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StarrieEyedKat

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That is exactly what I meant. It's like not wiping down gym equipment when you're done with it. Will the next person catch a deadly disease when they use the treadmill after you do? probably not. Does it say something about your regard for your fellow gym-goers? you bet.

Conuly, I understand your argument: in a public space, when you don't take your shoes off at the door, what is really the difference between stepping inside wearing street shoes or in bare feet? Still, it somehow feels wrong.

Cultures, of course, vary wildly in their approach. In Israel there's a great divide between people who say it's rude to come into someone's home and leave your shoes on, and those who say it's the epitome of rudeness to expect your guests to keep their shoes on, just in case they're uncomfortable showing their socks/feet. I adopted the Canadian stance: shoes off at the door.

Damnit, I really have to start thinking a little before commenting when I'm in a tizzy. Yeah, that's gross, I think we can all agree.

And yes, I do agree that when the culture designates this place or that place for shoes you should generally enforce that with kids (with the exception of young babies and toddlers who should be barefoot whenever possible so their feet and gait develop properly) just as you enforce the rules about wearing shirts. I just don't think it's inherently unhygienic. We generally think of our rules as natural and not arbitrary, but that's not always the case, is it?

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What about broken glass and other sharp objects? The sidewalks in parts of the city I live in are covered with spit, loogies, and discarded gum. Don't forget about the bird crap all over the sidewalks and the occasional dog and cat turds. Then there are the piles of vomit from the drunks and vagrants.

Yes, exactly... and speaking of sharp objects, there's the danger of discarded needles from drug users. Sometimes you have to live in a place for a while before you find out about which areas are considered dangerous (not always the most obvious ones). They are on the move all the time so they wouldn't have a chance to get any local knowledge before running wild. That would worry me a lot, especially in urban areas.

I must admit I'm squeamish about going barefoot at the best of times, but they just take it to a new level of gross. I often wonder if they wash their feet before they go to bed in the sparkly vehicle. :?

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I'm a Southern girl. I'm ALL about barefoot if at all possible. I would NEVER allow my young children to be barefoot in the low income housing and around the areas where IV drug users congregate, which Lauren did last spring.

Also, I have a girl who prefers a *very* short cut. I cut her hair for her and it looks adorable, even if her Daddy moans that he doesn't like short hair. She does NOT look like a neglected child with choppy, uneven hair and bangs cut entirely to the hairline. It's an EASY manner to fix children's hair the way *they* want it. Lauren lets her kids do whatever they want with the scissors because she flat-out doesn't care. I suspect if Del took those scissors to mom's precious dreds while mom slept, the scissors would miraculously find a safe, more secure home than they have. It's just sad that the only way I believe Lauren will care is if SHE looks bad. She fully believes it's perfectly fine for her GIRLS to look bad but can't mess with her dreds.

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Hmm, when I was around the younger girls' age I had a somewhat similar haircut, though it was cut by my mother so it didn't look choppy. I didn't particularly want long hair/to wear it up, so she cut it for me. Simple as that. I kind of agree with the attitude that if your child expresses a clear wish regarding personal appearance that isn't damaging you should probably try to accomodate it. Wanting a child to have long hair when they are capable of saying they don't like it does to me seem controlling. In my opinion she should be giving those girls the haircuts they want so they don't look like they did a chop job themselves in the bathroom. If they want long hair but need help dealing with it, do your best to help them brush it and put it up. If one of them is so adamant about not liking hair in her face that she chops it off regularly it sounds like a sensory issue to me, not just harmless play. It must be very uncomfortable for her if that's the case.

Let me guess, this was in the 70's? We all had that cut then, no one does now.

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Conruly, I'm honestly still trying to wrap my mind around you're thinking walking around barefoot in public spaces is not a hygiene issue. I never wear my shoes in my house and my floors are clean. I walk around in my house all day long in socks or barefooted and my feet are always clean. I live way out in the country and I will walk around outside in my grass barefooted sometimes in the summer and my feet will still be white except for grass shavings. I know if I walked in a store without shoes, the floor is filthy and the soles of my feet would be filthy. I don't suppose I would die, but it does seem very gross to me. I'm not picking on you, but I'm genuinely curious.

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The picture of Calista sitting with her bare dusty dirty feet in the magnet bowl - words fail me. O Sparkling One, pick up your daughter for heaven's sake instead of holding the camera. Others don't need to be gifted whatever your daughters' feet picked up on the street.

This. I would probably never actually say anything unless they came to my house frequently, but I would not want those grubby little feet on my couch. or carpet. or guestroom bedsheets....

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More creepy bridge stuff (although, at least this one was indoors and the rocking feeling was fake):

The perception tunnel is an interesting exhibit. While standing on a steady platform, the artificial scenery rocks back and forth slowly, and my mind is tricked into believing that I'm on a swinging bridge.

LWQE5fuDyyw

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Really wish I didn't click play. I felt nauseous just watching it. I could walk on it and be fine, but watching that video made my stomach turn flips.

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Conruly, I'm honestly still trying to wrap my mind around you're thinking walking around barefoot in public spaces is not a hygiene issue. I never wear my shoes in my house and my floors are clean. I walk around in my house all day long in socks or barefooted and my feet are always clean. I live way out in the country and I will walk around outside in my grass barefooted sometimes in the summer and my feet will still be white except for grass shavings. I know if I walked in a store without shoes, the floor is filthy and the soles of my feet would be filthy. I don't suppose I would die, but it does seem very gross to me. I'm not picking on you, but I'm genuinely curious.

Well, I don't know that the floor in every single store is filthy. Most stores have policies against going barefoot, so I wouldn't do that anyway. However, despite what some signs say, those policies are not backed up by law.

When I go out and about, I touch a great many things. I pick up hats and mittens on the sidewalk and stick them on the nearest tree so their owners can find them. I grab onto subway and bus poles. I wipe the nieces' dirty faces and hold their hands, and I have no idea if they washed them last time they sneezed or went to the bathroom! I pet my cats. I pet other people's cats. I adore cats. If I see a penny on the ground, I pick it up. I wrestle the sticks off the nieces when they're just too big and unwieldy to carry home, and what IS it with kids and sticks, anyway? I go in the garden and I dig stuff up and sometimes when I do this I neglect to put on my gardening gloves, a choice I inevitably regret. (But when I put them on, my hands get sweaty and stinky.) I shove my glasses up on my face a zillion times a day. I tie my shoes. I help the kids get their shoes on and off if they need it, less and less as time goes on. I bend down and roll up their long pant legs, because somehow I do it better than they do. If I don't pay attention I absent mindedly pick at scabs, and yes I know that's a gross habit. I pick up snakes in the garden and show them to the nieces, and stray robin eggs that have hatched, and those salamanders that crawl under rocks.

And everything I touch has the potential to make me sick. I wash my hands, but not obsessively, because if I did that I'd soon have no skin left. I do wash my hands before I eat... but many people cannot honestly say they do that EVERY time they have a snack or happen to stop at Burger King for dinner. And I wash my feet. I wash them if I've been barefoot, and I especially wash them if they've been encased in a dark, moist environment for several hours because, I gotta say, I think THAT is not particularly hygienic. I mean, when I think of breeding places for germs, I don't think about fresh air, do I? I think about a sandwich in a Baggie under a bed. Moist, little air, dark.... Sounds like the inside of a shoe as well.

I'll tell you something else, though you don't want to hear it. Every few years some science student in high school or college will try to determine if public toilet seats are really dirtier than X. I keep a running list. So far, public toilet seats are much, much cleaner than: computer keyboards, cell phones, playground equipment, your kitchen sink, and the basin of many but not all water fountains. Comparatively speaking, you could practically eat off of toilet seats, though I doubt you'd want to.

Ever since I started keeping that list, I stopped worrying so much. I mean, I clean my phone pretty religiously now, but I figure that the world is one big death trap, so I might as well do what I like. I can wear shoes or flip flops or nothing at all on any part of my body, and at the very worst the only person I could possibly hurt is myself. So if I can't find my shoes* but I promised to walk the girls to school and Eva can't get there herself, I don't mind sucking it up and walking unshod. (Well, at least as far as her nearest classmate so they can her. Her school is just past a sketchy intersection where I do not want to linger barefoot. But that is beside the point.)

* serious organizational issues

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I figure that the world is one big death trap, so I might as well do what I like.

Better than the opposite reaction, I guess, which, of course, is a song cue:

7j5Be5a86uA

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Better than the opposite reaction, I guess, which, of course, is a song cue:

7j5Be5a86uA

Oooh, I'm singing along! I love that song. Love the show. Last season was crap.

And seriously, though, I don't wish to claim it's always best to not wear shoes, nor that those kids look well cared for and loved, just that it's not always awful and unhygienic to not wear shoes. Sometimes your best judgment and mine might vary in that regard. I just don't understand why some people react with this almost visceral disgust at the thought.

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As the Golgafrinchams well know, good telephone hygiene is of the utmost importance.

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I think ( and just to add -I I live in a very small country town) that no shoes doesnt really raise an eyebrow along the beaches but inland you wear some thing on your feet

the ground is hot and in summer this equals burning feet /melted tar and hurty rocks plus it is quietly no OK and regarded as a bit HMMMMM . Thongs (As in flip flops )are ok all year round .

Again this is the non following of social rules and designed to have them stand out ...God help these little girls .. I can imagine them right now , we used to have children like this visit ...no -sweep in .......

The sitting in the magnet toy is socially not OK ...We are going to the alexander the geat exhibition nad I cant imagine my tweeners rolling up ,sitting inthe exhibits and touching when your not meant to.

MIne are shirtless and barefoot in holidays but have been taught how to fit in but they have also been taught and show how to think for themselves.

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Just to add ..the boy accompanying them has hat/ watch and shoes .....interesting that he can be free and non gender specific and whatever else but his parent recognises the need for these things...

LAuren might learn a lesson from her

i think what bothers me the most is these girls are fair-redhead fair as I am .. We burn badly..Lauren always has a hat but the girls dont .

come on put a hat on---- teach them how to look after themselves.

Usually I can be Ok with individual choice but not this -sunprotection and feral looking

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For the people who asked - you sometimes see people going barefoot on beachfront streets in Australia, but more often they are wearing thongs (flip flops). The streets get very hot, not comfortable for bare feet. The road surfaces even melt on the hottest days. Aside from that, it's pretty unusual to see anyone barefoot in an urban environment.

Australian kids do, however, often play in the bush or their backyards barefoot. I know people have a perception of Australia as full of venomous snakes and spiders, but although they do exist, its generally pretty safe to go barefoot in cleared areas if you are aware and take basic precautions.

I pretty much share Cracked's perception of Australian wildlife (arachnophobes beware, spider photos at link): http://www.cracked.com/funny-163-australia/ :) The pictures I've seen make Australia seem beautiful, and I'd love to travel there someday... but I honestly would be scared of snakes and spiders the whole time!

On a side note, thanks to SEK for starting the new thread.

Edited to add a heads up to my fellow arachnophobes regarding the link.

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This has been bothering me about Miss Sparkling Sparkles. She acts like it is so groovy to travel around and be in her "new economy" of not having to worry about normal and thus non-sparkly things like earning money and paying bills. I know she must collect rent from her old house, but she floats around like a hippie who has such a carefree life. Everytime she stops and free loads at someone's house and gets to use all those nice modern things like electricity and running water, it is being provided to her by a non-sparkly person whose job allows that person to afford all those niceties.

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This has been bothering me about Miss Sparkling Sparkles. She acts like it is so groovy to travel around and be in her "new economy" of not having to worry about normal and thus non-sparkly things like earning money and paying bills. I know she must collect rent from her old house, but she floats around like a hippie who has such a carefree life. Everytime she stops and free loads at someone's house and gets to use all those nice modern things like electricity and running water, it is being provided to her by a non-sparkly person whose job allows that person to afford all those niceties.

Actually she let's a family live in her house for free. Seriously. She and the girls sleep in the shed when they are home while these other people live in her house rent-free.

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This has been bothering me about Miss Sparkling Sparkles. She acts like it is so groovy to travel around and be in her "new economy" of not having to worry about normal and thus non-sparkly things like earning money and paying bills. I know she must collect rent from her old house, but she floats around like a hippie who has such a carefree life. Everytime she stops and free loads at someone's house and gets to use all those nice modern things like electricity and running water, it is being provided to her by a non-sparkly person whose job allows that person to afford all those niceties.

But, but, she blesses those people with her sparkly presence. /sarcasm

And she stopped charging rent on her house: sparklingadventures.com/index.php?id=1658

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Actually she let's a family live in her house for free. Seriously. She and the girls sleep in the shed when they are home while these other people live in her house rent-free.

Wow! I confess I only check out her blog when something amusing is said in this thread. Don't they have a bus/van/rv thing they are floating around Australia in? How does she pay for gas and food? Do people with jobs donate all the necessities in life to her because she is so glittery? I'm really floored. I knew they had a house they weren't living in so I assumed she was collecting rent.

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Wow! I confess I only check out her blog when something amusing is said in this thread. Don't they have a bus/van/rv thing they are floating around Australia in? How does she pay for gas and food? Do people with jobs donate all the necessities in life to her because she is so glittery? I'm really floored. I knew they had a house they weren't living in so I assumed she was collecting rent.

:shock:

Apparently the Australian government is very generous where kids and families are concerned.

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Parenting payments and family tax benefits in Australia are very generous for the parents of young children.

Also, she got a lot of donations in the wake of Elijah's death, enough to pay for his funeral, the bus, customisation of the bus, five iPads, and running costs for quite a while. We don't know if she continues to receive donations, but it wouldn't surprise me if she did.

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:shock:

Apparently the Australian government is very generous where kids and families are concerned.

Well I hope for the sake of the Australian government her sparkly life won't catch on because if everyone quit work to ride around and spread glitter, who would make money to pay the taxes to fund such a sparkly existence?

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My comments on the barefoot issue come from experience - I'm a South Louisiana girl who lived in the suburbs throughout my childhood. I was vehemently against shoes whenever possible, but in the height of summer, when temperatures reach 110, you bet your ass I was in shoes/flip-flops. One time of getting second-degree burns on the bottoms of my feet (keeping me stuck in the house till the blisters healed) was more than enough. God knows Sparkly-poo wouldn't have the sense to consider that, though.

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I'm famous in our circle of family and friends for being a bit rabid about my babies and toddlers not wearing shoes. My daughter's first pair of shoes (stiff/thick-soled shoes, she already had a ton of slipper style shoes) was a huge rite of passage when she was almost 2. She was a late walker, as all of my kids have been, and started really walking during the winter; I let my mom pick out the shoes as soon as the weather made it possible for GirlKay to walk outside. She did wear thick slippers with grips on the bottom, if we went out; I was able to find some that looked like old-fashioned booties that went with her outfits. MIL bought BoyKay a pair of stiff, hard-soled (they weren't rubber, they were some hard material that had zero flexibility, that I hadn't seen on kids' shoes in a LONG time) when he wasn't even a year old; I put them up and "forgot" where they were, until he outgrew them. My MIL always deliberately went against my wishes, or else I would have been more cautious of her feelings. Anyway, I digress. My kids had loads of barefoot time to learn to really walk and run, and always had foot protection. I understand not wanting to stick shoes on your kids all the time, but it's a parent's responsibility to provide them at least as protective gear to fall back on. I grew up quite shoeless, and had no issues, but I was mostly a country kid who stayed in the yard. I've had 3 kids, all of whom I've dragged through stores during the early years. The things that THEY left behind at times were not what I would want anyone to step in (when a janitor mops up puke, s/he rarely seems to actually sanitize the area). Now, we live in an area where BoyKay almost stepped on a needle last summer, after slyly removing his shoes and socks. With ToddlerKay learning to walk, I hated to put shoes on him, but you have to adapt to your surroundings. Suck it up, and fucking protect your kids, and other people who come along after your kids.

We just had a man move into our building, who is deaf - he has implants that he wears sometimes, and he can somewhat speak and converse - and I think of him when I read the last few pages. From what I can gather, he was more or less left on his own until he hit 18 or so - growing up in an era when deaf kids were often assumed to be retarded, because no one took the time to work with them on understanding a lot of things - and then lived in a series of rooming houses until now, in his mid-fifties. He's like a little kid. He's at my door - MrKay is the building super - all the time, asking questions that a child would ask, or just making an excuse to be around people. Part of me does get irritated at times; I need my private space, and I'm crazy busy, and unless I lock my door, he often forgets himself and just knocks and then walks in. But, for the most part, I feel terrible for him. He's in a big, scary world, with scary responsibilities, and he has no fucking clue how to handle it all. People, mostly women, in the building, avoid him, because he has little understanding of boundaries, etc. I'd love to find whoever "raised" him, and shake the daylights out of them. That's what those poor girls have to look forward to.

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