HOW DO YOU DO IT? I hear this so often from friends, family and even strangers when they find out I have 6 children, 11 animals a painting business and a Vice President role on the PTA. Soooo, I thought it would be fun to answer all those questions. Take it or leave it I may have a little advice that could help you out. I have read tons of parenting books, I have attended parenting classes, and listened to every mentor I could find when it came to parenting. Do I have it all right, ABSOLUTELY NOT!! I fail on a daily basis in the parenting, wife, housekeeper department but I can definitely relate to all sorts of random situations. Send me your questions and I’ll tell you how I do it. Let’s start with matching socks…..
How do I keep track of the kids socks? When they were little and all wore different sizes I numbered them. Starting from oldest (1) to youngest (6). Each time I bought a new set of socks I would buy all the same brand and style. I used a sharpie marker and on the toe and I would write the appropriate number. When they came out of the dryer it was super easy to match them and the kids could help as well. We even had a time when each of the kids “colors” were dotted on the toe so we matched colors. Over the course of several years, and the changing sock trend the kids have started wearing black socks, crazy color socks and the list goes on and on… They also all began wearing the same size socks and I could never keep them matched. These days 95% of their socks are the no show and they began taking the “no show” motto to heart. Their theory, if they don’t show they don’t have to match. Contrary to my need to be extremely organized and completely OCD about everything this was one thing I had to let go!! So we now have a sock bin. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to it and the kids could care less that their socks don’t match. We have done this for years, so you can imagine my surprise when I was shopping at Famous Footwear walked over to the sock area only to realize that they are now selling socks in NON matching sets…. I could be making a fortune being a NON matching sock designer, missed opportunity! haha So there you have it, all socks go into a community bin and the kids dig out two socks when they need them, no more matching, numbering. Different, yes! Perfect, NO! Less stress and time on the matching department, yes! It’s what works for today so we go with it. Send me your questions, I would love to share how I do it, and take suggestions for improvement. I think this could be a great way for us to help each other in all that we do as Moms.