Sorry, I interpreted your comment about me followed by a rimshot. So it was a take on,"I'll be here all week, try the veal." But of course, I don't eat veal.
Two nights ago, I encountered a neighbor and his daughter (toddler) who looked at me and said "Hey! Bare feet!". It was my first barefoot comment.
Maybe it'll have an effect on her...
So sad that parents get upset about this. My wife now just worries that my son will get something stuck in his foot as kids, toddlers especially, don't watch where they are going. She is being flexible with me about minshoes for him which is fine though. I am very picky about the shoes that go on his feet and am even now allowed to let her parents know what will and will not go on his feet.This has happened to me very often, too. Kids comment what they see instantly, especially uncommon things.
But they don´t necessarily stop there. Because they also imitate a lot. Almost always when I enter the playground with my little daughter we take off our shoes sooner or later, if it´s not too cold. She really likes that and mostly it´s her who takes off shoes first. And then it usually takes only a couple of minutes until other kids copy us. If you want toinfect others with the barefoot-virushave an immidiate effect on others, go to a playground!
Sadly by doing this we´ve also caused more than one argument between overconcerned parents and their kids. The kids saw us, wanted to take off their shoes and the parents freaked out. I remember one mother shouting: "If you don´t put on your shoes right now, we´ll go home!".
Luckily things like this have happend only rarely until now. Most parents seem to be cool and allow their kids to try something new.
I ran at the first Boston Barefoot running festival yesterday and during the barefoot 5K i heard from a little girl as all of the runners passed " there's another barefoot runner, there's another barefoot runner" as we passed.
Last night I got a thumbs up out a car window with a guy yelling "Barefoot, I like it, That kicks A**!".