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Reader question: Please explain “find your feet” in this sentence: “I’m a big advocate of renting first, find your feet and then look to buy.” My comments: Here, the speaker advises caution on buying a house. If you’re new to the city, for example, you are advised to rent an apartment first in order to find your feet, that is, to get to know the local real estate market a bit before eventually deciding whether, or not, to buy a house of your own. A good idea it is, isn’t it? With housing prices as high as they are, it is a good idea for young professionals to rent first, especially in big cities such as in here. I know quite a few young people fresh out of college and new to the work place who buy a house almost the first thing after getting a job in the office – using their parents’ money, of course, to pull off the purchase. I sympathize with the parents, but our more urgent concern here is whether their sons and daughters will ever be able to “find their feet”, figuratively speaking. “Find one’s feet” is an idiom developed from observing children, infants to be exact, learn to stand on their feet and walk. Babies, before they learn to walk, crawl. Then, when they’ve gained enough muscle strength in the legs, they will struggle to stand up. They struggle to do that. They wobble and fall a few times before eventually getting a strong foothold. That’s when they are described as finding their feet, meaning they have been able to master the situation and walk comfortably, gaining great confidence in themselves in the process. | 
