to not want people to wear shoes over my lovely oak floor

[Carameli]

we have since we moved been doing some major renovations to our house. It is now at an end and as we put really nice oak flooring in the living room and dining room we decided to have a no shoes rule in the house. Lots of my friends do this and it works fine.
I also lived in Finland for a few years where it is the norm and expected that you take off your shoes when you go into someone's house.
My stumbling block is my mum and dad who refuse to and have said they will sit in the kitchen rather than take off their shoes.
I love my parents dearly and but feel so upset over this. Have just had an email from my mum saying she does not know when my father will want to visit us again. What am I meant to say. My worry is he comes in with a stone on his shoe and we end up with a big scratch on the wood or I am not ale to invite them over for dinner etc etc(thinking ahead to Christmas etc etc birthdays)

arrrgggg. feel so frustrated.

am with pagwatch on this one - YABU

Can't stand being asked to take shoes off when I go into someones house... I would automatically take them off if they were wet/ muddy - as I would in my own home - but apart from that it makes me feel all itchy when people ask you to take shoes off... like am being somehow treated like a child as I enter their house (no idea why it has such a bad reaction from me!)

We have just had our lovely wood floors sanded by the way - and I still keep my shoes on in the house

Could you and your husband perhaps give them a fireman's lift?

[sigh] pagwitch kind of suits ...

I've got it! Build some elevated plank walks that run through the relevant rooms that your parents can use with shoes on. You just need a few bricks for height and a couple of old planks.

So people who don´t/wouldn´t take their shoes off at other peoples houses-you wear your shoes in your house all day?

if the weather is bad you can re-enact famous bridge based action dramas on their walkways.
Bridge on the River Kwai
A Bridge too far
The Bridges of Madison County..

Could it be tea instead please?

I'll be there lol, if only to meet your lovely dog.

Seriously I am quite short and if I take my shoes off my trousers sweep along the floor and the majority of the time I have no socks/tights on underneath my boots becasue I have laddered them all, or maybe I am wearing a skirt and it is cold but my shoes are hiding a hole in the toe of my tights etc etc etc.

Shoes are part of your outfit. I don't even do the housework shoeless (a la flylady)

Yes diddl, except when I'm watching TV or readsing a book with my feet up on the settee.

Look what you could do!

diddl yes - I wear shoes in my house and wear them at my parents house or my in-law's house when I visit (as do they)...

I never object when people ask me to take off my shoes - I just slightly change my opinion of them... can't help it!

My feet get cold without my shoes on if I am wearing no socks on uncarpeted floors and it with socks/tights on it is too dangerous of you slip in them.

diddl, I don't wear shoes all day in my house, but that's because I find it uncomfortable to do so.

For all those people who wear shoes all the time, it is so much better for your feet to be bare.
I can't wait to get my shoes off when I get home (I always take them off whenever I enter anybody's home regardless of whether they do). However, I do not insist people take their shoes off (or even ask them too) when they come to mine. I just recoil inside at what might be on the bottom of their shoes that they are traipsing all over the floor my DD and friends play on.
Carameli - my in laws do not take their shoes off when they come to ours, I have never asked them too. You have asked your parents, bought them slippers and still they refuse, it is not worth getting upset or ruining a relationship over even though I think they are being unreasonable.

i'm off to pagwatch's. atleast you feel comfortable and at ease there.
i like a good coffee stain without a coaster. its called life.
maybe some of you should consider getting one.

Oh . I had something like this in mind for you Hully

mines a strong tea, milk, no sugar

Pag, for me, yes of course. But I felt the Op required something a little more testing.

If people come to my door and attempt to take their shoes off, I tell them not to be so silly, but to come in and sit down.

If I go to other people's houses and they ask me to take my shoes off, I do so (rolling my eyes as I bend down), and then inevitably feel a tiny bit on edge, as opposed to relaxed and welcomed for the rest of the visit.

I wear shoes inside at home if I've gone out and come back in with them, although I don't expressly put them on to wear about the house.

I live in a home, not a museum - it's meant to be lived in. I think people get just a bit too precious about things which really do not matter in the grand scheme of things.

I always offer to take my shoes off when I go to other peoples houses - we don't wear indoor shoes at home but that's really for hygiene reasons as we have huge problems with minging dog fouling around here I wouldn't ask anyone to take their shoes off and tbh, if they offer, I'd only say okay if they are wearing obscene high spikey heels. I've found that day to day normal shoes don't actually add any wear to a solid wooden floor, and to be realsitic, it's going to take some knocks from things being dropped on it anyway.
I don't think it's worth falling out with folks over

I would ask them to take them off.
Maybe it's me being from Germany but all the people I know there take their shoes off without being asked.
It is just common courtesy. No matter how clean your shoes are, they have always been worn outside. You might have stepped in dog poo the other day, there might be dirt tc and I just find it utterly repulsive and unhygienic, especially when there are children around as they so often sit on the floors.

I never thought people would object to it, especially when being offered slippers. Very odd. Oh well, I will keep asking people to take them off if they don't do it themselves. I really don;t see what you need shoes for inside. I am off to offend some visitors now

I could argue that those of you who cannot feel relaxed without your shoes on are over precious.

Personally I don't actually say anything to people who don't take their shoes off when they come round, but I wish they would. I will never forget cleaning dog shit off my floor thanks to someone who waltzed in without wiping properly, my floor which ds was crawling around on. Vile. I will admit to seeing the point some have made about older people and being less steady on their feet barefoot.

I don't live in a museum nor do I want to but with dc rolling around on the floor and playing it just seems gross dragging outside dirt in.

same as 5dollar. eye rolling.
ds's take shoes off. dh and i wear slippers. but i am constantly going out to the front shed, for something, out to the back shed that holds our second fridge and second freezer, playing with ds's in garden, nipping to car to get forgotten something.
so in these times i keep my shoes on.
do you all enter home, take shoes off and never leave then ?

"I could argue that those of you who cannot feel relaxed without your shoes on are over precious."
I agree with that PatsyStone-when I get home I take shoes off to feel comfortable-so when I go to friends I do the same.

Would never occur to me to keep shoes on lest it ruins my outfit

It takes a minute to sling your shoes on at the door if you need to go outside. Not sure what these shoes are that require so much time and effort to take on and off.