How long do a pack of 10 socks last your child?

[faithfulbird20]

6 months? 8 months? A year?

@faithfulbird20

How do people make them last more than 6 months? Do you have more than 10? Wash them buy hand? Dry them on the radiators? My 4 year old started wearing hers last June and now some of them look shrunk and worn out. They're trainer liner socks btw.

About a year or until they grow out of them. I buy lots of socks though - probably about 35 pairs between two children. Machine wash and tumble dry. Some last longer than others e.g. Zara socks aren't great and tend to shrink.

5 minutes

I’m convinced socks don’t actually make it into the house. I buy them, for all three children (age range 9-18) and I never see them again. I pay, they get bagged, and whoosh! Gone.

If it wouldn’t involve severe physical and emotional trauma I’d suggest supergluing terry-towelling to their feet instead.

Until they grow out of them.

She's had these socks for 5 months and they're getting bobbly. Would you bother saving them for the summer?

They're quite stained on the other side. I know they're not bad but they look worse in real life. How long do you think they'll last?

DS1 about 10 seconds - either lost or he manages to make holes in the bottom after about 3 wears!

DS2 surprisingly last forever, yet he’s the one who is forgetful and daydreams. It’s a constant mystery to me

I don't see the problem with them? At home, it doesn't matter how they look, and when you're out, they're in shoes anyway. It would be wasteful to throw them away just because they're not perfect anymore. As long as they don't have holes in, they're fine!

If the material is thin maybe they're just bad quality though. My kids don't usually get holes in their socks even after being passed from older to younger brother. I don't but really expensive socks just bog standard multipacks from supermarkets usually, but maybe you just need to give them a feel when you're buying in future, if they feel really thin, don't buy. I think the white school socks do tend to be a bit poor quality because the multipacks in the school uniform section are a bit too cheap sometimes.

@Snowisfallinghere thank you. I really don't want to be wasteful and if it doesn't bother my daughter then it's fine. I'm just weary if her teachers judge her (or me!) When she changes shoes for P.E or say she takes her shoes off when she goes to someone's house. People do treat you better when you have nice clothes. Yeah they are the supermarket £3 for ten pack but regardless of what I buy they get destroyed over time in the washing machine and dryer. I'll hang onto these and see how long they last.

They're 11 and 9 now so not growing as fast, so they get maybe a year. I do regularly have to pull them out from between couch cushions, under the front car seats, my sister's car, my parents' car, their schoolbags, the end of the garden, buried in their beds and wherever the cats have chosen to hide them, though. Otherwise I'd be buying new ones every week.

They seem to believe that the last places socks should be are on feet or in sock drawers.

I don't think anyone judges worn looking socks on kids. I certainly wouldn't! Or odd ones, for that matter; that's something we're well used to.

[quote faithfulbird20]@Snowisfallinghere thank you. I really don't want to be wasteful and if it doesn't bother my daughter then it's fine. I'm just weary if her teachers judge her (or me!) When she changes shoes for P.E or say she takes her shoes off when she goes to someone's house. People do treat you better when you have nice clothes. Yeah they are the supermarket £3 for ten pack but regardless of what I buy they get destroyed over time in the washing machine and dryer. I'll hang onto these and see how long they last. [/quote]
I have three children. We’ve had an uncountable number of play dates over the years. I have never judged any child by their socks (or even noticed what they have on their feet).

@ThePoisonousMushroom @UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername thank you. Your posts triggered something and I've got tears in eyes which some of you will think wtf. When we were kids our relatives judged us all the time and I think my mum felt that way about our clothes and our house. We had to wear 'new' clothes in front of them because my uncles and aunties being older would comment and say make ur kids wear nice clothes (even though they were nice!). It's only years later(now)I realised they were bullying my parents because they were so much older. It wasn't only them but their kids too (made us feel poor). I have really bad anxiety seeing bobbly clothes but I'm slowly learning to be okay with it...

Couple of years?

Dunno. 2nd child wears assorted socks that were 1st child’s.

When dd was little, I basically considered socks to be disposable. I’m not sure why I bothered having her wear them. She left them everywhere she went. I think it finally tapered off around age 8.

@faithfulbird20

She's had these socks for 5 months and they're getting bobbly. Would you bother saving them for the summer?

I think these look absolutely fine and I wouldn’t get rid until they no longer fit unless they get holes in them.

All socks get a bit stained.

DS seems to go through an incredible number of socks, all of which he makes holes in the toe in about a day and then they get fed to the sofa sock eating monster to be found when anyone feels brave enough to move to sofa and discover what DS has left underneath. Normally includes rotting fruit.

DD goes through socks at a slower rate but takes anyones socks she can find, dhs, mine and dss.

So about a month here.

Ds (14) probably a year or more

Dd (11) about a month if we're lucky. I don't honestly know what she does with them. I think a lot get discarded on the trampoline tbh and potentially the dog steals them.

This has been eye opening: I never considered socks to be a judge-able thing, unless maybe they had massive holes in. If they were white socks that were greyed on the soles/toes I would just assume the DC had been running around shoe-less (but it's unlikely I'd notice at all!).

In our house, DCs (5 and 7yo) keep their socks until they are outgrown or develop holes, although holes are rare. They probably lose approx half a dozen pairs each a year. Unfortunately they are now both in the same size socks, but prior to that most pairs would be passed on to DC2 from DC1. We've never had a problem with shrinking etc, but that's maybe because we don't have a tumble dryer? For school socks, I buy all black for DC1 and all grey for DC2 so I can tell them apart and it doesn't matter with pairing if the odd one is missed in the wash basket.
My socks are worn until they get holes, which is around 2 years, although I only have about 10 pairs at any time. I rarely lose one. I only wear socks when out of the house though (and often not even then if warm enough), so that likely contributes a fair amount to their longevity. Like a PP, I have an odd sock bag and quite enjoy reuniting the missing halves.

Oh OP, that's sad that relatives bullied your mum about your clothes It's also very silly. Like others have said, I wouldn't notice the appearance of another child's socks!

I sometimes think in general it's actually poorer people who are most worried about wanting their kids to look "well kept" in new clothes and not appearing desperately poor, for the same reason some people will not even entertain the idea of their children wearing second hand clothes. Conversely I see some pretty wealthy people happily swapping hand-me-downs with friends and family, shopping in charity shops, repairing clothes with holes in so that they last longer, etc. So I don't think the "newness" of a child's clothes is any reflection on the wealth of their family. The most important thing is that they're clean and warm. And its better for the planet too - another thing which is more important than keeping up pristine appearances!

If someone judges you or your children for having bobbly clothes or slightly grey socks, they're an idiot whose opinion you should not value anyway