Why do some children wear socks in the garden?

[KittyWithStripes]

So many kids, running around outside in their socks .

I don’t understand! Either it’s cold/muddy and you need shoes… or it’s warm enough to go barefoot.

I think it’s really yucky to get socks so stained and grotty when you could just wash their little feet clean in the bath that night. Why is this?

Because I tell them to go back inside and put on their shoes when I spot them but a) I'm not quick enough and b) they don't listen.

@drspouse

Because I tell them to go back inside and put on their shoes when I spot them but a) I'm not quick enough and b) they don't listen.

^this

They are too lazy to take them off?

Not just children. My elderly neighbour often strolls over to chat with me wearing socks on a muddy lawn.

My dcs do this, it drives me mad! Basically they are too lazy to put shoes on.

They don’t like the squishy between their toes?

But their parents positively encourage it! All across London. Drives me mad.

My mum would’ve gone ballistic if I’d run around in the lawn in my socks.

This is a bit off-topic, but I remember going to someone's house years ago, and she told her children to keep their shoes on in the house, as their socks would get dirty otherwise. Seemed a bit odd to me.

You can just put their little socks in the washing machine. How is it any "yukkier" to get grubby socks than grubby feet?

Plus this is mumsnet, given that it's the law that outdoor shoes have to be taken off when coming indoors, it's far preferable to take off outdoor socks than to chop the kids' feet off.

I'm really surprised by this: But their parents positively encourage it!

My children always did it with very active encouragement NOT to do it and I've never seen a parent who wasn't saying: "either put your shoes ON or take your socks OFF"

We usually take them off at the door and put them in our shoes. I wear them in the house in winter, DS is always barefoot. Spring to autumn we would go out barefoot, winter we would usually put shoes on, though sometimes I would take my socks off instead just to run something to the recycling bin as it's quicker.

My child hates to be barefoot. If her socks get mucky they can go in the wash.

Because you can't always catch the little blighters in time to tell them to put shoes on. 🤷‍♀️

Because kids can be dickheads? {Tongue in cheek}

Because I don’t really care? I’ve got a washing machine and shit-loads of socks ¯\(ツ)/¯

Unless you have to wash their socks, does it really matter?

"All across London?"

Really?

Because it's just socks.

"Plus this is mumsnet, given that it's the law that outdoor shoes have to be taken off when coming indoors, it's far preferable to take off outdoor socks than to chop the kids' feet off."

My friend is really strict about shoes in the house, the type that hospitably makes you teeter and wobble piled up in the lobby to enter.

I can't wear slip ons, so the end result on a BBQ day is that I remove my shoes, walk straight through to the garden and go in and out bare foot rather than spending half the visit tending to shoe laces and buckles going in and out.

I don't walk around outside with just socks on... but I can't walk on wet grass with bare feet as ill get a rash.

With my children, socks without shoes means they've forgotten to put them on after being on the trampoline.

Ds does this. He’s only 1 and I don’t think it’s great for his growing feet to be in shoes all day, yet he loves being outside. He doesn’t like sand or grass on his bare feet. So socks it is.
Don’t see the problem. He comes inside, socks go in wash, and come out clean. Repeat.

My 23 year old still wears his (white) socks in the garden.

because they are cockwombles

Softer, can't feel prickles as easily, no mud or bits of twig can squish between their toes, no bird poo smears on bare feet.

Their kids, if they want to go on the garden with socks, shoes or neither I don't really care.

*they're not their