Barefoot Parents

You see parents with shoeless kids, but the reverse is surprising. Those photos of Jackie Kennedy, shopping barefoot in Italy with her two small, shod children, are poignant. One day in the 1980s, I noticed a mother and her teenager folding their clothes in the laundromat. The kid wore shorts and sneakers, and the blue-jeaned woman’s feet were bare. In another town, I passed a shoeless dad who herded four or five little kids, all in sandals, through K-Mart.

A woman and her young son made soft steps as they walked through the convenience store near my former home. A few weeks later I happened to notice her again at the grocery store. “Beautiful day to go barefoot,” I said. “Absolutely! I always go around barefooted in summer!” she declared. “I work for a house-cleaning service and just put on my slippers to go inside!”

That’s a twist: put off your shoes going outside, put them on coming in….

On a road trip with my family, a mother and her teenage sons stood at the gas pump next to ours. She said, “I ALWAYS travel without my shoes on!”

Do such parents fuss and whine to go barefoot until their kids give in and say, “Oh, alright, but just this once…”