Wearing Shoes Inside - The Fuck?

[Extasii]

I can barely be asked to put socks on, even on a trip to the mailbox.
Hell, unless I'm actually planning to step outside the car, I'll drive barefoot!

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Yeah, well, it's only really a proper 'culture' thing when certain cultures (say, Japanese, Muslim, ...) strictly forbid it and make a big drama about it.

I myself am a decidedly barefoot person. I enjoy wearing no shoes at home, in the garden, even on walkies with them dogs. I think barefoot rules. So, should I cut off my feet each time I enter my home? I think not.

If you're a reasonably clean and not too scruffy kinda person, you'll find there's nothing wrong with entering people's homes when they don't go mental about it. Other way around, I don't force anyone to take off or keep on their shoes. Sometimes, on special or, let's say 'specific' occasions I suggest people keep their shoes on or everybody takes their shoes off. As a rule of thumb, everyone is responsible for their own ass, own feet and own shoes. If someone were to bring some dog turd patina on their shoes and plasters it all over my home, I'd go pretty mental. Because they're careless hippie bastards, and there's little excuse for that.

Other than that - nah. I prefer a bit of dirt to allergies and striving for a germ-free, sterile environment. We're just not cut out for those, they make us sick and kill us.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

Dude, its the fucking floor. The floor is where dirt goes. There is ALWAYS dirt on the floor no matter how clean you think it is. If it gets too dirty for your gentle sensibilities, well, thats what fucking vacuum cleaners are for. Unless you are literally eating your food directly off the floor, what the fuck is the big deal?

Seriously do you live in some alternate universe where all the myriad ways to avoid/clean up dirt don't exist. Here is a way, just off the top of my head: chairs.

Jesus tap-dancing Christ, and people say Americans have superiority complexes.

Its England. It rains. A fuck tonne. An absolute fuck tonne. Chances are you have muddy or wet shoes. My house is 100% carpet. Most people i know have 100% carpet houses. Those that dont have a shoes on inside policy. But seriously what the actual fuck are you saying. "I should be allowed to track mud and rain onto your carpet because you can just clean it up you filthy maid peasant servant, even when me just taking off my shoes could save you the effort!" I mean come the fuck on. Youre a guest in my house. If its raining outside (and it usually is) just take your shoes off. Mud doesnt hoover properly on longer carpets. At all. And youre a goddam guest. If its a case of YOU the invited guest taking of their shoes and ME the home owner shampooing and scrubbing mud out of the carpet i wonder who should make the sacrifice?

What the actual fuck is this alternate universe where its perfectly ok to make an easily avoidable mess in someone elses house because hey, they can just clean it up for me right after i leave? Why dont you spit in their eyes while youre at it, they can just wipe it off Or just miss the toilet on purpose. Because they can just wipe it up? If a mess is so easily avoided why not just take off your shoes to avoid it rather than make it anyway and expect your host to clean it up. Youre their guest not their dog. You dont make messes on the floor.

 

[Henkie36]

No, it's not just common in the US, but also in the rest of the western world. Most people, myself included, are just too lazy to take them off.

 

[matrix3509]

Dude, its the fucking floor. The floor is where dirt goes. There is ALWAYS dirt on the floor no matter how clean you think it is. If it gets too dirty for your gentle sensibilities, well, thats what fucking vacuum cleaners are for. Unless you are literally eating your food directly off the floor, what the fuck is the big deal?

Seriously do you live in some alternate universe where all the myriad ways to avoid/clean up dirt don't exist. Here is a way, just off the top of my head: chairs.

Jesus tap-dancing Christ, and people say Americans have superiority complexes.

Its England. It rains. A fuck tonne. An absolute fuck tonne. Chances are you have muddy or wet shoes. My house is 100% carpet. Most people i know have 100% carpet houses. Those that dont have a shoes on inside policy. But seriously what the actual fuck are you saying. "I should be allowed to track mud and rain onto your carpet because you can just clean it up you filthy maid peasant servant, even when me just taking off my shoes could save you the effort!" I mean come the fuck on. Youre a guest in my house. If its raining outside (and it usually is) just take your shoes off. Mud doesnt hoover properly on longer carpets. At all. And youre a goddam guest. If its a case of YOU the invited guest taking of their shoes and ME the home owner shampooing and scrubbing mud out of the carpet i wonder who should make the sacrifice?

What the actual fuck is this alternate universe where its perfectly ok to make an easily avoidable mess in someone elses house because hey, they can just clean it up for me right after i leave? Why dont you spit in their eyes while youre at it, they can just wipe it off Or just miss the toilet on purpose. Because they can just wipe it up? If a mess is so easily avoided why not just take off your shoes to avoid it rather than make it anyway and expect your host to clean it up. Youre their guest not their dog. You dont make messes on the floor.

Wow way to invent a situation specifically to your liking. I said nothing about going into another person's house. Neither did the OP.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

Wow way to invent a situation specifically to your liking. I said nothing about going into another person's house. Neither did the OP.

You were referring only to people who dont wear shoes in their own homes? You have zero issue taking off shoes in someone elses house? Seems a bit strange to be venomously against it in your own home but to be understanding for why others ask you to do it. In any case i made a colossal reading failure. And for that i apologize.

Point still stands though. Why on EARTH would i make an avoidable mess in my own house just for me to clean up? What a waste of time

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

First thing I do when I get home from somewhere is take my boots off and put them in the designated shoe corner. If I'm about to go somewhere, then I will wear shoes in my house, as I will usually just be around the main staircase. When I'm home and not going anywhere, then I don't wear shoes. No slippers either. Just bare feet.
I don't go outside a lot, and most of the flooring in my house is either tile or hard wood. Neither my mom nor I leave the house often, and we do sweep and mop on a quite regular basis, so I don't think wearing shoes every once in a while when I'm getting ready to go somewhere is going to create a horrifying mess.
Edit: You people are seriously arguing about this. Wow.

 

[Zyntoxic]

I live in Sweden, and it sure isn't here. And even IF it is common-place, it doesn't explain why people would do it.

well from what I've heard, in sweden (where I live as well) it is also alot about class.
Wealthier households keep their shoes on, and the middle and lower class take them off.
there is actually a "joke" about this in the book and movie "snabba cash" (quick cash)
the joke is taking place during a fine dinner with a group of very high class people and goes like this:

"you know, there are three kinds of people in this world, right?
First we have the guy that always walks in with his shoes on and has the right attitude, like here.
then there is that second guy who's a bit insecure and just looks around at what every one else is doing, kind of creepy, you know.
and then we have the third, he who always takes them off, the one who stalks around without a sound in a pair of sweaty socks, leaving snail trails, and you know, being disgusting.
and if you see one hole in his socks, there is only one thing to do:
a straight shot to the head!" (this is a rough translation of the joke)

the joke is targeted towards the main character that actually is a lower class guy pretending to be upper class by using money he gets by selling drugs.


OT: I like to keep my shoes on if I'm going to a party, it feel like some much of an outfit hangs or falls on the shoes a person is wearing, and it just look more elegant with shoes on rather than socks.
otherwise I like my slippers when being at home ^___^

 

[Danny Ocean]

In multiple instances of US media, I've seen characters wear shoes inside a private home.It always struck me as odd; Why would one wear it? For comfort? Isn't it more comfortable without the shoes..Or with slippers?
And hey, don't you realize that it is DIRTY? What especially baffles me is that Sheldon and the others in Big Bang Theory wear shoes inside the apartment, even with Sheldon's extreme germ phobia. Isn't this exactly the sort of thing he would crack down on?

So, my question is; Is this really common-place in the US, and why? How do you feel about it?

It is, and it's a fine example of cultural relativism.

Cultural relativism is a principle that was established as axiomatic in anthropological research by Franz Boas in the first few decades of the 20th century and later popularized by his students. Boas first articulated the idea in 1887: "...civilization is not something absolute, but ... is relative, and ... our ideas and conceptions are true only so far as our civilization goes."[1] However, Boas did not coin the term.
The first use of the term recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary was by philosopher and social theorist Alain Locke in 1924 to describe Robert Lowie's "extreme cultural relativism", found in the latter's 1917 book Culture and Ethnology.[2] The term became common among anthropologists after Boas' death in 1942, to express their synthesis of a number of ideas Boas had developed. Boas believed that the sweep of cultures, to be found in connection with any sub species, is so vast and pervasive that there cannot be a relationship between culture and race.[3] Cultural relativism involves specific epistemological and methodological claims. Whether or not these claims necessitate a specific ethical stance is a matter of debate. This principle should not be confused with moral relativism.

The concept of culture, like any other piece of knowledge, can be abused and misinterpreted. Some fear that the principle of cultural relativity will weaken morality. "If the Bugabuga do it why can't we? It's all relative anyway." But this is exactly what cultural relativity does not mean.
The principle of cultural relativity does not mean that because the members of some savage tribe are allowed to behave in a certain way that this fact gives intellectual warrant for such behavior in all groups. Cultural relativity means, on the contrary, that the appropriateness of any positive or negative custom must be evaluated with regard to how this habit fits with other group habits. Having several wives makes economic sense among herders, not among hunters. While breeding a healthy scepticism as to the eternity of any value prized by a particular people, anthropology does not as a matter of theory deny the existence of moral absolutes. Rather, the use of the comparative method provides a scientific means of discovering such absolutes. If all surviving societies have found it necessary to impose some of the same restrictions upon the behavior of their members, this makes a strong argument that these aspects of the moral code are indispensable.[13]

 

[RedFeather1975]

I don't wear my shoes in other people's homes. But I have multiple pairs for when I'm at home. I sometimes wear my one pair of shoes around the house. Keeps my feet protected.

 

[ishist]

I play-up the stereotypical American thing. Sometimes I wear my shoes inside all day, not taking them off until bed. Sometimes I wear my slippers to the store.

It's just like any other custom from a country or region other than your own. Everyone else is weird and doing it wrong.

 

[Raioken18]

I live in Australia and generally you keep your shoes on. I always ask if I can take them off if I want to or am going to be there for ages.

It actually varies quite a lot between families.

 

[AntiChri5]

It's a "home" thing, to me. It feels weird wearing shoes in my house, but it feels weird not wearing shoes in someone elses.

I have no problem with people wearing or not wearing shoes when they are at my place.

 

[DugMachine]

Where I live, you don't take your shoes off in someone elses house unless they request it. Seems awkward being barefoot when you're trying to have a conversation but that's Texas... boots are a ***** to pull off.

 

[Selef]

i see a lot of people saying stuff about the Japanese, there is actually a good reason its normal in japan, tabi mats (traditionally what the flooring in Japanese houses was made of) gets totally destroyed if you wear shoes on it, many homes in japan still have tabi mats, therefore its still common place to take your shoes off in Japan.

 

[gphjr14]

I take mine off out of habit only because I had an Asian roommate for 3 years. If I go in someone else's house I play it by ear and look in the door way. Most of my family wears shoes in doors if its a family event and people are constantly going in and out (ie a cookout).

As other people have said unless your out walking in a hospital where the floors come in constant contact with urine and other bodily fluids or likewise environment your floors shouldn't be all that dirty. You're not eating off of them or anything so you should be fine.

 

[asinann]

I wear my shoes indoors because I don't know what you might be carrying on YOUR feet.

 

[TriGGeR_HaPPy]

Growing up in my parents place, the rule was basically that as long as your shoes aren't dirty, then feel free to leave them on or take them off. And I don't see a problem with that at all, to be honest. I've lived on Uni campus this year and the past 2 years, and will be moving in with friends at the end of this year, and unless they feel particularly strongly about this issue, I wouldn't see a problem with having this rule in place there, too.

It's interesting, that you say:

Oh come on, my feet might be dirty, but AS dirty as the sole of my shoe after I've been into the city? I seriously doubt it. I doubt it is even close.

I have to wonder how dusty/muddy/whatever your city is, if just walking around makes your shoes dirty. I know that when I go into town, or into the city (depending on where I am at the time, I move around the state quite a bit), my shoes don't get dirty from walking around on asphalt and pavement. They usually only get dirty when... you know... I've walked through dirt recently.

In terms of you asking about if this is common in the U.S., just in case it matters, this is coming from someone who grew up in New Zealand (on a farm), and has been living in Australia the past 13 years (mostly in rural towns, but the past 3 years have been spent at University in the state's capital city). And I know that some people don't want people wearing shoes in their house, so for the sake of clarity, I do normally take my shoes off when visiting people at their house, unless/until I find out later that the whole group of people living there don't mind if others wear shoes in the house.

 

[natster43]

Unless I am going to be leaving the place anytime soon, I take my shoes off in anybodies house. I was raised in a house where it was kinda a rule (more just considered polite) to take your shoes off at the door so I usually take my shoes off in whoevers house I am in. It also helps keep the floors cleaner.

 

[bl4ckh4wk64]

I usually don't wear shoes at home, but that's just my Japanese showing through. I mean, I understand people that don't, but I just see it as rude, you might track dust and dirt and other bad things through the house if you're wearing shoes inside.

It also helps when I'm drinking because me and my friends have this rule that if you're passed out drunk and you're shoes are on, people can draw on you. If you have 1 shoe on, people can draw on that side of you, and if you've got no shoes on, they can't do anything to you.