I keep seeing these info blurbs about backpacks. They’re letting us know that we must choose wisely in picking out a backpack. It’s important to purchase one that fits the child, is user-friendly, will hold up all year, and is two-thumbs-up functional.
Umm. Hate to break it to you, but school’s already started for most kids, and chances are the parents gave in and let the kid pick out a backpack weeks ago.
And notice, I said let the kid pick out a backpack. Do they really think the parent has a lot of say in this? Sure, we can argue them out of the little squirrelly pencil holder that is already falling apart, and we can gently guide them away from the giant calculator that won’t fit in their desk. But the backpack is sacred.
My kids chose very well this year. My five-year-old daughter perused the entire selection for several minutes, than chose the pink one with a skull and crossbones on it. No, the black one with a neon hulk. I made my son go sit somewhere else, so he couldn’t quietly scoff at her choice. With the air free of male smirkiness she selected a purple one with sequins and a rainbow, and was happy with that choice.
For all of five minutes. By that time we’d moved on to another part of the store, and she discovered another wall of backpacks. This time she found her true love for the school year, a bright pink backpack with a pretty pony on the front and a flowing tail that could be brushed. I did make sure the zipper worked, and noted that it wasn’t so big as to pull her over backwards, nor so small that it couldn’t carry her piles of five-year-old masterpieces. But that’s as far as the functionality tests went.
Our son, on the other hand, has been doing the backpack thing for years and is now a real pro. He considered a new pack for approximately 2.5 seconds, then opted to stick with last year’s pack. It’s all black, it has dozens of little mesh holes so he can see what’s in there, and it already has his giant jangling ball of keychains attached.  What can be more functional than that?Â
