Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
MrsMook · 06/12/2013 10:08

For a routine day DS2 (7m) will usually be in a babygrow. I end up getting coments about pajamas. When we're out for longer than 2mins across a car park, he's either in a cosy toes or sharing my jumper for two with his feet tucked out of the way. Even if he's dressed up in dungarees, his feet are barely exposed to the cold.

DS2 is a clothes dodger. It's just got cold enough to accept jumpers. Last night he was out in 4oC for 10 mins before he was cold enough to be sucessfully wrestled into a coat by a team of adults. He wriggles out quicker than I can put it on. As soon as you pass through the doors of a shop, he strips to a t-shirt. Even in the chiller section of a supermarket. There are always lots of warm layers in the pram/ car accessible.

I could save the whole problem of under dressed infants with duct tape. I couldn't possibly be judged then Grin

magentastardust · 06/12/2013 10:20

My oldest two children were as good as gold as babies would keep gloves, hats, socks, blankets on in the pram and if they ever took off their hat or gloves I would tell them not too and we would put them back on.. end of.

I would walk out with the pram with them all snuggled up and see little ones with no socks on and think to myself how freezing they must be and why didn't the mother make sure they kept wrapped up. Oh what a much better parent I wasBlush

Then I had my third! At 2.5 she keeps gloves and blankets on now but from 10months-2yrs on the 10 min school run she would have taken hat, gloves, socks, shoes, blankets, cosy toes off and thrown to the ground. You name it she would take it off. She would also scream and tantrum with the rain cover on. I then would get lots of 'ooooh someone is going to have cold fingers ' remarks from others Angry which served me right for years of judging previously!

So I think you will find in the majority of cases it isn't a lazy parent but a very willfull child. Have a look in the buggy basket before you judge -I always had 1 sock or 1 glove now missing its partner, a sodden blanket which had just been rescued from the snow or a puddle and a load of snacks/small toys for trying to distract my child from stripping in the baltic conditions.

SaucyJack · 06/12/2013 10:22

My oldest was a sock remover (aren't most of them?) and if it was too cold for bare feet she just wore tights.

If I saw a baby out and about in this weather, I would judge.

treaclesoda · 06/12/2013 10:23

it's a struggle to get my 2 year old to keep shoes and socks on, he hates hats and just takes them off and throws them away (even ones that tie under the chin), and has refused to wear pyjamas with feet I them since he was about 18 months old, he just strips the whole lot off.

I could indeed just put them back on, over and over, but realistically it would mean that my entire day would consist of me standing next to the front door replacing various items of clothing. That's not really a practical option, and sometimes I just have to get on with things.

He's healthy and happy, not sure what else I can realistically do.

YourMaNoBraBackOfMyCar · 06/12/2013 10:41

I love bare foot babies. Their feet are beautiful. I have to stop myself eating them when out and about.

themaltesefalcon · 06/12/2013 12:11

Tights. Boots that strap up tightly up the leg under elasticated trousers. Sock-ons. LOTS of alternatives to little frozen bright-red feet waving around in the freezing wind.

The phenomenon of barefoot babies in the street in winter is something I've seen only in England, and it made me sick.

redexpat · 06/12/2013 12:18

DS' feet would sweat LOTS as soon as I put them on. So I stopped putting them on.

sashh · 06/12/2013 12:28

madamginger

Sounds like my 3 year old self.

It's not been cold enough for me to wear a coat yet this year, although I have worn a cardigan and I think last week was probably the last time I will be shopping in flip flop this year.

FredFredGeorge · 06/12/2013 12:35

Interesting that so many people know the temperature preferences of every baby they see and are able to judge. My thought patterns when I see a baby taking off socks is - "ooh, they must be too hot and are reducing their temp the only they have the ability to right now." I never realised they were all actually self harming

WhereIsMyHat · 06/12/2013 12:37

Themaltesefalcon, makes you sick, get a fucking grip! The OP was referring g to a barefoot baby at a playgroup, not wondering the streets like a little street urchin only wearing a loud cloth.

WhereIsMyHat · 06/12/2013 12:37

*loin, not loud!

NoComet · 06/12/2013 12:39

Because some little darlings take off and try to lose their expensive shoes and chew their socks to a soggy mess.

They then refuse to put their feet under their cosy toes in Munich, in December.

Munich is freezing, all the sensible German babies keep their hats on and their feet covered, not DD2 Blush

Chattymummyhere · 06/12/2013 12:40

My youngest won't keep hats/gloves/coats/shoes or socks on...

Oh the comments I got on the school run so I took her in a snow suit guess what she did in the middle of the playground? Oh yeah stripped it off, just the same as when another mum put her hat and gloves on her. There is always a coat hanging off the pram, a hat/mittens etc in my handbag. I can out her to bed in a onesie and by the morning she's just in a nappy boiling got with no covers on her. My son is the same and so is their dad and grandad who is still going out in shorts and flip flops.

madamginger · 06/12/2013 12:42

sashh Grin did your mun get judged too?

Fakebook · 06/12/2013 12:45

I know my DS likes taking his socks and shoes off so I take steps to stop him doing this in the winter. Tights or babygrow under his trousers and shoes fastened tightly normally stop him. Babies and toddlers aren't old enough to make decisions about whether they're hot or cold, it's up to us to keep them warm/cool as and when needed.

pumpkinsweetie · 06/12/2013 12:50

I um and ahh about this tbh as some children generally will not wear anything on their feet, yet some mothers are just to lazy to wrap their children up warm. I never judge as i can never tell which of the above applies so i guess yabu.

Fwiw i have 4 dd, my 2nd born had an obsession with keeping all things off her feet. She wouldn't wear socks, shoes, slippers, boots, and would even kick her cosytoes off, aswell as her blanket. Her feet were purple in the height of winter and i tried my hardest to make her keep something on her feet, but to no avail.
I even tried an all in one coat but he would scream blue murder throughout the streetsShock

I often got funny looks, whispers and sarky comments- tbh i was relieved when she was old enough to walk everywhere as she then realised socks and shoes were the way to goGrin

themaltesefalcon · 06/12/2013 12:53

WhereIsMyHat Fri 06-Dec-13 12:37:20
Themaltesefalcon, makes you sick, get a fucking grip! The OP was referring g to a barefoot baby at a playgroup, not wondering the streets like a little street urchin only wearing a loud cloth.

If you read carefully, she did indeed refer to a child barefoot in the street. It is something which I saw on several occasions in winter in England, too.

Of course the sight of red, frozen toes makes me sick; I love kids. And it's not the norm in other countries, as many, many posters on this thread have pointed out.

But apparently English children are so very much more wriggling and sock-hating than children anywhere else!

Bollocks.

randomAXEofkindness · 06/12/2013 13:00

I understand your point op, but if there aren't any other signs of neglect I'd say there's probably a good reason, and pick a fight somewhere else.

My 1.5 yo has been running about shops in his socks for months because his feet are too fat for shoes. I found some super wide slippers a couple of weeks ago, so now he's wearing those. A few people commented, usually nans (they don't care that I look hard Xmas Grin). I thought they were a bit idiotic: I'm with 3 kid's decked out in decent winter kit, snowsuits, hats, gloves. 2 of them are wearing fancy dancy winter shoes, why would I have purposefully left the 3rd one out?

WhereIsMyHat · 06/12/2013 13:07

Themaltesefalcon, I still maintain you need to get a grip. What implications do you think having bare feet will have on the child in later life? What is the problem.

Are you insinuating that any parent that does this does not love their kids! As you love kids and would never do it?

Do you mean just England? I guess being welsh I am exempt from your judgement, phew.

greenfolder · 06/12/2013 13:12

my oldest dd would take them off and fling them over the side of the pram when i looked away. i got into town once and her feet were bright blue! this was before mumsnet existed (and the same year the internet was invented) and i didnt know any mothers). Its so bloody obvious to use trousers and tights ONCE YOU KNOW!

I was very grateful to the older lady who suggested this to me whilst admiring my sockless, blue footed baby.

BettyFlour · 06/12/2013 13:16

You can get chilblains! Very painful.

Put tights on boys and girls. Then trousers. No need for bare feet.

merrymouse · 06/12/2013 13:35

I don't think it's common to see a child walking barefoot in the street in summer or winter, mainly because of hygiene and safety issues.

It is 9 degrees at the moment in southern England. It just isn't that cold. The assumption that you know better than a child's parents because 'you love kids' is just wrong.

noblegiraffe · 06/12/2013 13:44

I've never ever seen a child walking barefoot in the street in the UK in winter Confused

On the other hand, my DD had one sock on and one off and on her head (not my doing) in her buggy today. Her foot was perfectly warm when I felt it, it's lovely out today.

Artandco · 06/12/2013 13:57

I actually know of a very sad story of a little boy who lost most of his fingers and toes due to frostbite a few years ago. He was just in a sling on parents back and although had tights on had no blanket/ socks/ booties etc.. Parents obv didn't realise how cold it was/ how underdressed his extremities were. ( he had warm coat and hat ) This was in England . He was around 12-18 months at the time