I admit to feeling uncomfortable when asked to remove my shoes as I enter someone’s home. The awkwardness is especially true if I am wearing stockings. In that instance I feel exposed, as if my underwear is showing. Also on edge because I am quite sure that the stockings will most likely get a few snags.
If the home is Buddhist, or more culturally oriented towards taking shoes off at the door, I feel differently. In such cultures removing shoes is a mark of respect. But when being asked to take off ones shoes is not culturally ingrained, the request often feels off-putting to me.
Mud-room practices aside (we all expect to take wet, muddy, or snowy boots off at the door), I don’t ask others to take their shoes off when they enter my home. Asking feels like an imposition, almost a demand for a level of intimacy (or adherence to fastidious cleaning habits) regardless of who they are or why they are visiting. And some don’t like to show their feet. My mother, for example, had severe arthritis in her toes and was embarrassed about how they looked. She would have been mortified to take off her shoes in public.
Read the rest on Huffington Post.
