The Case of the Missing Sock

...Another adventure of a recovering perfectionist

My little two-year-old is flashing signs of wanting great independence.  Okay, so everything is "Arie do it."  I like to give her choices to make her feel independent, but aren't that big in the whole scheme of things.  For example, I pick out two different shirts each morning and she gets to choose which one she wants to wear.  I complete the outfit with pants and socks.  Recently, Aria has wanted to pick out her socks, too.  It was quite hard for me to let her do this because (gasp) you can't possibly wear purple socks with a green shirt.  That doesn't match! 

I am a perfectionist.  Or, as my pastor says, a recovering perfectionist.  I am learning to let things go slowly, but surely.  Matching socks is something I still hold on to.  My socks have to match some part of my outfit.  Therefore, it was only natural that Aria's socks should match her outfit. 

She's not into matching.

In fact, when she first wanted to pick out her socks (gasp) she wanted to wear two different socks.  Are you nuts, child?  That is ridiculous!  Actually, non-matching socks is quite popular with the middle school crowd I work with and another unnamed recently turned 21-year-old we know.  Anyway, I think Aria just couldn't choose between the two and wanted to wear both.

Back to this morning.  I actually have totally let go of making Aria's socks match her outfit.  It is quite nice to have her go get her own socks out of the drawer and bring them to me to help her get them on.  (She can almost do it herself, but can't quite get them over her heel.)  Some of this independence stuff actually saves me time!  This morning Aria brought me one orange Hello Kitty sock (totally not matching her yellow Hawkeye shirt).  She had a perplexed look on her face and said, "two socks."  Well, when the laundry came upstairs the other day, that particular orange sock didn't have it's match.  I figured it just got mixed in elsewhere and I would find it later.  I threw the lone orange sock in her drawer and didn't think much of it.  I tried to explain that the other orange sock was still dirty and she should pick some different socks. 

"No.  Orange sock.  Mommy find it!"  This was important. 

I picked out a pair of pink Hello Kitty socks and said we should just wear those today because there were two clean pink socks.

"No. Orange sock.  Mommy find it!"

So, being the awesome mom that I am, I went downstairs and looked all through the laundry baskets, the washer and the dryer.  Did I find that orange sock?  Nope.

Waiting at the top of the stairs was a barefooted two-year old with a big smile...."Mommy find it!  Orange sock!"

"No, sweetie.  I don't know where it is."  No more smile.  "Let's just wear the pink socks."

"No, orange ones."

I can't believe I am about to type this....(gasp) "Why don't we wear the one orange sock and one pink one, then."  (Gulp)

"Okay." We put on the different socks.  Perplexed look..."Different socks."

"That's okay.  At least you have on the orange one." 

"Yeah!  Go eat."

Problem solved.  I guess one orange sock is better than none.

The moral of the story is, when you are a parent, you have to pick your battles.  Was it really worth my toddler throwing a big fit about not wearing orange socks just because I have this OCD behavior of needing socks to match?  Not at all.  For crying out loud her socks are hidden inside her shoes!  It doesn't matter what they look like! 

I did say I am a recovering perfectionist.  I am not there yet.

And, Aria may not match today, but at least she would be cool in a middle school crowd!