The Ultimate Challenge

     As stated in the previous post, today's kindergarten class only vaguely resembles the class that I attended at the tender age of five. Today's children have so many more challenges. The curriculum is, certainly, much more rigorous than it was a decade or more ago, as are the stresses caused by the non-conventional arrangements of many of today's families. To listen as five year-olds juggle between "Mommy's house" and "Daddy's house" and the resulting issues that come from living between two homes is a testament to their resilience. But some things never change. And one of the things that hasn't changed is the challenge of winter clothing! 

     For any of you who have attempted to dress one or two (or three or four?) of your own children to face the winter in upstate New York, you know what a frustrating and time consuming task it can be. Imagine, if you will, twenty-two pairs of winter boots, many of them identical, twenty-two snow pants, twenty-two winter coats with their stubborn zippers, twenty (if we are lucky) hats, and innumerable (often wet, soggy and mismatched) gloves. The process of matching the above-listed clothing with the correct wiggling bodies in time to get said bodies onto the correct buses at the end of the day takes choreography that would challenge Bob Fosse!