This is very mysterious. Why are they on the floor? Is it a cultural thing?
My mother grew up in a small village, six children in the family, the father disabled from the war and not earning much, no indoor plumbing, got up before dawn to feed the animals and clean out the barn. But they had extremely high hygiene standards. The bedding was always crisply white which in those conditions was a bloody miracle. Grandpa checked the cleanliness of surfaces with white handkerchief. Somebody leaving socks on the floor would have led to months of soul-searching.
In my father’s educated city family, it would be equally unlikely to encounter such a scene. Somebody would have definitely written sarcastic poetry if that happened.
Cultural differences are very interesting to me.
Clarissa's Blog 
Expressive individualism a more American thing than in other cultures?
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“Why are they on the floor? Is it a cultural thing?”
I guess….. partly it’s a gender cliche that American men tend to (unconsciously?) fulfill? Like leaving the toilet seat up…. or how you squeeze toothpaste from the tube (men from the back and women in the middle or front).
I usually take off shoes and socks when I get home but I’d never leave them on the floor which just seems dumb and gross… but one culture’s gender cliches will always seem weird or wrong to outsiders (or insiders if they spend long enough outside).
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I don’t know what compels them to do it, but I am gradual making headway training the kids out of this. My husband puts his socks in the hamper like a civilized person. The kids, for mysterious reasons of their own, think it is OK to leave them just about anywhere– outdoors, on bookshelves, the floor, the car…
It is not cute, I do want them to be marriageable someday, and I think the process would go quicker if I had not agreed that I wouldn’t beat them.
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Well, kids, definitely. I have spent the last decade reaching into an elegant handbag, a pocket, or a book bag and removing a pair of extremely smelly child socks. Once I found them under my pillow. Another, there was a dirty sock in a book I was reading, like a bookmark. And they always stink ferociously.
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