Just a little event with neighbors to show off the new kitchen.
This.
Years ago, my husband and i prepared the passover seder at my mother’s house. Back then, she liked people to dress up for family events. It was a formal sit-down dinner, several courses. So we did dress up, but I didn’t wear shoes.
My mother expressed a little disappointment, but then said that if we were willing to do all the work, we could wear whatever we wanted. After that, the seder moved to my house, and we still used the fancy china and the silver, but the dress code was relaxed.
Of all the times I’ve been to family gatherings and parties I don’t think I’ve ever been to one where people take off their shoes. Unless it’s just an informal gathering like sitting on the couch or playing games and is more for comfort. The “take off shoes in other peoples homes” thing has always seemed odd to me and I’ve never been in a home that required it.
I’ve rarely been to a home that didn’t.
When I visit someone else’s home, I will respect their preferences and the appropriate dress code for the occasion. When I’m in my own home, I’ll consider that putting on socks is a PITA and bare feet are most comfortable, and if friends or relations are coming over for an informal barbecue or whatever, that’s how I roll. And I do ask that they remove their shoes because I don’t want crap all over my nice floors.
I assume you’re from a part of the world that doesn’t have a great deal of snow or slush for the majority of the year.
Now I’ve created a new phobia in my head.
I don’t wear shoes indoors. I often wear socks if my feet are chilly, at my house.
My new phobia: if you and your family are walking around barefoot in your house and I come over. You say “off with your shoes” so I’m walking around on top of your crud, fungus, your dogs or cats butt scootings and where your Uncle Leon puked last year at Christmas.
Yeah. I’m afraid now. I may never visit.
@RivkahChaya why don’t you buy a box of hospital shoe covers instead of all that work.
Where do you think all that crud is more likely to be found: inside a reasonably clean house, or out on the streets and sidewalks? You’ve never seen a dog pee on a sidewalk or shit in a park? I once saw a woman vomit on the sidewalk in front of a supermarket. Which various atrocities were probably later shat upon by birds. along with a few generously moist COVID sneezes. All of which was likely trodden over by shoes. Which I would prefer, TQVM, to be left at my doorstep.
Hey, don’t conflate my phobias.
You’re stressing me out.
I mean it’s totally cultural - you’re either one or the other. I don’t have an issue with either, and was brought up in a ‘shoes in the house’ home, probably because it was considered rude or underdressed to show your feet to strangers, but I totally get why people prefer it.
On the flip side, I had to get my carpets steam cleaned when I moved into my new house because the carpet stank of the previous owner’s stinky feet, eww.
Maybe we could all just meet in the middle and wear socks?
It’s not really work-- I guess it sounds like it when I spell it all out, but we have the clean yoga socks in one box, and the used ones in another, and just throw in the used with the towels (when we wash with bleach and hot anyway).
After a large party, we might do a separate small load of them, but that’s 3 times a year at most. Getting the fresh, new hospital socks is a bigger deal.
I’m not even sure where to get hospital shoe covers (WAG: Amazon), but if someone really wants shoes, it’s not THAT big a deal.
And the dogs NEVER butt-scoot. Butt-scooting almost always means impacted anal glands, and we check for that problem when they get baths.
But, good suggestion if we were more insistent about no shoes for a specific reason-- like if we had a crawling baby.
PS: yoga socks don’t cost much if you buy several pairs at once, and have Amazon Prime.
???
I live in a part that does. But all my older friends have shoes-on homes. On the other hand, nearly all my younger friends have shoes-off homes. And a lot of people ask me when they enter.
If there’s a pile of shoes at the door, i take off my shoes. If everyone is standing around wearing shoes, i don’t. If neither, and the host is older than i am, i leave my shoes on if they are my age or younger, i ask.
Packing to be a house guest with college friends in Chicago, i asked. Which was good, because the wife has gotten really concerned about the dirt shoes track into the house, and the first thing she said to me (as i was fumbling in my suitcase for clean indoor sandals with arch support) was to express concern that i hadn’t yet taken off my shoes.
(I try not to walk barefoot for extended periods of time, for medical reasons. And i packed them after the husband told me, “we are shoes-off, but guest’s choice" . Fortunately, i didn’t trust that last part.)
I think “thank you very much.” Perhaps “To quote Van Morrison,” but my money is on the former.
Than Que Very Much. It’s the latest style in Canuckistan. 
Yep, Amazon.
100 shoe covers(you can put them over bare feet too) for something like $10.
When I was in rehab, so long during Covid, they insisted everyone wear them. The meager visitors allowed in. Docs and nurses. Patients.
I would wear them over my own socks and pad around the hall ways. Doing my sneaky covert operations.
For a tad more dough you can get non-slip ones. Or the regular cloth hospital socks with rubber like tread.
From what I can tell they are cheaper than yoga socks.
Then I thought of those throw away sockish things for trying on shoes…hmmm, I’ll look those up….BBL
I watch the show called “Below Deck” which is a reality show about people working on yachts. The guests are spending tens of thousands of dollars to be there, with a fancy chef and full service crew.
Since it’s a boat and the floors are teak they make you take your shoes off when you come aboard, and the crew is always barefoot (I assume the chef is wearing boat shoes of some sort).
I assume if barefoot is ok for the super yachts, it’s ok at your house.
Interesting question. I attended a dinner a dinner that was what you would normally called “formal”. Polite conversation, cocktails, a five course meal with the bowls, plates and silverware laid out perfectly, the only difference being that no shoes were worn…because no clothes were worn.
Formal naked sit down dinner eh? Did they provide damask napkins or exam table paper to sit your bits on?
Monogrammed napkins, for both sitting on and wiping with.
Tres elegante!