A Stupid, Patronizing and Probably Offensive Article about Czechs

Prague Post: Worst foot forward

This peculiar shoe-removing custom catches newcomers by surprise: You are finally invited for dinner at the home of your Czech boss, colleague or friend. You wash and shave meticulously, wear a nice suit and bring an impressive bouquet of flowers or a good bottle of wine. You join Czech friends also attending the dinner and ring the bell. Then, as the door opens, something surreal happens: Your Czech friends hand over the flowers and wine, and then, without any prompt from the host or other apparent reason, they proceed to take off their shoes, leave them at the entrance and accept, with gratitude, shoes from their host. Old, frayed, stained and smelly home-shoes quickly replace the dress or high-heeled shoes under the suits and evening dresses.

Thankfully, a number of the comments recognise the stupidity of this article.

Housewarming Parties

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If you are moving into a new house or apartment and you want to make a clean start and have a no-shoes rule, you have an ideal opportunity to kick it off with an housewarming party.

The best thing to do is to indicate clearly on invitations that you will be requiring shoes-off. That way people will have no surpises. They can bring slippers, wear clean socks with no holes or a floaty skirt that looks great with barefeet (Trinny and Susanah actually recommend that hostesses of dinner parties should wear a long skirt with barefeet or slippers).

Having an housewarming party is such an excellent way to send the message that your new house will be a shoe-free zone. Even those of your friends who do not come will see on the invitation that you want shoes-off.

Requiring shoes-off at a housewarming party sends the message that you are really serious about the rule and that it is not just an exception for a wet winter evening. After all, some people with shoeless homes actually make an exception and allow shoes-on in parties. However, having shoes-off at an housewarming makes it clear that you want the house to stay as it was when you bought it.

Irrelevant News

This is not really relevant to removing shoes, but for your information, I have now passed my PhD course.

In telling you that I have done a PhD, I am not making any claim to expertise on the subject of etiquette, health, environmental science or anything related to removing shoes in homes. My PhD is in historical theology and has nothing to do with the subject of this blog.

This blog is not a scholarly journal. It happens to be written by a person who has done a PhD, but it could just as easily have been written by an high school drop-out. This blog is my hobby. While I hope you will find the information useful and informative, it is also meant to be fun.

Children

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I am always a little surprised when I see children wearing shoes at home, whether on television or in person. It surprises me because when I was a child, my parents expected me to remove my shoes at the door. When I visited my friends' homes, their parents often expected me to take my shoes off. So it always seems a little strange when I see children keeping their shoes on at home.

The practise of removing shoes was expected until I reached the age of about 12. My parents became less stringent about it as I got older. Occasionally this house rule would be revived in later years. It was restored when I was 21 when my parents and I moved to a house with cream carpets, though they were not consistent in keeping to it.

There are some homes, in the UK, where the hosts will expect the children of guests to remove their shoes, but would not expect it of adult guests. Some guests will insist that their children remove their shoes without removing their own. I can understand why some people may be more concerned about children's shoes; children do tend to be less careful about what they step in and are more likely to run around in long and wet grass. However, adults should never forget that their own shoes pick up an awful lot of less noticeable dirt. There is also the fact that children learn to follow rules better when adults act consistently. There is a certain amount of 'do as I say, not do as I do' in the requirement of shoes-off for children only.

Some childcare experts are of the opinion that children should wear shoes to the minimum necessary and therefore recommend shoes-off indoors for health reasons.

Spanish Princess Removes Her Shoes For Abu Dhabi Mosque Visit

During a visit to Abu Dhabi, Princess Letizia of Spain removed her shoes when visiting the Sheikh Zayed mosque.

Hello Magazine 20 January 2010

Smelly Feet

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The issue of 'smelly feet' is often raised as an argument against the Shoes-Off rule.

In Western society there seems to be a lot of paranoia about the phenomena of 'smelly feet'. I think this is simply a result of people not removing their shoes very often. Your feet will actually smell a lot less if you remove your shoes regularly. It is unfortunate that we in Britain have not yet reached the civilised heights of Finland, where it is acceptable to remove shoes in business meetings and on trains (not that people do not do so in Britain, but it is frowned upon somewhat).

Nevertheless, I think most people worry too much about this issue. People imagine their feet smell far more than they actually do. I have met very few people who let off much of an aroma after removing their shoes, and most of them were people who did not wash and change their socks regularly.

If people know in advance that they need to remove their shoes, they can make sure they wear clean socks, or even better, bring slippers with them. If they are especially worried about it, they can use some of those fancy foot deoderents.

Feet wil smell a lot less if people wear sandals. Sneakers tend to smell more than leather shoes, though I will admit I often wear sneakers when not in flip flops or crocs.

Some people will say 'I would rather put up with a dirty floor than people's smelly feet.' Well, I guess people decide on their own priorities. However, stinking feet will leave with the guests. A dirty floor will not. Nor will the dust they brought in on their shoes, and that is very bad for your health.

Message to Victoriap

Victoria, I have asked you to reply to my response to your comment. Please either apologise or defend your remark.

I value your comments, but it is not acceptable to make hit-and-run allegations of dishonesty.