Patches Hide the Shame & the Crazy
Now my plan for today was to write a brilliant little piece about greening up the back to school shopping. Well…I got my kid’s school list…and …well…noooooot so much. Besides maybe buying a ream of recycled paper over a ream of virgin paper, they don’t give you a whole lotta options. They demand specifics right down to the brand name. !2 plastic tubes of glue, plastic folders, plastic markers, etc. etc. Will I be the crazy mama making a stink about the choice of supplies? No. It is going to be stressful enough for my little guy who much prefers to be at home pontificating with mama than in a room full of kids who may or may not appreciate his full length lectures on the complexities of a spider’s digestive system. I figure I can pretend to be sane for the first year. (Then balls to the wall nuts from there on out kid.) Instead I will find quite little ways to support things we care about without making him a social pariah…yet. 
One thing my little brain has come up with is the idea of patches. My son won’t be getting a spanky new hard plastic techno colored bag. He will be taking his pre-K bag or the ol’ family Eastpak…which has survived through about 48 years of college use…I hope it can make it through a month of public school. Now I am not a heartless wench that doesn’t get the excitement of the new stuff for the new year. I’m a heartless wench who realizes that a little goes a long way with a 5 year old whose expectations have been sufficiently whittled down. To make the bag his and special I will be sewing on patches of pure evil…Darth Vader and two Stormtroopers. (He insisted that Vader wouldn’t travel with just one. By insisted I mean looked at me with pure contempt that I could even suggest that Vader travel with such little protection. I think my allegiance is under serious question.) The great thing about patches is that they can be changed should he suddenly want to leave the dark side. If you don’t have a bag and need to get one, spend a little more and buy a good quality canvas based one instead of the plastic, which will crack if you sew on patches. It should hold up to years of being crammed into a locker and can handle a few patch swaps. And stop sniveling about not knowing how to sew…they make iron-ons for the thread challenged.
This is a most excellent idea! I don’t know how many crappy backpacks my kids went through when they were younger until we finally stopped buying the cheap plastic character of the year Wal Mart ones. Those never made it through a whole year without falling apart. I finally invested in a couple of packs from Lands End about 6 years ago and they’ve been using them ever since!
Patches are a fabulous idea and it makes the bag uniquely his own. Good thinking!
Oh, and good choice in characters. I’m a big Star Wars fan
I love the idea that he thought it was ridiculous for DV to travel with only one Stormtrooper! That’s hysterical!
Great tip! We didn’t have a backpack but I bought a plain used one this week. Frankly, though, I was planning on just sending it with my son plain. No? He seems to go for it. It is new to him after all.
If he accepts is sans characters, I say more power to him. Tru needs a little portable support that only the Dark Side can provide.
My eldest son still has the Eastpak backpack he got in 6th grade…and he is 28 and married! He still uses it, and it still bears the Smashing Pumpkins patch he sewed on it in high school (yes, he did the sewing himself).