does this happen to you.. a small child will see you barefoot and sit down and start to remove their shoes, only to have some adult start telling them to leave their shoes on? happens all the time to me.. we live right across the street from a park. some little girl tried to get barefoot and grandma put a stop to it. the little girl said, "she's not wearing shoes!" and pointed to me. i just smiled and shrugged at the grandma.
Now that takes me back a few years, to visiting my brother when his kids were young. I was going around the place barefoot, and two little voices said "Uncle Amo, you're setting a bad example!" Seems they'd already been told what they weren't supposed to be doing. Pretty sad, that.
It has been my sad experience that really little children are the ones who point out my barefootedness/bareleggedness, whichever, or both, to the adult they are with. I mistakenly thought that very young and innocent age would be free to accept these conditions, but sadly, somehow they've already been conditioned to see it as abnormal, and wrong. But yes, as Boogabaah says, I occasionally have the little one who tries to do as I do. They are always stopped. Even if the parents seem hip (and half my age) which is so sad. This will be a MAJOR prejudice for us to overcome, almost as difficult to overcome as nudity itself. I don't know why.
Yeah I notice that little kids of certain kinds of (e.g. controlling) parents tend to make a deal out of me being barefoot. I think that they are simply experiencing confusion because I am breaking the "rules" their parents set on them. Of course, all the barefoot kids in the community have no problem with me or other adults going barefoot, in fact they seem to be rather happy about it.
I was in town last weekend and was in the queue for the cash machine when this little boy behind me (probably about 3) looked at his mom and said "mommy, that man's got no shoes on...". His mom proceeded to ignore him and he persisted 3 or 4 times "but mommy, he's got no shoes on... he hasn't!" and he got increasingly wound up that his mom wouldn't acknowledge him or do anything about it. I didn't know what to make of it, so I just smiled at them and went about my business!
I often have children point out that i am unshod, the parents usually just grin and carry on, sometimes i get the opportunity to explain myself to them. If i'm wearing my "barefoot hikers" t-shirt, i just point out the logo. People often find that interesting, but not something they could do...
Yeah little kids are definitely drawn to the sight of a barefoot person in a "strange" place. Especially if they've already been conditioned to accept the notion that you can't leave the house without shoes. My son definitely doesn't take after me - he doesn't like being barefoot, even in the house, which also describes my wife so I'm sure that's where he gets it from. I'm hoping that it's just a thing right now and I will be able to open him up to being barefoot more eventually, but if not, oh well. I'll just keep my feet bare as a constant reminder. ;-P
unfortunately not. at best I happen to stumble upon some toddler who inistently attracts the general attention on that barefoot weirdo of me, much to his parents' dismay -which also can be funny but not like spoiling the youth the way you do
My son, now 19, takes after me strongly with regard to shorts, and, in season, flops and sandals. Wore shorts in grade school, and ALL of high school! Barefoot, only to a point. I'm the stronger barefooter in our family of 3. He works with me barefoot, and in our house, but he no longer dares the public places. Claims he can't drive barefoot. (got to work on him on that one.) Got tired of the confrontations in public. I came close to fisticuffs with the manager of our local Home Depot (a barefoot friendly company, eh?) and he got a laugh out of that, but I think it finally turned him off to the public scene. Maybe me too. (Why should it be like this? Bringing the worst out of us; I'm not a violent person, I don't want confrontation.) He still does shorts year round, but is driving all over Maine to visit girlfreind and attend classes at the community college, thus, any time he might be trapped in extreme cold, he's covered up. (I keep cold weather clothing within reach in my truck, but never yet had to put it on.) His girlfriend doesn't mind all this, by the way. Says it's cool.
