Do your socks match?

Our oldest 3 children have had to do their own laundry for several years now. Steve did/does the majority of the wash...bless his soul...and he got tired of them always bringing their "must have done TONIGHT" clothes to him. So...the new family law came to be: Teenagers, do your OWN laundry.

Chelsea and to a lesser degree Jasmine have always had sock issues. Of course, they rarely wash the laundry as it comes. They save it until there are 15 loads and it takes 2 solid days of washing. Oh...the folding and putting away was/is/probably always will be an issue too. (I've tried threatening, bribing, taking big trash bags in the room and collecting all laundry on floor...then they have to "earn" it back. Or I give it away...which kills me because those darn clothes are worth hard earned money!) I've got two more little ones that will be growing into teenagers so any idea's on getting teenagers to fold and put away clothes would be appreciated! That's beside the point...on to my observation.

Chelsea, especially, could care less who's socks she was wearing. I'm assuming the socks were generally clean. But Chelsea used to drive her sisters insane taking their socks especially without asking. I noticed over the years that Chelsea frequently would be wearing mismatched socks. Many times not her own! I asked her about it and she sort of shrugged and said something like, "I don't care if my socks match. I just reach in the pile and get what I get". WHAAAT? Did I raise you to be a mismatched sock wearer? I think not. My small degree of obsessive/compusiveness used to drive me nuts about this.

It's gotten a lot better since Chels went off to college and I don't have to see her walking around in mismatched socks every day. Perhaps...my mom brain is thinking...that she has outgrown that tendancy. Today Chelsea called and asked me if I could take her to work. It worked out in my schedule to do that so sure, no problem. We pulled up to her work and as I am waiting for her to enter safely into the building I happened to notice the cute shorts she was wearing. And then my eyes were drawn down to one aqua colored sock and one white sock! "Sheeesh!" I thought as I banged my head repeatedly on the steering wheel.