Oh, put a sock in it!
posted in OmegaDotter, Parenting |The past few weeks have featured tantrums of epic proportions in the early morning hours, as we seek to persuade OmegaDotter that she should be wearing socks.
Y’see, five years of living in Arizona have persuaded her that socks are a truly optional thing. Only on the coldest of the cold days did she really need socks; aside from that, she was a happily sock-free child. Sandals: no socks. Flip-flops: no socks. Sneakers, loafers, etc.: no socks. We would, of course, have preferred she wear socks with the latter, but it wasn’t a hill to die upon.
She’d wear tights with fancy shoes and dresses, mainly because they were frilly and appealed to the girly-girl in her.
But here we are in Alaska, and winter is barreling down upon us, twin guns of snow and cold aimed straight at the dotter. I am not looking forward to real winter, and OmegaDad and I have been talking up -15F days and frostbite and cold wet purple toes to the dotter. In the meantime, it’s been chilly and rainy and pretty miserable most days, and we have had an ongoing battle raging in the mornings to just get her to wear her damned socks.
We are talking so much tantrumming that OmegaMom found herself tired and weeping and really, truly (really, truly) wishing that she could go back five years or more in time, so it could be her and OmegaDad and no screaming shrieking flailing hitting tantrums every morning.
I am not at my best in the mornings. Having the tantrums applied to my morning grumpiness just doesn’t help.
However, I had heard that socks was one of Those Issues that bedevil kids with sensory problems–and their parents. So, at the end of my rope one day, I consulted Teh Google, to wit: “socks sensory disorder”.
I followed links. I found, at Amazon,
(Whoops. ‘Scuse me. While looking for my link to the Special Socks, I got sidetracked by some recommended titles. Seems that one of my fave kids’ writers, Dianne Wynne Jones, actually has a couple of new Chrestomanci novels out. I know what I’m buying today!)
…Ahem. I found, at Amazon, TicTacToe seamless toe socks
The dotter, after being informed that I was trying to find her socks that didn’t hurt, also waited, yearning. She doesn’t like the morning scene, either.
I was, frankly, dubious. But the reviews? Holy cow. Lots of parents who also had dealt with unending morning tantrums, and found the special seamless toe socks to be the only thing that would end the howling. (What is, you ask, a “seamless toe”? It is, actually, not seamless, but it is a sock where the toe seam is hand-linked.)
The socks arrived. The dotter waited while I opened the package. I eyeballed the socks. I eyeballed the dotter. I said, “Oooookay, kiddo, let’s try these things out.”
She tried them on.
She didn’t howl.
She put on her shoes over them.
She said they didn’t hurt.
She has worn them now for three days.
We have had no morning tantrum.
(We have, however, had other tantrums, sigh. And I can’t say she is in love with the things, because still her preference is sock-free. But she puts them on in the morning and puts her shoes on and isn’t sobbing or shrieking. This is a Good Thing.)
So. If you’re dealing with a kid with sensory issues, and having the morning shoe/sock problem, I give these socks two thumbs up.
(On the donation front: We have now fully funded the stapler gal. Woohoo! I regret to inform my readers that I didn’t do my donation before writing the post, or else I would have been able to tell everyone that the minimum donation is $10. Sorry for that missing detail!)
