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If you ever want to get a rousing conversation going amongst a group of moms, I have one word for you….SOCKS!
Yes, we all remember when they were so tiny and cute and our little babies kicked them off. We remember when our little babies first contorted to put their little sock-covered tootsies in their mouths. But soon after that, they taught themselves to randomly take them off (inside-out of course) and leave them wherever they happened to be at the time. This habit does not change as they grow and develop and have it constantly pounded in their heads that dirty socks belong in the laundry basket, not tucked between the cushions of the couch, not on the floor of the minivan, not between the sheets of their beds and certainly NOT on the counter in the kitchen.
Every mom has her own special way of dealing with socks. Here are just a few stories of sock management that I have heard:
1. Knee socks were big when I was growing up. My Mom would make a couple of stitches in the toe to indicate whose socks were whose. My sister’s socks had red thread and mine had green. I can’t believe she took the time to do this!
2. My bestfriend Amy has two teenage sons and a husband. Her teen boys are hovering at around 6 feet tall (she will laugh when she reads this because of our college alumni magazine where one’s child’s height is apparently an indication of one’s success). So they all wear the same size socks. Amy buys a different brand for each one…Hanes, Fruit of the Loom and Champion. When she takes them out of the laundry, she deposits all of the socks into one laundry basket. She does not pull them right-side out, sort them or match them up. When one of her “boys” needs socks, he simply goes to the basket and pulls out two of his brand.
3. My friend Marcy frenetically matches the socks as they come out of the dryer and may come unglued if there is one left unmatched. She matches them by brand and even analyzes the quality and degree of wear to make sure she isn’t putting last year’s sock with last month’s sock.
4. I half-heartedly match up the socks when I am folding laundry and try really hard to get the right ones to the right person. But Hurley’s and Rory’s socks are starting to be around the same size, so I can’t guarantee they will end up in the right pile (my son) or drawer (my husband…I figure he’s working to support us, I can manage to put his socks in his drawer). I take a cavalier attitude about the lone socks that remain after the folding is done (which, coincidentally, never seem to be mine!) The leftover socks are tossed into the Orphan Sock laundry basket which has a permanent home in the laundry room sink. (I have never actually used a laundry room sink for its intended purpose.)
In concept, each time I do laundry, I would check the unmatched socks against the contents of that laundry basket. In reality, I do this about once a month or when someone starts saying, “I don’t have any socks!” whichever comes first.
We moms need to hang together and share our war stories. What do you do about the perpetual battle of the soxes?
Di appears Wednesdays on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Di on her blog Live and Let Di.
Live and Let Di
Diane is a TriangleMom2Mom featured blogger, appearing every Wednesday.
I try to be the voice of Moms with teens. My daughter Haley is 16. She's at that age where she is convinced that I know nothing. I'm thinking I'll seem a lot smarter when she's 22. We bond over Broadway shows. My son Rory is 13. He started reading the sports page when he was 5 and his passion for anything sports-related has grown ever since. This year he beat out 9 guys in their 40s to win his Fantasy Football League. Watch for him on ESPN in a few years.
My husband Hurley works from home, but travels quite a bit. When he's gone, I usually take a break from making dinner and cleaning the house. Oh, I don't do those things regularly when he's here either! Our parenting philosophy is "choose your battles." The only problem is that we often choose different battles. It keeps it interesting!!!
Diane appears Wednesdays on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Diane on her blog Live and Let Di.
Comments
I'm so laughing my head off and in agreement at your entire story. I have 5 kids and also "TRIED" many things, one of which putting a specific color (ink not thread) on the toe of the socks, didn't work for me. Then I got to the point where my 14 yo son and 16 yo daughter all wore the same size, well I never had socks. Now my son wears a 8.5 men and daughter wears a 9 in womens and we can't share anymore. I'm back to me never having socks which I can't figure out because I'm apparently the only one who can wear them!! I guess I just never bought myself any new socks when I bought their new ones and the ones we shared got too dingy and I threw them out. Just yesterday I couldn't find any for myself!! So I wore my rainbows instead... I too have an orphan sock drawer in my laundry room and no none of them are mine!!LOL:) My 10 yo son will "match" them as best as he can about once a week, but they usually wind up mix matched and everyone yells at me because they have 2 unmatching socks!!!! If there is a cure, someone please let me know. I could go on and on about how I bought some little piece of plastic thingy for socks, but that just doesn't seem to work either. I say we all move to some Island in the Bahamas and throw away all of our socks!!! Just wishful thinking, I know...
Even with just my husband in the house, I can't seem to correctly match the socks out of the drier. HIS solution only one brand and two colors, black or beige. Even I can get that right.
Great laugh out loud post
Funny post! Until recently, I bought unisex socks and made both kids share them. Since they are 19 months apart, they are only 1 size off in shoes and wear the same socks. It made my life alot easier. However, they have both wisened up to my tricks and requested gender specific socks, lol.
And while this isn't about kids socks.... I'll confess that I hate socks and only wear them when it is freezing. The joke in my house is that you know it's cold when Jennifer wears socks. I lived in Fl for 25 years and people don't wear socks much. When I was 22, I went on a business trip to NYC in January. On the plane, I saw several people looking at my feet funny. When I landed and realized how cold it was, I realized that they were staring because I was wearing loafers and no socks in January. I actually didn't even bring any socks to NYC and had to pay like $15 for a pair on 7th avenue for my business meeting. It was very funny in hindsight.
One of my mother's day presents 2 years ago was that the kids matched nearly every sock in the sock box!
Kdjmom3, what an AWESOME present. I think I will put that on my wish list.
I agree with #3 - you absolutely cannot wear a new snug footie with an older slightly stretched out footie. lol
Nothing works with the sock situation. I gave up.
My marriage has been put on the rocks by socks...specifically, my inability to tell the difference between my husband's very dark blue socks and his black socks.
Doesn't matter what I do... I still seem to lose them... Where do they go?? There must be a hole in the dryer that they mysteriously fall into, never to be retrieved.. I give up....LOL
I always empty the dryer into the same laundry basket and stray socks just sit at the bottom of that basket until either the mate comes through the wash or I get sick of looking at it and toss it into the trash. I know someone (I'm not naming names) who actually wears a safety pin tucked into the fold of her socks so she can pin each pair together before it goes into the wash. Great post!
That safety pin thing is a little scary!!!