfortable shoes all day I want them off in the evening.

Why can't you find something comfortable enough that you don't mind wearing it? Can't you afford well-constructed shoes? Do you have corns or bunions from cheap brands?

Whatever. Next time I'm on a plane next to someone who's decided to go barefoot, would you please change seats with me?

Even comfortable well-constructed expensive shoes have to walk into public bathrooms with urine/feces on them or walk on public roads/sidewalks where people have sneezed/spit phlegm/etc. You really want someone tracking all that through your house? I don't. Gross. DH and I both grew up wearing shoes in the house, but we are both now firmly committed to a no shoes house. Our parents are passive-aggressive about it but I do ask them to remove their shoes. I also ask all visiting children to remove their shoes. Most adults can take a hint, but if they ask me if they should remove their shoes, I reply "If you don't mind"

I always want to be a polite guest so if there is a sign or I see shoes in the front, then I will remove my shoes.

Anonymous wrote:
Why is being without shoes uncomfortable for them? Do they have untreated fungus? Do they neglect their hygiene and stink to high heaven? Have you had your last pedi appointment a year ago? What is the issue here?

I can't imagine wearing shoes (that are not slippers or flip flops) all day. I'm lucky in how much I can get away in a casual work environment, but even wearing super comfortable shoes all day I want them off in the evening.

Why can't you find something comfortable enough that you don't mind wearing it? Can't you afford well-constructed shoes? Do you have corns or bunions from cheap brands?

Whatever. Next time I'm on a plane next to someone who's decided to go barefoot, would you please change seats with me?

The earlier PP claiming that Germans don’t take off their shoes inside a home and that it’s considered rude to do so must have been raised in a proverbial trailer park. I lived in Germany for years, am married to a German, have tons of German friends, and they absolutely take off their shoes. The boys and men also sit down to pee inside the house, because it’s cleaner to do it that way instead of spraying pee droplets all around the place that you may or may not see.

The only ones who don’t take off shoes are kids living in dorms or share housing at colleges (too many parties, people in and out all day, and let’s face it they’re drunk much of the time) and trashy people who have no class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I am half European and half Asian. When i was a child, my European mother's family used to consider it the height of rudeness to remove shoes, but our close relatives got used to it. We never asked it of our older, more conservative family members.

I would hope that now it's a more accepted lifestyle. I married into an Asian family and we always politely request that guests remove their shoes, except for large indoor-outdoor parties where everyone stays in their shoes and we mop up afterward.

What? The Europeans I know and visit regularly (both in the U.S. and in Europe) ALWAYS remove their shoes in the house.

This. Where in Europe do they wear shoes inside? Somewhere warm? Never do we wear shoes at home in north, and definitely remove them before entering somebody's home.

^^Forgot to mention. I can see how you may feel the need for shoes in a MacMansion with granite floors etc. But most of you live in extremely tight spaces. With wall-to-wall carpeting half the time. Wearing shoes in your home just sounds nasty.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Hrm. How would you refuse to enter, politely? No snark, seriously curious. "Sorry, Judy, since you're a shoe-free household, and I refuse to remove my shoes, I'll just sit out this party?"

Not the PP, but I'd just say, "Sorry, I didn't understand from the invitation that shoes were forbidden. But your house, your rules, right? Anyway, I wouldn't be comfortable without shoes, so I'll just be off. Have fun!"

You can certainly do that. But don't kid yourself that it's either polite or excusable. You'll never be invited to that place again, that's for sure.

Who are you people who can't bear to remove their shoes for 2 hours? I don't get it.

Why would someone who needs to wear shoes care about not being invited back to a place where they can't? And why is it ruder to pass on an invitation you don't want than to demand someone accept its terms (and fully disclose what those terms are at the time the invitation is issues)?

I think this is the great divide: Do hosts owe their guests the accommodation of mopping the floors after the guests leave, or do guests owe their hosts the accommodation of being uncomfortable rather than inconveniencing the host?

Why is being without shoes uncomfortable for them? Do they have untreated fungus? Do they neglect their hygiene and stink to high heaven? Have you had your last pedi appointment a year ago? What is the issue here?

I can't imagine wearing shoes (that are not slippers or flip flops) all day. I'm lucky in how much I can get away in a casual work environment, but even wearing super comfortable shoes all day I want them off in the evening.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I am shocked how many people ask guests to remove their shoes!! RUDE, RUDE RUDE!!

Do you also ask them to wash their hands? God only know what they've touched and now they are in your house touching your door knobs, faucets, etc!! What about those face masks? Do you have those in a nice basket, perhaps next to the "remove your shoes" sign?

As someone up-thread stated, if you are that germ-phobic perhaps you shouldn't invite people over. Germs are everywhere. Your kids (I assume) sit or lay on the carpet or floor at friend's houses, school, etc.

So thankful I don't have any friends like this!

I am not germ phobic, but I politely ask people if they wouldn’t mind removing shoes. They are free to decline. It is cultural and I also have a baby who is crawling around. It’s offensive to me if people are dismissing a cultural norm as germaphobic.

I hope I don’t know you and you are never welcome in my house! You are super rude with your caps screaming. Yikes!