On Feb 6, 12:06 pm, Cheryl Isaak wrote
Or button them up. I watched a clip on the weather channel of high school kids getting off a bus this morning. I could see them wince as they stepped into the cold air but they were cool. Their coats remained unzipped.
Dora
"bungadora" ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with
Their metabolic rate does run higher than ours and they really do not seem to feel the cold as badly. I always smile though, during the warmth of September I'll pass some high school kid with her new sweater on and then see her in late March a purpley blue in a tank top!
I think it's one of those rites of passage for young 'uns in climates like ours. Now if they are reincarnated in a few hundred years time this scene will have us going on about how they wear too much clothing in these hot winters lol
Our high school neighbor boy walked down the middle of the street yesterday afternoon in a long-sleeved t-shirt with a short-sleeved t-shirt on top of that, and jeans. Wind chill was -22 and actual temp was 0. How smart is that?
In our area of NE Indiana, when schools close due to weather-related situations, it doesn't seem to hamper them getting to the closest mall.
Jayne
Hey - I saw teens (males) with shorts, a t shirt and NO COAT when I picked up DS....
C
This would be because they and their parents are idiots, and don't have the strength to actually point out the kids stupidity is not cool. But, a little frostbite, etc and maybe they'll learn. Or not.
ellice
lucretia borgia ( snipped-for-privacy@florence.it) writes: (snip)
Careful!!!!! If you are implying what I think you are implying (anthropogenic global warming), them's fighting words!!!! LOL.
Actually, I don't put any blame on the parents. Any more that is! It is blasted cold and the teen age idiots don't seem to feel it. I have a daily war to put on a coat, close it up and put on a hat. Add, I think he zips up just before I can see him walking home. And I know I'm not the only one waging the war. Some kid last week, after practice and shower, ran out to his cold car in t-shirt and shorts, jacket and jeans over his shoulder, still dripping. He had gym first period and didn't want have to change at the field house.
C C
As a parent of one of those idiots I can talk about dressing for the weather until I'm blue in the face. Not going to change his behavior. A case of frostbite might. LOL Hasn't happened yet.
Meanwhile on Sunday he hung around the house in his winter coat claiming he was cold. Oh the contrariness of it all...
Donna in Virginia
Do you have kids Ellice ? Were you a teen yourself ? This is a battle that it pays not to bring on, there are other far more important battles that must be won.
I am but a spectator watching either side make lobs back and forth, I have not made up my mind yet having discovered good arguments for both shools of thought.
I want to add that I was one of the kids who rarely closed my coat, or wore a hat or scarf in winter and never seemed to be cold. I can still remember my mother yelling at the top of her lungs for me to button up or I was going to catch pneumonia.
I'm past 70 now and my first case of pneumonia was just a couple of years ago after I moved to Florida so it seems to me that kids just don't react to the cold the way adults do.
I guess I should add that since I live here, anything below 65 f feels like frost to me now.
Lucille
On 2/7/07 8:53 AM, "Donna" wrote:
I understand - and with teenagers, indeed either some body malfunction or frostbite would help. I'm sure that we all know part of this is some weird "being cool" kind of thing. OTOH, where I have issues with the parents is with young kids. Because presumably you still have some control of a 6-10 year old. And I see plenty of them in shorts and shower shoes - in a rink that is 50 degrees, and going out into the 30 degree weather. So, it seems to me - maybe I'm being harsh - that if some young kid that doesn't drive themselves to hockey, soccer, band, whatever - can't be bothered to at least put on some kind of appropriate shoe, and a jacket - not necessarily zipped
- then the parent ought to be able to do something about that - as in not take them to said even until, or something. Even on Monday I was at the Sheriff's office for some work thing, and while waiting in the reception area watched a young mother - say late 20s, 30ish come in - dressed in jeans, boots, sweater, scarf, jacket (open) - and with her a daughter - about age 10 . Skinny kid, cute, in thin cotton knit capris, a tee-shirt, an open light weight shirt over the tee, little short thing footie socks (like don't show under sneakers) and my favorite - a pair of wedgie, slide-on mule sandals at least 5 sizes too big (I think mom's). Oh, this is the day that was the coldest day in the whole winter - temps in the teens, and windchill down to 0 and below. The kid almost fell on her face just in the shoes trying to run thru the 20-30 mph winds. The other people in the waiting room just stared - then after the mom & daughter left, another woman started making comments. I'm sorry - that's just not right. The kid was a skinny thing, and her wrists, calves were sticking out, and even her lips looked blue. I understand that I don't have kids - and honestly, there are lots of things that parents do or don't that I certainly wouldn't comment on. But not being able to insist that a kid at least put on shoes and throw a jacket on, bring their gloves or whatever is appropriate with them seems just weak. And around here, in some of these really affluent areas, the parents are just sooooo busy and important - so we see all the time - well dressed parents, with 1,2 kids along - in some little completely inappropriate outfit - and they're not just heading home - nope - they're going out to dinner. So, I don't buy the "it's not worth fighting we're just going home they'll only be outside for X minutes" excuse.
I do actually have this argument with DH a lot - who stays overheated after hockey, reffin - for some time. I finally won the you're not going in your boat-shoes with no socks argument. I don't/can't make him zip up, but at least he'll throw on a jacket, and have a hat, gloves with him (least likely to use the gloves). OTOH, when I'm scorekeeping - he wants me to wear a hat 'cause it's so cold in some of the rinks.
That is pretty funny. For us, since my body temp is low always - and at night the heat is on about 60, 61 - I can't sleep if it gets warm . DH - who is a radiator - wanted me to have it warmer when the temp was so cold - somehow I couldn't get that rational. So, told him no, and he was fine anyhow - and he's the one that never wants to wear a real jacket, etc.
ellice
I am always fighting this battle too and it seems, with both kids, to have reared its head in middle school. The main reason (or so they say)? They have to share these 12" wide lockers that aren't big enough for one coat, much less two. I insist on a sweatshirt in the backpack at the very least.
Linda
No, yup, and I do understand with teens. But, honestly - it's the young kids that throw me. Teens - heck, we were all idiots. But, my parents had some sort of control about general welfare issues. And I was a really independent kid. I understand the battle thing - so, I guess my point becomes that the kids do whatever because they think it's "cool" and of course teens are invulnerable - and the parents can't impress upon them any kind of reasonableness. Heck - at least if the kid takes a coat along it's something - rather than letting them out of the house with nothing.
One of our best friends has an only child, 15 1/2. Good kid. Pretty spoiled - but a good kid - very polite to all of us - but you should hear him calling mom - "when are you comeing home?" - he treats her like she's the kid. OTOH - the jacket thing - he'll run out refusing to bring a jacket
- and then call her to come get him from a block away at his friends because it's too cold. And she'll do it. Same as all these goofy kids - so why not just once let the kid be cold then see what happens? Or if you're worried say - not going til you....fill in the blank.
ellice
ellice ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with
Ah well, that's a silly mother, she had the golden opportunity to make him pay to be kewl.
I totally understand not buttoning up - but the point to me is at least you had a coat with you, etc.
No, most of them in the past had stronger immune systems. However, nowadays with the amount of school time, activities, etc - teens actually get less sleep and their immune systems really aren't much better.
Not buttoning, zipping up, fine. But going out in snow, or sub-freezing weather - with summer weight clothes on, and not even having outerwear with you is just stupid. One thing to run out for the paper - another to be standing at a bus stop for 15-30 min, running in and out of buildings, etc. or walking a ways down the road. Heck - around here people don't even think about having supplies in the car in case they're stuck - and there are those
2 hour traffic jams when people run out of gas, etc.Of course I run out in shorts or a robe to get the paper, or throw the frisbee with the dog in back - but I wouldn't run around all day, etc, like that.
That's what happens. My folks would yell at us as our heat would be set lower than their put on a coat weather. Lots of compromise.
It's just all part of the myriad experiences of life - whatever.
ellice
It reminds me of the story - I forget where I read it - about the classroom assistant at a pre-school class who was helping one of the youngsters (who was almost five years old) to put on his cowboy boots. He asked for help and she could see why. Even with her pulling and him pushing, the little boots still didn't want to go on. Finally, when the second boot was on, she had worked up a sweat. She almost cried when the little boy said, "Teacher, they're on the wrong feet." She looked and sure enough, they were. It wasn't any easier pulling the boots off than it was putting them on. She managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on - this time on the right feet. He then announced, "These aren't my boots." She bit her tongue rather than get right in his face and scream, "Why didn't you say so?" like she wanted to. And, once again she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off his little feet. No sooner had they got the boots off when he said, "They're my brother's boots. My mother made me wear 'em." Now she didn't know if she should laugh or cry. But, she mustered up the grace and courage she had left to wrestle the boots on his feet again. Helping him into his coat, she asked, "Now, where are your mittens?" He said, "I stuffed 'em in the toes of my boots." Her trial starts next month.
ellice ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with
Suppose you slip and lie there for 24 hours ???
Well, given that I live on a cul-de-sac with several neighbors - I guess someone would see me if I fell out front, and in the rear - I'm out with the dog, and he'd keep me warm, and bark up a storm - plus I don't go out too far - it's a small yard. And I do have someone that lives here - so presumably he'd get home from work eventually and notice me missing. Or if he were away - notice that I hadn't answered the phone for a while and would send someone looking.
It happens - and I've done ambulance runs picking up some older person with a broken hip that slipped and laid around for over a day.
But, that is part of the point - at least make the kid have a jacket in the car, etc.
With kids - thing is their core body may be warm, but what happens as you are in the cold the body pulls your circulation to the core to keep your vital organs warm and functioning - hence your extremities are getting less circulation, less O2, and will lose feeling so not notice that you're cold, etc. And then what can happen - in pretty fast time - is the air you're breathing is so cold that your cooling self can't warm it enough in the upper airway - which then effects your entire circulation, etc. Catch-22. Part of the reason that you're supposed to keep your neck, wrists, ankles, warm - lots of blood vessels there.
ellice
A good point to bring up here with some of us older people around is how often older people can lie around, sometimes badly injured, in a bathroom. I was listening to stats on the radio one day and thinking of two aunts to whom that happened and a woman in this building who actually died, having split her head on the toilet as she went down. The stats showed the bathroom as the most dangerous room in the house because inevitably you probably will clock yourself on something on the way down lol
To that end, not having a jack in the bathroom, I bought another cordless 'phone and keep the receiver in the bathroom, lower down on the side of the bath so it is very reachable from the floor, with useful numbers programmed in. Just seems practical since this is a concrete building and one doesn't hear neighbours, but the same would apply if one was living in a house also.
As regards teens who might be caught outside, they all have cell 'phones these days ! I can't imagine a teen who would be caught dead without a 'phone glued to an ear these days, at least the frost won't nip their ears I suppose lol
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