Outdoor shoes inside

Am I the only one who sometimes sits on the floor (especially when doing crafts, and have a lot of bits and bobs strewn around me)?

I've just realized that I have been on my hands and knees on the carpet for the last 20 mins or more, tapping away on my tablet which is on the floor in front of me.
There are also several balls of yarn on the floor around me, from the knitting that I was doing earlier and might carry on with again before going to bed.

Those are just some of the reasons why I want my carpets to be as free from outside dirt as possible, and removing shoes is by far the most obvious and simple way of achieving that.

I did think TB was spread by droplets from an infected person; I remember when the sister of a friend had TB and we did all avoid going to their house.

I can understand your feelings pinkquartz under the circumstances. That must have been very distressing, I am so sorry.

From a TB website

When someone with TB in their lungs or throat coughs or sneezes, they send droplets into the air that contain the TB bacteria. If you breathe in these bacteria over a long time you may become ill with TB. But most people won’t get ill because:

*you normally need to spend many hours close to a person with infectious TB to breathe in enough bacteria to be at risk
most people’s immune systems are strong enough to kill off TB bacteria.*
TB cannot be spread through touch, sharing cutlery, bedding or clothes.

Buses in Edinburgh in my youth had ‘do not spit’ signs due to TB. Sadly my mother had it as a child. However, taking shoes off at the front door is not something I grew up with. I nearly tripped over one of the first ladies who invited me into their home in Essex as she removed hers t the front door but quickly learned about this ‘local’ tradition. I began to think it was me but visiting relatives have proved me wrong.

I will try to find a link tomorrow.

I have a dead grandchild to TB. she was 15 months old and there is no TB in the family. She was not taken out more than half a dozen times as her mum, my DD had Post Natal Depression at the time.

I could never forget that my DD's family did not have a shoes off rule in their house. She has other children and lived in a busy city where it is common for people to spit on the pavement.

So for me the blase comments are galling.
Maybe if you don't walk around the less affluent parts of a multicultural city life is more secure and safe?
Reminders of the Victorians building sewage systems when the diseases of the poor had affected the better off.
perhaps spit strewn streets are perfectly safe but I wouldn't bet on it.

Yes I might be completely off my head on this but then what happened is awful.

Dogs are a nuisance
Cats are worse
That's the end of my little verse.

Sorry, yes, you can wash a dog's paws but try catching a cat! Or clearing up innards brought in as a present.

What about dogs?

Do any of you who are 'shoes off' own dogs?

Or cats for that matter

Surely anyone would put tiny babies on a rug or play mat and always vacuum before allowing a crawling baby down on the floor?

TB is transferable on footwear

Do you have a link about that please pinkquartz

MissA yes, making mud pies!

I don’t know Monica and neither do you. Neither do you seem to have a clear idea of what constitutes a ‘contaminant’.

Babies sit on swings and slides and in parks too... Where there are SHOES!

Jane10
Unfortunately babies do sit on carpets.

if you wear shoes in the house, you will not have any contact with whatever was anyone else's shoes. Most contaminants on a shoe are walked off long before you get to anyone's front door, unless the contaminant is actually on the doorstep.

How many people become ill from a street contaminant compared with those who become ill because they got the contaminat on their hands when trying to scrape it off?

Children have always played out in the garden, surely?

OK, carry on with the filthy habit if it suits you, Jane10, but our family have always changed shoes at the door.

There are often crawling babies and toddlers around. We know that their hands are often in their mouths - so really it's just the same as letting them crawl around in the dirt outside. Yuk!

I am well aware of TB. It's transmitted via breathing droplets of contaminated air. Obviously, we coped with the many tramping feet (in shoes gasp!) of patients through our house over many years by not sniffing the carpets!

"We" (those of us on here) have obviously survived this, and any other potentially deadly threat that might have come our way so far, but many others didn't, or suffered life-changing consequences as a result, so I don't really see the value of that particular reasoning.

We must all have a direct ancestor who survived the black death too, and in fact every other type of natural disaster that has killed so many throughout the history of mankind, but that doesn't make the risks that they faced any less serious.

As for TB - you just have to a bit of genealogy, or to watch programmes like Who do you think you are? to see that almost every family lost people, often young people, to this awful disease. I know ours did, just a couple of generations ago.

OMG how have we survived so long while not expecting shoes to be removed in the house
Amazingly we did even at the height of TB and with patients traipsing through our house!!
Watch where you walk, get a hoover and chill!

T.B.

is back.......when I was a child there were public service short films warning not to spit in the street,
T.B. was still commonplace.

People did not spit in the street.
Different times, different values, spitting now common.

T.B. is back and is transferable via sputum on footwear.
So please do not say it is only dirt.

kaycee we’ve had many occasions where people have had dog muck on their shoes. If we hadn’t had a “ no shoes” rule, then it would have been quite vile.

That is so rude and disrespectful to you. You say they don’t like your husband, but it sounds like he has more reason for not liking them. We never even have to ask people to remove shoes, they just do it. We always take slippers where ever we go. Everyone who comes to your house should remove their shoes if that is your request.

When I'm out walking I always have an eye out for phlegm, animal/human wee and mess, vomit, chewing gum and discarded food. I've never seen UK walkways as bad as they are nowadays.
Phlegm is a particular problem and who would want that walked into their homes?
When I visit someone's home, it is their space and their rules. I always enquire if I should take off my shoes. I was brought up to be polite and respectful.

I always go to take my shoes off when visiting someones house. Lots of times people say please don't bother to remove shoes - so I don't. I never expect people to take their shoes off when visiting me and if they go to do so I say no worries keep your shoes on - it's only dirt after all and can be cleaned up. I'd rather have their company and am not worried at all by a bit of dirt. . My son and DIL have a no outside shoes in the house rule which I respect and take our slippers. Don't see the big deal - unless of course you live at the end of a really muddy lane and have very light carpets - which would seem a bit dim.