Primitive considers taking shoes off in someone else's home

[BattleHymn]

Mon Jun 23, 2014, 07:20 PM

lunamagica (709 posts)

Do you take your shoes off in other people's houses?
In another board I visit, every now and then this discussion starts.

One side says that it is "polite" and "good manners" to remove your shoes when visiting.
the other side (which includes me) finds taking your shoes off gross, disgusting and rude.

I've never, ever hear about taking shoes off anywhere else than that board. I've never,ever seen it.
I know that this is customary in Asian culture, and in Hawaii, but I'm talking about the western world.

I know this is not done in Latin America, and nowhere in the US that I have been, I've never met anyone who does it.

And this is not shown in movies or TV shows. I mean, characters would go into a home, remove their coats and then their shoes. I've never seen that.

I'm not talking about being barefoot in your own home, or in a relative or close friend's home. I'm talking about visits with acquaintances, like if your boss invited you to a dinner party, and then you'd walk in and remove your shoes

Does anyone her do that?

No one in their right mind would invite a primitive into their home, period.  Think about all of the medications turning up missing, or finding that they wiped their ass on your good towels.  Not to mention the eye-watering stench of primitive feet (or foot, if you're Kirk, the Las Vegas Leviathan). 

Mon Jun 23, 2014, 07:30 PM

PumpkinAle (680 posts)
4. Not unless I am asked to

and I have been asked by maybe two people in decades

Did they ask you to again after the first encounter?

Mon Jun 23, 2014, 10:33 PM

lunamagica (709 posts)
14. Thanks for the replies. I had no idea this was so common

As I said I've never (thankfully) been faced with that situation.

I'd die of embarrassment if I had to show my ugly feet!

And my mother, she's never without shoes, even at home. Her feet need the support, otherwise she'd be in pain

Tue Jun 24, 2014, 09:01 AM

Star Member pipi_k (19,550 posts)
31. Yeah...

my feet are horrible ugly too. That's why I always wear socks...even in the summer.

But if you go to someone's house where they take off their shoes, you could bring a pair of slipper socks or something similar.

Mon Jun 23, 2014, 10:42 PM

Star Member UTUSN (37,597 posts)
15. Luckily, I'm not invited anywhere!1 n/t

Yeah, that's a joke, right?

Mon Jun 23, 2014, 10:56 PM

Cairycat (694 posts)
17. I had a friend who would ask people to remove their shoes in her house

So as not to track dirt in the house, which I understand. But I must say, it did seem somewhat rude to ask people to be in their stocking feet when it's the middle of an Iowa winter and the house is kept at 60 or so. The next time I visited her I brought my slippers.

Among the Bosnians who live around here, it's common to see lots of shoes on the porch.

But my feet are always cold and I need the support of shoes. If my friend of the first paragraph moved back here, I guess I'd look for some supportive slippers ....

Imagine if the Bosnians lived in a blue hellhole- they'd never have any shoes.  I also be the 60 degree house in an Iowa winter is another primitive's house. 

Mon Jun 23, 2014, 11:09 PM

Star Member hunter (19,499 posts)
20. 25/75 in my world.

I'm a Barbarian. I can sleep in my boots, clothes, big jacket, on the hard ground, or in my car.

I only take my shoes off in true civilization.

Too lazy to even undress. 

Mon Jun 23, 2014, 11:14 PM

OriginalGeek (7,274 posts)
21. Not very likely

MAYBE in a relative or close friend's home but specifically not the boss or a co-worker or some party at someone's house I only peripherally know.

When my son was in high school he'd sometimes have a friend over and they;d go to his room to play games and whatnot. We always knew when the friend took off his shoes - that boy's feet stank so bad it LITERALLY gagged us and made our eyes water. I'd have to go outside and smoke a cig just to get the stench out of my brain.

Tue Jun 24, 2014, 09:38 PM

Star Member 3catwoman3 (966 posts)
41. I know someone who not only insists visitors...

...remove their shoes, she also keeps a basket of slippers in assorted sizes in her entryway for people to put on so they will not mess up her carpeting with the above mentioned oils from the skin of bare feet.

This guy would be turning around and leaving if you asked me to put on a pair of slippers that weren't my own.  As it is, I am not a big fan of shoes- I'm a sandals or flip-flop type of person myself.  The less shoes, the better.  My feet don't look or smell like a primitive's foot, though. 

[franksolich]

It's done not only in the "Asian culture" and in Hawaii.

<<<spent almost two years in the socialist paradises of the workers and peasants in.....eastern Europe.

It was de rigeuer there too, especially in the big cities.

It's because no matter where one walked, it was filthy, and worse, and the workers and peasants didn't like this stuffd being tracked into their homes, which they had enough trouble keeping clean.

<<<found it a pain, but was a guest, and so bore with it.

[JohnnyReb]

Simple.....Your house, your rules. My house, my rules.

[BlueStateSaint]

Simple.....Your house, your rules. My house, my rules.

Exactly.  In my home, the shoes come off, as we don't like to vacuum any more than we need to (which just happens to be a lot).

[Big Dog]

Waiting to hear from fizzy, She Whose Feet Set Off Biohazard Alarms.

[thundley4]

I had a co-worker from India and from his own description his family took their shoes off at home, and would put on a fresh pair of socks.

My aunt use to ask people to take their shoes of if it was rainy and wet outside.

[vesta111]

I had a co-worker from India and from his own description his family took their shoes off at home, and would put on a fresh pair of socks.

My aunt use to ask people to take their shoes of if it was rainy and wet outside.

Why not remove the shoes or boots carrying germs and disease from the outside into ones living quarters ?

Here in the North we have streets in the winter covered with salt, sand and dog shit, and any other critter  from mouse to human that may spit on the sidewalk to bleeding out on the pavement.

So who of us worrys about our carpets of floors do we have a young baby that crawls  about or a toddler that sits on the floor ?
Do we have pets that live inside that may have been outside ?

Where have we been today, what has adheared to the bottoms of our shoes ?-------How often do we need to steam clean our carpets and floors a month to kill all the outside germs ?

I find the Off with the shoes, a new idea for me a new believer a great idea and most interesting action to cut down on disease.

[GOBUCKS]

I know of people who never wear shoes in their own homes, but I've never known anyone who asks visitors to remove their shoes.

Obviously if your shoes are snow-covered or muddy you'll take them off, but under normal circumstances I've never had it come up.

Were it ever to happen, I'd just consider it a way of letting me know I'm not welcome.

[landofconfusion80]

aren't hippies supposed to be barefoot?  the primitives are forgetting their heritage!!

[vesta111]

I know of people who never wear shoes in their own homes, but I've never known anyone who asks visitors to remove their shoes.

Obviously if your shoes are snow-covered or muddy you'll take them off, but under normal circumstances I've never had it come up.

Were it ever to happen, I'd just consider it a way of letting me know I'm not welcome.

s

Sorry GOBUCKs but if you notice when repairmen come into your home they put on the booties over their shoes ?? 

Ask your self why do they do this ?

[YupItsMe]

I'm with Vesta, in VT someone could very easily track rock salt into your house on their boots.  I've got a nice Persian rug I gave my wife for Christmas a couple years back, don't really wanted it bleached by rock salt.  It's very common in VT, I automatically take off my shoes inside most people's houses unless they insist I don't bother.   My brother's a parts salesman to garages and such,  he's tracked oil and battery acid into my house before.