If you have any children under age 25, you probably already know what I'm going to discuss....Over the holidays I happened to notice the socks of three of my nieces, ALL mismatched! At first I tried to shrug it off, since their mother is a total idiot when it comes to being a parent and their father was unfortunately in the hospital. Being the OCDish person I am, the more I looked at those socks, the more it bothered me, so I carefully asked "What's up with the socks that don't match?". To my abject horror, the answer was: "Oh Aunt Caroline, don't you know that they sell them this way in the stores?" My jaw dropped, and all I could say was, "No WAY!" It's bad enough that most little boys are taught it's no big deal if you accidentally didn't match your socks when fumbling through a drawer of singles, but NOW even GIRLS are being taught that it's cool and fashionable to walk around looking like you're a crazy orphan!
Boy's sock drawers (and some girls too) *typically look like this:
But young women's sock drawers *typically look like this:
A decade ago it would have been social suicide to show up with an obviously mismatched pair of socks. Heck, it was bad enough if you accidentally grabbed one black sock and one dark blue sock, because invariably someone (usually one of the flock of popular kids) would notice it and very loudly make you (and everyone else) aware of it in the middle of class. But now, it's the COOL thing to wear sock chaos! Pray tell me, for the love of God, WHEN did this paradigm shift happen? Why do children want to look like clowns with disambiguation? Furthermore, why in the heck (unless they are in the pre-Kindergarten crowd) do parents want to teach children this is an okay, everyday occurrence!
What will they have to do to replace "crazy sock day" for High School Homecomings all over the country? I shudder to think...
Don't parents realize that helping Mommy (or Daddy) sort and match socks on laundry day is a fundamental educational experience for progeny in the pre-K crowd? An added plus is that they'll know HOW to sort when it comes time to help pick up their toys, or do laundry when they are older. Oh sure, I know that after those socks make it into their little drawers, all bets are off as the preschool set boldly attempts to assert their independence by demanding to wear a mismatched pair with their rain boots, favorite princess dress, and winter hat with earflaps, all at the same time, on a muggy day in July. With all of the aforementioned items being in totally unharmonious sections of the color wheel.
Being creative is one thing (there are paints and crayons for that!) totally defying the parent while having a spoiled brat temper-tantrum is quite another. Now I can already hear some of you young parents mumbling about the fact that you both work, there's not time, and you're merely picking your battles. Trust me though, you'll be doing the child, as well as yourself a favor, as well as establishing the fact that you have a backbone. If assimilation is eased into in the early years, when they get to elementary school (ESPECIALLY one that wears uniforms or has a dress code!) the total shock to their systems won't happen. (That backbone thing will come in handy at about 10 years old for girls, and around 13 for boys, plus or minus a year.) Besides, that being able to sorts things comes in handy later on in life too. Being able to be organized will benefit a child throughout the entirety of life. From junior high school all the way through graduate school into the workforce, organizational skills are utilized. Even a janitor needs to be able to organize his time so that he gets all areas cleaned in his allotted work schedule. The only kids that need not become versed in organization is the hoodlum crowd, because ending up in the prison system it isn't needed, the WARDEN organizes every aspect of life for you.
Sesame Street did a good job of teaching organization, I sure hope it's on
where people can actually watch it with their anklebiters.
It's not out of fashion, really.
These won't go out of fashion either.
Sesame Street: Celebrating 43 years of getting children's education right!
*Typically: meaning the majority of children/adults when separating for gender, I'm sure not every situation or child is similar. These examples were used as a generalization and not meant to offend.
