Weathering the Weather

This is the time of year I have a dreadful time figuring out what "season" to dress in. Do I wear Fall and risk roasting my insides, or do I wear Summer and risk my chilled skin and goosebumps doing an impersonation of a smurf with acne? (Hey ... if you understood that joke ... chances are ....)

Well, consistent with Murphy's law, no matter which way I decide, I'm wrong. I tried looking at the weather report, and checked the temperature, but it doesn't help. For starters, I made the mistake of looking at the weather forecast that shows up on the Cox.com web page. Let's just say that at 8:00 last night it said that the weather was 82 degrees and sunny. I was thinking that it was awfully dark for "sunny" at 8 PM in late September in Virginia ... perhaps there was an eclipse of the sun I missed?

But, if I go out dressed in shorts in 55 degree weather, the worst that happens is that someone chuckles into their hands and whispers to their companion about what an idiot I am (or perhaps how I am wearing fashion-challenged clothes, but that doesn't depend on the weather). If I happen to take Toddler out in the wrong gear, though, heaven help me.

I first learned about this phenomenon of random strangers to comment on my parenting-dressing skills shortly after Toddler came home from the hospital. He had spent a couple of months there and was well adapted to the cold. In fact, the Virginia August heat was a bit much for him, so we were hanging out in shorts and a t-shirt in the usually quite chilly Costco. Out of no where, in the freezer section, this random short woman came up to coo at Toddler. She felt compelled to tell me that he was going to get very cold and I should have him wrapped up in a blanket or something.

Okay ... random stranger ... and I do mean strange ... what if I told you that it was really quite warm in the store and obviously you had a rare but severe metabolic disorder probably brought about by dressing your children too warmly when they were little? Hmmm, you probably wouldn't understand what I said. What if I told you I was really the mother of 7 children, and this was my grandchild, and I have so much more child-rearing experience than you do? How would you know? But, in the interests of not wanting to slap you upside the head for being rude, I will simply walk away with some trumped up excuse about going to find Darling Husband. Follow me at your own risk. Darling Husband is a very big man.

Two weeks ago I took Toddler to music class. The rain was heavy, the air was chill, but it was not "cold." It was "cool." We were going to a music class to run around in, so I decided on shorts. The walk to the door from the car was short, and not worth putting on a coat, so we made a run for it. I got an awful lot of funny looks from the other moms on my way in. It had to be the way we were dressed -- they hadn't met me yet and had no other reason to look at me that way.

The next week I decided on long pants. After all, it is September, and the temperature is rarely getting above 75, and the class was in the morning. We might have to change later, but at least we wouldn't get chilled from the start. Woops. The room was warm, and Toddler was sweating in 4.5 seconds and getting mad about it. Wrong again, Mom. I guess this coming week we will try shorts and jogger pants so we can be layered for all weather.

At that point it will probably snow or something. I love Fall.