Owen

Owen, Owen, Owen, where do I start with this little story.  Hmmmm let's start by going back to last winter when it was bitterly cold.

Last winter I got an e-mail from Owen's teacher at school.  It was an e-mail sent out to his entire class, but I'm pretty sure it was directed toward me.  She very politely told parents to please make sure our child was wearing appropriate winter clothing to school.  Yup, totally for me.

You see, Owen has a deep aversion to pants.  Hates them with a passion.  All he wants to wear is athletic shorts and a t-shirt.  Doesn't matter what is going on outside.  I won't even go into what I have done to convince him to wear season appropriate clothing.  It would take pages.  But trust me, I have.

It doesn't help that his older brother also has an aversion to pants as well.  However, I have told Owen that when he is in middle school he can wear whatever he wants.  But in elementary school I still get a say.  So that did it.  I put my foot down and told Owen that he would not be wearing shorts to school anymore when it was bitterly cold.  We had a little more peace in the clothing department for the remainder of the winter.

Now we go to this year.  Last Fall I knew the battle was looming, so I decided to tackle it head on.  I bought him some athletic pants and told him this was the deal.  If it was in the thirties or above he could wear either pants with a short sleeve shirt or shorts with a long sleeve shirt.  In other words, half of his appendages had to be covered at one time.  If it was below freezing during the day he had to wear pants.  Period, no exceptions.  After school and on weekends he could wear whatever he wanted.  He wined, he complained, but I held firm and he finally relented.  This winter has been cold, so the battles have been far fewer.  He has been wearing athletic pants and a short sleeve t-shirt everyday. 

Last week, he approached me and asked if he could wear shorts to school.  It had been warming up, so I agreed but I told him he had to wear a long sleeve shirt.  He was totally fine with that.

He went down to change and this is what he came up with.  Shorts on, with his long sleeved shirt rolled up into short sleeves.  I give up.