This is the story of my life. It actually has a lot of do with socks. My children's socks to be precise. You know how you're supposed to 'pick your battles'...this is one I don't fight any more. I stopped fighting the battle of socks when each child was around age 2. That's when I lost all control of socks in their lives. Please don't read into this or try to make any analogies about my mothering abilities based on my not being able to control the socks my children wear. There is no correlation what-so-ever. It just is. Socks are, I have come to discover, an expression of each person's personality. Why not let them express it. Who wants to wear boring old white socks, right-side out? Not my people, that's for sure!
Gavin
This used to really bother me. Like, I-can't-look-at-his-feet bother me. He refuses to match his socks. He could care less whether they are inside out or backwards for that matter (same holds true for underwear, but I won't be posting any pictures). They are simply utilitarian in his world. You have to wear socks in order to wear sneakers. If he could find sneakers that don't need socks - he'd wear them instead. Why bother with the details of socks when there are so many other more important issues to solve like algebraic equations and quantum relativity? I asked him how he chooses his socks each day and he said, "I just pull out two pair from my drawer." ( while blind-folded - apparently). That's as much effort as he puts into getting ready each day. Thankfully, it's not my problem. I don't do his laundry. I don't match his socks. I don't interfere in his sock life. We're all much happier that way. You have freedom of choice in this family.
Chloe
Whimsical, fun, pretty feet. For years I had her in those adorable little white ruffly, lace socks that folded down and just looked so girly. No more. Even then (at 2), she liked to miss match the ruffles. She'd choose one that was eyelet and another that was lace. Whatever. We've not been seeing eye-to-eye on her clothing choices since she was 9 months old, why fight about sock choices too. Actually, this seeing eye-to-eye thing is more about them seeing things my way, the correct way. Apparently, I am the student here and am learning through their eyes. Life is more fun when you don't have to match (so I'm told). Just for the record, I match my socks everyday - and I only wear clean ones, something I don't assume that any of my off-spring do. She also likes to sleep in her socks and recycle them the next day, meaning, wear them again since she didn't get dirty in them the day before. The hamper for dirty clothes is less than 25 feet from her room, yet it's just easier to recycle apparently.
Bennett
Always the sports dude. Basketball socks are all the rage. Not only that, they must be team colors. Thus, the plethora of orange and black socks in his drawer. Shockingly, he is the only one of the kids who takes care to match his socks daily and to make sure the seams at the the toes are perfectly straight. It's all about being cool for him. He'll buy cool socks with his own money. That says alot right there. None of my other people would even consider such a ridiculous waste of money. But these are not only to be worn with the basketball uniform, they go nicely with jeans, sweat pants, shorts and flip flops. All year long.
See what you can tell about someone just from their socks? Next, I should take a picture of their sock drawers. On second thought, I don't think so. It may just send me into a state of eye twitching, heavy sighs and huffy breaths. I love all things neat and organized. My children think that just cuz it's out of sight, it's ok. It is so not ok to have a messy sock drawer. I just want to put that out there. The state of your sock drawer says alot about the state of your mind. That's a whole nother blog post. But I refuse to belabor the point any longer. If I don't see it, don't have to touch it or smell it or deal with it (referring to sock drawers), then what I don't know, won't hurt me. That's my new philosophy. On socks anyways.
