To wear or not to wear outdoor shoes indoors with a crawling baby?

[ILikeYourSleeves]

I am just wondering what you all do re wearing outdoor shoes in your house when your baby starts (or is) crawling everywhere. I hadn't really thought of this as my DS isn't crawling yet, and we also usually wear our shoes indoors (when it's not peeing down and muddy outside that is), but a friend of mine recently said 'how can you wear your shoes inside if there's a baby crawling about, you never know if you have traces of dog poo on your shoes!'. She was implying that it's unhygenic etc but she has also moved house and has a 'shoes at the door' policy anyway due to nice new carpets, so that will probably be influencing her!

Anyhoo it got me thinking- should we ban all shoes indoors or is she taking things too far??? What do you all do?

I think she is taking things too far.
Babies put so much crap in their mouths anyway.

A VERY strict shoes-off-at-the-door policy here. In our defence we have a 2-bed flat (so no upstairs as clean 'refuge') and live in dog poo central.

Your friend is weird!

Keep your shoes on, or maybe buy some snuggly slippers, like these:

comfy!

A bit OTT I think.
As long as you clean the floors often enough he will be fine.
I'm sure you'll take him to baby groups, soft play places and plenty of other places he will be crawling about and everyone is wearing shoes!

I cannot understand how people can wear shoes indoors, soooo much more confortable to take them off.

I have a shoes off at the door policy, as do most other people I know, the exception being my friends who live in shared rented houses where you wouldn't want to take your shoes off!

I take shoes off at the door so as not to tramp mud through the house, and I like to wander about barefoot too.

I wouldn't enforce it for anyone else tho, and I certainly wouldn't worry about the old 'microscopic bits of dog poo' argument. Babies put all sorts in their mouths and crawl on all sorts of surfaces.

yuk at those slippers missblythe. I hate slippers.

I don't enforce the no shoes thing on visitors though, it is up to them whether or not they remove their shoes. But I recon your friend is going a bit far, by the time they are crawling babies are putting all sorts into their mouthes anyway and a few germs will build up their immune systems.

We have an outdoor shoes off policy, whereas they are taken off ASAP, but it is different for shoes we wear in our own garden/driveway which we don't remove unless muddy/wet or in hubby's case covered in sawdust

oh no, can't bear outdoor shoes indoors.

You have to clean the floors so much more often.

Always have kids take their shoes off, never insist other adults do, though if I go to someone's house and they take theirs off, I do the same. I just don't feel comfy at home with shoes on.

I usually take my shoes off in the hallway but sometimes wear them for a bit indoors if I'm just popping in to get something from the living room etc. I wear slippers if I'm in the house for a while. But DH refuses to wear slippers for fear of turning into an old man so he keeps wearing his outdoor shoes so his feet don't get cold!

I never ask visitors to take their shoes off either, I feel it would be a bit rude esp with people I don't know too well!

Message withdrawn

children exposed to more pollutants from outdoor shoes being worn indoors, than from pesticides in veg etc

DDT and other banned pesticides are found in household dirt! They're brought into the house on people's shoes

we definately have a shoes off policy (but not to visitors unless they are good friends and then I make them!)

I have a polish mum and everyone does it there -

so grew up with it, find it weird not to

also better for kids feet not to wear shoes in the house

but bit of muck is good for kids, but cuts down on the housework

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it sounds a bit dramatic but all the DDT ever made is still out there, you know, in the soil
it hasn't been magicked away
and it comes in on shoes
[slightly rabid emoticon]

We try to stick to the 'take shoes off' but it doesn't always work, esp with ds1 and friends running in and out. BUT did have rather HORRIBLE dog poo trodden into our lounge carpet (by ds1 because someone had let their dog poo on our FRONT LAWN - yuck) recently and I insisted on hiring a carpet cleaner before I was happy for ds2 to crawl around again. Now needless to say, I check the front garden regularly and am even more determined to enforce my NO SHOES rule.