Learner Dad: 'When you’re a child in Ireland, summer is all about having your feet out'

Dirty feet are sign of a child running free - besides, there'll be plenty of time for shoes and socks when September rolls around

Picture: Stock image 

MY kids have had dirty feet since mid May. We’ve tried washing them (a few times, we went a bit lax on the showers during lockdown) but this stuff is ground in. I don’t mind really, I nearly wish they had dirty feet all the time. Because dirty feet is a sign of kids running free.

I hadn’t really thought about it before until I heard two of my wife’s friends talking about their summer holidays growing up. One of them said her abiding memory is the state of the bedsheets from their dirty feet. Before you start judging them for shoddy personal hygiene, it was the 1980s, we all had dirty feet all summer.