Learn ten benefits of going barefoot, including; the healthy development of the feet, proper foot mechanics, kinesthetic awareness, sensory stimulation, fine motor control, flexibility, and foot strength. (First published in March 2016; This post is regularly updated and republished.)
Going barefoot has many benefits that help me feel confident about allowing my daughter ample playtime outdoors without her shoes on. Yup, I’m THAT mom. The mom that people stare at disapprovingly whenever I allow my little scallywag of a child to storm the playground with her bare feet. To the surprise of many onlookers, I’m also the mom who will happily proclaim, “Sure,” when my daughter asks if she can take her shoes off while hiking or jumping in a puddle.
But even with the dirty looks, I’m proud to say that bare feet are standard attire for the kids I take on learning adventures in nature most of the year. And I know I’m not alone. Several other outdoor parents, youth education leaders, forest school kindergartens, and nature school teachers do the same. In fact, my daughter’s favorite outdoor program (Earthbound Skills) allows her to take her shoes off when in attendance. And she will no longer attend any other outdoor camp because they make her keep her shoes on.
Why do parents and teachers like me allow children to go barefoot outside? Because barefoot kids are healthy kids! Walking barefoot is a great way to help the feet (and body) develop correctly in childhood–and can help children grow into healthy full-functioning adults. Scroll down to see a list of ten benefits of walking barefoot below. You might also enjoy this list of Fun Things to Do on a Rainy Day.
My daughter loves to dance barefoot in puddles in the rain. Just look at that smile on her face!
Benefits of Walking Barefoot for Children and Adults
There are many reasons I allow my child to go barefoot outside. And these well-researched barefoot health benefits might even make you consider removing your shoes the next time you head outdoors–especially if it’s May Day or the warmer spring and summer months. In the past, May Day (and the warmer days that followed) was traditionally a time for children to kick off their shoes and play barefoot. And plenty of adults also walked outside barefoot after May Day because they knew it was good for them.
Is Walking Barefoot Healthy?
The truth is that type of shoes you wear and how often you wear them matter to the health of your feet more than most people realize. While walking around barefoot can improve health and lead to the proper development of the feet and body. Read on to learn more about how walking barefoot outdoors can help YOU!
Walking Barefoot Can Help Build a Strong Foundation
While attending Cal State Northridge and getting my undergraduate degree in Kinesiology, I spent a year learning about the structure of the foot and its importance for the physical body’s health from head to toe.
Believe it or not, everything that happens in the feet affects the entire body. Because the feet form the body’s foundation, a poorly constructed foot will result in a poorly constructed body. Think about it. Your body needs a strong foundation just as much as your house does!
For example, I was fortunate enough to work as an ocean lifeguard for the Los Angeles County Fire Department for 20 years. And I’m happy to say that running around barefoot outside all day, saving lives, literally saved the life of my feet.
My late grandmother was not so lucky. She suffered from terrible foot problems and had several surgeries throughout her lifetime. And although I inherited her foot structure, I have not suffered as she did. Because unfortunately, she made the mistake of wearing pointed high-heeled shoes in her younger years while I walked (or ran) barefoot in the sand all day working as an ocean lifeguard.
And because of my grandmother’s poor choice of footwear, she could not walk for the last six years of her life. True story. In other words, I spent my life strengthening my feet while she tore her foundation apart.
Is It Okay to Walk Barefoot Outside?
Yes, it is more than okay to walk barefoot outdoors. Many pediatricians and podiatrists recommend walking around barefoot without shoes occasionally to improve the health of the feet. If you are curious about how and why going barefoot contributes to healthy feet, read on to learn the ten benefits of walking barefoot. We even share how walking barefoot helped one little girl’s feet completely heal below our list of ten reasons walking barefoot is good for you. So scroll down to learn the hows and whys.
Barefoot Health Benefits: 10 Reasons Walking Barefoot is Good for Children and Adults of All Ages
1. Proper Development of the Foot and Body Can Happen Naturally When The Feet are Allowed to Roam Free
One of the most significant advantages of walking barefoot is the proper development of the foot and body–our physical foundation. Remember, your body needs a strong foundation just as much as your house does. And walking barefoot can help develop and maintain an appropriate range of motion in the foot and ankle joints, in addition to adequate strength and stability within the muscles and ligaments of the feet and body. (source)
On the other hand, a poorly constructed foot (foundation) can alter one’s gait and lead to a malformed knee, hip, or pelvis. Sometimes, it will be a domino effect through the knee, hip, and pelvis and can even affect the spine and lung cavity (core) as children grow into adults.
Thus, forcing children’s feet to conform to the shape of a shoe will most likely result in permanent changes to the form or construction of the foot. Trust me, the last thing your feet need is a big bad shoe making them conform all the time–lol! So, tell your shoes to go stuff themselves and go for a walk outside barefoot every so often.
It’s also a good idea to invest in more flexible footwear. And reserve those uncomfortable damaging shoes only for special occasions. We all like to dress up sometimes, but the daily use of unhealthy footwear (heels and pointy-toe shoes) will only cause problems in the long run. Just ask my grandma.
If you’re curious, we have posted a list of the best shoes and footwear for healthy feet after this list of barefoot benefits. So if you’re looking for a list of footwear recommendations for kids and adults, scroll down.
2. Going Barefoot Can Help Strengthen the Feet and Body
Walking barefoot is the best way to strengthen and maintain the full function of your feet and body, and well-developed feet and leg muscles can help support the back to reduce or eliminate back pain in children and older adults. Because the shape and density of the bones and muscles in your feet directly result from the loads placed on your body, poor footwear can affect how the bones and muscles in their entire body develop and lead to improper musculoskeletal development.
In other words, improper footwear can weaken foot and leg muscles and cause a loss of strength in the feet and body that will more than likely lead to physical pain over time because so many functions of our feet become altered when wearing shoes. The prescription from many podiatrists for flat feet is to walk barefoot to strengthen the inner arch and, thus, the feet. For this reason, children need ample barefoot playtime to support the healthy growth and development of their feet and body.
3. Walking Barefoot Can Lead to Better Foot Mechanics
Overprotective footwear can interfere with movement patterns. Walking barefoot allows for better control of foot position when it hits the ground. Stabilizing modern footwear can interfere with a developing child’s foot strength, ankle stability, and movement pattern.
If a child wears shoes to help stabilize their feet, how will they ever learn to stabilize them without shoes on properly? Avoid deformity, weakness, and loss of mobility by allowing your children to go barefoot whenever possible. This research article investigates the effects of children and adolescents that are habitually barefoot and shows that going barefoot can lead to improvement in both foot mechanics and motor performance.
4. Barefoot Walking Helps Develop the Fine Motor Muscles in the Feet
Children will become more adept at using their feet when they are allowed to roam barefoot without shoes on. When allowed to go free, the feet can become sensitive instruments and tools. Otherwise, they become the forgotten appendage forever bound within a shoe.
Could you imagine if we wore shoes on our hands? How would we develop the fine motor muscles in our hands if they were constantly bound? The feet have fine motor muscles that need strengthening, too! Allow children to go barefoot outside to help them learn how to control the fine motor muscles in their feet and use them in ways many modern children have forgotten.
5. Walking Barefoot Can Help Children Improve Kinesthetic Awareness
Going barefoot can help improve kinesthetic awareness. Kinesthetic awareness is knowing where our body is in space and how we move. It is also called muscle memory. And when our feet are in direct contact with the ground, it is much easier for children to develop their kinesthetic senses.
Increased kinesthetic awareness can improve body awareness and help children learn to navigate the space around them safely. Walking barefoot (and allowing children ample barefoot playtime) is a great way to do this.
6. Going Barefoot Can Help Improve Proprioception
Proprioception is the sense of the relative position of one body part compared to another body part in space. In other words, the proprioceptive system delivers the inner messaging of the body that tells us where one foot is versus the other foot or where the feet are in relation to the head.
The proprioceptive system can also provide information about joints and muscles. And when children (and adults) can walk and play barefoot, they can improve their proprioceptive senses and develop this part of their sensory system into a fully functioning sense.
Modern athletic footwear of the current fashion that incorporate yielding – resilient materials in the soles, attenuate adequate stimuli of these receptors, necessitating reliance on less precise sensory sources for foot position judgements. This results in poor foot position awareness, and consequently poor stability, frequent ankle sprains and excessive impact.
Foot Position Awareness: The Effect of Footwear on Instability, Excessive Impact, and Ankle Spraining (Source)
7. Walking Barefoot Can Help the Brain and the Sensory Systems of the Feet and Body Develop Properly.
Walking barefoot can help brain development as children learn to balance and develop each sensory system in the body. When we place shoes on our children’s feet, we reduce the amount and quality of sensory information the child is getting about their environment and body.
Our sensory system helps us perceive our body within the outside world through sight, touch, taste, smell, and sound. In contrast, our proprioceptive sense helps us develop a relationship with our body in space, and kinesthetic awareness tells us where our physical body is in space.
Thus, feeling the earth beneath their feet allows children to develop their somatosensory, proprioceptive, and vestibular sensory systems in ways they could never do with shoes. Because each sensory system in the body can benefit from walking barefoot outside, and when they are all working properly, they can work together to improve the overall health of the brain and body.
My daughter with her bare feet in the water.
8. Going Barefoot May Be Able to Stimulate the Reflexology Points on the Bottom of the Feet
When children are allowed to walk around without shoes on, the reflexology points on the bottom of the feet can stimulate every major organ in the body, and stimulating the body systems in this way is excellent for the healthy development of the whole body. You can read some recent research about reflexology and its benefits –> HERE.
9. Walking Barefoot Outside can Help Us Connect with Nature and Ground Us.
When bare feet touch the earth, they come in contact with negative ions. Research tells us that these negative ions have a healing, anti-inflammatory effect on the body. Conversely, when we wear shoes, we create a shield from the earth and restrict our exposure to the best antioxidant source in the world. Our bodies need to be in contact with the earth to be healthy, and nothing is better than going barefoot for that!
Earthing (also known as grounding) refers to contact with the Earth’s surface electrons by walking barefoot outside or sitting, working, or sleeping indoors connected to conductive systems, some of them patented, that transfer the energy from the ground into the body. Emerging scientific research supports the concept that the Earth’s electrons induce multiple physiological changes of clinical significance, including reduced pain, better sleep, a shift from sympathetic to parasympathetic tone in the autonomic nervous system (ANS), and a blood-thinning effect. The research, along with many anecdotal reports, is presented in a book entitled Earthing. (source)
10. Walking Barefoot Outside can Help Kids Stay Safe.
Barefoot kids are safe kids! Now, I know you might be thinking, how can walking barefoot help my child stay safe!? When there is glass, bees, dog feces, needles, and other hazards on the ground outside?
Going barefoot outside can help keep children safe because they will have more control when climbing, running, playing on the playground, etc. And they will have more control because their feet will be in direct contact with whatever surface they are on.
You’re right. Your kids will have to be on the lookout for glass and other hazards, but their feet will be strong enough to handle most everything else. And, if disease and contamination concern you when thinking about walking barefoot outside, try the barefoot shoes listed in “recommended shoes for children” below.
Or, allow your children to go barefoot only in areas that you feel are safe enough for your children’s bare feet to run around in, such as your backyard or a grassy field at your local park. And, if none of those options are available, at least allow your children to go barefoot inside the comfort of your home.
I don’t know about you, but I feel a whole lot safer knowing that my child can feel the tree she is climbing or the rope she has her foot on–instead of struggling to keep the sole of her shoe from slipping off.
Here’s a photo of my daughter climbing the ropes barefoot at the playground.
How Walking Barefoot Helped One Child’s Feet Develop Properly
So as you can see, there are many advantages of going barefoot. To put more proof in the pudding, I have witnessed a massive transformation in one child’s foot health due to walking barefoot outside.
When I ran childcare in my home many years ago, I had a one-year-old child in my care with clubbed feet–this is when one or both feet rotate inwards and downwards. In her case, it was both feet. This sweet little girl traveled two hours twice a month to be poked and prodded by doctors and specialists who said she would never walk normally.
At that time, we lived on a 1-acre lot with uneven terrain and secret places to explore. It was a wild acre with one massive oak tree in the middle and at least ten other large trees and bushes growing around it. So, on most days (weather permitting), I allowed the children to walk barefoot outside and inside to get all the healthy benefits of going barefoot outdoors and indoors.
Amazingly, after spending eight months in my care, the doctors and specialists claimed this little girl was “cured.” They called it a “miracle” and asked her parents what they had done to dramatically improve the condition of not one but both of her feet. When her parents explained the barefoot play therapy her daycare provider had given her, they were shocked but not surprised. Of course, they said. That makes perfect sense. “Going barefoot helps the feet develop properly!”
My daughter (at age four in the photograph above) feels much safer and more controlled when she climbs trees and walks across fallen logs barefoot.
Shoe Recommendations for Barefoot Kids and Adults
Even though walking barefoot outside has many advantages, shoes are necessary and wonderful additions to anyone’s wardrobe! This article was not written to encourage everyone to abandon them completely and run for the hills like a bohemian army–lol!
However, stiff and compressive footwear may cause weakness, deformity, and loss of mobility. And even worse, improper footwear can cause bunions, hammertoes, and other foot deformities over time.
This means that children need walking shoes that allow them to move and grow instead of shoes with too much structure and rigidity. The most helpful shoes allow the foot to breathe and move properly for both children and adults. So look for shoes that are durable, flexible, and have plenty of room to grow. We have a list of our favorite shoe recommendations in the next section.
Should kids be allowed to wear high heels?
Whatever you do, please, please, please keep your children far away from high heels. And if they must be worn, please reserve them only for special occasions. But please ensure the feet get plenty of barefoot freedom (or at least comfortable shoe freedom) before and after the event.
Why are high heels bad for girls?
Although the foot is developed by two years of age, the bones in a child’s feet are not fully developed and hardened until adulthood. While attaining my undergraduate degree, I learned that most people’s feet continue developing until the age of 24. This means that wearing high heels before then can decimate the feet. Just ask my grandmother.
Baby and pre-walkers do not need shoes for any other reason than to provide warmth and protection if they are worn at all. Look for flexible shoes or booties that do not bind the feet and allow a full range of movement like THESE.
Toddlers and young children need flexible, lightweight, and well-ventilated shoes. Or, shoes that support the foot in a way that helps their gait develop properly without taking away all of the information that the sensory system can deliver. Some popular shoe brands that make excellent shoes for toddlers, preschoolers, and older kids can be found below.
Birkenstocks (You knew I would say that, didn’t you?)
No matter your age (child, adult, or elderly), Birkenstocks and their patented footbed are one of the best shoes you can wear for healthy foot development. Made from a mix of cork and latex, the Birkenstock footbed features a deep heel cup, arch support, and a roomy toe box.
The deep heel cup and supportive longitudinal arch of Birkenstocks provide stability and help control pronation. They also have a raised toe bar which can help most wearers put their toes in a more comfortable position when walking or standing. And this makes them beneficial for people with bunions, hammer toes, flat feet, or those that suffer from arch pain.
Each of these details makes them a great choice of footwear for most people. And like my mother before me (fortunately, she did not follow her mother’s high-heeled footsteps), I am in LOVE with their brand and all the footwear they offer–Birkenstocks are the BEST! If, however, you have a severe foot ailment that needs a more personalized approach, it’s always best to consult with a podiatrist when choosing proper footwear.
Barefoot Shoes
Another recent innovation in shoe design for healthy feet is barefoot shoes. Barefoot shoes have also been labeled minimalist shoes. We love barefoot shoes because they are designed with enough support to provide stability and protect the feet while allowing for movement and flexibility.
They mirror your feet’ natural shape and design while allowing important sensory feedback, proper foot mechanics, and body alignment. And unlike bare feet, barefoot shoes have the bonus of a sole that won’t leave you vulnerable to whatever may be lying on the ground. Even barefoot kids need barefoot shoes sometimes!
However, they don’t work for everyone and can even harm people with severe foot ailments of various types. So once again, ask your podiatrist for recommendations. If you’d like to try them, a few of our favorite barefoot shoes for kids (and adults) can be listed below.
In conclusion, the type of shoes you wear and how often you wear them matter to the health of your feet. Walking barefoot can improve the function of the feet and can help the feet and body develop properly.
Allow your child’s feet and sensory systems to grow properly by allowing your children to go barefoot once in a while. And feel free to take your shoes off, too. I always do!
If walking barefoot outside is still NOT your thing, please don’t look at me like I’m a terrible mother who should make her child put her shoes on. I’m not giving you sideways glances about your child having their shoes on, am I?
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It also helps when barefoot to connect with the natural environs. Shoe’s rubber soles will insulate you and diffuse your body’s interaction to and from nature.But what you step in or on,in some locales must be safe.
I am always barefoot and my kids are too. As long as they aren’t doing anything athletic, I just teach them to watch where they step! I never knew there were so many great reasons to back it up, I just always hated shoes. My mom could never keep them on my feet!
That’s great that you have spent most of your life barefoot and allow your kids to do the same. I think kids instinctively know how good it is for them to go barefoot and that’s why it is so hard to keep them on their feet. I never even bothered battling my daughter about it. I just allow her to make her own choice. She knows when mama tells her to put her shoes on I have a good reason for it so she doesn’t fight me on it. She did at first, but now she knows I only ask her to put them on when she has to and that’s that.
I totally agree with your article. I grew up in California and was always barefoot. Now I live in the midwest, and I even run outside to take the trash out or get the mail barefoot in the snow (it’s a quick trip but I still do it!) I have told my granddaughters that they need to feel the earth when they go barefoot (their mom doesn’t let them much). When they ask if they can take off their shoes when they are with Grandma, and I say sure!, it’s like a big event for them, and they love it! Gotta love those negative ions! I let the girls play in the dirt and dig for worms, barefoot, of course! They love being at grandma’s!
I’m so glad that your grandchildren have the opportunity to get wild and free in nature with their grandma! So glad to know you appreciate the great outdoors and are instilling that love with your grandchildren. 🙂
I love when people are able to give me solid, scientific reasons to back up their choices. Between the time when I read the title of your post and the time I finished reading, you absolutely changed my opinion on this matter. What wonderful information, thank you!
Thank you! I love it when people are willing to open their minds to another point of view. I don’t wish to point any fingers or claim that those that make their children keep their shoes on are doing anything “wrong.” Nor do I want people to think that those that choose to allow their children to take their shoes off are doing it “right.” There is no right and wrong in matters like these just like there is no right or wrong in any parenting decision that we make. It is just parents making choices that are best for their family.
This is fantastic! I can’t find basic, leather shoes that fit my 15 month old, and don’t want to put him in shoes with hard/rubber soles yet, so he is barefoot all the time. We had a day out over the weekend and he spent ages stomping in a mud puddle. What a rich sensory experience!
So glad you like it Amy! So glad your son was able to soak up the full sensory experience of that mud puddle. That’s how the best learning takes place. 🙂
I wish I would have known the benefits of being barefoot years ago! I started going barefoot in my everyday life a few years ago, even some of my employment I’ve been able to work barefoot! Now my feet and legs and even my back have been so much better off! No more aches and pains ! The tactile feedback and textures is a sensory delight! Thank you for a great artical!
Hi, I love your post. I am a Family Child Care provider and wanted to ask if I could quote you in my parent book with some info from your post. I have a few families that worry very much about their child playing outdoors barefoot, your words might help them see it from another perspective.
Thank you.
I am so glad that you have found this article about the benefits of going barefoot useful.
As long as your quote does not copy the entire article, and, you use my full name, Nell Regan, this website, Rhythms of Play, and the website address where this original article can be found, I am absolutely fine with that.
I love being barefoot. It makes my feet feel so much better to walk with my shoes off. Shoes trap fungus from sweat and make stinky feet… So I prefer to go barefoot!
Yay! I’m so glad I could help Suzanne! There are many people that I needed to write this article for. My father, for example, doesn’t get the barefoot thing at all! This helped him keep his negative opinions to himself. 🙂
My kids go barefoot all the time, but it has taken some creativity to get the other moms in the neighborhood to realize barefoot is best. For example, our new next door neighbor’s son became best friends with our boys almost as soon as they moved in, but she refused to let him play barefoot even in our yard. Well, I guess I had to follow her instructions, right, unless I had a really good reason for him to go barefoot? So, about a week or two after they moved in, a heavy rain turned some new flower beds in my back yard into deep mud. Somehow, somebody suggested the boys should go have fun in the mud. My boys were soon happily squishing the mud between their bare toes, but for some reason their little friend was holding back. I could tell he needed some encouragement, so I picked him up and carried right into the middle of the muddiest bed before I would put him down. He kept trying to say something about shoes, but my boys were making so much noise I couldn’t really hear. I realized my mistake when I looked down and saw his shoes sinking ankle deep into the mud. That little boy has never worn shoes to our house again!
Oh my! What a fun story about taking the shoes off. I’m so glad he is now able to play outside barefoot over at your house. There are so many amazing barefoot health benefits for the developing child.
She and I both home school our kids, and we live in a small town in central Florida, so shoes really are optional until they start playing organized sports. She just grew up in an apartment in Boston, so it took her a while to get used to the idea that her children didn’t need shoes. The lightbulb finally went off for her when she was at that point in her third pregnancy that getting a four year old and two year old into shoes was just too much bending over, and it wasn’t long until both were going pretty much everywhere around town barefoot. Once she gave birth — to twins — the shoes were pretty much completely forgotten.
I kept her kids when it was time for her to go to the hospital, and as a little experiment, I decided their shoes should stay behind at my house, just to see how long it took her to notice they were missing. She never did, and to this day, their little shoes are still somewhere in my closet. ; )
Thank you, Nell! I love your website and have gotten so many great ideas for my kids reading your posts. My neighbor’s oldest boy is now 6, his sister 4, and the twins 2, with another baby on the way. I can’t help but giggle a little when I see her whole brood barefoot in the Dollar General or Publix, and I remember how just a couple of years ago when they first moved here from Boston she looked at me like I was crazy when I told her that kids’ shoes were too much bother for no good reason. Her little twins literally have never worn shoes, and I can’t imagine she could manage to keep them in shoes even if she wanted to!
Thank you, I appreciate the vote of approval. It’s nice that your neighbor and her children have you as such a positive influence in their lives. “Stay gold!” 😉
Kimmiesays
So, I am the neighbor from Boston Bettie talks about in her posts. Bettie, if you want to post your secrets on the internet, you really shouldn’t have recommended the site to me! LOL. I forgive you Bettie. You were right, in our climate shoes for kids are a lot of bother for no good reason. Still, I had always wondered how Jack’s shoes got so muddy that time after we first moved in, and what happened to my kids’ shoes when I was in the hospital with JT. All I can say is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, so be forewarned!
I love your comment to Bettie, “In our climate shoes for kids are a lot of bother for no good reason.” While sometimes they are necessary, it’s a good idea to allow ample barefoot time when possible. Thanks for becoming a reader. 🙂
I am old enough to say that it is absolutely true that everything old is new again! I grew up in a small town in Alabama near the Gulf Coast in the 40s and early 50s, and I can say that many of us were barefoot year-round as children, especially the youngsters, at school, at home and pretty much everywhere except church, and even the youngest kids were barefoot at church. Almost none of the boys, and only some of the girls wore shoes to school until about age 10 or 11 or so, and then somewhere by around 13 or 14 most all of us had discovered the benefits of shoes. : ) I can’t remember any more when we got to the age we were required to wear shoes to school except I know it was by the time we were in high school. We had a cousin who came to live with us when she was 10 I guess, and I remember she was so surprised that we all went barefoot. The first day she went to school with us, she came downstairs wearing her school shoes, and mama pulled her up into her lap and had her cute buckle shoes and knee socks pulled off in an instant. She asked mama what she was doing, and mama said, getting you dressed proper for school. I don’t think it had occurred to our little cousin that she’d be going barefoot like the rest of us, but mama wanted to toughen up her feet so she could run around without ruining her pretty shoes like the rest of us.
Mama put her shoes and all of her socks away for good for the first six months or maybe longer that she lived was us, even for church. Her feet were really tender and sore at first, but mama put a poultice of salt and alum and white oak bark on the bottoms of her feet every night for months until her feet were as tough as any of my brothers. For the rest of us, mama would scrub our feet with Comet to get them clean, but she wouldn’t for our little cousin because she said her feet weren’t tough enough yet, and bath time was never enough to get rid of the black off our soles. I still remember her bare feet with black soles when she’d kneel in church the first few months she was with us. We kids were all so jealous because she was the only one of us mama would let go barefoot to church. But eventually once mama was satisfied that she had good and tough Alabama feet, mama bought her a pair of Sunday shoes, and she started wearing shoes to mass like the rest of us. After six months in bare feet every day, she complained bitterly about having to wear shoes and could hardly keep her balance. She walked like she was wearing roller skates.
Wow! Thank you, Linnie, for sharing your memories of childhood. What a wonderful story! The feet love to move and walk barefoot throughout much of childhood. It’s only natural!
Thanks, Nell. Back in those days, children going barefoot was less about making the child happy — even though we hated wearing shoes and loved going barefoot — and more about grown ups being practical. Our cousin was from Memphis, which was the big city back then, and had never really done much in the way of chores, certainly not like the work we did. She was a pale, delicate girl who was afraid of dirt and had never done a hard day’s work when she arrived. Her first summer with us, mama gave her over to a sharecropper family to work from sun-up to sun-down half of every week and insisted she had to do a full day’s farm work with no hat, no gloves, and no shoes. If mama hadn’t started her going barefoot as soon as she came to live with us, her feet never would have made it through the first day of that kind of work. By the end of the summer, she was as strong and tough and tanned as any boy her age. Mama bragged she was going to rear her up to be the best farm wife in our county, and mama was true to her word. Our cousin never went back to Memphis and is still living on the farm she and her husband started together when she was just 17. She is the only one of us who still has chickens and a milk cow and who still does her farm chores barefoot year round.
What a wonderful story! Thank you for sharing it with us. I hope that I will be able to say the same, or something similar about my daughter once she is an adult.
Nell: We live in a part of the country where a lot of the moms have their kids in flip-flops year round as their main footwear. I have read that flip-flops are bad for children’s feet. My three year old is at the age now that she wants to walk when go shopping instead of riding in the cart or stroller, and she’s getting too big for me to carry very far, too, so taking her shopping barefoot is a little different now that her feet are actually touching the ground. LOL. I’d like to just let her go barefoot instead of putting her in flip-flops or Crocs and put off getting her first pair of “real” shoes until she starts kindergarten. Do you think that’s okay?
Hi Mickie, I’m so sorry that I missed your comment, and yes, I think that would be fine–but you have probably already done it by now–lol! My daughter popped in and out of the stroller with and without shoes on, depending on how cold it was, from the time she was two years old. And, yes, sometimes I had to tell her to put her shoes on to go into a shop. She was never happy about this, but she would always comply. But, by the time she went to kindergarten, she was happy to put shoes on her feet when she needed to, but she still prefers to dance barefoot in the rain no matter how cold. So, let her stay barefoot and fancy-free whenever you can for the rest of your life!
I would love a printable version of this, too! I teach years 1 and 2 at a primary school in New Zealand. Our official uniform allows the option of school shoes or sandals or bare feet but we strongly encourage all children to wear bare feet to school especially for the younger children because bare feet are compulsory inside the classrooms and for assembly and most sports. Our Kiwi parents all understand, but we have some immigrant parents who think their children shouldn’t wear bare feet. Your content would be very informative for them. It is so good to see an American who supports bare feet for children! We had an American parent enroll her daughters a few years ago at our school and insisted on her youngest wearing shoes to school even though she was not old enough to tie her laces or manage her shoes and socks without assistance. What do you know but somehow her little shoes kept disappearing from her cubby? After the fourth pair were “lost” in her first three weeks at school, her American mother finally gave up and let her come to school in bare feet like our other children. I still can’t imagine what ever happened to her shoes!
Hello Rachel, thank you so much for sharing more about living life barefoot at school in New Zeland. I too wish more American’s were like me. 😉 I felt that I needed to counter some of the dirty looks I have received over the years, so I wrote this article as a way to explain all of the benefits of walking barefoot. I know that it has helped other mothers in the US feel a bit more comfortable about allowing their children to go barefoot more often because many have told me so. Feel free to share it with anyone you feel needs a little convincing. 🙂
Thanks, Nell. I love your crafts ideas, too, and plan to use many of your crafts projects in my classroom (that is how I found your site and your wonderful essay on why children shouldn’t wear shoes). My favorite crafts project, though, is the shoe fence my class started a few years ago outside our school. A shoe fence is a fence decorated with discarded shoes. We started it the same term that the little American girl I mentioned joined our class. Somehow four! pairs of brand new school shoes ended up in our crafts box, and that is what gave me the idea. We painted them in school colors, and the children helped to pick where to hang them on the fence. The collection on the fence has grown quite a bit over the years with all sorts of shoes and jandals and even some gumboots. It’s a very Kiwi thing to do — there’s even a toothbrush fence in another part of the country. I always smile and think about that little girl when I walk by our shoe fence.
Wow, Rachel, thank you so much for your vote of approval. You have officially made my day, and that means a lot right now. 🙂 I have been struggling to get any new crafts and articles written during this difficult time in history, but I hope to get back at it soon.
I LOVE what you have shared about your shoe fence, and am wondering if you would like to share it with my audience? If that sounds like something that you would be interested in let me know. 🙂
Thank you, Nell! . That is so kind. Let me know how to get my story and some photos to you, and you can post it if it’s good enough. You set a high standard!
Making a shoe fence is quite simple though. Most people don’t decorate the shoes at all before hanging them on the fence. The reason I painted the first pairs we started with was because people might have gotten confused if they had seen four brand new pairs of school shoes hanging on our fence, especially with the name of the student whose mother had insisted she wear them still written inside each shoe. If we hadn’t painted them, they might have ended up back on that poor girl’s feet!
Good morning!
In bare feet, life is much better (healthier, happier, and more comfortable) than in shoes–being natural.
“Going barefoot is the gentlest way of walking and can symbolize a way of living – being authentic, vulnerable, sensitive to our surroundings. It’s the feeling of enjoying warm sand beneath our toes or carefully making our way over sharp rocks in the darkness. It’s a way of living that has the lightest impact, removing the barrier between us and nature” – Adele Coombs, “Barefoot Dreaming.”
I wish you all the best, with health and happiness, in peace and love!
Sincerely, Dinu, a barefoot hiker (since at three years old – in 1962) from Romania.
I agree with you Dinu, spending much of life barefoot makes for a happier and healthier life! So glad to hear that you have been a barefoot hiker since the age of three–wow! My daughter will grow up saying the same. So stay footloose and fancy-free and enjoy walking barefoot as often as possible.
Great post. Very informative, yet concise. Beautifully illustrated!
Thanks Harriette! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
It also helps when barefoot to connect with the natural environs. Shoe’s rubber soles will insulate you and diffuse your body’s interaction to and from nature.But what you step in or on,in some locales must be safe.
Yes, it does help to connect with the natural environment by walking barefoot. Many people call this practice grounding and it is mentioned above.
I am always barefoot and my kids are too. As long as they aren’t doing anything athletic, I just teach them to watch where they step! I never knew there were so many great reasons to back it up, I just always hated shoes. My mom could never keep them on my feet!
That’s great that you have spent most of your life barefoot and allow your kids to do the same. I think kids instinctively know how good it is for them to go barefoot and that’s why it is so hard to keep them on their feet. I never even bothered battling my daughter about it. I just allow her to make her own choice. She knows when mama tells her to put her shoes on I have a good reason for it so she doesn’t fight me on it. She did at first, but now she knows I only ask her to put them on when she has to and that’s that.
I totally agree with your article. I grew up in California and was always barefoot. Now I live in the midwest, and I even run outside to take the trash out or get the mail barefoot in the snow (it’s a quick trip but I still do it!) I have told my granddaughters that they need to feel the earth when they go barefoot (their mom doesn’t let them much). When they ask if they can take off their shoes when they are with Grandma, and I say sure!, it’s like a big event for them, and they love it! Gotta love those negative ions! I let the girls play in the dirt and dig for worms, barefoot, of course! They love being at grandma’s!
I’m so glad that your grandchildren have the opportunity to get wild and free in nature with their grandma! So glad to know you appreciate the great outdoors and are instilling that love with your grandchildren. 🙂
I love when people are able to give me solid, scientific reasons to back up their choices. Between the time when I read the title of your post and the time I finished reading, you absolutely changed my opinion on this matter. What wonderful information, thank you!
Thank you! I love it when people are willing to open their minds to another point of view. I don’t wish to point any fingers or claim that those that make their children keep their shoes on are doing anything “wrong.” Nor do I want people to think that those that choose to allow their children to take their shoes off are doing it “right.” There is no right and wrong in matters like these just like there is no right or wrong in any parenting decision that we make. It is just parents making choices that are best for their family.
This is fantastic! I can’t find basic, leather shoes that fit my 15 month old, and don’t want to put him in shoes with hard/rubber soles yet, so he is barefoot all the time. We had a day out over the weekend and he spent ages stomping in a mud puddle. What a rich sensory experience!
So glad you like it Amy! So glad your son was able to soak up the full sensory experience of that mud puddle. That’s how the best learning takes place. 🙂
I wish I would have known the benefits of being barefoot years ago! I started going barefoot in my everyday life a few years ago, even some of my employment I’ve been able to work barefoot! Now my feet and legs and even my back have been so much better off! No more aches and pains ! The tactile feedback and textures is a sensory delight! Thank you for a great artical!
Hi Nick! So glad to hear that going barefoot more often has changed your life for the better! Keep taking those shoes off 🙂
Hi, I love your post. I am a Family Child Care provider and wanted to ask if I could quote you in my parent book with some info from your post. I have a few families that worry very much about their child playing outdoors barefoot, your words might help them see it from another perspective.
Thank you.
Thank you, Fer.
I am so glad that you have found this article about the benefits of going barefoot useful.
As long as your quote does not copy the entire article, and, you use my full name, Nell Regan, this website, Rhythms of Play, and the website address where this original article can be found, I am absolutely fine with that.
Thank you for asking,
Nell
I love being barefoot. It makes my feet feel so much better to walk with my shoes off. Shoes trap fungus from sweat and make stinky feet… So I prefer to go barefoot!
Me too, Erta!
I’m so glad you enjoy the feeling of walking barefoot, and of the benefits, including better smelling feet!
Love this! My kids play barefoot and my husband can’t stand it! I knew there were benefits!
Yay! I’m so glad I could help Suzanne! There are many people that I needed to write this article for. My father, for example, doesn’t get the barefoot thing at all! This helped him keep his negative opinions to himself. 🙂
My kids go barefoot all the time, but it has taken some creativity to get the other moms in the neighborhood to realize barefoot is best. For example, our new next door neighbor’s son became best friends with our boys almost as soon as they moved in, but she refused to let him play barefoot even in our yard. Well, I guess I had to follow her instructions, right, unless I had a really good reason for him to go barefoot? So, about a week or two after they moved in, a heavy rain turned some new flower beds in my back yard into deep mud. Somehow, somebody suggested the boys should go have fun in the mud. My boys were soon happily squishing the mud between their bare toes, but for some reason their little friend was holding back. I could tell he needed some encouragement, so I picked him up and carried right into the middle of the muddiest bed before I would put him down. He kept trying to say something about shoes, but my boys were making so much noise I couldn’t really hear. I realized my mistake when I looked down and saw his shoes sinking ankle deep into the mud. That little boy has never worn shoes to our house again!
Oh my! What a fun story about taking the shoes off. I’m so glad he is now able to play outside barefoot over at your house. There are so many amazing barefoot health benefits for the developing child.
She and I both home school our kids, and we live in a small town in central Florida, so shoes really are optional until they start playing organized sports. She just grew up in an apartment in Boston, so it took her a while to get used to the idea that her children didn’t need shoes. The lightbulb finally went off for her when she was at that point in her third pregnancy that getting a four year old and two year old into shoes was just too much bending over, and it wasn’t long until both were going pretty much everywhere around town barefoot. Once she gave birth — to twins — the shoes were pretty much completely forgotten.
I kept her kids when it was time for her to go to the hospital, and as a little experiment, I decided their shoes should stay behind at my house, just to see how long it took her to notice they were missing. She never did, and to this day, their little shoes are still somewhere in my closet. ; )
I LOVE all of your wonderful stories about walking barefoot! Going barefoot is such a pleasant way to walk and there are so many health benefits!
Thank you, Nell! I love your website and have gotten so many great ideas for my kids reading your posts. My neighbor’s oldest boy is now 6, his sister 4, and the twins 2, with another baby on the way. I can’t help but giggle a little when I see her whole brood barefoot in the Dollar General or Publix, and I remember how just a couple of years ago when they first moved here from Boston she looked at me like I was crazy when I told her that kids’ shoes were too much bother for no good reason. Her little twins literally have never worn shoes, and I can’t imagine she could manage to keep them in shoes even if she wanted to!
Thank you, I appreciate the vote of approval. It’s nice that your neighbor and her children have you as such a positive influence in their lives. “Stay gold!” 😉
So, I am the neighbor from Boston Bettie talks about in her posts. Bettie, if you want to post your secrets on the internet, you really shouldn’t have recommended the site to me! LOL. I forgive you Bettie. You were right, in our climate shoes for kids are a lot of bother for no good reason. Still, I had always wondered how Jack’s shoes got so muddy that time after we first moved in, and what happened to my kids’ shoes when I was in the hospital with JT. All I can say is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, so be forewarned!
Hi Kimmie!
I love your comment to Bettie, “In our climate shoes for kids are a lot of bother for no good reason.” While sometimes they are necessary, it’s a good idea to allow ample barefoot time when possible. Thanks for becoming a reader. 🙂
Nell
I am old enough to say that it is absolutely true that everything old is new again! I grew up in a small town in Alabama near the Gulf Coast in the 40s and early 50s, and I can say that many of us were barefoot year-round as children, especially the youngsters, at school, at home and pretty much everywhere except church, and even the youngest kids were barefoot at church. Almost none of the boys, and only some of the girls wore shoes to school until about age 10 or 11 or so, and then somewhere by around 13 or 14 most all of us had discovered the benefits of shoes. : ) I can’t remember any more when we got to the age we were required to wear shoes to school except I know it was by the time we were in high school. We had a cousin who came to live with us when she was 10 I guess, and I remember she was so surprised that we all went barefoot. The first day she went to school with us, she came downstairs wearing her school shoes, and mama pulled her up into her lap and had her cute buckle shoes and knee socks pulled off in an instant. She asked mama what she was doing, and mama said, getting you dressed proper for school. I don’t think it had occurred to our little cousin that she’d be going barefoot like the rest of us, but mama wanted to toughen up her feet so she could run around without ruining her pretty shoes like the rest of us.
Mama put her shoes and all of her socks away for good for the first six months or maybe longer that she lived was us, even for church. Her feet were really tender and sore at first, but mama put a poultice of salt and alum and white oak bark on the bottoms of her feet every night for months until her feet were as tough as any of my brothers. For the rest of us, mama would scrub our feet with Comet to get them clean, but she wouldn’t for our little cousin because she said her feet weren’t tough enough yet, and bath time was never enough to get rid of the black off our soles. I still remember her bare feet with black soles when she’d kneel in church the first few months she was with us. We kids were all so jealous because she was the only one of us mama would let go barefoot to church. But eventually once mama was satisfied that she had good and tough Alabama feet, mama bought her a pair of Sunday shoes, and she started wearing shoes to mass like the rest of us. After six months in bare feet every day, she complained bitterly about having to wear shoes and could hardly keep her balance. She walked like she was wearing roller skates.
Wow! Thank you, Linnie, for sharing your memories of childhood. What a wonderful story! The feet love to move and walk barefoot throughout much of childhood. It’s only natural!
Thanks, Nell. Back in those days, children going barefoot was less about making the child happy — even though we hated wearing shoes and loved going barefoot — and more about grown ups being practical. Our cousin was from Memphis, which was the big city back then, and had never really done much in the way of chores, certainly not like the work we did. She was a pale, delicate girl who was afraid of dirt and had never done a hard day’s work when she arrived. Her first summer with us, mama gave her over to a sharecropper family to work from sun-up to sun-down half of every week and insisted she had to do a full day’s farm work with no hat, no gloves, and no shoes. If mama hadn’t started her going barefoot as soon as she came to live with us, her feet never would have made it through the first day of that kind of work. By the end of the summer, she was as strong and tough and tanned as any boy her age. Mama bragged she was going to rear her up to be the best farm wife in our county, and mama was true to her word. Our cousin never went back to Memphis and is still living on the farm she and her husband started together when she was just 17. She is the only one of us who still has chickens and a milk cow and who still does her farm chores barefoot year round.
Hi Linnie!
What a wonderful story! Thank you for sharing it with us. I hope that I will be able to say the same, or something similar about my daughter once she is an adult.
Nell
Hello,
Is there way to get this information in a printable document? I really wanna share it with my co workers
Hi Kaitlin! I do not have a printable version of this document, but I love the suggestion! I will put one together!
Nell: We live in a part of the country where a lot of the moms have their kids in flip-flops year round as their main footwear. I have read that flip-flops are bad for children’s feet. My three year old is at the age now that she wants to walk when go shopping instead of riding in the cart or stroller, and she’s getting too big for me to carry very far, too, so taking her shopping barefoot is a little different now that her feet are actually touching the ground. LOL. I’d like to just let her go barefoot instead of putting her in flip-flops or Crocs and put off getting her first pair of “real” shoes until she starts kindergarten. Do you think that’s okay?
Hi Mickie, I’m so sorry that I missed your comment, and yes, I think that would be fine–but you have probably already done it by now–lol! My daughter popped in and out of the stroller with and without shoes on, depending on how cold it was, from the time she was two years old. And, yes, sometimes I had to tell her to put her shoes on to go into a shop. She was never happy about this, but she would always comply. But, by the time she went to kindergarten, she was happy to put shoes on her feet when she needed to, but she still prefers to dance barefoot in the rain no matter how cold. So, let her stay barefoot and fancy-free whenever you can for the rest of your life!
I would love a printable version of this, too! I teach years 1 and 2 at a primary school in New Zealand. Our official uniform allows the option of school shoes or sandals or bare feet but we strongly encourage all children to wear bare feet to school especially for the younger children because bare feet are compulsory inside the classrooms and for assembly and most sports. Our Kiwi parents all understand, but we have some immigrant parents who think their children shouldn’t wear bare feet. Your content would be very informative for them. It is so good to see an American who supports bare feet for children! We had an American parent enroll her daughters a few years ago at our school and insisted on her youngest wearing shoes to school even though she was not old enough to tie her laces or manage her shoes and socks without assistance. What do you know but somehow her little shoes kept disappearing from her cubby? After the fourth pair were “lost” in her first three weeks at school, her American mother finally gave up and let her come to school in bare feet like our other children. I still can’t imagine what ever happened to her shoes!
Hello Rachel, thank you so much for sharing more about living life barefoot at school in New Zeland. I too wish more American’s were like me. 😉 I felt that I needed to counter some of the dirty looks I have received over the years, so I wrote this article as a way to explain all of the benefits of walking barefoot. I know that it has helped other mothers in the US feel a bit more comfortable about allowing their children to go barefoot more often because many have told me so. Feel free to share it with anyone you feel needs a little convincing. 🙂
Oh, and, creating a poster is a brilliant idea! I’ll get to work on it. 🙂
Thanks, Nell. I love your crafts ideas, too, and plan to use many of your crafts projects in my classroom (that is how I found your site and your wonderful essay on why children shouldn’t wear shoes). My favorite crafts project, though, is the shoe fence my class started a few years ago outside our school. A shoe fence is a fence decorated with discarded shoes. We started it the same term that the little American girl I mentioned joined our class. Somehow four! pairs of brand new school shoes ended up in our crafts box, and that is what gave me the idea. We painted them in school colors, and the children helped to pick where to hang them on the fence. The collection on the fence has grown quite a bit over the years with all sorts of shoes and jandals and even some gumboots. It’s a very Kiwi thing to do — there’s even a toothbrush fence in another part of the country. I always smile and think about that little girl when I walk by our shoe fence.
Wow, Rachel, thank you so much for your vote of approval. You have officially made my day, and that means a lot right now. 🙂 I have been struggling to get any new crafts and articles written during this difficult time in history, but I hope to get back at it soon.
I LOVE what you have shared about your shoe fence, and am wondering if you would like to share it with my audience? If that sounds like something that you would be interested in let me know. 🙂
Nell
Thank you, Nell! . That is so kind. Let me know how to get my story and some photos to you, and you can post it if it’s good enough. You set a high standard!
Making a shoe fence is quite simple though. Most people don’t decorate the shoes at all before hanging them on the fence. The reason I painted the first pairs we started with was because people might have gotten confused if they had seen four brand new pairs of school shoes hanging on our fence, especially with the name of the student whose mother had insisted she wear them still written inside each shoe. If we hadn’t painted them, they might have ended up back on that poor girl’s feet!
You are too kind, Rachel!
Use the contact form at the top of the page and put “Shoe Fence” in the subject line.
Looking forward to hearing more about it,
Nell
Nell:
I sent you my little story about our shoe fence.
Best,
Rachel
Thank you, Rachel! I will go look for it and get back to you soon. 🙂
Good morning!
In bare feet, life is much better (healthier, happier, and more comfortable) than in shoes–being natural.
“Going barefoot is the gentlest way of walking and can symbolize a way of living – being authentic, vulnerable, sensitive to our surroundings. It’s the feeling of enjoying warm sand beneath our toes or carefully making our way over sharp rocks in the darkness. It’s a way of living that has the lightest impact, removing the barrier between us and nature” – Adele Coombs, “Barefoot Dreaming.”
I wish you all the best, with health and happiness, in peace and love!
Sincerely, Dinu, a barefoot hiker (since at three years old – in 1962) from Romania.
I agree with you Dinu, spending much of life barefoot makes for a happier and healthier life! So glad to hear that you have been a barefoot hiker since the age of three–wow! My daughter will grow up saying the same. So stay footloose and fancy-free and enjoy walking barefoot as often as possible.