One Day Without Shoes

At The Point
12 Comments

Compassion International and Tom’s Shoes were promoting One Day Without Shoes.  It’s purpose is to bring awareness to the millions of children in developing countries that have no shoes.   So today all of the children and I (James was too busy to play) went without shoes.  We went to the orthodontist, co-op, etc. barefoot.  We also went to Walmart to do our grocery shopping, but they wouldn’t let us in without shoes.  Bummer.

People would say to me, “It’s too cold,” or, “I don’t like germs.”

All I could think was what if I didn’t have a choice?  It was really cold when we left the house this morning and our feet were freezing, which gave the kids and I the opportunity to talk about what it must be like to never have shoes.  What if we had to do it for more than just a day?

I thought we were going to make a point to the community, but it really turned inward.  We felt vulnerable and cold.  The pebbles hurt our feet and we didn’t like getting dirty.  The kids all have more respect now for what these poor children go through and are talking about ways we can help.

I’m thinking of doing more of these special days just on my own.  Like maybe next week we’ll do No Talking Day.  In honor of how Mommy needs a break from the endless chatter.  Or I could have No Cooking Day and No Mess Making Day.

We enjoyed No Shoes Day.  It taught us to think of others instead of ourselves.  It made me realize how grateful I should be for the abundance that I have.

12 Comments

  1. I ran around barefooted today, except for a few errands I had to run. Funny how they like you to have shoes on in grocery stores!

    It’s neat what your children gained from it.

  3. I just love how you and your family not only talk the talk, but you walk the walk….even if it is bare-footed 🙂 What a wonderful lesson we all could learn. I went barefoot today, but I didn’t leave the house lol! This is something your kids will pass on to their kids someday…..God bless and keep you all ♥

  4. *tears*

    Throughout the Pacific Region, we see shoeless children. When we lived in the Philippines, we kept various sizes of “slippers” (we call them flip-flops) in the van. We don’t give money because the adults who force children to go out and beg take the money away from these poor beggar babies. But we do give of what we have, and we try to always have slippers, or a snack, a bottle of water, etc. That’s Jesus standing there with no shoes…

  5. My kids would love to go shopping barefoot, in fact I have one child in particular who often gets to town before I discover that he didn’t put shoes on and there are none in the car. Some people in Australia often walk around barefoot by choice and I have seen them in the supermarket, I think they would only be refused entry to RSL Clubs and the like.
    Good on you for raising awareness of such an issue!

  6. If I’d heard about this before we would have participated – so you raised my awareness for sure. Nice work, mom.

  7. What a good idea. They say to walk a mile in someones shoes. Well in this case not their shoes, and you really get a glimpse into what they go through.
    Nice work. I never would have thought of that.

  8. We observed One Day Without Shoes around here too, or at least some of us did. My own kids homeschool but the resident kids in this house go to public school. I helped them petition their principal to allow it for the sake of raising awareness, but no such luck. Anyway, it was a good learning experience for us all. Gardening barefoot is… harder than I imagined.

    But I am SO all over No Talking Day and No Mess Making Day. In fact, I think perhaps it should be a weekly occasion. How about Keep Your Bad Attitude to Yourself Day and Make Your Own Dinner Day? Ooooh, I’ma have a ball with this… thanks. 😉

  9. The trick to make it work in public would be to have flip-flops to put on when you went into places that required shoes – then your feet wouldn’t warm up and they would still be exposed until you returned outside.

    An interesting day…I’m not sure I would want to do it here – it is just now making it into the forties during the day.

  10. That’s an object lesson the kids won’t ever forget! Our Mackenzy did that last spring and ended up with a staph infection in her big toe that ended up requiring the removal of her toenail (still missing) and two and a half weeks of IV antibiotic therapy for an hour a day, barely avoiding surgery to remove her toe. But that isn’t that out of the ordinary for darling Mackenzy, who needed stitches three times before she turned two years old. I still carry butterfly bandages in my wallet, just in case! 🙂 Good job, Penningtons!!

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