Hibernation

Autumn doesn’t like the snow. This year she has complained like a true Michigander about how much snow there is (which is less than average, actually) and has repeatedly asked when the snow will melt.

I’m guessing this is because she received a bike for Christmas and is itching to get out and ride it, but there’s a part of me that’s a little sad she hasn’t insisted on going outside to play, build snowmen and burrow into a snow fort.  Those are the things I used to do when I was a kid.  I didn’t start hating winter until I was a teenager and had my own paper route.

I don’t this is a problem. Yet. She gets some time outside during the day at school, but during the weekend it’s all indoors all the time unless we have to go to Target or Costco or one of the many places one goes to get stuff they think they need but could probably do without while they stay home, put on some slippers and watch Man Vs. Food on Netflix.

Last weekend I tried to buck the trend and suggested we attend a local winter festival.  The husband of one of the ladies I work with chairs the festival and she said it would be a lot of fun. Cardboard sled races, kids painting snow (with what, I do not know) and all sorts of  fun family activities.

But duuude. It was cold last weekend, so cold that my pickles froze. And no, that’s not a euphemism for anything. I left two jars of homemade pickles out in the garage and they froze along with a couple dozen bottles of water and a carton of orange juice.

Please note orange juice loses something in the thawing.  I don’ t know what, but it just wasn’t the same once we brought it inside.

And also, we did not go to the winter festival.

So this morning Autumn started in with the snow complaints again and I thought, “Kid, you’re too young to be this whiny about the weather” even though I know exactly where that whiny-ness comes from.  I felt bad that she hasn’t had a chance to enjoy the snow or the sled we bought her before Christmas (again our fault because duuude, it’s cold).

Since I don’t want to turn my child into a sedentary, winter-hating Midwesterner, I started thinking of some cold weather activities we could do as a family. But I have to tell you, I’m at a loss since everything that has come to mind so far involves going outside, and speaking as a woman who has enough trouble finding every day clothes that fit, I’m not sure I’d be able to find suitable winter gear that would spare me from hypothermia.

And also, I really just don’t want to go outside.

I imagine I will have to go outside as some point if I ever expect my kid to get enough exercise during the winter months. I can’t send her outside without supervision. At least not yet, so I’ll have to think of something so that we don’t all emerge in the spring with an extra layer of fat, a healthy growth of facial hair and retracted pupils from lack of sunlight.

Tagged as: snow, Weather, winter