Hats and coats and gloves oh my!

Lol. I've got $100 for anyone who can tell me an effective way to "teach" a lively 10 year old how to consistently remember things at school like her coat, shoes, lunchbox, gloves, homework folder, etc...

As my mother said about me when I was that age, "You'd lose your butt if it wasn't attached!"

Stampie said:

I'm confused by the idea that "mom" is the only one taking care of the kids. Not how it works in my household.

Same here.

Keith Tanner said:

Duke said:

Keith Tanner said:

Hands up if your mittens were on strings.

Which hand?  If they were on strings you only get to raise one.

 

You needed longer strings.

Also, toques should have pompoms. That is all.

Did somebody say pompoms?

I've heard knit cap, beanie, and toque used just about interchangeably. If it has a pompom, it is far more likely to be referred to as a toque though. 

I personally don't like the pompom. Makes it more likely to fall off when I'm playing hockey outside, because invariably I will get too hot, lift the hat above my ears, and then the extra weight of the pompom makes it fall off. 

In reply to Marjorie Suddard :

Good question as to what we called them. If it was tall, we called it a toboggan. If it sat flush against the head, then knit cap or stocking cap. I'm trying to remember if we had a special word for the ones with pom poms. Maybe just pom pom cap. Or did we call those toboggans? I might have to call my brother as a lifeline. (I still have mine from BITD, by the way.)

True story: I made an edit/addition to the knit cap Wikipedia page years ago, and it's still there. 

Toyman01 + Sized and said:

In reply to Duke :

The string on mine went up the arm and across my back under my coat. You could take the mittens off, but you couldn't put them down. 

Mine were also crocheted by Grandmom. 

 

Yeah, that's how we did it. The piece of yarn was long enough that you had to wear them as intended. Otherwise, you'd trip on the yarn. 

Toyman01 + Sized and said:

In reply to Duke :

The string on mine went up the arm and across my back under my coat. You could take the mittens off, but you couldn't put them down.

It was a (perhaps poor) reference to an old joke by that creepy Pudding Pop guy:

"Yank on one mitten and the kid hits himself with a right cross!"

Also, crochet is the Devi'ls work.  Knitting is where it's at.

Tom Suddard said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

What are "mittens?"

Edit: I also need some clarification on what you mean by "coat."

Move north Junior, and you'll have a dozen coats , all with different levels of insulation ranging from a nylon shell to a "Maine Forest Ranger Down Parka" from the L.L.Bean catalogue. I'll bet I have 5 or 6 different levels of gloves/mittens for cold weather use.

In reply to David S. Wallens :

This is a toboggan....

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

Tom Suddard said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

What are "mittens?"

Edit: I also need some clarification on what you mean by "coat."

Move north Junior, and you'll have a dozen coats , all with different levels of insulation ranging from a nylon shell to a "Maine Forest Ranger Down Parka" from the L.L.Bean catalogue. I'll bet I have 5 or 6 different levels of gloves/mittens for cold weather use.

I once went shopping at the Columbia outlet with a friend who was moving to Minnesota for work - the sheer variety of winterwear available, nay necessary, put a fear of nature in me that I had never before thought possible.

In reply to Nicole Suddard :

Me and my sons at the Winter Classic Alumni hockey game in Detroit a few years ago.

In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :

Yes it is--and we had one of those, two. We used to ride down the hill behind the other elementary school. No, not that one, the other one. 

Ya my son lost his jacket in school today. Search every class he was in. Probably stolen. There goes a pile of $$$ ($250). Ya it was a nice one I got him on sale last spring and he now has no winter coat. 
 

I am a bit pissed off at the moment. 

One of my friends had a tour of a private university dorm after the "kids" had left for the summer. It was a pigsty of debris and left behind clothes. He picked up a nice looking designer t shirt off the floor and googled it. It retailed for over $500.00.

Stampie said:

I'm confused by the idea that "mom" is the only one taking care of the kids. Not how it works in my household.

While you may have the politically correct answer the reality  is a serious percentage of single parent kids are taken care of by the mother.   She's trying  to raise a family on less than half of her previous income and often makes up the shortfall by taking a second job. 
    I know that's not the only outcome. My son-in-law gave up a high paying IT job to be a Janitor at a local building. Just so he could be there to see his girls off to school and help them play Hockey and Soccer. His wife is the prime bread winner. 
      

I live two doors away from the elementary school. See lost stuff all the time, coats, shoes, hats, jackets. Some people put them up on the fence or tree so that they would be impossible to miss. Nobody EVER claims this stuff. Seriously. They walk past it the next day WITH the parent, and no light-bulbs come on.

Today was a new one, There was a full backpack that was dropped at the foot of the driveway, nice backpack, It was there for two days. Since it was garbage day today and nobody seemed interested, I picked it up  and inspected the contents. It had schoolbooks , full pencil case and the kids name inside. I tossed it. Guessing a grade 2 kid, so once again not someone who walked to school without a parent, and they had to have passed it twice.