My Parents don't like public bare feet.

Today, I wore flip flops to school and took them off when i got inside. I went the whole day like this, then put them back on before i went home. I told my mom, she told my dad, and they both flipped out on me.
They're talking about how nasty and dirty the school floors are, and how all the germs get in your pores and that's how you get sick. My dad grounded me, but i said i wouldn't do it again, so i'm not grounded. Is it true that you can get sick and everything?

Also, i think i'm gonna do it again, but just not tell them.

 

If you walk barefoot on dirty floors, you shouldn't lick your soles clean afterwards.

But doing that would be about the only way you'd potentially get sick from walking barefoot.

 

Seriously!

And since the parents in question are possibly half my age, maybe a bit more, I wonder at the uptightness.

 

Well, my mom's 44 and my dad's 49, but they never had a problem with bare feet before. Actually, my mom hates wearing shoes. And I used to walk around the neighborhood barefoot where there could be glass or old nails, etc. to cut my feet on and get infected. So, it's like a mystery.

 

Absolutely not true! There is NO risk of getting sick from germs getting into your pores. We're at far greater risk of picking up germs through our hands. While the ground may look very dirty, when it comes to transferable diseases, it is the invisible kind of 'dirt' that counts... people have tested many items in businesses, on public transport, even in hospitals. The items with the most germs were not the floor, but items touched by many people like the arm rests in buses and trains, the handles of shopping trolleys, the door knobs of course, stair railings, and in the hospitals were some of those very obvious items were cleaned, the remotes from the televisions were commonly overlooked and often harbored more bacteria than the toilets!

And even if you do put your feet on any place that is teeming with bacteria, it's still no great problem. Our skin is made to keep pathogens out, and to make us sick those germs have to be transferred to our food or face, where they may enter our body. With our hands we touch our food (even if you wash up before dinner, who hasn't ever eaten a snack without washing?), we touch our lips, may pick our teeth (when no one's watching ) etc, etc, thus allowing those germs from all those surfaces that may *look* clean but aren't really, to enter our system. Your feet may get grey or even black, but you're not using them to pick up your food, you're not rubbing your face with them, and you shouldn't prop them up on table you eat from. The dirt will just sit there and not hurt you at all, and may even be good for you. Exposure to dirt helps build your immune system. More material to read here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/31/g...ing-as-too-clean.html?sec=health&pagewanted=2
http://barefootgarden.blogspot.com/2009/06/have-we-become-too-clean.html
http://www.aaaai.org/patients/advocate/2004/winter/hygiene.stm

Also, in my years of going barefoot I have met many doctors -not for me but accompanying my mother to clinics and hospitals. I've always done so barefoot and never had any negative comments from them. Even in the US, where anti-barefoot bias runs much more strongly and there is even the persistent myth that going barefoot in stores or restaurants is against the law (it is not!), other barefooters report very few negative reactions from their doctors and other health care providers.

As for my own experiences, I've been barefoot full-time for almost fourteen years, and while I used to be sick a lot -coughing and sneezing every year from early fall until late spring, and getting a cold that kept me indoors for a few days with some regularity as well- in these past fourteen years I have called in sick once, for two days. Even a minor cough is rare.

Check out the links above and ask your parents to read them too... also the various sub-pages at http://www.barefooters.org especially http://www.barefooters.org/medicine which among other things busts some more myths about feet requiring support when running or playing other sports. And http://www.unshod.org/pfbc/toysaw.htm is very good too.

 

I totally echo Myranya in that after I started going barefoot everywhere I got way healthier. I felt stronger and stopped getting frequent colds like I used to when I wore shoes. I went for a stretch of 7 years without getting a single cold or flu while keeping the shoes off. If my bare feet get dirty I simply hose them off at the front door. Simple, easy, no fuss.

Shoes trap in the germs and make them grow and fester from the moisture and heat. They are disease generators, and smell bad because they are so full of germs. If parents knew better they would ground their kids for putting shoes ON.

 

I had the same problem with my parents recently, just be mature and present to them all this awesome information our fellow forum-members have posted.

 

OMG, I can't believe your parents are being so pig headed without knowing the facts. I wish there were some way you could show them my facebook page because I have a whole album of pics from school and I'm barefoot in every one of them. I have never worn shoes to school since I started, in fact I don't even own any shoes. The floors are dirty at my school and I even go to school barefoot in the winter. I have never gotten sick becaue of it.

 

Everyone knows the stereotypical "smelly teenagers shoes". Those things are incubators. They do fit into the Ozzie & Harriet world we cannot shake off. TV moms used to wear pearls when dusting and the kids ALL wore nice shoes. Now TV moms wear next to nothing, but those shoes are firmly in place. It's a messed-up world. The Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy might be the best solution. Just don't lick those soles!

 

Did it work to you Ely? Have your parents finally accepted you to walk barefoot in public, to become a barefooter?

 

I am very impressed with this! It's not as cold in Lehigh Valley PA as it is here, but still cold enough, and I would like to know how you do this. Sure, your time outdoors isn't of a long duration as mine, and it is warmer there. But also, with schools consistently against barefooting, I would really love to know what your magic is! This was a rare winter when even we seldom touched 0F so it would have been more do-able here. I would like to see where you barefoot, on your Facebook page. I guess I'll put up most of my own pics here on the galleries space.

EDIT: So I see you did put some pics here on the galleries. I also see you are big on wearing shorts as I am! I also see the pic in New Hope, which I suppose is more liberal than most places, much alike to Bar Harbor up my way. Well anyway, good for you! Big thumbsup.

 

Thank you, Cool Spruce.
It does still get pretty cold here. This was one of the coldest and snowiest winters we have had in a while. For the past 2 months the temps have been hovering in the 20s-low 30s. I don't really seem to mind it though. I usually just wear fleece pajama type pants and a sweatshirt with a t-shirt underneath. My feet are bare but the tops are sort of covered by my fleece pants. As far as schools, I am in college and most colleges are not opposed to bare feet as I have many other hippie friends who go to other colleges barefoot too. Yes you are correct in that I'm a beachbum-hippie so I love wearing beach shorts when it goes above 50 degrees. I tend to wear beach shorts 80% of the year. Thanks for the kudos on my lack of footwear.