The Patter of Little Feet

Question: What is your system for shoes?


Shoes... The best solution, don't wear any if at all possible. :)

I wear shoes in the house all the time, because I wear orthotics, but I'd rather be barefoot, so often I cheat. However, wearing shoes in the house DOES have its benefits: I don't step in puddles in my socks-- ew, worse than barefoot! I don't hurt myself on small hard objects, like LEGOs, for example, or unpopped pocorn kernels. (Yes, my house is really that untidy) And I can't feel the crumbs and crud on the floor when it needs to be swept, which is pretty much every five minutes, and is why I don't sweep it every five minutes, because , hey, it's just going to need it again in another five!

The kids, on the other hand, are _not allowed_ to wear shoes in the house. When they come in from playing, they stay in the porch. In fact, I almost have to forbid socks in the summertime, because I do have one child who prefers socks and shoes to sandals, likes to wear his socks to bed, and would keep them on, day and night, for five days straight before I would notice. This has happened more than once. And, while I don't want to feel crumbs, puddles, and LEGOs, I figure if the kids get sick of it, they'll be more motivated to clean it up. As I have told many, many people who have seen me tell a child pick something up off the floor rather than bend down myself, "It's easier for them, they are closer to the floor." So the shoes are to be worn outside only, and to make things much simpler ALL the kids' shoes of ALL types are kept in the back porch.

We have three or four sets of Rubbermaid organizers, each of which is two large bins with handles, one on top of the other, slid into a frame, so that it's like drawers, except you can easily take the whole thing out. Some of those bins hold potatoes, onions, and plastic grocery bags (aka trash can liners), but four of them hold shoes.

Right now, as it's still summer here in southern Indiana, one bin has what we call sandal-shoes. These are Lands' End HydroQuest shoes, which look like a cross between a sport sandal and a tennis shoe. They have elastic laces with toggles to adjust the fit, and have mesh and open areas for breathability. They boast anti-microbial materials which keep them from stinking as quickly, as they are worn barefoot (by all but my sock-lover), and when they get too ripe, I just toss them in the washing machine on cold, gentle cycle and air dry, and they are fresh again. Once summer hits, the kids are not to wear their usual tennis shoes anymore. By then, most of them are too small and/or worn out anyway; when fall comes, we buy new ones or dig up handmedowns from the basement. We have done this for two summers now, and it has worked great! I do not buy any sandals; this is their summer play shoe and sandal in one. (This summer, a few bought flip-flops with their own money, which are their responsibility.)

Another drawer holds mud boots, aka overshoes to some, I understand. Where we live, we don't have a winter, at least not my my definition, so snow boots are not economical. At the same time, when it's not summer, it rains a lot, so the ground is usually muddy. Faced with the choice between keeping the kids in the house and therefore clean, and letting them play outside, inevitably finding someone's shoes encrusted with dried mud when I'm trying to get them out the door to go to town. So I got smart and bought a set of mud boots, aka overshoes, at the local farm store for $15 a pair. I have gotten a good return out of that investment, and as with most things in a large family they will be handed down.

A third drawer hold the current set of play shoes. In the summer the drawer is hardly cracked, but I leave them there just in case... In case we have a chilly day, or an occasion that calls for real shoes.

A fourth drawer holds the children's dress shoes for Sunday. We tried keeping these in the bedrooms, but it got to be crazy trying to make sure they were all located in the midst of other Sunday morning preparations. Tried getting clothes out the night before, too, but while it was better it really just transferred that frantic search to an earlier time slot. The boys wear black dress shoes year-round. The girls wear black in the fall/winter, and white in the spring/summer. This hearkens back to my childhood, when I was told there was a rule that it was black from Labor day on, then White from Easter Sunday on. Don't know that I'm strict on that, as we wear what fits, even if it's not the right color, but it does look funny to see black mary janes in the summertime and white ones in the winter, so I try. I have waffled on the issue of girls wearing sandals to church. I do, but then there aren't four of me. I got tired of keeping track of both, so I went to just shoes, both out of fairness to the boys, who don't have that option, and to make it easier. That was when we had them in the rooms, though, so this year I found sandals for all the girls and it worked out okay. Whatever the case, I'm not giving up my freedom... my feet get HOT in the summer.