I am a mom and an antique dealer, so it is not surprising that we have old furniture in our house. I adore the antique pieces I have collected while living in Norway, France, and England. With over 20 moves in my life, the surprising thing is that I have a vintage piece from my own childhood.
There is a small wooden bench with storage under the lifting lid. The pale blue is decorated with a fading stencil of “Amy ’87” and a few very 80s flowers. My mother painted this bench for me when I was just 5 years old, over 30 years ago, very much qualifying it for ‘vintage’ status.
I don’t have specific memories of this bench, but it is has always just been there. It’s a pale blue and oak piece that makes every new place feel like home.
When my kids were little, the bench became the Time Out Bench. Little bottoms have spent a lot of time sitting on that bench thinking about making better choices.
As our family grew, I received a great tip from a book club in which I participated. Coach Mom was a book written by a friend of a friend. In that book, the author, Brenna Stull, shared a little piece of wisdom that has followed me these past 10 years :: keep your children’s socks downstairs near their shoes.
While I had always kept my socks in my sock drawer in my room, I had {at the time} 3 little people that needed socks every time we wanted to leave the house. Waiting for their little legs to carry them back upstairs was too much, and elongated an already arduous process of trying to get all of us out the door. The idea of keeping socks downstairs with the shoes was a game changer for us.
When I started looking for something to keep all of our socks in, I came across my little bench. By keeping all of the socks in the Sock Bench my kids can get socks and have a place to sit to put them on.
When we move {and we do that frequently} we take a sock bag for our interim living. Unpacking our sock bench in our new home always feels so special- a little seat of normalcy. We cling to these moments as we move through countries and cultures. No matter where we live, we have to get out the door.
The sock bench has been a blessing, but you still have to get the clean socks into the bench for it to be effective. My mental state as a mother can be determined by the level of socks in the Sock Bench. When the Sock Bench is empty, that means I am barely holding it together. The laundry is probably not getting done, I more than likely need to go to the grocery store, and I am tired. There are times I don’t even realize how thinly stretched I have let myself become, but one look at the Sock Bench will remind me to slow down and take care of my family. Who knew that self care can look like matching socks, but in this season of having a young, busy family, being ready for the next adventure is key.
As my children have grown, they are all getting too big to sit on this adorable little bench. They have started using the vintage theater seats in our entry way instead. It is hard to believe that the little people I used to beg to get their feet dressed so we could go to Mother’s Day Out are all eagerly getting dressed to catch the bus or play with friends.
Would a sock bench or basket make your life easier? Do you have an unusual barometer for your mommy mental health?
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