by Andrea Howick                        Where Parents Talk

I am serious. Some days all three of them come home, take off their shoes and each one of them has at least one sock with a hole in it. Sometimes both socks. Sometimes all three kids.

Is it because I am buying the $1 a pair super-cheap socks because of the sheer volume we go through in a year? (do the math: 3 boys then multiply that by every tight-fitting pair of shoes, winter boots, hockey skates...you get the picture) I confess to buying cheap socks in extraordinary volume.

But worse yet, I have also bought them the $18 pair! Yes! Thinking: a) they are so cute; b) they match the outfit and c) maybe they'll last. I'll save you the $18 - they don't really last longer than the cheapies.

The saddest part is that...I can't part with the socks! When 2-3 toes start to push through, I will finally throw out that one sock...and hang on to the second. I keep an ever-growing pile in the laundry room hoping to find another solo that matches relatively well. I set out a mismatched pair - one black, one navy, one ribbed, one not-ribbed, for the less alert child ..he will pull them on in morning without noticing. I will hear about it when he comes home from school that night. With any luck there will be a massive hole in one of them and he won't have to wear the mismatch again.