For most of us 2020 has been a year of worry, loneliness, and stress while coping with Covid-19 rules. We have learned to split our weeks between the office and working remotely. Two of us have children learning remotely and so have also had to figure that out. We are fortunate to have a law office that accommodates social distancing.
Superdad Colin Moriarty is married to a high school teacher who teaches remotely and has school age children learning remotely as well. Colin works at home to supervise his sons while mom is teaching. Occasionally, Colin must come to the office, and when he does he is accompanied by his younger son, who is in the second grade, and who attends school remotely from his dad’s office sofa. He sometimes does math problems for fun or watches a favorite video while waiting for dad to finally finish his work. Or he commandeers the conference room with its extra large screen monitor. On those days Dad orders pizza in for lunch, which is a reason to celebrate coming to the office with dad.
Colin’s son is an independent soul who concentrates on things that are important to him. Although donuts are high up on the list of things he enjoys, a well-curated outfit is not. One day the rest of us noticed that Colin’s son does not care much about socks. He was wearing a one tall red sock and a short yellow sock with what looked like planes on it. That’s pretty much the way it was every time he came to the office with dad.
Then, Colin proposed a deal: If his son wore matching socks when coming to the office on a Friday, they would bring donuts in for those who were here. That was very agreeable. Colin’s son is in charge of the donuts – selecting them, carrying them in, and announcing that the donuts are here. He also named the event “Matching Socks Friday.”
The rest of us office-working on Fridays now look forward to the possibility of Matching Socks Friday, because we know what that means for us, too. We celebrate Colin’s son, because he never fails to choose his socks thoughtfully on those Fridays when his dad goes to work at the office instead of in the basement.
Matching Socks Friday is a bright spot during an otherwise gloomy 2020.