If your sock are loosely woven, you will also find them in the hollow spaces around your ankles. If you are wearing short trousers, though, you are going to find that the tick will end up somewhere around the level of your waistband if you are wearing undershorts that have elastic leg bands. Even if you are fully protected from a clothing standpoint, there are ticks that will go from ground level all the way up to your ear. They will travel for hours, if necessary, to find a convenient dining place. Most of us are prone to wearing short trousers when the weather warms up, especially those of us still young enough to enjoy getting out of school for a couple of months in the summer.
Kids operate at ground level a lot of the time.
We are going to play host to ticks, no matter what we do, and there are more than a few children being treated for TBIs every year. Before you go much further, you should check with your local Public Health office to find out which TBIs are active in your geographic area, and what percentage of the ticks are carrying them. This information should be readily available to the public, since that's one of the reasons we have Public Health Departments in the areas where we live. Whenever you are planning an outing, you should request the same information from the Public Health office that covers that area. Please keep in mind though, that just because a lot of the ticks in any given area are carrying disease-causing microbes, there is no reason not to carry out your planned activity.