To put yourself in someone’s shoes

It’s important to consider how other people feel, which may be very different from how we feel. And that’s exactly what you do when you put yourself in someone else’s shoes. When the shoe is on the other foot, there has been a role reversal of a bad situation. So one minute you may be laughing at a friend because they’ve slipped and fallen in the river. Then you slip too and fall in the river and the shoe is on the other foot when they start laughing at you!

Examples

“At first, I didn’t understand why my brother was so disappointed that his football match was cancelled this morning. But now I’ve put myself in his shoes, I can see that it must be frustrating to have trained hard every day this week and not to play.”

“At the moment my sister is having to study every evening for her exams, whilst I’m going out with my friends and having fun. Last year she was going out a lot whilst I was staying at home and studying. The shoe is on the other foot now!”