<p>This could be subtitled: CA parents, were your flip-flop-wearing students ready for winter? I am feeling lashings of mom-guilt for sending S1 off to WashU with only a couple hooded sweaties and a snowboard shell. He says he’s fine with that, even with temperatures in the 20s. I don’t believe him. I know that here in SoCal, that shell is considered a “winter coat” but don’t you need one of those fakefur-lined arctic looking things when it gets into the teens?? I don’t want to think about what he’s wearing on his feet.</p>
<p>We just had two days of temps in the teens and twenties here in balmy western Washington. WashDad Jr wore his usual fleece jacket with his Marmot shell over it, and Jr2 wore his cotton hoodie. If you aren’t outside for more than 10-20 minutes it’s no big deal. (Although Jr. does wear lightweight REI long johns under his jeans all winter. Personally, I believe that’s because he sleeps in them and it shortens his morning start-up time just that little bit.)(Some of you mothers of daughters probably didn’t need to read that last parenthetical comment…)</p>
<p>Washdad - well at least he’s wearing underwear. Last time I saw my son he had not had time to do laundry so just went without.</p>
<p>jazzymom:</p>
<p>Layers work better than heavy coats. All he needs do is layer his clothing, and I’m pretty sure he’s figured that out.</p>
<p>Not a big deal. Trust me.</p>
<p>Now, if the wind chill drops towards -50F, that’s a problem. I wouldn’t expect that.</p>
<p>jazzymom, St. Louis didn’t get the brunt of the storm. As Tarhunt said, remind him to put on layers and he will be just fine. St. Louis’s weather is amazingly changeable. It could be 60 degrees in a couple of days. Or, it could snow again. Maybe a tornado. There is no way he can fit enough clothes into a dorm closet to cover all of the weather possibilities.</p>
<p>I live about 2 hours away from St. Louis, and we did get the brunt, complete with about 20 inches of snow, preceeded by ice and accompanied by a lot of wind. (And, can you believe, lightning and thunder during the heaviest part of the sleet and snow storm.) However, even that did not stop my 12th grade son from heading out the door in sandals and shorts to shovel the stuff. I think it was to prove a point; we’ve been joking with him that if he attends one of his two top college choices, both in much colder climates, he will have to redo his “wardrobe” to include some long pants and real shoes. He insists that would be unnecessary, and I guess he proved his point. Sort of. He looked like an idiot, IMO.</p>
<p>Okay, thanks, I needed some reassurance. </p>
<p>Midmo: Not shirtless, too? LOL. My son would do something like that. Once he went snowboarding with some friends on one of those days when it’s sunny and warm in the CA mountains (this was Mammoth) and they all did some runs in shorts, T-shirts and silly ski hats to show off. The photos are hilarious. </p>
<p>You’re right, Tarhunt. Of course he knows about layering and he’d be insulted if I remind him. And I know that he could figure out how to get to a place that sells heavier coats if he really needed one. (Although the metro line connecting the campus to the major shopping areas is not working right now.) It just freaked me out a little to see the temperature listed at 11 and the reports that St. Louis is in a state of emergency. I’d better stop watching the news.</p>
<p>jazzymom:</p>
<p>Well, the media is sensationalist by nature and economic pressure. And I can understand how the idea of 11F seems scary to a Southern Californian. But, really, exposure is not a problem for any healthy kid I know. If he gets cold, he’ll find a way to get warm. </p>
<p>If I had to guess, I’d guess that he’s somewhere right now, shirtless, in a snowball fight, and having a whale of a good time.</p>
<p>jazzymom,
If the metrolink to the Galleria isn’t working, I would recommend the following online options: thenorthface, rei, patagonia, llbean, jcrew, bananarepublic, buckle. IMHO, in 11 degree weather, a student who will be outside walking around to classes needs, at the least, a warm coat, a hat and gloves. A lot of college students wear northface in the winter. A few more warm shirts/sweaters/hoodies would also probably be a good idea. Tennis shoes are fine for winter in St. Louis, but not flip-flops.</p>
<p>Thanks, heidi. I don’t think he has gloves, but I assume he can get those in the campus shop. He’s got more than flipflops, of course, but not by much, and certainly not those super-tread hiking shoes/boots that I would like him to have. Somehow I really doubt he’ll bother to go out and get a coat and boots, even if he needs them. That would involve shopping. LLBean/Land’s End is a good idea.</p>
<p>They are calling this the worst ice storm in the region in nearly 30 years!</p>
<p>I live on the Illini side of the river, just south of St. Louis. In fact, Monroe County, where I live, has been declared a disaster area due to the number of tree branches and power lines down in the area. Yesterday at 1PM, I had almost 3 inches of ice on my windshield and that was covered with about an inch of snow. Cleanup has begun in town, but it is going to take a couple weeks to get everything cleaned up. Power company (which had to replace many of the lines over the summer as well) is predicting 4-7 days for some people to get their power back on!</p>
<p>Well, hops scout, I was trying to put a distant mom’s worries to rest, and now you tell her that!</p>
<p>Hopefully Wash U campus has all the essentials its students need and jazzyson doesn’t need to go anywhere. Some of my relatives in St. Louis are without power, and my mother had to chip several inches of ice off her car. We got less ice here but a lot more snow. So, roads are closed but power is fine. No mail since Thursday, or newspaper either. I must say, the frequency with which the St. Louis area loses power, for many days at a time, is rather amazing to me. You folks need to get some of your lines buried.</p>
<p>Well, of course the area would have it’s worst ice storm in a generation just after I send my first born back there inadequately dressed. :eek: Probably should have counted on it. Seriously, I’m not really worried about him, just sort of irked that my plan to wait until the December holiday break to outfit him with snow gear has failed miserably. </p>
<p>I really appreciate the reports from the front. Long ago, in a previous life, I used to know how to live in cold weather — five years in NYC and two years in Moscow was a good education. I’ve got Sorel boots and arctic coats so thick you can barely move your arms in them but they’re packed away and long forgotten. After 12 years in the land of perpetual sunshine — did you catch the UCLA band in *shirtsleeves *for the big game — I did kind of forget that weather changes and there’s a predictable seasonal timetable for doing so. :o Oh well, the boy will survive. And when that LLBean package arrives, he won’t be too surprised.</p>
<p>jazzymom, you are not the only one, I also feel guilty for not insisting my S to take his snow boots and winter jacket, but he seems to be fine taking pictures of the snowy campus.</p>
<p>jazzymom, I share your concerns, especially after visiting ND a couple weeks ago and seeing how the “boys” dressed in the cold. They are too ‘proud’ to wear adequate cold weather gear, IMHO.</p>
<p>But, UNDERARMOR, seemed to do the trick. Son was very thankful, for the items, which can preserve their “macho” image, of not being effected by the 10 below wind chill.</p>
<p>As a snowboarder he probably has some of these long underwear, but the UNDERARMOR (or copy) are super thin material, and seem to have that “cool” factor 
Plus, you will feel so much better!!! Trust me, been there, done that…</p>
<p>Thanks, moms. I like that “underarmor” suggestion a lot since the only thing he has to layer right now is t-shirts and the aforementioned hoodies. And easy to ship. S did email me some photos and the campus looks lovely in the snow. No pics of himself, though, and all the other moms’ kids look nicely bundled up and warm.</p>
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<p>Don’t feel guilty. If you had sent a nice winter parka, boots and gloves, they probably would NOT have been worn anyway. DS goes to school in Boston…we are from New England. He has no boots, no parka, no winter coat…nothing like that. He DOES have a hat and gloves. He tells me that college kids do NOT wear winter coats or parkas, or boots. So there you go.</p>
<p>jazzymom, I was delighted to read this morning that you have extensive cold weather experience [Moscow is a great city, isn’t it?] and do actually know how to dress in the cold! I was worried yesterday when everyone yesterday inexplicably assured you that eleven degrees was no big thing. I grew up in the Midwest and I was like, since when is that no big thing?
Anyway, IMHO, I don’t think kids are too “cool” to wear warm clothes. My s asked me to send him his warm jackets at the first hint of cold weather at his school and now has with him a leather jacket, a long wool coat, a northface down jacket, and another REI jacket. [The UPS store knows me now.] He also has a couple of light jackets for fall and spring! I don’t think it would ever occur to him that it was cool to be cold. He’s got the underarmor, too, which is indeed a nice layer but potentially too hot if the classrooms are overheated.</p>
<p>We’re in KC and my 16 year old still is wearing short sleeve t-shirts to school, with no coat! I keep telling him to take it and he says it’s only to the car and back and there’s no room in his locker. He doesn’t wear flip flops even in the summer, otherwise those would still be on. He went to snowplow the driveway with a sweatshirt on, we had to make him put on gloves. If we weren’t here to bug him, I’m sure he would have no gloves or winter coat on ever. We went to visit his sister in the NE for parents weekend and I made him take his North Face when all he wanted to take was his warm sweatshirt. He never put it on the whole weekend, even for cold college tours along the way.
My D’s are always, always cold- I have sweatshirts in my car year round because inevitably we arrive somewhere and they start shivering. Maybe it’s a hormonal thing???</p>