First School Day With Snow

[liralen]

There are things I love and hate about the first morning at the bus stop when there's snow everywhere.

The things that I love include my liquid velvet leggings under my sweatpants, my big wool scarf, my rabbit-fur bomber hat with the ear flaps to die for, my felted wool mittens, and my big, huge sub-zero REI boots that I got at like 75% off from one of their spring sales. I love Jet's snow pants (which he wears over his shorts because he is my husband's son), aelfsciene's gift of a hat with the huge pompoms that he wears religiously (even when half the kids are like, you look like a girl with pigtails!! He just laughs and throws snow down the back of their necks), the big coat my Mom got him because she was too cold when she looked at him, and the snaky blue-green scarf that he loves to wear along with the felted mittens he goes no where without when it's cold out.

With all his stuff on, he can play in the snow before the bus all he likes, take it all off when he gets to school and he'll be warm and dry for the day.



What I hate about the first snow at the bus stop are all the moms that don't think about what's natural for kids when the bus is late (it's ALWAYS late on snowy days, I never know why, but it always is) and dress their kids in jeans and sneakers and send them out. And all the boys, the first thing they do is dive into the snow, do snow angels or snow plows or whatever the heck it is that they think they're doing, and they get covered in snow from head to toe and it melts onto them...

And the Moms that go out with their kids and think that they're immune to the cold, so they stand there, pinched and shivering and look like they hate everyone and everything and snap at their kids to "don't touch the snow it'll get you wet!" and I'm like, man, what are you doing, sending them out in the snow and expecting them not to play in it?!?

I do call the line at the enormous STICK that was part of a tree that someone broke off one of the ornamentals out there, but hey, the bus is late, and the other kids are playing like crazy...

One of the girls came up to me, shivering as her mom had stuck her in a fricking dress with bare legs out in the blowing snow and a cute little coat that was so thin... I wrapped my foot thick scarf all around her like a shawl, put my mittens on her bare hands, and told all the boys she was Off-Limits for snowballs, yes, that means YOU TOO, and finally ended up putting my rabbit fur hat on her too until the bus finally came through the falling, slanting snow.

She gave me all my stuff back before she climbed on.

Halfway made me tempted to make a full mitten, hat, thigh-high socks, and scarf set for her to take home for Christmas. Yeesh.

It was nice walking home in the blowing snow, all by myself, so that I could think a bit, and to shovel the sidewalk, and see all the men come out to shovel their walks before going to work. John's off sending his parents to the bus to go to the airport after a very good two week visit. We're going to Seattle right after Christmas, so we'll see them again pretty soon. He also is working at the OUR Center today, and it's going to be busy with this weather. Might even have to open the night shelter so folks have a warmer place to stay for the night. That's always a little crazy.

I've shelved half of my writing projects, and am concentrating almost entirely on the Edge rp write up. That's been very, very good. And the first chapter has been well received by the other players. There's a cyborg shoving at my back brain on the way to the Journey to the West singularity... so I might have to let him out if he behaves. We'll see... and Shunsui and Jyuushiro have been waiting patiently for the last two weeks as I flailed, so need to get back around to them. But that's IT for right now, other than the rp stuff that waits well on when the other players are available. *headdesks*

Comments

[aruarian-dancer.livejournal.com]

We haven't had much snow over on the western slope of CO yet, but I hear you about those parents who send kids to school (or bus stops) dressed with no consideration for the weather. I'm always appalled just how many kids are walking around in short sleeves with no jackets or even in shorts when it's freezing outside. Then I see those moms who are driving their kids to school in their pajamas (*gasp!*) and fluffy pink bunny slippers for shoes and a cigarette in their mouths (I'm not making this up. Trailer trash on parade.)...I see where their priorities are. Scary!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

It is just astonishing what people will do.

Goodness. I haven't seen the pajamas. *laughs* That's... *amazing*...

[xshelaghx.livejournal.com]

on man! the only reason I wasn't in my pajamas driving a kid to school this morning is because I slept in the nude XD

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*just falls over laughing*

[r0ck3tsci3ntist.livejournal.com]

I know exactly how you feel.

I think it comes from people being out of touch with the natural world. They stay inside their houses and the kids watch tv (or some other media) all day. They honestly don't have a clue what weather means.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Ahhh! That makes far too much sense... or they're so insulated from it all the time. Weird...

It's *fun* being out there. Ah well...

at least Jet will have fun today. *grins*

[bloodthirstylt.livejournal.com]

*snuggles* That amazes me with parents and snow too, I am glad that you had fun in the snow though. Good luck with all your writing. *hugs*

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*snuggles* Thank you!! Yeah, it was fun.

[incandescens]

You would probably be vastly amused by how much everyone was reacting to the weather today, and to what was probably quite a minor bit of snow by your standards. Ah, England. Whatever the weather, we're never prepared for it in time.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*grins* Yes. Well, since you don't have the snow that often, it's harder to prepare for it. You'd think we'd have had enough practice... *sighs*

[ross-teneyck.livejournal.com]

See, I can sort of excuse it when people here in Seattle act clueless about snow -- it snows so rarely and in such tiny amounts when it does.

But in the mountains in Colorado? You'd think they'd learn how to deal with snow because it happens all the freakin' time.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

You'd think...

*shakes head* People... *laughs*

[evan-malfoy.livejournal.com]

Sometimes people make me really confused. Is childhood really so far away for them that they can't think that snow+kids=great combination? Or do they just think that their kids, like them, are exercises in restraint and denial? Far too many people just do not understand children or how to deal with them, or even really try to, and that's sad.

I wish I had been there. I love big ginormous piles of snow, and then going back inside and peeling off the layers of outdoor clothes and sitting down with a blanket and a cup of hot cocoa. In Pittsburgh we don't get large amounts of snow like that, although we sometimes did back in Michigan. I love snow, and I'm glad you and Jet had fun. :)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Hee... Thank you!! We had a great time, and yeah, the snow was wonderful. Hope you get a chance sometime this winter!

Yah, Michigan... I remember Chicago in the snow.

[silkiemom.livejournal.com]

We don't get snow around here, just rain and chilly weather, but I'll take a stab at the underdressed kids thing.

1. First snow/rain/cold day of the year! AUGH! Where's your jacket/raincoat/boots/mittens/hat from last year? Does it even fit? Why haven't we gotten all of this stuff out of the closet and tried it on ahead of time instead of running around looking for it three minutes before the bus gets here? Been there, done that, wrote the book.

2. Blame the dad. :) On Tuesday, I picked Kate up after school, and I was freezing, and she was wearing culottes and a t-shirt. (It was in the upper 50s/low 60s with a breeze, but it must have been colder that morning when she got dropped off.) "Aren't you freezing? Where's your jacket? I can't believe you went to school in that!" "I forgot my jacket. Dad said you'd be at school for the PTC meeting and you could bring it to me." Augh.

3. Hat, mittens, scarf, jacket, snow pants, boots - that's like 8 more things they could possibly take off and lose at school! :) Last year, Kate lost her new coat in November, and I was digging through lost and found on almost a weekly basis looking for it. You would not believe what kids lose. I was surprised to find someone's pants (the school is 4th-6th grade, so you'd think kids would be more resposible). How the heck do you lose your pants at school? Then I found Kate's pajama top. You just know there's some mom digging through that pile thinking, "How can you lose your pajamas at school? What kind of mother would let her kid wear pajamas at school?" I also found her grey hoody ("I didn't even know you lost this!" "I forgot to tell you..."). And when I picked her up today, she was cold, and missing her 18-day old leopard-print hoody. "I think I left it in band." Josh keeps forgetting his jacket everywhere, but he has one odd-looking jacket with a bright yellow stripe across the back that is distictive enough that classmates and friends keep fishing it out of lost and found or drag it back in from the playground for him on a regular basis. Also. The only thing worse than leaving your winter coat on the bus on the last day before Winter Break? Leaving your lunch box. Ewwww.

Okay. None of these are *good* reasons for sending your kid to school underdressed. But, some days, I get to be That Mom. :)

[xshelaghx.livejournal.com]

Thank you for writing that! *hugs you*

I have 4 kids in 3 schools and run a business from home. I always try and make sure everyone around me knows that so that they won't judge me too harshly when I inevitably fail to be Super Mom. It doesn't matter how organized I am nor how well I plan ahead, there are things that are out of my control. Still I know very well that it is even harder when both parents work outside the home. For example, this year on the 1st snow day I kept my 10yo out of school and we went to the all the buy her boots. She informed me at 9:00 the previous evening that they were too small after assuring me a couple of weeks prior that ALL her winter stuff from last year still fit. If I had had to be at an office by 9:00am she would have gone to school in her running shoes in 6in of snow. That's life. Shit happens.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

Kids. Jet does that with the sizes thing, too, but with both parents now in the house, we do things most parents can't. Like go to Target at 9 and get him something. *laughs* We are very different...

So yay on perspectives!

[silkiemom.livejournal.com]

*hugs back*

4 kids in 3 schools and running a business from home? Sorry, but you really are Super Mom. :)

I know all about the juggling thing. People sometimes say I'm really good at this juggling act, but they're not looking at all the balls on the floor that I dropped that I'm just kicking along with my feet until I have time to stop and pick them up. :)

[xshelaghx.livejournal.com]

lol the more people we impress the more we are afraid of being found out for the frauds we are.

Actually I read somewhere years ago that it's a problem nearly all successful women have - the fear of being discovered to be a fraud. For some reason that has helped me immensely over the years. :P

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*hugs you and grins*

I *DO* want to grow up to be like you. Goodness.

Yeah. That makes a ton of sense. And I have it even easier since I have a stay-at-home Dad to help out as well.

*dances about*

Thank you for saying this!! I needed that balance, too.

[silkiemom.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

I dunno about needing balance. I think your balance is just fine. Even knowing everything that goes wrong and sometimes being That Mom with the cold kid, I would still feel bad about seeing all those cold/unhappy kids at the bus stop.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*smiles* Yeah... yeah...

[annieroo2.livejournal.com]

You know what's even worse when the exact same thing happens all damn winter long. We all know kids lose things. I can totally attest to that. We have a hat and mitten BOX in our closet full of nothing but, in all sizes and thickness.

My boys invariably lose all kinds of things, but a dress in winter? That's like those idiots at Iowa State that refused to wear a hat because it messed up their hair. It would be 70 below wind chill and no freaking hat. I used to wear damn hunting coveralls to class on those days.

I never send my kid to school without snow pants, hat, coat and gloves because you're right, expecting a kid NOT to play in the snow is just ridiculous.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*nodnods at that a lot*

Yeah... I have to agree. It's interesting what people choose to dress their kids in all winter long...

*hugs* And you guys have a much colder winter than we ever do... goodness. It's 45 today! Hee...