Do your kids go barefoot outside?

[Ewe Mama]

Nope. We rotate sheep pens all over the front and back yards, so no one pants to step in sheep poo. Ewww!

[Cottonwood]

adding, when they/we do go barefoot, I require everyone to wash their feet in the mudroom before entering the house.  We are NO SHOES people in our house.  So dirty feet are a NO too.

[ktgrok]

My kids do and I do, too. I only wear shoes when I have to go somewhere in public. (I drive barefoot, too, but keep a pair handy in case I get pulled over. I've asked police officers who I have worked with on cases if they cared about that and they all looked at me like I was crazy. They apparently don't care if people drive barefoot, but since I've heard people say it for years the paranoia remains.)

 

I prefer to drive barefoot too, and people used to say the same thing to me, that it was illegal. I looked it up, no such law. Slippery dress shoes and flip flops are both a pain to drive in, I prefer barefoot or tennis shoes. And usually I'm in flip flops if anything. 

 

My kids go barefoot much less than I did. 

[luuknam]

Mine almost always wear shoes. I don't want them to grow up to have never ever felt grass beneath their feet though, so occasionally they go barefoot in the back yard or something.

[Tess in the Burbs]

my kids go barefoot.  Then they run through the mulch.  They get splinters. TINY splinters.  They wear shoes a few weeks.  They go barefoot.....

[shawthorne44]

I don't have a problem with it.  I walked around barefoot outside as a kid.  Although our house had been vacant for awhile before we bought it and some windows had broke.  So, while we think we got up all the broken glass, we keep finding new broken glass in the yard.  So, yard - shoes.  

 

 

[LibraryLover]

My oldest recently shared that he once went an entire summer not wearing shoes to play in the neighborhood. That means walking in the woods, playing at friends, riding his bike etc. I never noticed. So I will vote yes.

[Tsuga]

ZOMBIE THREAD RESURRECTED BY ...WELL WHO KNOWS WHO... BUT LOOK AT PICTURE ACCOMPANYING POST #94.  ALREADY REPORTED.

 

Not my type. Thanks for reporting.

[swellmomma]

How did I miss this thread back in 2012?

Depends where we are and what they are doing.  At home yes, unless ds11 is tinkering in the garage then no, he must wear shoes.  At the park they wear them until the park has been checked for safety, if good they go barefoot.  At the friend's house down the street, shoes are a must, they have broken glass and  nails and such in their yard.  Ds11 usually rides his bike barefoot because he doesn't want to bother stopping to put them on, at least he puts his helmet on lol Gramma insists on shoes at her place but I feel it is actually better for foot development to be barefoot as much as possible as children.  Of course in winter boots are a must because no one likes frost bite but in the warmer weather out the door the run barefoot and that's fine with me, at least they are outdoors playing.  My teens typically always wear shoes now, but as younger kids they were just like my 2 youngest and spent more time barefoot than shoed in the warm weather.

[MerryAtHope]

All the time! I grew up barefoot too.

 

Ironically, the only foot injuries that have happened to my kids have been from being barefoot INSIDE the house! 

[Ellie]

Of course.

 

Unless we're leaving the house, and then there are shoes.

[Ausmumof3]

No... Because snakes! Boots and long pants are the rule. I think barefoot is healthy but snakebite is not healthy at all..,

[Guest]

Debating controversial subjects is not how I choose to use my limited internet time, but FYI and PSA for anyone who is interested.

[rocassie]

In our yard, the kids almost never have shoes on unless there is snow on the ground.  Although they have been known to got out and collect snow in their bare feet.  When going on a walk, riding bikes(on long rides not just in front of our house), going to the park, etc., I almost always have them put on shoes due to glass, nails, garbage, pesticides on lawns or dog poop.

[maize]

What are shoes? 

 

Seriously, if my bare soles are not in contact with the ground I experience sensory deprivation. 

[Momto4inSoCal]

Has anyone heard of earthing? I read about it a few months ago and found it interesting. I'm not totally sold on the idea but either way we don't wear shoes unless we are leaving the house.

[AmandaVT]

I clicked other - in our yard no because we've completely renovated our house and I still find the occasional nail/screw/pieces of wood in the grass. Other places that don't have leftover construction material in their yard, yes.

[Jean in Newcastle]

my kids go barefoot.  Then they run through the mulch.  They get splinters. TINY splinters.  They wear shoes a few weeks.  They go barefoot.....

Mine too.  

 

 

(BTW - this is a Zombie thread that is 3 years old.  I don't think it matters for a question like this but I did get quite a turn from seeing posts from Ester Maria and others who haven't been here for awhile.)

[SilverMoon]

Fun old thread topic!

 

Yes. We go barefoot. In the desert no less. I don't put my shoes on until I have to drive somewhere or I'm digging in the yard. I walked across the street barefoot to collect my mail today, and will be doing so until it's too hot to dart from the last available shadow to the mailbox and back. :tongue_smilie:

[Seeking Squirrels]

They're both nearly always barefoot if the weather permits it. Even if I send them out in shoes I'll just be sending them back out later to retrieve them. I gave up fighting the shoe battle years ago. They get it from dh, I think he's allergic to shoes.

[fairfarmhand]

All the time.

 

Even when it's cold. I've had to tell my kids "There's SNOW on the ground. Put on your shoes!"

[Mom22ns]

Most of the time. Sometimes even in the snow.

 

This. I find bare-foot footprints in the snow on a regular basis. None of us are fond of shoes and only wear them in public places.

[Syllieann]

I generally make them wear shoes because we have a large section of our yard paved with concrete. Without shoes, there is always one that will end up with a toe full of blood. When we are in a grassy area on private property (my mom's house for instance) I let them be barefoot if it is nice out. If it's damp I have them wear shoes so that they can take them off when they come into her house and onto her carpet.

[Tap]

My son likes shoes.

 

My girls detest them.

 

It is very, very difficult to keep shoes on dd16.  She has Blistered her feet before by walking on hot concrete.  Not little blisters, quarter size, full on burned skin blisters....and she will still do it. 

 

Dd8 runs about 50/50 with them on/off.

 

 

I require them for bikes/scooters and prefer that they have them on at the park, but it isn't a hill I will die on.  (We don't have a broken glass issue at our parks). Most of our parks have cedar chunks for playground cushion and it doesn't feel good to run on it like it does the grass, so they tend to keep them on at the park.  

[Mom-ninja.]

My kids are barefoot more than they wear shoes. Often we drive someplace only to realize someone is not wearing shoes. That can get annoying. I try to keep a pair of flip flops in the car for each kid. 

[laughing lioness]

As soon as it's warm enough to tolerate it they are barefoot all day, every day.

[Critterfixer]

No bare feet here. Way too many stickers and bees in the grass for it to be comfortable.

[maize]

No bare feet here. Way too many stickers and bees in the grass for it to be comfortable.

 

The bees are a problem here as well, we have had lots of stings.

 

They still go barefoot.

[mom2bee]

WHOOPS! ZOMBIE THREAD!

[Targhee]

I don't like it when they do, but they do. It's one of those things I let them exercise their choices in. We've removed a lot of slivers, but they still go barefoot. Heck, didn't all people go barefoot for the most part until just a few hundred years ago. I'd still prefer if they didn't though, because they can take dirty shoes off at the door, but not dirty feet. Lots of foot baths at our house.

[kiwik]

i said yes but really they have soft feet. as a child I wore shoes too school because my parents thought it proper but until high school we mostly were barefoot by part way through the day. We only had one pair of leather shoes so nearly all sports were done barefoot. My kids won't go barefoot in mud or sheep poo like we did though they are city kids. I insist on shoes and helmet for anything with wheels though so they often just choose to wear shoes. We never wear shoes inside. My sons dad didn't wear shoes unless forced until his mid 30's. it didn't snow where we were but it was cold.

[Melissa in Australia]

other-

 we have a yarded area just outside the house. they go barefoot in there ( except twin 1 who has AFOs on )

 but outside of the play area everyone wears gumboots- we live rural - there are snakes, goose poo and cow pats.

[shawthorne44]

...

It is very, very difficult to keep shoes on dd16.  She has Blistered her feet before by walking on hot concrete.  Not little blisters, quarter size, full on burned skin blisters....and she will still do it. ...

 

Just the other day DD asked about the shiny black streaks on the road.  I thought it was funny that both DH and I could speak from experience when we told her to never walk barefoot on a hot road.  We live in Texas, so they get plenty hot.  Hot tar stuck to your feet really hurts!  

[Suzanne in ABQ]

My kids don't because we live in a place where it would be impossible (forest with sharp gravel drive and road).

BUT, if we lived in town, they probably would, as the have in the past.

I always went barefoot as a kid, unless the ground was too hot or too cold.  I still do, if get the chance.  

[SeaConquest]

I cannot imagine a life without bare feet. We are beach people.

[Wabi Sabi]

No bare feet here. Way too many stickers and bees in the grass for it to be comfortable.

 

Same here- a yard that has more clover than grass attracts lots of bees, and then add in the chicken poop and the dog poop...

[5wolfcubs]

I just heard of "earthing" yesterday. I posted a picture of him barefoot in the snow earlier this year: http://pocketmousepublishing.com/2015/05/02/earthing-at-the-hydras-lair-on-the-first-morning-in-may/

[Woodland Mist Academy]

I'm surprised ticks haven't been mentioned more!  Pulling off ten or more ticks at a setting from a squirming child and fearing I might have missed one, wasn't much fun for me - or her. Close calls with snakes didn't help the case for bare feet for us.

 

Mud boots are our flip flops and have been for years.

 

ETA: Knowing two people who each lost vision in one eye from worms possibly contracted by going barefoot, makes me perhaps a little more cautious than most.

 

Different locales, different experiences, different levels of risk tolerance all play a role.

[MotherGoose]

Children and I go barefoot whenever possible at home, at my parents' house, and anyplace we are comfortable that there are no man-made hazards--glass, nails, etc. However, when we visited my sister in the city I had to keep reminding them to put their shoes on because we weren't at home and her yard had glass etc. The funniest thing ever was when some of my other "country" friends and I went to a city park and all of our kids wanted to take off their shoes and wade in the creek. We had a disussion about how this was not like wading in the creek at home, and also told them not to pick up any trash they found (I envisioned used hypodermic needles :( They get cuts and things but nothing serious, and their feet are tougher than mine--dd was walking on new gravel barefoot today without a wince! I remember complaining about my feet hurting at the beginning of the summer and my mom would tell me I needed to toughen up my feet. I didn't wear shoes during the summer unless we were going for a serious walk in the woods or left the house. Mine do have flip flops and crocs :)

[Woodland Mist Academy]

As if on cue, dd just showed me a snake dh caught in the yard. Perfect timing. :laugh:

[raptor_dad]

My boys go barefoot around the house, in our yard, often at the park, etc...

 

For instance, today we were out for a walk and DS8 decided to wade out in the lake in his clogs up to upper calf. He went along for ~1/6 mile but there was a lot of algae and dead fish every 5 feet(ah Spring in the upper Midwest)... he eventually decided that was gross and then walked the next mile barefoot in sand, dirt, grass and pavement to the deep water boat dock to rinse his slimy shoes. He only stopped once in there to climb a tree... I figure slime, mud, hot sand, burning pavement, etc are all just natural consequences... and often what I would find horrible the boys enjoy without comment.

[mamakelly]

My kids are barefoot pretty much all the time!!

[LaxMom]

Yep. They where shoes more often than I do. I only wear them when I'm legally required to or there's snow.

 

44 years, no worms.