Take Off Your Shoes

When guest come to your house do you make them remove their shoes? Is it rude to ask them to do so? If a host requires a guest to remove their shoes then they should provide a chair, shoe rack and socks or slippers. This is when it pays to be a surgeon – swipe the booties from work to give houseguests. Every year we do what’s called the Parade of Homes, where builders get to show their newly constructed houses. Some builders permit shoes and others don’t, but provide booties.

It can be embarrassing for the houseguest sporting the sock with a hole in it to remove their sneakers. The big toe with the nail fungus is there for all to see. A pedicure is in order when going barefoot in someone else’s house. However, a host will regret making the guest with smelly feet go sans shoes. Guest will sniff the air trying to determine what the awful, cheese like odor is. Even the guy with the smelly, stomach churning feet doesn’t know it’s him; they never know.

At a friend’s house when I was asked to leave my shoes at the door I complied happily and didn’t think anything of it till their dog that was at the park came in and put his paws everywhere. The dog that was roaming the park and had probably stepped in poop, gum, sticky soda, dried up ice cream and God knows what else had the run of the place. They didn’t give his paws so much as a swift wipe at the door. The dog is essentially coming in with his shoes on. The same people who request you remove your shoes are the same people who let their dog carry in a host of ugly stuff under their paws. It doesn’t seem fair.

In my house I wear shoes, not for comfort or fashion, but for the extra height. I’m vertically challenged. If I don’t wear my shoes I can’t reach the top shelf. My husband comes in handy for retrieving things from the top shelf. I have a step stool for getting into my bed. I used to run (to get height) and jump into bed, but I got tired of the nightly gymnastic routine. So, when I’m home I could carry around a ladder or wear shoes. I choose the shoes.