Shoes off house rule

[BettyBi0]

So we have a shoes off rule in our house. Mainly because of the grubby London streets and dog poo everywhere locally plus a floor licking toddler.

Every time my parents visit I have to ask them to take their shoes off. EVERY Fing TIME! They act like its such a massive imposition.

AIBU or would you just shut up and put up?

If someone went to the effort to clean their shoes with wetwipes I think I would have to let them in with shoes on, I'd be impressed as their stubborness. But have you ever wiped your shoes with a wetwipe? It goes filthy, going to take quite a few of those.

Also do people honestly take slippers to visit people?! That is bizarre..."I'm going round for a coffee at x's house better not forget my slippers"?!?!?!
No no no to guest slippers, boak.

"shoes are outdoor wear. "

Oh, so you take your shoes off at the office? In a shop?
Shoes are not just outdoor wear.

People who wear shoes indoors, do you let your children crawl around on them? How does that not make you cringe?

I have to mop my floors every time my inlaws come round as they never take their shoes off. I take mine off in everyone's house. It's just good manners.

Guest slippers?? Oh god just no!! I want to wear my shoes, the ones I chose cos they matched my outfit. I don't want to wear sterile, boil washed "guest slippers". Totally OTT and weird. Reminds me of The League Of Gentlemen where the toddy uncle was cleaning the cleaning equipment with the cleaning the cleaning equipment and so on...

As one of my DCs had a habit of eating spiders (yes I had to pull half eaten spiders out of her mouth) I really wasn't worried about her crawling over my shoes! Children need to build up resistance.

My shoes aren't filthy, I wipe them on the doormat as I walk in.

However, if it is muddy, filthy weather and my shoes were muddy, I wouldn't hesitate in taking them off.

We all take our shoes off but I don't demand others take theirs off unless they are walking on the carpets (had enough carpets ruined by people in shoes tramping across them - over time they get dingy and horrible). But our hallway is a wooden floor and leads straight to the kitchen/diner/family room which is where we all tend to hang out anyway. The lounge is carpet but mainly used as a playroom for the kids so I insist kids take their shoes off and noone seems to be offended.

Shoes off here too. Can't bear to have dirt (and worse) picked up off the streets dragged through the house.

Maybe it's a cultural thing too - it's considered impolite to keep shoes on in places like Japan and Korea.

Just wiping your feet on a doormat does not make them clean so you wouldn't be walking on my carpets in them.

What about piss on the floor in public toilets? You're walking that into your home.

Is this kind of batshit logic what the rest of you no shoes zealots believe? It's like AIBU homeopathy.

Where are these public toilets in relation to your home? How sloshing in piss is this floor? How absorbent are your shoes?

Seriously, how does the physics of this work? How many piss germs do you think are left to be splattered across your carpets for your babies to lick??

Yes, I can understand people not wanting smears of dog shit walked across a beige carpet, but generally, people have not just trodden in a big dog shit outside your house. The rest is just petty bourgeois paranoia.

This thread is barmy as it is every time it comes up with monotonous regularity

Can't remember the last time I went in a public toilet then went to someone's house never

Dirt Trapper Mats

I always think it's so odd when people wear shoes inside, not very relaxing is it?

My mother, brother and sil do this every fucking time. It gets embarrassing to have to ask them and them to roll their eyes, I think it's so rude. Especially as sil comes from a country where shoes are never worn in homes.

noodles does letting your babies crawl across grass make you cringe? Touch stuff in the park? Pick up a stick? All the exact same germs. I try to avoid stepping in visible shit or vomit etc, but would wash my shoes if I had, other than that it's the same stuff kids touch in every day life so no, it doesn't make me cringe

I personally always take my shoes off when entering some bodies house, I was brought up having to do it, so it doesn't bother me, my feet don't get cold as I either have socks on or put socks on when I arrive!
I never ask guests to remove shoes as everyone I know always does anyway! If older or immobile people are visiting I never ask them to remove their shoes as I know how difficult it might be for them to put back on.

The thing is, even if I had this rule, if my mother whom I loved, really didnt like taking her shoes, off, I would not make her.

I would try and gain some perspective, I would look to people who do keep their shoes on( probably parents house) think to myself, are they generally clean people?Are they generally healthy, well people? How do their floors look?

( I have never ever ever been to a shoes on house and noticed a dirty floor BTW).

I would then say to myself " I will survive my parents, my mother visiting me with their shoes on. I will not get ill, my floor will not be ruined. It will be OK.

My DCs used to roll around in mud, in the park, in fields, on long walks in the woods, everywhere, they used to get right mucky. One used to eat spiders, one used to munch on grass... a clean shoe of a visitor on a tiled floor in a kitchen is hardly a problem surely...

If older or immobile people are visiting I never ask them to remove their shoes as I know how difficult it might be for them to put back on

I have witnessed a shoes off, asking a man with crippling arthritis in his back, severe mobility problems to take his shoes off.

If your a rabid shoes off, and have frequent visitors I think its fair enough to ask them to take shoes off.

People who come rarely, older people,people with mobility issues who would rather not, I find down right disrespectful and rude.

Pah. That's nothing. I've seen one of those germaphobe Shoes-Off rip the shoes off her own mother and beat her over the head with them whilst strangling a kitten and shouting Woo homeopathic nonsense about floor piddle and dog shit.

Ffs. Some people leave shoes on. Some people take them off. It is not a cause for world war III.

I can totally see the point of no shoes in the house. Stepping over gawd knows what through the streets and then tracking it into your house, not ideal. But then I have toddlers who spend most of their time on the floor (playing).

I don't force it on guests but they usually see me take my shoes off at the door and follow suit.

I don't think you're being unreasonable. It is a bit of an adjustment for those who aren't used to it, but it is your house.

Also, it's worth noting that it is meant to reduce the spread of germs/viruses etc. Some pillocks do gigantic big splatters of spit up and down the streets of my town. I can see the logical extension of my shoes treading through that muck and then bringing it all into the house. Yum. It is meant to cut down on the spread of the lurg.

What, out of interest, is the half life of your common or garden germs? Not ebola or bubonic plague, obviously. I mean, all these microbes of pigeon wee, and spit, and cat fart floating around in the atmosphere, sinking to earth to be caught on the soles of someone's shoes, walked around town, taken into a car, then round Tesco's, then back into the car, then walked into your house - how long do they stay actively evil and infection-bringing?