Mass Chaos...or as I like to call it the kids have gone back to school.

Mass Chaos.....or as I like to call it The kids have gone back to school.


A moment of silence and a hot coffee....ahhhh..... Why is this bliss you ask? Easy, my darling children (ok, my cabin fevered spawn) have returned to school after two weeks of holiday break. The last week of break was spent indoors due to the unpredictably of Midwest winter weather, plummeting the temperatures into the single and negative digits. This morning, the headed off to their respective buildings of learning, bundled like Eskimos, the only visible parts of their faces being their eyes. So I stuffed snow pants into the backpacks of my grade schoolers and my middle schooler actually left the house wearing his hat, gloves and scarf, (as he said his friends can be idiots and be cold, he'd rather be warm). We drove around the block, and yes I drove around the block, it was a balmy 9 degrees and I could not believe the number of children that were without hats, gloves, scarfs, boots and even heavy winter jackets!!! Parents were letting children out of their cars like this!!! WHAT????? Really, you would send your child to school dressed in a sweatshirt and no coat because you drove them to school? COME ON!!!
There are families in our school that have been the recipients of hat, coat and glove donations, but these are not the families that I am referring to.
Now over and over I have heard such excuses as well, she gets too hot, he just doesn't want to, he's picky about what he wears, we didn't have time to find everything this morning.
When did our generation stop parenting? When did we insist on being friends instead of moms and dads? When did we start to think that dressing cool was much more important that keeping our children healthy?
So my question of the day to any and all parents, grandparents and caregivers, how do you handle your child's request or demands of fashion? Are you a slave to the fashion industry? Does your child have to have the latest in shoes and jeans or is your families fashion more practical ruled by the family budget?