We had a bit of a logistical snafu getting out the door today, and Emily, in the chaos, got loaded up without shoes. I thought for sure we had shoes in the Suburban. After all, we have snacks, paper, books, crayons, and possibly a squirrel in there. There's got to be shoes, right? No. So I carried her sheepishly into the dentist's office, feeling just a wee bit defensive about my piss-poor parenting and the effect this shoe-less foray into "The City" will have on Emily's future prospects for therapy and possibly marriage. We enter. Nobody blinks twice. And that's when I see before me a lobby filled with... unshod children. There had to have been thirteen kids in there, and not a one of them had on shoes! Instead, there was a pile of shoes beneath the reading table. Is there some kind of unspoken ceremony, wherein a child enters the building properly shod, grabs a book, sits down, makes a few sacrifices to the Adults in Charge, then leaves the shoes at the altar and runs off to enjoy childhood as it was meant to be enjoyed?) Huh. I've never seen that before. But it does bode well for Emily's marital prospects, at least.
Really, I think it's just me, and my Ye Shall Protect The Hide Of Thy Feet upbringing. The kids don't seem to have the same hangups I do, and are slowly assimilating into the native condition. Smidge acclimated almost immediately. Our first summer here, Smidge ran about the apartment complex barefooted, and I didn't mind so much. I just tried not to think about the feel of chalky concrete on the soles of my feet. (It makes me cringe just typing that out.) But that was, mmm, okay.
Then we moved out here, and I thought for *sure* he would take to wearing shoes. But no. We bought the forever home, kicked the kids out in the yard, and I have no idea to this day where the shoes he had on have gone. His feet are the color of rich Peruvian llama wool. His little fat baby feet have grown and become lean, but now they have the "weathered" look of... of Ghandi. Blech.
Then, last summer, all three of them signed on with the Barefoot Brigade. Shoeless! Sockless! Not even sandals could placate the innate desire to... to do that. I gave them shoes. I made sure they fit. I tried various styles. I finally resorted to standing there on the porch cringing and yelling,
"The vet said the ground is infested with hookworms! Do you want to go BLIND?!?! Get your shoes on!"They're good boys. They'd try. Well, the older two tried. We'd already lost Smidge by then. And near the end of last summer I thought for sure I'd fought the good fight and that my children would understand the Importance of proper footwear.
Now summer weather is here. The children all have crocs, which I thought for sure would make wearing shoes *so* easy, and *so* just like not wearing shoes, that I could put my twitches to rest. But, um, evidently not...
Ah! Kiss those babies!
~Dy
17 comments:
ROFLMBO!! Until you said "goat heads inside stuck in the carpet" I was envisioning real life goat heads and I understood - completely - why y'all wore shoes. Ewwwwwww Then I realized you were talking about those pokey things. That's their technical term 'round my house. Oh thanks for the laugh!
I hate shoes, my children hate shoes, I don't think the baby has worn them more than 3 times and he's a year and a half. As long as they pile them up in the same place so we don't lose them at the park I let them take them off instantanously. But I don't think I've ever seen shoeless older kids INSIDE before. I'm going to have to start looking. LOL
Those are some adorable feet you posted!
OH and I'm LOL'ing at "weathered look of Ghandi" ROFL
Oh my, school, grocery shopping, restaurants, tennis, parent/teacher conferences, I even went to a meeting the other day barefoot. I love this place!
Did you see Hornblower's post on pedicures? "If your heels look like blue cheese," she says... Guilty. But she did inspire me to paint my toenails at least.
Just had to tell you: The younger two tried out an archery class Tuesday and LOVED it. They're practically ready to go pig hunting (though they will probably need shoes for that.)
On a serious note, I have been warned that the kids need to have their tetanus shots updated -- apparently horses carry it and it can be picked up in the paddocks from cuts on their feet even if the paddock hasn't been used in years.
You gave me a good laugh this morning. I grew up not wearing shoes in the summer. I can walk across gravel and it not really bother me that much. Now Rusty on the other hand, he has to wear shoes in the house. I just don't understand that. As soon as I hit that door the shoes are coming off.
Around here we never wear shoes inside, but outside...most definately! There are fire ants, grassburs, dog poop, guineau poop, pokey sticks and lord knows what else. I remember playing a game with my friends when I was around 8 or so. In the summer when the temps hit 100+, we would take turns stepping into the street barefoot while the other counted off the seconds. Whoever could stand it the longest won. I still remember the feeling of leaping into the cool grass with my burning feet.
We once took a road trip to Maryland (BTW, *where* did you live in MD? I've always meant to ask but, um, I'm stupid and forget!) and didn't realize until we stopped for something to eat that John (3ish? then) had no shoes on. *sigh* Damn hillbilly West Virginians forgot their shoes again, can't take us anywhere. ;) Anyway, as if that weren't bad enough, the only store we could find was Dollar General, so he got a LOVELY pair of fire truck shoes that were made of some sort of nearly inflexible plastic/vinyl-y material I'd never seen before (and haven't since).
LOL!
I had a friend who had a difficult time getting her 7 children to wear shoes. She eventually gave up and told us she was letting her children's feet toughen up so they'd be prepared for missionary life in some remote jungle. :)
LOL. No, my kids don't ever wear shoes outside, either. The oldest will come in and pronounce that he has sixteen splinters and it's time to get the trusty x-acto knife for quick and easy splinter removal. Don't worry, we sterilize. I remind him that if he would wear his sandals this wouldn't happen, but it's in one ear and out the other. This happens so frequently that even Benjamin will allow me to remove splinters in this way.
They are barefooted outside so much that really they don't need shoes...the soles of their feet are like leather mocasins. Yes, Ghandi feet. But I do insist on shoes at events and stores. I can't stand little black soled "grocery store feet". Blech!
Ohhh! How could you want to cover such darling little feet? My sympathies are with the boys, I'm afraid. Yes, one does need shoes for going Out (church, shopping, etc.), and at other people's houses (unless they are real friends), but other than that, why? My parents instituted a "no shoes in the house" policy when I was very young (we were supposed to leave them by the door), and I always have done that. Florida has hookworms too, but not the rest of the hideous nasties you describe (Arizona and NM have now gone Way down my list of places to visit). If a goat's head is a pricker, we had some of those, but goat's head sounds much more heinous. Ed (who grew up in NJ) does try to make the kids wear shoes outside, but it is a loosing battle.
I wouldn't worry about Em's marital prospects!
Those are some mighty fine baby feet!
Okay, too much caffeine here... One more hillbilly barefoot story: Stuck out of town overnight, Jorge took the girls to the laundromat so we'd have something clean to wear the next day. He lost sight of Elle for a minute and called her over. Slap! Slap! Slap! She had one foot planted firmly in a glue tray rat trap. He had to throw the shoes away, it absolutely would not come off.
These comments are hysterical! No. My kids only wear shoes when going out. That's it. That's how we grew up, but Race on the other hand, had to deal with the fire ants and such, so it cracks us up to see him go outside barefoot....he can barely get across the soft grass barefoot! (DO NOT tell Jonny Bad Ass that I just shared that info!)
I am a shoe person, too. But this year, Princess C is old enough to wonder the yard in and out of the trampoline, so she never has shoes on. And when the boys see that, they get jealous. So right now, I am letting them enjoy their bare feet until the bees come out and start buzzing all over the clover....
I'm with you, Dy! I'm a city kid. AK, however, would happily go about all of her days with no shoes or socks. When I catch her, I call her "Becky" from the old Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn TV show. Then she kicks me. Really hard. Max seems to side with me, prefers civilization. Ben and Milo are "earthy" like Mom.
Chalk us up as another southern family that doesn't wear shoes. This time of year the van starts to resemble the floor of a closet, littered with shoes. I don't mind as I figure this way when we get somewhere that we need shoes I can find a pair to put on whomever.
No shoes here either! We didn't wear them growing up, unless we were going someplace nice (church, out to eat, etc). I can still remember the cool feeling of the grocery store floor on my hot little feet. AAAAHHH!!
Everett does not ven own a pair of shoes, yet. He would just rip them off and try to eat them anyway, so what's the point?
The bigger boys look at me like I've asked them to remove a limb when I tell ask them to put their shoes on! LOL!!
This is another parenting task that endures generation to generation -- cajoling our offspring to dress properly. Don't you suppose mothers from centuries past would have blogged that their daughters were not wearing gloves enough, and were getting rough hands like Durer's painting?
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