Do High School Kids wear coats in the winter in Minnesota? (Minneapolis: camps, bus)

[readyformajorchange]

I read this thread with shocked interest. I am a southern girl, born and raised in NOLA but spent a couple years in the northern part of Tn. I have to say that I have never gotten use to the heat here. I absolutely hate it more than anything! The A/C is on 9-10 months out of the year and stays at 60-65 degrees. Trust me, I can't take enough clothes off and if I could nobody would want me to. LOL
Anyway, I have been considering a move to Minnesota or Iowa. I would love to have more than one and half seasons. I would love to stop sweating all the time or simply staying in hibernation. (which is the norm for most around here in the long summer) The crime is awful and schools or the worst even in the "good" school districts. I have to say, the lack of coat wearing or being labeled a nerd for wearing one has me a bit taken aback. Will my kids really have an issue? I promise they will want to be bundled up until they get a thicker skin for the cold. A friend of mine moved to South Dakota and said it took her about 2 years to use to the weather change.
In your honest opinion how well do y'all think my family will be accepted in southern MN? We will surely be different than locals, I know that. We are all just ready for a safer lifestyle than the one we have here and I want my youngest to at least have a fighting chance with her education. My older children will undoubtedly struggle unfortunately.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by readyformajorchange

I read this thread with shocked interest. I am a southern girl, born and raised in NOLA but spent a couple years in the northern part of Tn. I have to say that I have never gotten use to the heat here. I absolutely hate it more than anything! The A/C is on 9-10 months out of the year and stays at 60-65 degrees. Trust me, I can't take enough clothes off and if I could nobody would want me to. LOL
Anyway, I have been considering a move to Minnesota or Iowa. I would love to have more than one and half seasons. I would love to stop sweating all the time or simply staying in hibernation. (which is the norm for most around here in the long summer) The crime is awful and schools or the worst even in the "good" school districts. I have to say, the lack of coat wearing or being labeled a nerd for wearing one has me a bit taken aback. Will my kids really have an issue? I promise they will want to be bundled up until they get a thicker skin for the cold. A friend of mine moved to South Dakota and said it took her about 2 years to use to the weather change.
In your honest opinion how well do y'all think my family will be accepted in southern MN? We will surely be different than locals, I know that. We are all just ready for a safer lifestyle than the one we have here and I want my youngest to at least have a fighting chance with her education. My older children will undoubtedly struggle unfortunately.

I think people exaggerate the "nerd" factor. If I go to the high school, at least 1/2 of the kids have some kind of a jacket on in the winter, probably 1/2 are letter jackets, 1/2 North Face or similar. In the middle schools and elementary school, probably 90% of the kids have a jacket on. Move out of the metro and those numbers go up. Many kids in smaller towns either walk to school or have longer bus rides, having to stand out in the wind/cold to catch the bus if they are in the country. Most of the kids we are talking about go from their heated house to an attached garage to the car to the parking lot of the school and then run into school so they are outside for maybe 2 minutes, my kids included. They keep their jackets in the car more often than not because I make them bring a coat. When they rode the bus that stopped at the end of our lot, they waited inside until they saw the bus coming, ran out the door, on to the bus, at school they were dropped off at the door so they were outside for about 30 seconds each way.

It does get hot and humid here, not AS hot, but the humidity isn't much better..but it doesn't last as long either.

[readyformajorchange]

Thanks for your quick response. Your children were lucky. Mine have to catch the bus three blocks away, so no waiting inside till it comes. lol. Good to know about the nerd thing. Here "nerds" aren't picked on or anything but it just seemed the mention of it on the post came off as it being a negative thing in Mn. Maybe I read to much into it. Bad habit of mine.

Your explanation makes sense. My oldest will be in 9th grade when we move but she won't be driving.

I went to Nevada during the summer and thought I was going to melt and my skin was so dry by the time the week was up. I prefer the humidity....my hair not so much. I do hate the 100+ temps. If our day is 98 degrees it will typically feel an average of 10 degrees hotter. Oh and come August it is pure torture. Last year was the worst and we didn't get but maybe a week of cold temps in the winter. Our evenings and mornings are also extremely hot. You don't get a break from it. I am also a fair skinned person and simply can't handle these temps, never could. I remember passing out as a kid while playing softball due to heat exertion.

May sound silly but I am scared of driving in the snow. I drove in it some in Tn. However, Tn. gets more of a dusting I guess. If it sticks it is only there for half a day or so. At least that's how it was where I lived. I will have to get a different car before I go. My current car slides a bit when it rains. (which is all the time) haha I hope changing vehicles will help settle my nerves about the driving.

[Beenhere4ever]

A lot of states get snow. Minnesota gets enough and regularly enough that society is set up to deal with it. Plow crews are well-trained and well-equipped. Only equipment I've seen that is better than ours is the machinery that keeps the Donner Pass open through the Sierra Nevada. Wow, those are HUGE plows.

[CSD610]

Originally Posted by politically_correct

Last time I was in Minnesota a few years ago the youth culture of not wearing coats in the winter was just getting started. It was really cold but no kid from 10-20 would dare wear a coat or a hat, or they would be considered a real nerd. I wonder if this is still true in Minnesota. What if it is below zero, do they still refuse to wear a coat, hat and gloves?

I rarely see anyone under the age of 25 wearing anything remotely close to winter clothing anywhere, not just Minnesota.

[Beenhere4ever]

Heh-heh. Well, it is adolescence. With all those crazy hormones, maybe a little chill is a good thing!

[readyformajorchange]

CSD610, come to Louisiana when the temps hit 45 or lower. Which is rare, but people around here get in full winter gear when it does. I'm talking layered pants, gloves, scarfs, hats, thick coats with sweaters under, and boots. It makes me giggle to see.

[readyformajorchange]

Beenhere, when watching the news or the weather channel in the winter they always show streets where people are sliding all over and hitting each others cars. So, for us that don't know how it really is; it can freak us out a bit. haha

[Beenhere4ever]

Well, MN hardly fails in the category of lousy winter drivers. We have a full quota. Snow excites some stupidity zone in the brain and people start making foolish moves. The worst, of course, is light snow over frozen rain. That's when it becomes a real circus. But I've yet to lose it in the last 40 years, so it isn't inevitable, it doesn't HAVE to happen. It just does because the same dumb drivers who don't signal, wait to the last second to get in the lane for a turn, talk on the phone while making lane changes, etc, etc don't get smarter just because there's snow.

[MaryleeII]

Ok, I'm from Michigan, we had winters to rival anything Minnesota could have. I know what cold is! I always wore the full regala---coat, hat, boots, gloves, because we WALKED to and from school. Even when I took the bus, (city bus) it was about half a mile hike to the bus, then several blocks from the bus home. Enough to feel the cold!

I remember my parents watching little kids walking to school in the winter, with nothing but thin socks and tennis shoes, no hats, no gloves, their little hands literally blue from cold..........whatever!

IMO, its partly because we coddle kids nowadays. They go from heated cars to heated buildings, why bother with bundling up? Another reason is peer pressure. Another reason is drug usage----it changes a person's metabolism so they don't feel the cold.


Parents, just make sure to buy the "appropriate" winter clothing, keep receipts, perhaps take pictures, then, you are ready when the social workers come nosing around wanting to know why your kids aren't dressed appropriately for the weather.