This afternoon we went out to run some errands and I re-noticed the large chunk of fabric missing from the back of one of the kids’ coats. I say ‘re-noticed’ because I became aware of it at some point in the recent past and, at the time, chose to ignore it.
Today I looked at that ‘hole’ and tried to decide how I feel about it.
Thoughts I had:
- I should sew that up somehow or sew on a patch
- I really don’t want to because the patch/sewing will come undone anyway given the location of the hole and the way he rolls around on the playground/sidewalk
- if I spend the time to fix it and he wrecks it I’ll just be mad
- the hole isn’t impacting on his warmth at all; it’s near the bottom of the coat
- if my mother were alive she’d fix it
- my mother sewed and/or patched and/or fixed holes in my clothes immediately or else she threw them out and I don’t think I cared either way
- I’m not my mother. It doesn’t matter what she did or didn’t do.
- it looks like we can’t afford to buy him a new coat
- it’s February and he’ll need a new one next year so why buy another now?
- his jeans are frayed at the bottom
- I gave up on hemming jeans for the kids once I realized they outgrew the hems too quickly
- I’m also lazy
- am I being lazy by not fixing the coat? or am I just being realistic?
- I don’t want people to think we can’t afford a new coat, I just don’t want to spend money on a new coat for, at most, 3 months of wearing it before he outgrows it and he’s the smallest so..
- I bet the teachers at school judge me
- do the other mothers judge me too?
- do I care?
- maybe I should be more insistent on the kids dressing nice(r) instead of letting them choose
- that’s just stupid
- I’m not fixing the damned coat. Fuck it.
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This is when I bought a plain, boring,but hole-free jacket from the thrift store.
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That’s where this one came from – but we bought it for Middle One to replace the coat he destroyed two years ago. This year, Maymo REALLY wanted it (which goes to show the power of the older sibling, right?) despite it being rather beaten up. :)
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A lot of this is rooted in what other people think. Fuck it. He’s a boy. Ripped coats are a given. Also, it’s almost March.
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It’s true – he won’t need the coat for much longer (and we’ll just chuck it once the weather is nice and he doesn’t need it anymore).
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I’m pretty sure I have coats here. Let’s meet up somewhere, mine, yours, something in the middle. Size??
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I’m waiting to see if my coworker will be back to work soon – if he is, I may be able to take a day off (zow!) and come visit you. Not for a coat, but just to visit. :)
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Does he want the coat fixed? I’ll bet he’s not the only kid at school with a rip or tear in his clothing. If it’s not affecting his warmth, let it go. And what others think? I hope you can let that go, too. I like the Dr. Seuss quote: Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.
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It’s a square of the outer fabric (maybe 2″ by 2″) that’s right over his butt – doesn’t impact on the warmth or the structure of the coat or anything, really, since his snowpants cover that area, too, on really cold days. He doesn’t care about it at all..
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This amused me thoroughly. I have gone through that exact same train of thought oh so very, very many times… also ending definitively on “fuck it”.
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I have that struggle all the time. Jeans have become new, slightly worn at the hem and then ‘doing stuff Saturday’ jeans. Snow pants have given me that struggle before and generally, ok, always, it ends the same way it did for you.
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Snow pants last long enough (before getting lost at school) to get worn out?
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The deal when I was a kid was pretty much: You tear it you have to live with it until next year when we have money for clothes again.
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