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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To wonder why some mothers leave their baby barefoot in December?

182 replies

monkeynuts123 · 05/12/2013 20:58

I have seen this a bit lately. I understand barefoot at home but why on earth would anyone take their baby out in December barefoot? Not even socks on, bare little toes poking out the bottom of trousers. Covered with a blanket perhaps in the street but once in a playgroup baby is barefoot, or even sometimes out in the street barefoot. I'm thinking of one particular example and it's not that baby takes them off, just there are never any socks, why?!

OP posts:

OhYouMerryLittleKitten · 06/12/2013 08:30

If their feet are cold they need socks. If they aren't they don't. Socks are just gloves for the feet.

BertieBowtiesAreCool · 06/12/2013 08:33

Mine used to take them off and chuck them in the street. I couldn't afford to keep replacing socks so I didn't bother to put them on.

He didn't need shoes, he couldn't walk. And babygros are fine to wear all day until they start crawling. So not appropriate for a 1 year old! Sock ons weren't invented when he was that age.

You wouldn't wear gloves inside so why are socks so essential? I used to get bloody slaughtered at the sure start group! I did just buy tights in the end!

GodRestTEEMerryGenTEEmen · 06/12/2013 08:35

Because they obviously don't love their children and wish their toes to fall off.

Too much sarcasm for a Friday morning?

notso · 06/12/2013 08:36

My nearly 3 year old and 20 month old would be too hot the majority of the time in tights and trousers though.
If we were going for a big country walk they'd be cosy but for general walking in and out of shops or to a warm playgroup where they run around it is too many layers.
You have to dress appropriately indoors and outdoors.
I dressed them in babygros and footed trousers for as long as I could but babygros are only generally thin jersey material. They are snugly for little babies who lie around in prams in blankets but not that cosy for walking babies.

Wait until they start secondary school like my DD and refuse to wear a coat whatever the weather!

notso · 06/12/2013 08:37

Oh and sock ons made my babies fat feet turn purple!

BertieBowtiesAreCool · 06/12/2013 08:38

Also I hate all this judginess about "Ooh, parents are wrapped up warm but child is in a t-shirt!"

Parent is also carrying hat, scarf, jumper, coat and gloves which said t-shirted child has discarded and refused to wear. But because this it fairly cumbersome and annoying to carry, they have put them in a bag, where you can't see them. Sigh.

I used to place the coat very obviously on the side of the pushchair to avoid some of the judgy stares.

Obviously if child is crying then that's different but generally I am a million times more warmly dressed than DS yet he's perfectly fine.

BertieBowtiesAreCool · 06/12/2013 08:41

That's true Notso.

One combination I did find worked well at that age was a babygro under dungarees, without a vest if it was moderately warm. You can't put a babygro under trousers because it looks stupid tucked in. And it makes you look sooo organised because their "socks" match their shirt

notso · 06/12/2013 08:45

Yes Bertie I used to do that to please MIL who was always asking why they were still in their pyjamas

notso · 06/12/2013 08:49

And yes to carrying all the discarded layers, I don't think I will ever be able to get rid of the double pram, with four DC there's a lot of extra clothing to carry!

GodRestTEEMerryGenTEEmen · 06/12/2013 08:49

Oh yes, Bertie.

We walk to school and I'm lucky if I can get his hat on him. But his hat, gloves and scarf are in my bloody huge coat pockets!

KongKickeroo · 06/12/2013 08:53

I do put socks on baby DS now it's really cold (Gap slipper socks are brilliant, they do stay on!) - but it would never occur to me to be bothered by what other babies do or do not wear. None of my business.

Mind you I am the queen of inappropriately dressing babies. When DS was 5 months old and it was 30 degrees out, I took him to a baby group in just a nappy. An Aldi one, not even a prestige brand.

Devilforasideboard · 06/12/2013 09:02

Either tights or normal socks with thicker socks on top is the only thing DS doesn't kick off. His wee feet get so cold with nothing on.

valiumredhead · 06/12/2013 09:20

Socks are the last thing on earth I could possibly summon up any feeling one way or another about. Socks are bad for growing feet any way. Bare feet under a blanket, cosy toes are FINE.

EnianShelZman · 06/12/2013 09:21

This is a British phenomenon. I had lived in Greece and babies over there had managed to stay in their socks all year round. I had never seen a Greek baby without a hat or socks or a coat in winter months.

Halloweenjunkie · 06/12/2013 09:22

Sock ons don't stay on. They get flailed off with the socks. Admittedly takes slightly longer for DD to dispose if the socks when the sock ons are on, but give her ten minutes and they will be under the sofa...

notso · 06/12/2013 09:36

Are British socks just really crap compared to all other nations then?

cakebar · 06/12/2013 09:37

A baby - fine, they can wear baby gros, have limited mobility, wrap them up if you need to.

DD as a toddler - shoes and socks gave her the rage. Her cosy toes gave her the rage. If I put them on she spent the whole school run raging, with arched back, screaming and trying to escape the cosy toes. If I opened it she pulled the shoes and socks off and then sat happily. I HATED the smug nosy judgers up at the school. One mum even said one day that I ought to just keep putting them on, did she think I hadn't tried that!! I put them on there and then to show her what happened - cue red mist. She just said 'oh'. I think some children are more strong willed than others. I also wonder if dd is a bit claustrophobic, she doesn't like being 'trapped' in a hug either.

Artandco · 06/12/2013 09:42

I must have missed the memo about babygrows only being for under 1. Why do they sell them in bigger sizes then? My 2 year old has only just stopped wearing and that's only because its a faff now he's toilet trained. He still wears them to bed though.

Used to wear a baby vest, baby grow, pair of baby moccasins and cardigan/ jumper. By the time cardigan/ jumper is done up and mocassions over feet/ bottom of legs there's barely any babygrow on show anyway accept what looks like comfy trousers.

Mrswellyboot · 06/12/2013 09:49

Totally off point but where do all the missing baby socks go?...

I have only two matching pairs.. Out of twenty

GodRestTEEMerryGenTEEmen · 06/12/2013 09:51

No, it's that our babies are smarter than other babies and more coordinated.

merrymouse · 06/12/2013 10:00

Re: babygros they might keep feet warm but they don't give much traction or let you play with your toes.

Babies have survived for millennia without socks. Why assume that a perfectly happy baby or toddler who you have never met before needs socks when the person who spends their whole life caring for them has made a judgement call that they are fine without them?

notso · 06/12/2013 10:01

Didn't you find his legs got cold in a thin babygro though Artandco and what are baby moccasins?

FruitSaladIsNotPudding · 06/12/2013 10:01

Maybe all these sockless babies will grow up into those adults who are all puritanical about central heating. You see it a lot on mumsnet "you have your heating set to 15 degrees?? We'd be BOILING. Ours stays at 12, maybe 14 for Xmas day." British people are weird sometimes.

notso · 06/12/2013 10:02

TEE

BertieBowtiesAreCool · 06/12/2013 10:06

Babygros get all caught up in the knees when they are crawling and they fall on their faces. At least mine did.

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