Ever heard of "indoor shoes" and "outdoor shoes"? Coming from the Southwest United States where shoes are optional indoors or outdoors, this concept of having TWO different pairs of shoes was strange, to say the least. This turns out to be what I believe to be both a cultural and practical phenomenon. It is expected here in the Czech Republic, as it is in my husband's Croatian family background, to remove your shoes when you enter anyone's home. So, when visiting or living in Prague, always be prepared to remove your shoes and may be offered house slippers for indoors. We did this in the US only because my husband introduced me to his tradition in his home and I adopted it as my norm. When kids came over to our house in Arizona, they automatically took off their shoes, then went upstairs and played. I didn't ask guests to remove their shoes unless they wanted to.
So, I've been pondering why is there a difference between shoes or no shoes in the house...or "indoor" versus "outdoor" shoes for that matter and came up with this:
I think there's something to the idea that there is a different conception of what is "dirty" - I think many in North America would agree that dust and soil is "clean" and human bodies are "dirty". I did not grow up in a strict no-shoes inside household. So it often doesn't occur to me to remove them. where it's pretty normal to wear shoes inside your house. I mean, you don't have to, but there's no feeling you have to take them off once you come inside. In most of the Southwest US, there are a minority of people who have a "no shoes inside" policy, usually in order to prevent bringing dirt inside (which was my motive with off-white carpet). But taboos regarding clothing run deep; I remember a childrens' activity book I had as a kid, it was probably printed in the 50s or early 60s. It had a puzzle, with a picture of an office setting, and you had to find the 20 things that were wrong in the picture. Most of them were obvious - lettering on the door was backwards, table only had three legs. I found 19 things wrong, and checked the answers for the final thing I missed - "Man wearing a hat indoors."
Of course, climate comes into it. When you live in a warm climate where everyone wore flip-flops pretty much all of the time you'll probably slip them off when indoors. Living in a cold, temperate climate one probably would track in mud/snow and would be more likely to take the shoes off and wear some type of indoor shoe or slipper.
Personally, I prefer to wear shoes inside because that makes it easy to go inside and outside. But, as they say, "When in Rome, do as the Romans."
