Marla’s Journey

I’ve concluded that it will be the socks that do me in completely. I have been having visions of me, sitting in the middle of my living room, with nothing around me but hundreds and hundreds of mis-matched socks, simply shaking my head. It’s not a happy vision.

I am a fairly smart woman, I can figure percentages in my head, have read Shakespeare and Steinbeck, and can put together a mean beef stroganoff with homemade noodles. I CANNOT, however, understand how I can put 9 pairs of socks in the laundry hamper and by the time they have been washed, hung to dry, fluffed for 5 minutes in the dryer and put in the hamper to be folded, 3 of the socks are missing!! Not even 3 pair, just 3 individual socks!! UUGHH!

I have a giant wipey box FULL of lost socks, and the other day, sat down to “match them up”. Because, if you had a pair, and now have a BUNCH of singles, SURELY some of them will match, right??!! Most of them should, RIGHT??!! WRONG!!!! 4 pair, and approximately 324 individual socks that DO.NOT.MATCH. (Maybe not 324, but A LOT!!) I just do not understand how this is physically possible. AT.ALL.

I have concluded that the main problem is that there are 2 sets of 2 pair of similarily sized feet in this house. The first set are the Norman/Thomas set. These are BIG feet – sizes 13 and 15 respectively. So large, they require extended size socks (I had NO idea these even existed til I married Norman.) The other set are 2 pair of little boy feet, one slightly shorter and chunkier than the other, but still wearing the same size socks. I have, over the years, purchased a huge variety of sock brands, which all have different print, lengths, seams, etc. The problem is that, since there are SO many different kinds, you can’t match up the odd ones for a pair, so I am left with a jillion socks I can do NOTHING with – we have plenty of sock bean bags and puppets, thank you very much.

This sock issue has been taking up so much brain space this week (why, I do not know!) that I actually now have a sock fantasy that I am determined to live out. I am going to share this with you, cause that’s what I do here! I have decided that I am going to use some of my HARD earned Christmas tips this year to buy socks. Not just more, but the perfect Sock Solution. Each boy in the house will have a particular style/type/brand. NO other socks, just that one kind. Then, all I have to do is remember who’s is who’s and if they get separated, VOILA, they will STILL work with another odd sock!!! GENUIS, I tell you!! Sheer GENUIS!!

It feels quite wasteful and extravagant to consciously decide to just THROW OUT 97 (approximately) pairs and parts of pairs of socks, all for the sake of my convenience, but at this rate, with the hours spent on this problem, I will never get around to writing the Great American Novel, solving the big socio-economic issues of the day, or even folding the rest of the household’s clothes, so I am considering it an investment in the well-being of my family.

That’s all for tonight. I look forward to having sweet dreams tonight of perfectly matched white socks, a basket over here with Hanes, over here with Fruit of the Loom, Circo front and center, and Joe Boxer in the back. It really doesn’t take much to excite and entertain me these days, does it?

Those of you who have read my old blog may remember my post about car seat safety and the importance in keeping you kids rear-facing as long as possible, and then in a 5 point harness for as long as possible after that! If you missed that post, it can be found here :

http://marlasjourney.blogspot.com/2008/04/car-seats-and-my-new-mission.html

From one of my message boards today, I found out about this article:

“WASHINGTON (AP) – Several car booster seats do a poor job of positioning children to fit in their seat belts, according to a review by the insurance industry and researchers.

The Virginia-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute found Wednesday that 13 booster seats don’t put children in the best position to be protected in a crash.

The Institute, which conducts crash tests of new vehicles, did not recommend: Compass B505, Compass B510, Cosco/Dorel Traveler, Evenflo Big Kid Confidence, Safety Angel Ride Ryte, Cosco/Dorel Alpha Omega, Cosco/Dorel (Eddie Bauer) Summit, Cosco Highback Booster, Dorel/Safety 1st (Eddie Bauer) Prospect, Evenflo Chase Comfort Touch, Evenflo Generations, Graco CarGo Zephyr, and Safety 1st/Dorel Intera.

IIHS President Adrian Lund said the 13 boosters “may increase restraint use by making children more comfortable, but they don’t position belts for optimal protection.”

Booster seats are typically used by children between the ages of 4 and 8. The seat belt is meant to be routed across a child’s lower hips and mid-shoulders instead of the abdomen because the liver and spleen are more vulnerable to injuries.

The IIHS called 10 seats “best bets,” meaning they were most likely to correctly position seat belts. They include: Combi Kobuk, Fisher-Price Safe Voyage (with plastic clip), Graco TurboBooster, Britax Monarch, Britax Parkway, Fisher-Price Safe Voyage (highback), LaRoche Bros. Teddy Bear, Recaro Young Style, Volvo booster cushion and Safeguard Go when it’s used as a backless booster.

Five seats were named “good bets” to provide acceptable belt fit. They include: highbacks Combi Kobuk, Graco TurboBooster and Safety Angel Ride Ryte, and combinations Recaro Young Sport and Safety 1st/Dorel Apex 65, when used as highbacks.

Arbogast suggested that parents buying a new booster seat should try it out in their car and see how the seat belt fits on their child.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issues ratings for child seats on its Web site: http://www.safercar.gov.”

The entire article can be read here :

http://www.wxyz.com/news/story.aspx?content_id=ede4205f-abd1-4e7c-85e5-e8461fc52dc2

As I have said before : PLEASE keep your kids REAR-FACING as long as possible. After that, keep them in a 5 POINT harness as long as possible. There are affordable 5 point seats that go to 65 pounds and a bit more spendy ones that go to 80. PLEASE take car-seat safety seriously and KEEP them as buckled as you can for as long as you can!