Unsolved Mysteries is one of my favorite tv shows. I love the challenge of guessing outcomes and understanding the history behind events and legends. Mysteries engage our curiosity and desire to understand why things are the way they are. The Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, and the legend of the Bermuda triangle are all still studied and analyzed to this day.
And in parenting, there are some mysteries that remain unsolved:
- Where have all the socks gone? I buy socks for my kids all the time and literally two weeks later, they are nowhere to be found. Well, at least not the match. I honestly don’t know if the kids are taking them off and throwing them away or if the dryer does indeed eat them.
- Why do kids repeat the bad words and not the good ones? My toddler is notorious for repeating things we say recently, even some words he shouldn’t. As a teacher, I cringe to think that someone might hear a bad word come out of his mouth. But how does he hear that one bad word? Does the word sound funny to him? Of all the language we speak, how does he pick up on the inappropriate words?
- Hoodies year-round? It’s still summer. Why does my pre-teen wear a hoodie or a sweatshirt in this heat? How? Aren’t you suffocating? Is this a fashion statement or some teen angst I don’t understand?
- Why are kids’ snacks so good now that I’m an adult? I don’t know about you, but I can scarf down fruit snacks like nobody’s business these days.
There are plenty of other unsolved parenting mysteries for us to ponder. The older I get, the more I try to solve them. And until we find the answers, I’ll be searching for matching socks.
