Are non matching socks so bad?

[morethanonebaby]

I have a good friend who has been a great support to me while I've had young children. But one thing she ALWAYS does is comments on what my kids wear. They are nearly 3 and nearly 1, and frankly I am quite pleased with myself if they have clean clothes on, and I have remembered to brush their hair.

She often says, 'ooh, her socks don't match' or 'where did you get that coat from?' (When it's clearly from a charity shop). What should I say? Why does she feel the need to criticise what my kids wear? BTW, she has 2 kids too, and is forever complaining she's knackered and worn out, so she must understand... Should I get grumpy with her, or AIBU?

What's wrong with odd socks? Pairing socks is such a bind.

Nothing wrong with second hand either. I tend to buy new for ds1 because stuff gets passed down to the others but I only have one girl so stuff that I know wouldn't get worn by ds2 like dresses and skirts is usually eBay. When they were smaller the vast majority of their loathes were charity shop, why the hell not? Even if you can afford new it is far more environmentally sound to buy second hand and when little they are only in it 5 minutes before they grow.

My dd used to intentionally separate her socks so she could wear odds. Her logic was "I like this pair and I like this pair so I'll wear one of each".

I've the solution. Really. It's brilliant and everyone should do it. Buy 10 identical pairs of socks for everyone in the house. Give all the other ones away. Ta da.

DD2 wears odd socks as a matter of principle - it's also her way of rebelling against school uniform. DD1 prefers matched socks so I bought her some which are completely different from the ones DD2 wears and it works.

I very rarely wear socks at all - I wear tights in winter (at work) and bare legs in summer. I only wear socks when my shoes demand it, e.g hiking boots when I do archery.

I read the tip that albiobcampionscat mentions on here a couple of years ago, and since I implemented it in our house my life has been transformed no more having to wade through a pile of socks to find each one that matches. Each person has their own style of sock and all socks for that person are the same. My dh immediately understood my severe look when he came home recently with a pair of patterned socks he had bought himself

The only problem with this method is it's harder to do for babies, hard to find plain socks for them. So 23mo dc3 is the only one allowed patterned socks

As for the coat I would assertively say it's from where all my clothes are from, the charity shop, then go on about how brilliant it is to buy clothes from there. But if she keeps asking, maybe she already thinks it's great and wants tips on which shops to go to?

I find that method tricky when it comes to older ones and school socks though Octonauts. Our school says socks must be white or grey. No way am I doing white so it has to be grey. Dd's look different but the boys socks all look alike. I ended up sitting and sewing a lie of red thread to the inside of all ds2's socks so I could tell them apart.

Great ideas mumsnetters! The single type of sock for each member of the family is genius. Once we are past the toddler years I will deffo adopt this practice! But in the meantime, I'd thought if she asks (in an annoying way) where my children's clothes came from, I might say, 'I can't remember, I think I might have found this one in a charity shop - it's great isn't it?!'

Often it's matching socks v leaving the house on time relaxed and happy.

I go for the second option, especially if putting socks on themselves is a bit of an achievement, it's really mean to undo all their handwork just so their socks match. I apply the same rule for slightly odd clothes parings.

I'm not sure I would still be hanging around with your freind OP she would get on my nerves.

DD 13 and her friends always wear odd socks as a fashion choice. You can even get packs of odd socks in the shops. Therefore your children are just being fashion forward and embracing the new trend 😄😄

IAmAPaleontologist - DS1's school wants all uniform, including socks, labelled. That's one way to tell who's socks belong to who

Dh, ds 12 and ds10. All wear black socks. they get washed and dried and put in clean basket. They ️then have to sort them out themselves. Apart from when they are new I don't think I've ever seen them in a pair!!! They are worried and nor am I .!!
We boss hands her boys clothes down to my eldest which get passed into my youngest. In all for recycling! They do get new clothes but they are much happier in clothes they can run around in and get dirty

But back to the OP, I don't think odd socks are anything to get worked up about.

They are not worried!!!

If she asks you where something came from, just check the label and tell her. Only a massive bitch would ask if you bought it new or not.

Whole family wears odd socks here. There are 5 of us. If we all wear a clean pair every day that's 70 socks a week to pair. Can't be arsed.

I have OCD traits and odd socks is one of the many things I have problems with. I'd rather go sockless than wear odd socks.

My son purposely wears mismatched socks. I draw the line at school -- must wear a matching plain black pair.

Ds always wears odd socks. Going to be a battle tomorrow to get him into matching (starts school). It does sound like she's trying to put you down.

Specifically on socks, I'm not keen on odd socks, particularly on adults, it seems such a 'look at me, I'm so mad, me!' thing to do, and I simply don't believe anyone who says they don't even notice.

When my DD got to the age of choosing her own clothes, she would often wear odd socks because she couldn't decide which ones she liked best. When she got given the job of pairing up clean socks, she started putting them together as unmatched, and when her feet became the size of mine, I stopped getting paired socks too!
It hasn't harmed us, as far as I'm aware. It has helped her anxiety no end. She starts university later this month!

Quite often purposefully put DS in unmatched socks when he was a toddler - thought it quirky and cute.

We have lots of 'orphan socks' in our house, now that the DCs are older and supposedly take charge of putting their own clothes in the washbag. So it may be a trend that's rehabilitated to avoid throwing away perfectly good socks!

I rarely wear matching socks. Really just because I can't be bothered to pair them. I generally make more of an effort with Ds's but not always (he's 3). He's gone to nursery etc before in odd socks. If anyone mentioned it I'd be very

I try very hard not to have odd socks.
However my teens dont seem to care.
I buy socks that match, with a different coloured toe, 5 pairs. they dont last longer than the first wear.
it upsets me but i can't do anything about it. and I cant afford to keep buying more.

my dm bought me some plain black socks, which upset me

My socks tend to match because I only wear socks maybe once a week, sometimes not at all.

I however did get a comment one day that I was wearing Christmas socks in June. Yes. Why waste a perfectly good pair of socks to wear once a year.

Life's too short to worry about socks. If they're clean anf intact then I wouldn't worry.