When my daughter started to crawl, I started to obsess about my floors. First, I obsessed about the fact that they were incredibly uneven. Would my daughter not learn balance because our floors had at least a 6-inch difference from one side of the room to the other? Then I obsessed about the fact that the hardwood floors needed to be refinished about 10 years ago and were now splintering and cracking (this was so bad that my husband once got a “splinter” in his foot which I, being the caring and loving wife that I am, pulled out…only to discover that it was a 2.5-inch finishing nail, and not a splinter at all!) And then, I obsessed about dirt.
Now, I’m not the kind who goes crazy with the antibacterial wipes. (I’m more concerned about the superbugs we’re creating by overusing hand sanitizers and antibacterial soaps, to be honest.) In fact, at a conference of pediatric gastroenterologists I was complimented for letting my then-15-month-old daughter lick the floor. (Long story–I’ll tell it another time.) BUT, I have started to get really grossed out about what’s on the floor.
Because I live in New York City. And oh man, the stuff I’ve seen on the sidewalks! It’s pretty disgusting. (Today, for example, I saw people unloading a truck full of meat. And one of the plastic-wrapped gigantic hunks of raw meat had split open, so there was raw meat juice on the sidewalk. Ew.) So I’ve started a no-shoes policy. I know it can seem strange to some, but I think those people are just the ones who don’t pay attention to the raw meat juice, dog poop, vomit, and used condoms on the street. Personally, I’d like to keep it out of my house.
So what about you? Shoes? No shoes? Or never thought about it and now you’re totally grossed out, just like me? (Sorry!)
