20 below Zero in Minnesota, are your kids wearing coats today? (Madison: house, neighborhood)

[Stranded and Lonely]

When I lived in Minnesota as a kid I remember it was considered uncool to wear a coat or hat. No matter how cold it would get, no matter what the wind chill peer pressure would not allow us to wear a coat. We would just wear a hoodie or sweat shirt and stand out side and freeze. The first kid who admitted he or she was cold would be ridiculed.

So has anything changed? Do kids wear coats and hats if they are outside in the 20 below weather in Minnesota?

[jphengel]

Not if they are going to go in the car. John

[LaceyEx]

All kids in our neighborhood are well bundled.

It was 25 below actual this morn with a wind chill of 38 below. Big high od 4 below predicted.

I have seen some brainless adults tho in shorts and T-shirts.

[Haver]

The first couple of weeks of "real" winter the cold just knifes right through me, but like Golfgal I usually end up feeling quite comfortable in a loose fall jacket even in subzero weather (with my only concession being gloves and sometimes pulling the hood up). I think if you have the right body type [i.e. ancestors from really cold places] or if you grew up with it your body adapts.

I also remember as a kid, even on cold days at the bus stop a lot of kids weren't well dressed for it. It always amazed me that girls would commonly walk around with dresses that left their lower legs exposed. There's a high school bus stop on my way to work and when I'm running late the kids will be hanging out there - I haven't seen any of them lately but they always seemed pretty casually dressed even in winter.

[golfgal]

We were out shopping today and the kids wore their coats in the car but left them in the car to walk to and from the mall so they didn't have to carry them around. Doing my motherly duty I reminded them they should put on gloves though (they didn't).

[StilltheSame]

Movies today with the kids and then a friend's house and a hop in and out for coffee and hot cocoa at coffee shop. Kids wore the same coats they wore in 20 degree above weather as outerwear, and wer'e from Florida. To me the difference is only if you are out for any period of time. Cold is cold.

[Stranded and Lonely]

When I was a kid in Minnesota we would do recess or physical education class outside in November and December and the teacher would remind all of us it was going to be very cold and we should dress up warm. But due to peer pressure, all of us would just wear short pants and a tee shirt in the brutal cold as we stood out side and froze to death.

The kids would never admit we were cold but the teacher would be in a snowmobile suit and be laughing at the kids for trying to act like they were so cool. Then one day just to see what we would do the gym teacher put us outside in 10 degree weather with snow and a 30MPH wind. Here we were in our shorts and tee shirts acting like it was not cold. Until a extra biting wind came in and that caused the big shot in our class to beg our gym teacher to let us go inside. "No dice," the gym teacher said, warm in his snowmobile suit, "I told you all to dress warm, you did not listen." The next day everyone wore a coat because the cool kid in class finally admitted he was cold!

[City Love]

Wow. I'm in Houston and down here. Kids bundle up real good when its 40 ABOVE zero. I can not even imagine what you guys go through right now.

We have record cold coming up in the next couple day. Might get down to 20 above.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

The difference is that the kids in Houston are probably spending hours at a time outside in the 40 degree weather. Unless VERY warmly dressed you won't see anyone spend more than a few minutes outside here in this weather unless they are desperate to get frost-bitten. This weather is intolerable. We just got back from Mexico and I'm ready to hop back in a plane and go back there until April.

[MN55]

This was the easiest way to tell MN students apart when I went to UW Madison. Just something about growing up in this state. Even the kids from Wisconsin were well bundled up when most Minnesotans just had on a sweatshirt.

I'm sure it's the same thing at the U of M, too.