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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Shoes off, covid!

65 replies

NouvelleMamanNouvelleVie · 29/06/2021 13:25

I know there are a lot of threads about shoes off in the house. People can do what they want in their own houses but I personally have shoes off and 95% of people who come here take their shoes off.

Anyhow a chap came today for a brief professional visit, me as the client. My children are playing on the floor, one being a small baby.

Hello, thanks for coming, do come in. Please could you take your shoes off? I said.

I can't. Because of covid, he said.

What does this mean? Can anyone explain this from a clinical point of view?

Well I had a different professional over last week who was rude to me (Not about his shoes) and when I left I wish I'd grown a pair, so today I did grow a pair and I said very politely,

I'm sorry but I have children playing on the floor. (He was planning to walk into every room in the house)

So he said he'd go back to the car and get shoe covers, I said thanks very much.

A bit of faffing at the door and he decided the car was too far and he just took his shoes off.

My point is, how are his outdoor shoes protecting me from covid? They might protect him a bit, but not me. What have I missed?

Thanks!

OP posts:

WingingIt101 · 29/06/2021 14:08

Oddly the guy delivering our new mattress said this (bensons for beds) when I asked him to take it up to the bedroom “ok love but I’m not allowed to take my shoes off cause of Covid”

We didn’t care as the carpet is vile and getting replaced but you’re right… hands, face, space, and for gods sake cover your toes?!

Youdiditanyway · 29/06/2021 14:08

because of covid’ translates to ‘because I can’t be arsed’ in 99% of situations.

Too true. I’ve noticed it more and more over the past few months.

BarbaraofSeville · 29/06/2021 14:14

ok love but I’m not allowed to take my shoes off cause of Covid

That would only make sense if it gets in through your skin. Which it doesn't, does it?

I went to Toby Carvery the other day and you queue up but they plate your food for you (fine, can't have lots of people touching the same spoons and then eating) but then a server has to carry it back to your table, you can't do it yourself.

I assume it's all to do with the table service requirement, but someone else carrying my plate for me doesn't reduce the risk of either of us catching covid.

PurpleyBlue · 29/06/2021 14:16

Ahh just had a thought. Maybe its in case there is covid on your floor, then they can leave their shoes in their car so they don't carry it into their home? Or disinfect it rather than having to disinfect their sock and foot?

PurpleyBlue · 29/06/2021 14:18

@PurpleyBlue

Again, this only makes sense if their foot is going to be licked.

1forAll74 · 29/06/2021 14:39

Couldn't be doing with all this faff, Just need a good solid door mat or two, in case of wet or slightly muddy shoes..

TheTeenageYears · 29/06/2021 14:41

I can't believe that a professional can enter someone's home and expect to wear shoes or not automatically just put on shoe covers. Ever since moving out of my parents we have had shoes off at the door. Find it staggering that COVID hasn't really made people think about how gross it is to wear shoes around the house if they hadn't thought of it before. I am not a clean freak, just can't see why anyone would go through the additional work of cleaning floors more than necessary due to walking dirt all round the house.

user1497207191 · 29/06/2021 14:45

@cupsofcoffee

He just couldn't be bothered and was using COVID as an excuse.

I don't ask visiting workers/tradespeople to remove shoes, though, as I'd not want them to accidentally get injured. Shoes give an added level of protection. If they traipse dirt in, I just run the vacuum round after.

We have a supply of plastic shoe covers to give to tradesmen. Best of both worlds - they get the protection against dropping/kicking something, and our floors get the protection against whatever they'd just stood in! A win-win situation.

Though, these days, most decent tradesmen/professionals have their own shoe covers with them, so our box of them is barely going down at all.

GlassOnTheLawn · 29/06/2021 14:46

I guess if he’d been barefoot/in socks in his own house there’s a teeny possibility his feet could transmit covid onto your floors?

But it sounds like he just couldn’t be bothered. The pavements are surely higher risk of having covid on them with people spitting, urinating, leaving gum. Not to mention all the nasty bacteria that wildlife, birds, even domestic pets can leave behind, poo, rotting food and litter.

Suspect he was just lazy!

littlepeas · 29/06/2021 14:47

We are always barefoot at home, but wouldn’t dream of asking a visitor to my home (of any description) to remove their shoes. Exposure to a bit of grub is good for dc anyway - especially this year when they’ve been shut away and everyone has been dettoling like mad.

user1497207191 · 29/06/2021 14:47

@mustlovegin

You can keep a few pairs of disposable overshoes (the sort used by builders) to supply to tradesmen who need to enter the house

Indeed, you can buy packets of them very cheap on Ebay. DIY stores/builders merchants also have them.

Sparklybanana · 29/06/2021 14:55

Looking round houses, every estate agent told us to remove shoes except for the one who had a really tight skirt and wobbly high heels. But it was covid given as to why we had to leave shoes on, not the difficulties she would have had taking her shoes off. I suppose the virus could get out through the sweat in your feet but in terms of picking up the virus from the floor through your feet, I'd guess that's pretty impossible. Normally, you'd catch a virus from your hands going into your eyes, mouth, ears etc. Ergo, more risky for you than for him but I think laziness is the key factor here. If he was happy breathing in the air in your house and touching objects then the risk from that is considerably higher for both of you. I wouldn't have let him in. Unless he has shoe coverings then your house, your rules. There's no legal "you must wear shoes in the house" law to supersede your house rules.

Annny27 · 29/06/2021 14:57

Where I work if we have to enter customer homes we are required to keep out shoes on (some horror stories of people stepping on used needles when visiting a not so pleasant home!) So it's a blanket rule for us all. BUT we do carry disposable shoe covers because of that

I would perhaps get a small box for any work men to wear in future?

Topseyt · 29/06/2021 15:14

I wouldn't insist that anyone visiting my house for trade or work purposes took their shoes off! Only if they were actually muddy. That is very fussy and precious.

For myself I have crocs that I wear mostly in the house and other trainers that I change into if I go out. There is crossover though, and I am really not that bothered because I am obviously a slattern.

Topseyt · 29/06/2021 15:19

@TheTeenageYears

Makes perfect sense. I don't lick my floors, shoes or feet. Nor do I lick anyone else's.

chesirecat99 · 29/06/2021 15:27

What does this mean? Can anyone explain this from a clinical point of view?

I'm fairly sure that there is no guidance on keeping your shoes on and that, although there was a study in Wuhan that suggested COVID might be spread on the soles of shoes, other studies have suggested there is no risk.

On the other hand, respiratory droplets do all fall to the floor, so there could be viable virus on the floor. Socks would be a slightly higher risk for fomite transmission than the soles of the shoes as they are rough and absorbent not smooth so "stickier", walking around in the shoes would probably wipe off any virus whereas it would stay within the shoe if it were on the sock, and you don't usually touch the sole of the shoe when you take them off and are more likely to touch the foot of the sock. It's a negligible risk, probably even zero, but I can see the logic why someone might have come up with that as a health and safety rule last year when we knew very little about transmission.

BarbaraofSeville · 29/06/2021 15:35

The risk of covid transmission due to taking shoes off is probably so small it's immeasurable. Certainly far lower than the risk of slipping on carpetted stairs while wearing shoe covers....

Hopdathelf · 29/06/2021 15:47

This was a man, and I am a woman alone in the house with children.

How was he to know that? Anyone could also be there. Anyone could come home?

He might have to lean or sit to put shoes back on which would require him touching items of furniture.

If you feel so strongly about it, buy some shoe covers.

Newestname001 · 29/06/2021 15:54

He had shoe covers in his car but forgot/couldn't be bothered to wear them.

He couldn't take off his shoes at your front door "because of Covid". And yet he did, because he couldn't be bothered to go back to his car for his shoe covers...

He just didn't care really, did he?

I've had tradesmen and medical teams in and out of my DP's house over the last twelve months or so for one reason or another (including a couple of emergencies) and they've all worn masks, taken off their shoes/worn shoe covers unasked. Some of them have even rang beforehand to say what their Covid procedures are - for us as well as them.

Good for you OP. 🌹

Tinpotspectator · 29/06/2021 16:39

@Ch3rish Your post at 13.37 was passive aggressive.

Lemonmelonsun · 29/06/2021 16:46

I would also never dream of asking trades people or visitors to take their shoes off.

We live to tell the tale.
Shoes off has gone neurotic.

EmergencyHydrangea · 29/06/2021 16:56

@NouvelleMamanNouvelleVie

I suppose but from that point of view we are all running a risk from nails and glass in our own homes every day. The risk of him walking a disease into the carpet which his shoes picked up from traces of pigeon or dog poop on the payment is surely higher, and then my 7 month old faceplants the carpet and develops a sickness... ugh.

If it's that dangerous, then he should just have brought shoe covers I guess.

Do you not take your child outside ever?

VeganVeal · 29/06/2021 17:06

He probably thought your carpet looked a bit grubby and didnt fancy going barefoot!

I suggest you keep a few pairs of disposable overshoes by the front door for visitors

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 29/06/2021 17:07

Maybe he has stinky feet and is embarrassed by it.

PurpleyBlue · 29/06/2021 17:14

@Awwlookatmybabyspider

Maybe he has stinky feet and is embarrassed by it.

Oooh or maybe he's done one of those foot peels and doesn't want to leave a trail of foot dandruff everywhere.

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