To expect a no outside shoe rule in the baby room

[Motherchicken]

So I visited a nursery with my still crawling 12 month old today. I put on my nice socks fully expecting to be told to take off my shoes. But everyone in the room had on their shoes. All the other babies had on their shoes but were walking around. I guess I’m asking AIBU and expecting too much.

I have never lived in a house with a shoes off policy. Growing up, university rentals, house share, my own homes. No worms here.

It’s a few years since my children were that age but the nursery we used had a rule that staff had to have separate pairs of shoes for indoor wear only, and parents had to wear shoe covers (which were provided) when in the baby rooms. The staff were not allowed walk around in socks due to the risk of them slipping and falling when holding a baby.

I’d be similar to you OP in not liking this. I don’t have a ‘shoes off’ home, however the number of parents / other staff travelling in and out of a baby room means the floors would be filthy if shoes were not covered or removed. Even with such rules they are anything but a sterile environment.

Every nursery I viewed when choosing one for DS had shoes off in the baby room (but not the bigger rooms). One even had a heated floor! 🤣

They probably wear indoor shoes just for that?

@Meredithgrey1

Why are people talking about soil? I understand the dog poo argument, obviously you don’t want that on the floor. But soil? Did your children never crawl outside on grass?

Tbh, when she was a baby I tended to have a rug she sat on. But mine is an early summer born so she was a newborn one summer and walking the next. I always wiped her hands at a minimum after she played with soil (we do have a mud kitchen now she's older) and watched her like a hawk to keep her hands out of her mouth if she'd been touching soil until she was old enough to know not to put her hands in her mouth when outside. I know worms aren't life-threatening but I plan to do everything possible to prevent her contracting them, because 🤢. Babies inside are going to put toys, hands etc in their mouths so you need the place they're crawling round to be fairly clean.

It’s good to hear soo many opposing opinions. Sounds like for some it’s the norm and for others it’s something they wouldn’t think of. For me it’s quite important, we don’t have shoes on inside since having the baby. I understand the germs probably aren’t going to do him much harm but I just feel if I wouldn’t allow him to crawl on a dirty floor in our own home why on a floor many different people use.

I used to work in a nursery and always changed my she's before going in, partly for hygiene reasons but mainly as softer plimsolls seemed safer round crawling babes. None of the other staff did, though.

I worked in nurseries for several years and the policy changes from nursery to nursery.
Some have their shoes on, others wear slippers.
In the nursery my son is going to it's no shoes in the under two's area, including the children so everyone wears slippers.
So not unreasonable but it's not the same everywhere.

I'm over cautious and on my first visit I removed ALL my clothes in the foyer and when I went into the hall I found I was the only naked person there! To the credit of the caretaker he quickly removed all his clothes too so it was a little less embarrassing for me

We are a bare feet household - that means bare feet inside and outside if just walking in the yard on grass. If we need to throw on shoes then apart from work shoes then most of us tend to use thongs but if wearing we don’t take them off at the front door, they get worn inside until we can be bothered to remove. All my kids from babies have survived quite nicely and are now adults with robust immune systems. When teething you would often find one with a thong in their mouth if we left them laying around. There was also splashing and the odd drink from a pets bowl, eating if an odd snail here and there until they realised they didn’t like the crunchy shell and once one ate dog poo somewhere (not here, no dog at the time). They don’t get sick. They live. Their immune systems do the trick. I have also never treated a toddler who got sick from their floor or eating a wide range of the natural environment (obviously not poison plants though).

I think you are being very precious.

Lol, no dog shit = a sterile environment

Some people round here have extremely low standards. I'm hardly Mrs Hinch but good God. Take your shoes off inside. There's a reason most countries in the world do this.

Sorry, should have added, when they get sick 99.9% of the time it’s from stuff they spread around to each other, they are super spreaders within their own age cohort (but not so much out of it). It’s not from what comes in on a shoe. Odd someone is worried about shoes but not the obvious source of the majority of illness which are the other little people in the room!

I've never understood why people wear shoes in the home. At my gd's nursery everyone takes outdoor shoes off and have indoor shoes for inside. Is this not normal?

@LadyMinerva

And people wonder why allergies are at an all time high....

By keeping babies in sterile environments their immune systems are being stunted.

There's quite a difference between 'a sterile environment' and 'trying to avoid having dog shit and other nasties walked across a floor where babies crawl'.

I'm with you OP, I cant fathom why a nursery wouldn't have an indoor shoes / no shoes rule. Even negating the dirt issue, surely on the off-chance a member of staff, bigger kid or visitor accidentally stands on little fingers shoved in their path then slippers or socks are better than outdoor shoes?

My primary school had indoor shoes put on at the door. and at that age we weren't in the habit of putting stuff off the floor into our mouths.

@PoppinShoppin

You are definitely not being unreasonable! This is BASIC HYGIENE!!!!

It really really isn't. I grew up with a carpeted house everyone wore shoes in and so did everyone I knew. I know it's not the norm in some cultures but I've never seen any health recommendations that shoes should be off.

Oh good.

I was hoping for a shoes on/off thread as a distraction. I applaud this innovative new take on the theme. Well done OP.

YABU by the way.

Really, it’s just amazing how the human race has survived. Taking shoes off is a new thing, I definitely would do it if asked, but would be interested in any research. Years ago there was much more dog poo around, more pollution generally, babies eating mud and various other nasties was always considered a good thing. I’m not disagreeing with OP, just wondering.

Your “nice socks” 😂 sorry that made me smile!.

do you really want to have to clean the floors every day because of all the dirt that has been unnecessarily traipsed through the place?

I would be horrified if a nursery didn't clean the floors every day. Even if the DC never left the room there could well be traces of (human) pee and poo and food crumbs on the floor.

Our nursery didn't but they had patio doors to the garden from the baby room and they had the DC outside as much as possible (babies had their own section of the garden). That would have been much harder if they'd had to change shoes all the time and the well designed outdoor spaces and the continual use of them was the main reason for using that nursery.

My sons nursery the baby room is no shoe policy. Staff wear slippers

Outdoor shoes in the baby room is grim and shows a complete lack of understanding of basic hygiene. For those saying a bit of mud never did anyone any harm, Google toxoplasmosis and toxocarias, both parasites are found in soil that has been fouled by animals (can survive for years) and both can seriously harm young children.

I know it's not the same thing, but some of the responses in here make me think no wonder Covid has spread so fast. People have such a basic lack of basic understanding of contamination between surfaces by pathogens. And I say that as someone who rarely used bleach or chemical cleaning products.

No shoe policy at the DC's nursery too, I wouldn't say I am the most hygienic person in the world (I don't wash my pyjamas, towels and bedding as much as many people on here!) but I find the idea of outdoor shoes worn indoors very unhygienic.

@JaninaDuszejko

do you really want to have to clean the floors every day because of all the dirt that has been unnecessarily traipsed through the place?

I would be horrified if a nursery didn't clean the floors every day. Even if the DC never left the room there could well be traces of (human) pee and poo and food crumbs on the floor.

Our nursery didn't but they had patio doors to the garden from the baby room and they had the DC outside as much as possible (babies had their own section of the garden). That would have been much harder if they'd had to change shoes all the time and the well designed outdoor spaces and the continual use of them was the main reason for using that nursery.

I agree entirely that a nursery should be cleaned every day. I was talking about at home though - leaving shoes on just seems to create unnecessary mess and I would rather spend my time not cleaning that up.

(I’ll just sit here and wait for somebody to come in and say that their shoes are part of their outfit and that only peasants go barefoot ).

Every nursery I visited, including our current one, had a no outdoor shoes rule for the baby room.

It really really isn't. I grew up with a carpeted house everyone wore shoes in and so did everyone I knew. I know it's not the norm in some cultures but I've never seen any health recommendations that shoes should be off.

Same here. Mud, dogs, etc. Any visible mud would obviously be cleaned but otherwise shoes stayed on. Shoes off would have seemed odd and fussy.

I know that toxoplasmosis exists but in that case why do so many families with young children have a pet dog or cat? Cats in particular sit on everything in the home at any level.

As for Covid precautions, don't try to find a correlation where there isn't one. I'm very careful to stick to the guidelines because it's very infectious and dangerous.

Shoe wearing households on the other hand are more likely to boost the immune system.