Coats

When H was a child, he always wore a jacket in the winter. My younger child always tried to run out of the house without one as I hollered after him “a hockey hoodie is not a winter jacket”. My youngest was always moving and often became too hot with a coat even outside in the snow so as he entered high school, he usually just wore the hockey warm-up jacket for the rink. People said when he got cold enough, he would start wearing a coat. It happened at college with the cold prairie wind and lots of time walking outside. H wasn’t as active so he was always willing to go to school wearing a winter coat.

Once H entered high school, things began to change. As the mornings got colder, he would leave for  school wearing a coat but in the warmth of the afternoon, he would not return with it. We explained to him that he didn’t own an unlimited supply of coats and trips back to school were an unnecessary hassle.  The new rule was this: If you wear a coat to school, you must wear one home.  Seemed simple enough and the next day I was pleased to see H walking from the bus stop wearing a coat. That is until he arrived at the door and I discovered the coat he was wearing was not his. It was all black like his but longer and more fitted like a women’s coat, a style suggesting it likely belonged to his teacher. I understand both coats were all black but I struggle with how an OCD kid didn’t notice the difference in fit. We returned to school. The teacher was gone but luckily, with the help of a janitor, we were able to go into his classroom and switch the coats. He mentioned the teacher had commented about her missing coat. We established a new rule: If you wear a coat to school, you must return with the SAME coat. And, we decided to buy a coat with more color as all black coats were quite popular.

 

Now H is living 15 minutes away. Covid restrictions mean we can only meet him masked and outside.  This worked well in the summer and fall but as the temperature has dropped, he has continued to walk out wearing only a t-shirt and a blue zip-up hoodie.

“Hunter, why are you not wearing a coat?”

H - “I am wearing a coat, it’s right here” as he grabs the front of his sweatshirt.

“That is not a coat, it’s a sweatshirt”

H – “ I don’t have a coat!”

“Yes, you do. They are in your closet.”

And so it begins, the stage we thought we skipped during school in all of its glory.