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From: slb@drutx.UUCP (Sue Brezden)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Barefootedness
Message-ID: <172@drutx.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 8-Jan-86 18:37:41 EST
Article-I.D.: drutx.172
Posted: Wed Jan  8 18:37:41 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 9-Jan-86 03:49:29 EST
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Denver
Lines: 43


>Do you allow yourself/your kids to go around the house
>barefooted, or must they wear socks and/or slippers, and why?
>My parents made walking around barefooted taboo, and I never understood
>why. 

My parents always wore shoes, too.  They think I'm weird because I refuse
to wear shoes in the house.  I think it is very uncivilized to wear
shoes in a place where you are unlikely to encounter sharp rocks, asphalt,
or doggy messes.  I keep a place reserved for shoes inside the front door.  
I taught both my girls to remove their shoes, too.

Why my parents felt that way, I never understood.  I have always suspected 
that it had to do with some sort of strange ethic that says it is wrong to
be comfortable.  They also never wear jeans.  And my mother wears a girdle.
And makeup.  And wore high heels before she got MS.  She thinks it's horrible 
that I refused such things from the start.

But back to barefoot.  If you are like me and live in a moderately
cold climate, and keep the house at 60 degrees to avoid paying more in
heat than it would take to support a small country, you'd wear socks,
too.   My mother keeps pressing slippers on my daughters and me, hoping
that we will *at least* have the sense to wear something close to shoes,
but I prefer socks.  They are less prone to produce static electricity,
for one thing.

By the way, small children *SHOULD* go barefoot.  (Or in socks or some
kind of booties if it's cold).  The old custom of those white, hard
baby shoes being on them all the time was found to hurt development of
the feet.  They need to really be able to move their feet, and feel
with them--especially when they are just beginning to walk.  Just get them
some tennies for outdoors.  (It's cheaper, too.  It's amazing how fast
those little feet grow.)
-- 

                                     Sue Brezden
                                     ihnp4!drutx!slb

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      To search for perfection is all very well,
      But to look for heaven is to live here in hell.   
                                       --Sting
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