Here in Southwest Georgia, we have different seasons from the rest of the world — almost summer, summer, still summer and Christmas. It’s pretty cold here now and, for the most part, my students are dressing appropriately. On Tuesday, during the second restroom and locker break, I noticed a coat I haven’t seen since this past October. It was a pink, bubble coat, worn by a girl I call Lil Bit. She usually wears it zipped up, but on this day, it was open. When I asked her about it, she told me she was scared to zip it and I had to laugh because I knew exactly the reason why.
If you go by temperature, it’s basically still summer here in October. Mornings are cool, but the afternoons are good and hot. There is no need to wear a heavy coat. It was 5th period, I had just gotten my kids into their groups for the work session. As I monitored their progress, Lil Bit came up to me wearing that pink bubble coat, all zipped up.
Lil Bit: Ms. Holloman, I’m hot.
Me: Well, you’re wearing a big coat.
Lil Bit: But, I’m hot.
Me: (Thinking to myself: Sweet Jesus, I just told her she has on a coat.) Baby, you’re wearing a coat.
Lil Bit: I’m sweating.
Me: Take the coat off.
Lil Bit: But the sweat will come out.
Me: (I imagined myself doing a major eye roll.) No it won’t.
Lil Bit: It won’t?
Me: No. It will evaporate and cool you off.
Lil Bit: But I forgot to put deodorant on today.
I immediately thought, “Yep, that’s it. It all makes sense now. This poor child kept her coat on and zipped it up because she forgot to put on deodorant.” I told her I would let her go to the nurse to get some, but she had to take the coat off. She started to unzip it, but the zipper got stuck. So I tried, and tried and tried and failed. I really jimmied that thing up and down and got nothing. I then realized it had to come off over her head. This presented a problem, because the coat was pretty snug. I told her to put her arms up and attempted to pull it off over her head. It got stuck halfway. So there she was with her coat covering her head and torso, and me trying to pull it off. By that time, her classmates started to notice what was happening, so we went into the hall. After a lot of pulling and tugging, (I was afraid I was hurting her), we finally got it off. I sent her to the nurse and got the zipper unstuck while she was gone. When she got back, I wrote her a note to put the coat in the washing machine when she got home.
That was the last time I saw that pink bubble coat until this past Tuesday. It was unzipped. The poor baby is too scared to zip it up. She may never zip that coat up again. If she does and gets stuck, I hope it’s with a different teacher. One time was enough.
Pretty. Petty. Parent. 