Socks

I remember as a kid that socks were always giving me trouble. I had to put them on just right or they would cause excruciating pain as soon as I put on my shoes.

Socks don't get to me personally anymore but, as a parent, I still have a constant struggle with them. I battle socks everyday. Sometimes I win that battle, but I'm kidding myself if I think I could ever win the war.

I have one child who can't manage to put her dirty socks in the laundry room, even if it meant saving her life. If you think my car smells funny, it's probably because there are about 5 dirty pairs stuffed under the seats. Then she yells at me when she doesn't have any clean socks to wear. I wearily shake my head.

I have one child who has such sensitive feet that we have to buy the most expensive socks there are. It's as if he can feel every thread and if even one is out of place he is immobilized with pain. The expensive ones cause less pain apparently.

I have another child who doesn't like to wear socks at all. Have you ever smelled the tennis shoes of a child who won't wear socks? You would swear that something had died in those shoes.

I know that these idiosyncrasies were inherited from me. I don't like to wear socks, either, but I know when I need to. And I know how to put them in the laundry room at the end of the day.

Maybe their struggles will lessen as my kids get older, as they did with me. And then the cycle will continue as they have kids of their own. In a perverse way, this makes me very happy.