One is the loneliest number

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If you’re like me, it really is the smallest things – literally and figuratively - that make life more difficult.

You may wonder how children’s MITTENS are making my life more difficult. If you’re a mother, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

I was born, raised and live in Canada, so I KNOW that winter and cold weather always come. And, yet, I’m never prepared. Ever.

Last week, the first day when it was really cold outside, I was getting my daughter ready for school. I knew it was the first day that a hat, scarf, and mittens were a necessity.

I have a HUGE bag hanging in my closet full of all of my daughter’s winter “stuff.” (Hey, at least I knew where her winter accessories were!)

I found a scarf and hat. (As a side note, even though winter hasn’t even begun, my daughter has ALREADY lost her main winter jacket. She left it at a birthday party and it was never to be found again! Fortunately, I have back up winter jackets. Yes, you are probably thinking exactly what I said to her, “HOW CAN YOU LOSE A WINTER JACKET?”)

Anyway, I looked through the bag of “winter stuff.” There were a lot of mittens. There were a ton of mittens! But I couldn’t find one matching pair. I dumped the entire bag on the floor (adding more mess to my already messy house) and counted all the mittens.

We had 25 mittens. Yes, 25 mittens! Except, not ONE matching pair. It’s like socks that never come out of the drier, but worse, because everyone knows that socks just disappear and it’s kind of funny. Where did the mittens go?

It’s not FUNNY when you have 25 mittens, none of which match, and it’s cold outside and you had to leave ten minutes ago to get to school on time. Also, to add more stress to finding at least one pair of matching mittens, we only seemed to have mittens for the right hand.

My daughter went off to school with one pink mitten (with paw prints) and another multi-colored mitten that my mom had knit. Luckily, my daughter is a bit strange, so the fact she went to school with non-matching only right-hand mittens, made her day. (She thinks she is very fashion forward.)

I came home to see the pile of mittens on my floor. Some of them were very nice. How much money, I wondered, have I spent on mittens over the years?

Obviously, I had to go mitten-shopping ASAP. One of my friends suggested that I go out and buy ten pairs of the same mittens, and that way I’ll always have a matching pair. It’s not a bad idea. Neither was talking to Alexandria Durrell, the mother of two, and founder of Clippo.ca.

1. Alex says “losing mittens is a right of passage for parents. Everyone goes through it. Everyone.” That’s why she’s come up with mittenclippos, which aren’t just clips you snap from jacket to mitten. “These clever straps feature a centre snap too so even when they’re not clipped on to the jacket, you can clip the mittens together as a pair. So they never get lost,” she says.

2. “They’re not too long, so when kids inevitably remove their mitts, they won’t drag them on the ground,” she adds.

3. Even the founder of Clippo.ca loses mittens! “I totally get the frustration of losing mittens. I went to the dollar store and bought a bunch. It does get to that point for many parents.”

4. Check back to her site in a few weeks! She’s working right now on a clip that will aid your child in NOT losing their hats! GENIUS!

As for losing a winter jacket, well, Alex can’t help me out with that. What do you do with all your non-matching mittens? And how many do you have?