AIBU to think that workmen should offer to take their shoes off in your house?

[Dollslikeyouandme]

I'm a shoes off in the house person, and always offer to take mine off when visiting. It's not because I'm a weird cream carpet visitor slippers freak. But I have carpet, a ds who likes to play on the floor. And a neighbourhood where the streets seem to be covered in dog shit.

I hate asking people to take off their shoes, so usually don't, and just hope they do anyway.

I've noticed workmen never take off their shoes, and lately I've had to have a few people in and around the house and gave been cringing at their boots standing on my bathmat mainly.

I just think shoes on carpets are gross.

Surely the answer is to ask the hostess? Otherwise how would you know if you were giving offence?

I assumed workmen wore boots for the health and safety aspects. But don't they usually lay something down on the carpets like sheets or plastic if they are doing a job that's going to be messy.

People are being really snippy for no reason.

Right, in my opinion you don't really know what you're treading or walking in in the street, you could unknowingly walk something nasty in.

I've repeated many times over that I don't a actually ask anyone to remove their shoes, but I hope that they will, and most people do, obviously I don't know everyone in the world.

I find that most people I visit ask for shoes off, at least on carpet areas. So to me it is the norm, second nature.

Just a question, would you take your shoes off in a mosque? You'd certainly be asked to, do you think that's weird and fussy?

I can't help what's normal to me, in my circle, everyone's different, different ideas on what's normal and what's not.

Quite clearly this is on the list of things a mumsnetter would never do.

I feel an idiot asking them if they want me to take them off-they look so surprised and tell me to keep them on so I have now decided to ignore MN etiquette and just keep them off-unless muddy.
No one, thankfully, has offered me guest slippers.

Sorry-keep them ON!

Tamer if I was coming into your house for the first time I would ask shall I take my shoes off?', you could say yes please or I'd rather you didn't, and I'd be perfectly happy either way.

Although I still can't understand why you'd take offence to my clean feet and socks but not my outdoor shoes that have walked in who knows what.

It's not really MN etiquette though is it as most people on here are not agreeing with shoes off at all.

I wouldn't go to a mosque. So that's really a non question, although yes, I do find it odd. Same as I find most things to do with religion.
And wearing 'guest slippers' is a thought that disgusts me.

It crops up on MN at regular intervals-some people feel the need to challenge it!

I find guest slippers ridiculous too btw and actually had a row with someone once who tried to make me wear some, so the two don't go hand in hand btw.

You say you wouldn't go to a Mosque but I have had to visit a Mosque as part of training for my job, and I don't specifically work with Muslim clients, but it was mandatory training.

I was required to cover my hair and remove my shoes.

YANBU and they take their shoes off at my front door, same as me and everyone else who comes in. I offer them those blue plastic shoe covers ('borrowed' from our local swimming pool where no-one bloody uses them anyway!!) if they make a fuss about taking shoes off.

I've had this rule since having kids, partly for hygiene reasons and partly cos I cannot be arsed / don't have time to be sweeping, vacuuming and mopping the floors daily.

The only exceptions are the odd family party esp if in summer when people will be in and out of the house and garden regularly and when I'll be doing a big post-party clean up anyway.

morgause - the problem with doormats IME is that people rarely use them properly - they barely wipe their feet on them IYSWIM as opposed to giving them a vigorous brushing on them. The latter I could possibly live with, on a dry day.

out of interest, if this is a class thing, whihc is low class? to expect people to remove shoes?

Yes. If you let people know that you care about your carpet or furniture then you are low class, the implication being that you don't have servants to clean them or can't afford to have them replaced.

The people who offer guest slippers are the older generation of Russian and German families I know. They are a long, long way from being low class btw.

I don't really understand why people are just concerned with mud/visible dirt. If you live in a town/city you will know there are piles of vomit everywhere and if you don't know that, you are one of the many unobservant people who walks straight through them. What with that, spit, human excrement (yes, I see that regularly on my journey from tube station to work), urine, hair, scabs etc etc, it's not just the visible 'dirt' I worry about on my floors. Having said that, workmen are slightly different as they often need to go in and out of the house during their job and it's simply not practical to ask them to remove their shoes, plus, as others say, they may need their steel toe caps for the job.

good idea needtobe

Do people actually visit much if they get given blue plastic overshoes? I would avoid.

Tamar - Most people are civil enough to take their shoes off without asking and if not, they certainly do when asked politely. If workmen want my business then surely they'd respect such a request? Basically, whoever you are, unless you have a medical condition that means you can never be without shoes on even indoors then I'd ask you to remove your shoes. If you can't be bothered to respect my home then feel free to stay away.

Of course I would do as asked- just avoid in future as much as possible.

It doesn't seem to be a problem for people we know, fortunately. Are there any other hygiene measures that you avoid?

Oh, and in my old flat (rented) which had light colour carpet in the hallway, a guest managed to walk in and through to the lounge (same colour carpet) with shoes with a bit of vehicle oil on the soles. That was
despite having wiped their feet on three doormats in total - one at the building entrance, one outside my flat front door and another inside the hallway. The mess was pretty bad and the oil took a lot of (my) time to remove. I rest my case.

Making guests take off their shoes isn't a hygiene measure it's paranoid fussiness. And silly.

If guests have athlete's foot or sweaty feet I don't want that seeping unseen through their socks or tights and onto my carpets. Most people would notice on wiping their feet if there was something on their shoes or offer to take off muddy shoes or boots without being asked.

Our drive is hosed down if it gets mucky so nothing to walk in on shoes.

Our light coloured carpets have been down 5 years and aren't scarred with the detritus of friends' shoes.

I suspect people who believe it to be 'paranoid fussiness' are those who do not notice what is on the pavements.

personally I do not care for particles of some unknown drunk's vomit on my floor.