New Mittens!

A triplet mom friend of mine had recommended these mittens last winter & I decided to get the girls some for Christmas (thereby justifying the outlandish present by combining a practical item & Christmas present). They're awesome! They're dry! They're warm! No snow can get inside! The liners are removable if their hands sweat! and last but not least: they all hate them.

We tried them out last week. We got out the door and all three of them started to cry. and cry and wail and scream. I tried to tough it out & thought they'd come around. How bad can new mittens be? It's not like I was hanging them by their thumbs for heaven's sake! I ignored them & worked away at shovelling the very fluffily full driveway. After a few minutes, Lovey decides to handle it her own way. She takes them off & goes bare handed. Honey & Sweetie stick to their screaming banshee strategy. Is this normal 4½ year old behaviour? They whine & cry buckets for anything that doesn't go right. It realllllllllllllly grates on one's nerves when it's bombarding you threefold 486 times a day! They literally sat there in the snow, not moving, tears streaming down their faces for at least 15 minutes. Lovey is nearing frostbite but quiet. How long should I have let that continue? I didn't last much longer than that. I gave up & gave them their old mittens back. Am I a bad mom? Are they controlling me? Am I teaching them anything useful?????? The mittens are too big and they can't grip things with all the extra padding so their dislike of the mittens isn't completely unjustified but I'm thinking their reaction was a bit ridiculous. But now I have to worry that I've yet again reinforced that crying is the most succesful means of getting what you want!!!!! Arghhhhhh!

As soon as they had their comfy mitts back on, all was well & we spent 2 hours outside in the fresh air & I shovelled the whole driveway. Not a bad workout! Although they didn't learn much about toughing it out, all was not lost I guess.