Fleece and Footwear

As you can see, not only do I sew the children warm fleece pants to wear during our freezing winters, but I even patch those pants with more fleece when the children wear holes in them:

So why, when the temperature is definitely below zero outside, and the kid is wearing fleece pants, a coat, and gloves, is she also wearing CROCS?!?

I swear, I have to get after both of them every single time we get in the car--"No, you may not wear Crocs!" "YES, you have to wear socks?!?" "Will, I swear, at least bring the coat WITH you in case we have car trouble or there's a fire drill at the library!"

The other night, Matt picked the kids up from the library, and asked them to meet him upstairs after they'd collected their things. Will arrived without her coat, admitted that yes, she'd left it downstairs in the children's department, and then suggested, "Let's just leave it. We can come back tomorrow and get it."

Seriously, if it was twenty degrees warmer, which would still be VERY cold, I wouldn't care. If they want to be uncomfortable, that's not my concern. I must insist, however, that the children NOT suffer from frostbite in their extremities while under my care.

So this morning, as part of getting ready to head out for math class, I reminded both children to brush their teeth and hair, walked Will around the house to find her hairbrush after she tearfully insisted that she "can't find it!" (it was in clear view on the playroom floor, next to a teaspoon and a roll of masking tape), reminded Syd again to brush her teeth and hair, reminded both children that they must wear socks and shoes, reminded them again to bring breakfast along for the car ride (Will didn't; Syd did, but handed it to me, uneaten, at the door of the classroom), and then flat-out screamed at Will in the car, sigh, as she successfully turned ten minutes of memory work into ten minutes of power struggle by mumbling her answers so quietly that I couldn't hear her, then declaring at my protests--in, I might add, a much louder volume--that THIS is her normal volume and she ALWAYS speaks just like this and she doesn't understand WHY I keep making her speak more loudly!

Of course, then, as we're climbing the stairs to their classroom, and I'm following behind Will and instructing her to please be more respectful to Mr. Phil than she was to her mother this morning (I know, I know...), I of COURSE notice that the child is, yes, wearing close-toed shoes, but no, she is not wearing socks.

Did I mention that it's eleven degrees outside?

I'm seriously considering showing her a Google Image search entitled "frostbitten toes." That's seriously where I'm at right now with this whole socks business.