Of socks with lace and socks with hearts

[Guest guest]

Every night I lay out the clothes for my children as the morning is far too

hectic. Socks are a continuing nightmare. I wish I had bought plain white or

black socks for all with exactly the same manufacturer. Or perhaps a different

color for each family member, all exactly the same. Perhaps white for Enrique,

black for , pink, naturally, for Miss Sophia, maybe brown for Putter,

and let's consider a nice light blue for Robbie. Oh, and I would be happy

enough with navy blue; I had a good friend once who wore only navy blue socks.

Of course, it would have to be light enough navy blue to be easily

distinguishable from 's black, but I am sure we could manage. Each

family member would have perhaps ten pairs of socks, and each family members

socks would be fully interchangeable. It would be so nice.

Instead we have ten million socks, none of which match. Upstairs I have a large

green basket of mismatched socks and downstairs I have a large basket of

mismatched socks. It is possible that if the twain were ever joined, some of

them might match but that would involve carrying one of the baskets to the other

location and over the past six months that has never happened. So the most

dreaded part of every evening (well, except for litter box duty) is finding

matching socks for each family member. Sometimes I am so sick of sock matching

that I dispense entirely with my own socks and go sockless into my shoes.

Shocking confession, I know.

As I am searching for, say, Putter's socks, I tend to run across a lot of other

family member's sock matches, but only if I have already found matching socks

for that member. If I am on top of things and no one is climbing over me or

yelling at me from upstairs (a crisis invariably arises as soon as I descend to

the basement to hunt for matching socks), then I put those socks together in a

ball, imaging my joy when I find that ball during my next dreaded sock hunt.

Last night I felt very lucky when I found two sock balls already put together.

One was a plain white sock ball, suitable for a boy of Putter's size and one was

a lacy white sock ball, suitable for a girl of Sophie's size. I found some

Robbie socks with relative ease and returned upstairs, feeling quite pleased

with my success.

This morning, I undid Putter's sock ball and discovered that the socks had

glittery hearts hidden up at the top. Dang it! Can Putter wear glittery

hearts? It was 8:05 and we needed to leave at 8:10. Sophie said, " OOOH, I want

THOSE socks, " and I complained, " You'd send Putter to school in lacy socks? The

hearts aren't as noticeable as the lace! " After all, the socks could always be

put on inside out...

Sophie really wanted the heart socks; they had been missing for some time and

she is particularly fond of them, so, indulgent mother that I am, I gave in. I

debated for half a second going to the basement and hunting socks, but Robbie

was cross, and Putter is nervous any time I leave the room in the morning and I

knew they would all follow me to the basement, crying and clinging, and they

would do this the whole time I hunted for some Non-Lacy Boy-Type Socks for Mr.

Putt. And we had to leave in five minutes and I planned to make Putter sit on

the potty for a couple of those minutes.

So I put the lacy socks on Putter. He rather likes lacy socks anyway, but

nonetheless I folded the lace inside the sock, hoping this would not bother

Putter's tactile sensitivities. But he made no objection and he is even now in

school wearing his lacy socks.

One good thing: He will NOT be embarrassed. Not even slightly.

Salli

[Guest guest]

Salli, once again I see that you must live in my house. We have

those very same sock baskets full of non matched singleton socks. Of

course it would help immensly if, when the children took their

clothes off, they would actually put two socks from the same pair in

the wash pile at the same time.

[Guest guest]

> Sometimes I am so sick of sock matching that I dispense entirely with my own

socks and go sockless into my shoes. Shocking confession, I know. <

salli,

i've been sockless for years. MUCH easier that way. my kids also tend to be

sockless. they don't mind a bit. in fact, i just broke down ad bought the kids

each a package of socks as it's getting cold again and i thoughty perhaps it was

rude to make them go sockless just because i'm sockless. so what does kailey say

when i excitedly show her her new socks? " no! not socks! " oh well

" Isn't it wonderful how each of us on this earth was created just a little bit

different? " - Linus

" I gave up trying to understand people long ago. Now I just let them try to

understand me. " - Snoopy

[Guest guest]

> i've been sockless for years. MUCH easier that way. my kids also tend to

be sockless. they don't mind a bit. in fact, i just broke down ad bought the

kids each a package of socks as it's getting cold again and i thoughty

perhaps it was rude to make them go sockless just because i'm sockless. so

what does kailey say when i excitedly show her her new socks? " no! not

socks! " oh well

>

Ah, but Putter, the Boy Who Does Everything According to the Correct Rules,

he feels that shoes cannot be worn without socks. He does not mind what I

do, for he has observed many times that I am a foolish woman, but when it

comes to his own precious feet, well, they wear socks. All summer long,

Putter wears socks. Putters do not do sandals.

He doesn't really even like to go barefoot as he prefers to go sockfoot.

This is not good for his socks...

Salli

[Guest guest]

Try this if the kids like money...

Take an evening..or Saturday...and have " The Great Sock Derby "

Get the baskets of mismatched socks and dump them on the floor, spreading

them out a la pick up sticks...then let the kids go at the pile, matching as

many pairs as possible...there is no time limit...you can leave and come back

at your own will.

Once all the socks have been matched, or as many as can be matched, count up

the pairs of socks each has in the pile...each kid gets 10 cents per correct

match, 15 cents if they are put together and put away...

The kids get to play a game, they get to make some money and your life just

got easier...

even if you have an unbelievable amount of socks, say like 100...your still

only out 10 or 15 bucks...I don't know about you, but 15 bucks is cheap for a

few extra moments of peace...

Ron

[Guest guest]

Putters do not do sandals.

>

> He doesn't really even like to go barefoot as he prefers to go

sockfoot.

> This is not good for his socks...

>

> Salli

Mitchel would go barefoot all year long if I let him. For him socks

are those things you stash all over the house. (not together though)

Kerri

http://www.johnswdwpage.com/family.htm

[Guest guest]

>

> even if you have an unbelievable amount of socks, say like 100...your

still

> only out 10 or 15 bucks...I don't know about you, but 15 bucks is cheap

for a

I'd pay anything. Enrique has NO interest in money; he wouldn't do a thing

for it. In fact, he is almost unbribable. He might make a very good

government official but he makes a lousy worker.

will do things for money sometimes when he wants something and is

saving up and so would Sophie. But Sophie gives up fast and I am fairly

sure that would spend half his time asking me about the socks. It

is a really formidable job because we have a lot of socks that are almost

matches.

Might give it a shot though! Can't hurt.

Salli

[Guest guest]

Socks.

Hmmmm.

Another good reason my son doesn't live with us anymore

He had this horrible habit of wearing my dh's socks.

Yes, dh HATED this. No one must wear his socks.

So, I decided to either 1) write JC on my sons socks or 2)Buy

strictly white socks for dh and socks with red stitching for my son.

It worked.

Penny