AIBU to think wearing shoes indoors is a bit odd?

[Livefreely]

For thinking it’s weird to wear shoes inside the house?! Had a couple over last week for lunch and they never took shoes off- even if it’s not bad weather the bottom of shoes are filthy!! So would they go round their house all day in shoes? So weird to me!!
now I’m cleaning my floors as they are so dirty!

Ours is shoes off house, but not obsessively. Most visitors ask if they should take their shoes off. I usually say yes. If they don't ask, I say nothing because it's not a big deal. The fuss about it on here is quite something.

I would say 95% of the houses I go to as a visitor are shoes off houses. Ours is too although I don’t enforce it for guests but if they ask I will say they’re welcome to, most just automatically take them off on coming in anyway. But us who live here automatically take shoes off when we come in as we have our shoe storage right at the door.

I wear shoes downstairs (no carpets) and no shoes upstairs (carpets). If I go to someone’s house with carpets downstairs I ask and offer to take my shoes off but if it’s easy clean tiles, wood or parquet which would give me cold feet I assume ok for shoes.

Also in the summer i generally walk inside and out from my garden in bare feet so I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do about that .! ( I actually don’t worry about it )

Definitely off.

I dont want shoes that have wandered around public toilets, walked on pavements where dog muck has been picked up or bird poo is scattered traipsing round my house.

For a start ive got young kids that play around on the floor.

Shoes off, partly because it signifies a clear difference between "out there" and "in here", which I find makes it seem more homely and relaxing

unless you have super shiny wooden floors that put you on your arse in socks, or your visitors have smelly feet

Also significantly reduces the risk of walking in a giant turd unnoticed - which is not what you want to discover AFTER you've walked it upstairs to the bedroom - or you can ask them to leave the next morning

It’s nothing about ‘trying’ to be posh and everything to do with hygiene and cleanliness. Especially if you have young kids and babies it’s minging that people wear shoes in their house especially with carpets. Unfortunately people are grim in spitting on pavement, there could be vomit, cat/dog/bird shit and that’s that’s just the start.

It’s also really rude to walk in someone house without offering to take off your shoes if you can see they are a no shoes household.

I'm ambivalent about this but don't get the obsession with bacteria. It's everywhere anyway and presumably people aren't licking their floors or eating their dinner off them?

I do generally take my shoes off in my house but often wear slippers instead and work in an office where, obviously, shoes are on.

Just to add the possibility of young children getting some kind of infection from playing on the floor of a house where people have worn shoes is probably non existent. Kids crawl around and play outside (at least mine did). It never occurred to me to worry about shoe dirt inside

All the shoes off people obviously do not own any Lego......

Same I've had this made to take shoes off and a pet pissing everywhere .
Another one had a tiny door mat and she stood right over you in tiny cramped hall way hovering on one leg trying to get shoes off and she got potty pee and splashed it all around the sink.

Indoor shoes/slippers only in our house! We have carpets throughout, so no dirty shoes traipsing around, getting them filthy. I think it’s terribly bad manners to keep your shoes on in someone else’s home. Unless they’ve explicitly told you not to bother taking them off.

I don’t take my shoes off in other people houses (unless they ask). I wear slippers at my house. Ok so there’s road dirt I suppose but it’s not stuff you can see - I don’t track in stuff.

I've noted that people who insist on it in an OTT way eg can't tolerate one person once wearing shoes even if that person is elderly or disabled etc are often filthy in other ways and the other ways are far more likely to cause infection.

Thank you! It’s exactly that!

Try having mobility or balance issues!

If shoes are not for indoors, do you take them off as you enter the supermarket, your workplace, cafes, museums or the gym?

First post nails it. Just what I thought too.

You do know millions of children grow up in shoes on households who thrive

My thoughts exactly!!

@Livefreely

People make different choices to you. If you wish guests to take their shoes off, then you're going to need to ask them.

If someone else's home has carpets, then I will remove my shoes, if they have hard floor, I would probably ask them if they would like me to.

I no longer have a crawling baby and I do have a disability and I am in and out of my house all day long, so yes I tend to keep my shoes on once they are on until I know I am not again at which time I will put indoor shoes on.

But wearing shoes inside or not is a thread that is done very frequently and it always comes out about 50-50 so in short if you want guests to remove their shoes, use your voice and ask them!!

You are being a bit silly now aren't you.

Oh that's absolutely ridiculous. Of course New Zealanders wear shoes!!

Lot of kiwis, go barefoot more often than in other countries, mainly due to the weather, but they still go to school, work, restaurants, cafés, and friends houses and other places with shoes on. They tend to be more barefoot at home than we are in the UK. But the climate is far more supportive of that than it is in the Uk

Same here, I'd usually change my own shoes for slippers or sliders but would walk through the house in shoes without worrying. I'm always telling my dc to wear slippers, they prefer socks but with a dog they can get quite mucky!

I wouldn't take shoes off somewhere else unless asked, and would find it weird. I obviously don't walk into houses with actually mud etc on my shoes

We are a shoes off in the house family, sometimes guests take off their shoes, sometimes they don’t. It doesn’t bother us either way.

I’m sick of having to tell people to keep their bloody shoes on in my house. It’s people like you who perpetuate this ridiculous practice @Livefreely.