Any other Barefooters out there? - Page 10

[~MommaCarrie~]

Thats so funny theres actually a group of activists Id never of thought! Me and my kiddos are almost always barefoot but just because Im too lazy and dont mind the feel of grass between my toes. Unless were going to the store were barefoot - oh and in the winter frostbite wouldnt be fun.

[trmpetplaya]

Originally Posted by ~MommaCarrie~

Thats so funny theres actually a group of activists Id never of thought! Me and my kiddos are almost always barefoot but just because Im too lazy and dont mind the feel of grass between my toes. Unless were going to the store were barefoot - oh and in the winter frostbite wouldnt be fun.

Welcome to MDC and to the barefooter tribe!!!

love and peace.

[judybean]

In the mornings (except for this week, too many other things going on, though I'm *totally* missing the walk!) I go on a walk with a couple other moms. They're about as mainstream as they come, though they all breastfed for six months to a year.

For whatever reason I find it perfectly fine to mention the vax issue (in a totally calm, non-judgemental way because honestly these moms had never even thought to question it... at least they thought about questioning it... whether they did or not? well, that's their journey), I show off my pit and leg hair, I shout the wonders of baking soda and vinegar from the rooftops, I'll show off the most recent cloth diaper I sewed up, etc.... but gosh... the moment I begin talking about the joys of being barefoot .... and *gasp* keeping kids out of shoes for at least a year?!?

You would have thought I was walking naked down the street and nobody knew quite how to tell me.

Seriously. I thought it was the most bizarre thing. I guess I just figured barefootism would be a pretty lukewarm topic that would just be fun to talk about. But it was like I totally killed the conversation. I'm not sure if they thought I was judging that they had put hard-soled shoes on their older kids or what.....

At least I brought up soft-soled (leather) shoes. One mama was all about those.

(but don't get me started on the germs thing.... I figure there are far worse germs *living* in some people's shoes!)

[TzippityDoulah]

Originally Posted by judybean

(but don't get me started on the germs thing.... I figure there are far worse germs *living* in some people's shoes!)

yeah totally I agree!! yucky swampy shoes.


the only thing that worries me is stepping on rusty things, or glass and what not. which is sadly not all that uncommon around here. but germs? i can wash those off!

[cfiddlinmama]

I really can't believe the violent reactions I get from people. Mainly from cloth dipes, being hairy, and going barefoot. I don't know if they somehow take it as a personal criticism. I usually am just trying to make interesting conversation. Ya know? Mostly they just chalk it up to being a crazy hippie. Oh ya, the no poo thing kills them too. Somehow that just solidifies it in their minds that I'm dirty. I can just hear them "I mean, she doesn't shave or use shampoo, how gross. Look at her feet with callouses. How unfeminine. She's trying to save the world one diaper at a time. Doesn't she know it's a hopeless cause? Let's just pollute and not think about it." I'm starting to get lots of comments about my 13mo old dd not wearing shoes. I tell them about feet development & they just look at me like I'm crazy. I did just get her some soft leather shoes for when she starts walking. But other than slippers in the winter, she's never worn shoes.


judybean - OT but I'd love to talk to you sometime about your experiences as a NFL Trad. especially regarding gentle discipline k? Maybe the Quiverfull tribe would be better?

[Tonia80]

Been branching out with the bare feet lately. Guess it just never dawned on me I COULD. Been trained to wear shoes everywhere, KWIM? I love the cool tile in the stores on my bare feet. Best is still the damp grass after the rain though.
Question for you all...what do you wear on your feet in the winter?

[NinaBruja]

Originally Posted by trmpetplaya

Well... I always warn people IRL that I'm terrible with names
I think EC and barefooting go together in a different paradigm from normal kind of way... both diapers and shoes are perceived as being necessary and normal in modern society and yet they're both optional

yes! so so true!
and im horrible at even remembering people...

Originally Posted by HennyPenny

the only thing that worries me is stepping on rusty things, or glass and what not. which is sadly not all that uncommon around here. but germs? i can wash those off!

when i was little i got a rusty old roofing nail through my foot while i was wearing shoes... man that sucked.

[trmpetplaya]

Originally Posted by Tonia80

Been branching out with the bare feet lately. Guess it just never dawned on me I COULD. Been trained to wear shoes everywhere, KWIM? I love the cool tile in the stores on my bare feet. Best is still the damp grass after the rain though.
Question for you all...what do you wear on your feet in the winter?

Yay! I think it's really the pervasive idea that shoes are necessary that encourages people to comment about bare feet and prevents most people from even thinking about not wearing shoes (especially in public). I had to read about it online and find out that it was legal and safe and that I wasn't the only one before I tried doing it in public (as an adult) also. I wonder WHY it's so pervasive Maybe because you can't really sell shoes to people who don't wear them... capitalism, ya' gotta love it

I don't know what I'll wear on my feet in the winter (if there is a winter for much longer... I just watched Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" - don't like HIM, but the movie was good - about global warming and &*($^#$&*!!!!! I kinda wish I didn't know about it... with knowledge comes responsibility...) because I just started the whole barefooting thing. I guess I'll wait and see. I have sandals and it never snows around here anymore so... I know there are people who hike barefoot in the snow though so it CAN be done.

There are some studies showing that getting wounded on the feet while wearing shoes is much more dangerous than while barefoot. I should look them up again... Shoes serve as perfect incubators for all kids of bacteria and fungi. In fact... the story about getting athlete's foot in the locker room/public showers is only true if you go barefoot into the locker room and then put shoes on afterwards because athlete's foot doesn't grow easily or at all on unshod feet.

I know a few barefooters who can put a piece of curved glass, pointy side up, on the ground and crush it beneath their heal without getting cut. So I guess glass stops being an issue after going barefoot long enough

love and peace.

[mother nurture]

Hey, mamas! Long time. I am so glad that the server is up and I have a moment to get on here

judybean-I can't believe those mamas freaked out so much about barefooting.: Seems strange. It amazes me how many people think barefooting is so crazy.

During the winter it doesn't get too cold here. And almost never snows, so I usually can get away w/ barefoot for quite a while. However, I do have some pairs of soft soled sock shoes that I usually wear out and about. I picked them up at a hippie shop in town, but I think they sell some on gypsy rose's site. If I feel that the weather is just too much for barefeet or soft shoes I wear a pair of comfy old knock off vegan birk clogs. They are really comfy, too.

On the subject of nakedness...dd, as I mentioned spends quite a bit of time nude. We were visiting my parents over the last few days and my dad kept telling dd that she needed to put some clothes on. She cried and then when she took a shower she was so embarassed to be nude

[JoyJoy1975]

Wow never knew their was a name for it. I went barefoot as a kid we only had flip flops for summer time outings and shoes for church. My kids have tons of shoes they only wear when were going somewhere. SAHM so my kids are home a lot and barefoot a lot. My DH makes them wear shoes to go outside but the thing is he doesn't know is mom never does so they go barefoot a lot. Me I am barefoot right now just looked all the kids are too. Were all barefoot about 90percent of our day and the other 10 is if were going somewhere which some days we just don't go anywere. Mostly the weekends we are out and about.

[NinaBruja]

Originally Posted by trmpetplaya

I know a few barefooters who can put a piece of curved glass, pointy side up, on the ground and crush it beneath their heal without getting cut. So I guess glass stops being an issue after going barefoot long enough

i used to be able to do this as a child. i used to freak out the shoe wearing children in the neighborhood when i jumped off a 4 foot ledge onto broken glass bwahaha...
and i spent summers barefoot in the middle of the desert in arizona. my mom used to call me asbestos feet.

cant do it anymore though...

[trmpetplaya]

Originally Posted by poxybat

i used to be able to do this as a child. i used to freak out the shoe wearing children in the neighborhood when i jumped off a 4 foot ledge onto broken glass bwahaha...

:

That's awesome!!!

love and peace.

[mother nurture]

Originally Posted by poxybat

i used to be able to do this as a child. i used to freak out the shoe wearing children in the neighborhood when i jumped off a 4 foot ledge onto broken glass bwahaha...
and i spent summers barefoot in the middle of the desert in arizona. my mom used to call me asbestos feet.

cant do it anymore though...

Wow mama! Stunts like that...did you make a few bucks?

My feet seemed much stronger when I was younger. They are still pretty strong when it comes to cuts and sharp objects (just sensitive to the hot asphalt). I can walk through the dunes at the beach and if I get a sandspur in my foot it doesn't hurt, but broken glass.....

[queenofhercastle]

Fellow barefooter checking in here!

I'm glad I found this thread! I'm barefoot the majority of the day unless I have to go somewhere. My kids run around barefoot too. It never crosses my mind to put on shoes when I'm at home. Even when I go out to back yard. And I've been like that since I was a kid. I've never liked wearing shoes.

The shoe thing was also why I never could get into the Flylady system. Wearing shoes around the house just doesn't make any sense to me. I even kick them off when I go to the park with the kids.

Nice to see there are so many others like me!

[arlecchina]

oh my god, thankyou for this thread
I hate shoes always have.

[trmpetplaya]

Welcome, queen, arlecchina, and joy! Always good to see new barefooters

love and peace.

[Snowdrift]

Originally Posted by trmpetplaya

I know a few barefooters who can put a piece of curved glass, pointy side up, on the ground and crush it beneath their heal without getting cut. So I guess glass stops being an issue after going barefoot long enough

Enjoying the "new posts" restoration and stumbled across this tribe. I'm only moderately hard-core on the bare-feetness, but I read this and remembered a passage from Thor Heyerdahl's book on Easter Island.

Easter Island is made of sharp volcanic rock that the residents walked barefoot on with impunity. All the westerner's shoes quickly got sliced up on the rocks. The missionaires gave shoes to the children--who quicklyl returned to their barefooted-ness when the shoes got sliced up on the rocks. The shoes couldn't handle it, but their feet were fine.

[cfiddlinmama]

That'a an awesome story tie-dyed! Welcome! It's so freeing to be barefoot!

[nolonger]

I forget whether I mentioned this before, but I found this thread and all of Trmpetplaya's links to the Society for Barefoot Living right about the time my Doc Martins wore out and I was very worried about not being able to afford comfortable walking shoes. I now have a pair of Dollar Tree flip-flops which live in my left hand (I put them on when going into stores sometimes) and a pair of el cheapos that are suitable for bicycle riding but not walking. I had one incident when my feet were first toughening up where I accidentally blistered my soles on hot pavement, but I was fine a few days later, much more quickly than when I tried to walk in my bicycle shoes.

I've walked barefoot across town several times since and am perfectly happy with this situation. It doesn't snow here very often so we'll see how I manage over the winter.

My dd is a homeschool graduate who very much wants to go to college; a replacement for the Doc Martins would probably have cost at least as much as tuition for a three unit class at our local community college.

I'm so happy to have realized that shoes are just one more stupid expense I can do just fine without once I think for myself instead of conforming. I was known as "The Barefoot Girl" as a child and have never worn shoes in my house or yard, but am brand new to barefooting in public.

[MamaFranklin]

mmmm barefoot! I lived the first 27 years of my life without shoes... Now I moved from the beach, to the mountains where we have snow on the ground 8-10 months out of the year... The snow and the floor is now SOOOO cold!