I need a moment to vent. Here's the problem. By March of last year, J had gone through four winter coats. Not because he outgrew them, not because they were stained or ripped, but because he destroyed the zipper on every one of them. So it w sin March that he began wearing a spring jacket, and I'm sure you can guess what happened next.
That's right, looks from other parents (and non-parents) that judged me for being an unfit mother, notes from the teacher saying he wasn't dressed appropriately, and lots of issues about the amount of sweaters he needed to wear underneath his thin jacket.
That's not the only problem we had last year though. He also went through five backpacks and three lunch bags, all due to the zipper being ripped off or broken. The same goes for sweaters. The only reason his pants last so long is because he is so skinny he doesn't need to use the zipper at all; he just pulls them right on.
I know boys are typically rough with their things, but it seems a little ridiculous to me that he breaks the zipper on everything. I was semi-prepared this year with an extra back pack, because I knew he wouldn't last ten months with just one. I was obviously being too optimistic by getting him two, because last week he broke the zipper on his first one. He came home and the entire zip part of the zipper was gone. The zipper itself was still done up, and he didn't bring home homework that night or finish his lunch at school because no one could get into the bag. The teacher tried, other kids tried, I think they even sent him to the office so the principal could try. I ended up opening the front pocket and cutting out the liner so we could get his stuff out of the main part of the bag. It's still usable, but now the opening is much smaller and he has no way to open the big zipper. The day before that, he broke the zipper on his lunch bag.
So it is with great trepidation that I introduced him to his new winter coat. Granted, it's a name brand that claims to repair zippers for free because of their quality guarantee, but he managed to break two zippers of the same "quality" brand last year. I still have the coats though, so I can always mail them to the company and get those zippers replaced so he has some extra. When I think of it, I envision myself sending so many coats through the mail that they forbid me to ever buy from them again. Free repairs can only last so long, right?
So here's where we stand, only a month and a half into school. He's onto his second backpack and his lunch bag has a taped up safety pin where the zipper should be, because Daddy has swiped his extra Ironman lunch bag for work. I fully intend to send the coats from last year back to the company to get the zippers replaced, but I am wishing that someone would invent a Velcro coat that is warm and dry enough for playing in the snow. I watch every day as that poor zipper is pulled mightily every way but up, and my heart stops when it catches the wrong way and only one side zips up. It's not broken yet, but it has only been three days that he's been wearing it.
If we can make it to the Christmas holiday, my wish list will be several lunch boxes, backpacks, and coats for good measure. If I'm lucky, ten of each may last until April.
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