Yesterday I got a bit excited for Katherine to start school in the fall and decided to go ahead and order the kids backpacks. Yes, I know that the current school year is not actually out in many school districts, but I have a very eager five-year-old, I found some sales, and we’ll be going on more long car trips this summer for which cute toddler backpacks are entirely unsatisfactory: they’re not big enough for picture books!
So, once I’d gathered a mom-approved handful of options, I called Katherine over so that she could start off the selection. One thing I’ve learned: never to let my kids pick things out in a store if there’s much money involved. Inevitably, the store will have horrible and expensive options that my kids will seize, and then I’ll have to spend ten minutes prying their fingers off said objects. Everyone will cry or feel like crying. So, online shopping it is.
Katherine knew that Nathaniel would head straight for the red backpack (which he did), so she began to rethink her initial selection of pink. I was fine with pink, though I liked the purple better (she shot it down and never looked back), but saw immediately that she wanted the two backpacks to match, even if the kids aren’t in school together. Fine. Kinda sweet, actually.
Over the course of two more hours, she shifted from pink to neon green to green-flowered to light-blue to cobalt blue. At each choice, I just nodded and waited and watched her re-think. In the end, Katherine, much to my surprise, settled on a solid blue backpack, and it’s one that will, I hope, last her several years. I hope that she’s still happy with her choice once she hits the pink world of girls at school, but she has several preschool friends now who go in for sparkly princess wear, and Katherine is still fine with mixing up sparkles with simpler fare. So, we’ll hope that it lasts. And, of course, Mommy’s happy. Both her father and I will be happier if we find ourselves lugging around (or borrowing) a blue backpack rather than a pink one, even though Sydney looks great in pink.
Erin
Alan Schmierer
I love keeping up with you all here! Thanks for sticking with it. 🙂 Can you email me your mailing address? (Can’t think of any other way to contact you than here…)
Katherine’s excitement about getting school supplies (waaayyy ahead of time!) is much like her mother’s. When Erin was in school, she was ready to purchase supplies in June, and packed/repacked/organized her backpack numerous times each summer before school began in August.