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Do your kids go barefoot outside?


Generally speaking, do your kids go barefoot outside?  

147 members have voted

  1. 1. Generally speaking, do your kids go barefoot outside?

    • Yes
      331
    • No
      129
    • Obligatory Other (please explain)
      22


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None of my children like being barefoot outside. They all say ewww... Honestly, we've rarely had an occasion to be barefoot outside except for at a neighborhood pool. They have been to the beach one time, many years ago. My children are deprived of barefoot opportunities. :tongue_smilie:

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Only at a pool, beach, or very occasionally the yard. We did take a walk barefoot together around the block once after a warm sunshower, just so we could properly splash in the puddles and enjoy the sensations.

 

But no, not generally. Too many opportunities for injuries is just one issue. I also don't like dirty feet, on myself or others. And most importantly, no one with dirty feet can come walking into my house! (I don't allow shoes on in the house, either.)

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Nope.

We live on a farm with free-ranging chickens and a dog that likes to leave presents in surprisng places. We've also found buried rusted metal and sharp broken plastic "unburying" itself. (The former owners buried and/or abandoned a lot of junk all over the place.)

 

When we lived in the suburbs with a nice, green, grassy lawn the kids and I went barefoot ALL THE TIME. It was wonderful! I miss it. :sad:

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I've always thought you could get roundworms and hookworms from the soil if you're barefoot. Please, someone correct me if I'm wrong!

I went barefoot all through my childhood (I would walk barefoot to babysitting jobs and put the shoes on when I rang the bell.) I never got worms. Anectodal, I know, but true for me. I never heard of anyone in the States who did, either.

 

Anne

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Our yard is mostly dirt and rocks so the kids don't go barefoot out there. They will go barefoot a lot when we go camping if the campsite is grassy or sandy, or when we go swimming at the pool in summer (its a neighborhood pool, not in our backyard). We are also on a river that is good for wading but I usually put them in water shoes since there can be old glass and cans in there.

 

I'm not worried about parasites just injuries. DS stepped on a bee when we were camping last summer and was not at all happy about it.

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Yes, but not in front of my grandmother!

 

(I've been known to drive to a store and then have to come home because I realized just in time that I wasn't wearing shoes. In warm months, I keep extra sandles in the car for the kids for that very reason. Not sure why I haven't learned to do it for myself!)

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My son...no.

 

My dds...all the time. Yep, they step on gross stuff. It is okay with me. We wear our shoes in the house, so we aren't too worried about such things. I do have them take a bath at night before they get into bed if they have dirty feet.

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My 18yo avoids the outdoors as much as possible. When she does go outside, she always has shoes on.

 

I used to be barefoot as much as possible, indoors and outdoors, until I got plantar fascitis. Now I wear shoes most of the time.

 

My 16yo is mostly barefoot outside and is always barefoot inside.

 

My 13yo usually has shoes on outside and sometimes has them on inside. She has orthotics in her shoes for major pronation issues.

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I grew up going barefoot most of the time and we had lots of stickers. I remember having to stop and pull them out of my feet.

 

I let dds go barefoot in our yard and driveway but not in the road. I've had to sweep up too much glass in the road on recycling day when they drop glass bottles. :glare:

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I used to go barefoot or in moccasins all the time, but after a few deep cuts and a rather nasty splinter that needed a surgeon to remove, I decided it was time for shoes. My son hates being barefoot outside. Too many sensory issues. He even prefers water shoes at pools.

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:iagree:We all go outside barefoot to run around (except dh). I was a tomboy who grew up running around barefoot with my older brother and all the boys in the neighborhood, so it is normal to me. I do have neighbors who won't let their kids go barefoot. They scream if one of their kids so much as even puts one toe on the ground. I honestly never realized how much it meant to some people.

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No. Sandals are easy to kick off when you come inside; filthy feet, not so much. Also, we live in the country/woods, so I'd worry about thorns, ticks, splinters (they climb all over fallen trees), poison ivy, etc. It's just not practical. Really, even sandals aren't that practical even -- sneakers or boots are best. My kids play hard.

 

When we lived in the suburbs, they did go barefoot sometimes.

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I voted yes, but should have said Other.....DS7 and now DS1 are barefoot alot, and with the exception of snow, it's a toss-up whether DS7 will wear shoes or not - he loves being barefoot, so does the baby.

 

But, there are some times they need shoes - when we go out somewhere, at the park, when we're traveling and somewhere like NYC, into stores, when riding bikes or scooters, etc.

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Barefoot is okay in the drier grassy parts of our yard and on the sidewalks when it is warm enough outside. It is not okay where the dog line runs, or in the poultry pens, or in the garden. People here buried garbage too, and we also find glass all over certain parts of our yard after a hard rain. I also require shoes in the "safe" part of the yard when the clover is blooming because we have so many honeybees. I could mow the clover, but I like to see the bees.

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No and I don't think I've seen anyone around here going barefoot either. We live in a southside Chicago neighborhood though, and most houses barely have any yard space, and everything else is filthy. (Not like, oh there's a mud puddle filthy, but oh, there's oil or possibly some sort of industrial containment filthy.)

 

If we lived somewhere that weren't gross, I probably wouldn't mind if they went barefoot. Now I would still wear sandals though.

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Only if they're playing in the sprinkler. I am concerned about foot injuries (I had several as a child and I was barefoot constantly); we have white carpet (which they have to walk on to get to the tub to wash their feet); and it's rarely the perfect temperature to be outside barefoot. It's either too cold or so hot that they burn their feet on the blacktop driveway and sidewalks.

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We have two acres with a lot going on (wild life, pond, creek, garden, etc) - so generally no she does not go without shoes. When she is playing on the swing set, she will sometimes kick off her shoes.

 

I think you have to make the assessment based on what your yard is like. Personally I wouldn't want to step in goose poop which we have a lot of in the summer. But then again, I spent my childhood going barefoot (in LA) and had the awful experience of stepping on big snails. yuck.

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  • 3 years later...

I grew up in the country and did everything possible not to EVER wear shoes.  My parents only insisted if I wasn't in the general vicinity of our yard, if I was going to be running through the woods.  So.... in my typical fashion, I would wear my shoes to the edge of the woods, check to make sure no one was looking, took them off and ran through the woods barefooted anyway.  I sure did get scraped up and injured sometimes, but I dare not complain since I'd get in trouble for it.

 

And yes, I would occasionally get what (in the South ..where I was, anyway) is called 'sand worms' which is microscopic ..thing.. that enters a cut in the skin and makes trails in the skin as it moves around under the skin.  (enter a collective SHIVER here)  My mom was so grossed out..she would often take me to the health dept and get an indigestible ...well....pesticide.... that was NASTY that I had to drink and it would kill the parasite.

 

That is so utterly disgusting, even to type it out...but it never stopped me...what a stubborn brat I was.  Finally they stopped caring about it and said if getting sand worms didn't make me put shoes on my feet, nothing would and they weren't taking me to the health dept anymore.  And they meant it.  I got sandworms ONE other time and had to let it run its course on its own, which takes much longer to get rid of them this way.  That did it.  lol

 

My kids?  We live in the city now and in the back yard where the dog lives, even though we pick up after him twice a day (Or more b/c I insist on a super nice yard), we all wear shoes back there.  Front yard..mostly.  While camping in the country...bare feet if they wish.  While at my moms in the country, I don't care.  I am only insistent when I know animals have gone potty anywhere near.  My mom doesn't have pets.  If I knew there was trash and glass and such, or course, no.

 

It's only the parasite things I think about.  Germs themselves, I believe, are our friends :)

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