DRESSING TIPS FOR SPRING

During my life, I have had to think a lot about how to maintain and help my own and others' ability to function while moving outside. Originally, I thought about it through myself and my own survival, until enjoying the feeling of comfort came along. When you go out, you can also dress in a way that is comfortable and you can enjoy the outdoors, not just survive.

I myself am a former special forces soldier and trainer, a current wellness entrepreneur and a father of small children. I have looked and thought about dressing for the outdoors in any weather. I have personal experience with the 40 degree freezing temperatures in Lapland, as well as with the heat of over 40 degrees in the sandy desert and really all the possible sleet in between. Through children, however, I have also had to think about how a child can do best outside.

An adult and a school-age child think about different things

Dressing a small child is still relatively easy, because he can be dressed however an adult wants. However, as children grow up, they develop a strong will of their own, they often compare their own clothing to how others dress and question their parents' instructions, both in terms of clothing and little else. At school age, the children's clothes must also start to look right, so that they dare to go to school in them. At the same time, parents think about the characteristics of the clothes: how warm and waterproof they are.

In our family, we have adopted the habit of exercising and hanging out in any weather. Our children used to take naps in prams even at 20 degrees below zero, of course we had to add some accessories to the prams, such as a big blanket. Nowadays, we try to move all year round according to the opportunities offered by the seasons. In the winter we skate and ski, in the summer we walk and run in the forest and bike and swim. In general, summer and winter are the easiest times in terms of dressing, but our long autumn and slowly warming spring cause the most challenges.

Dressing in layers helps in changing weather

I personally consider layering a really important part of dressing. Then there is no need to have separate clothes for each weather. And you also don't have to worry about the fact that the child grows out of them quickly and you only have time to use them once or twice. Of course, this is not always so simple either, and one approach suits the other. For example, I have one good down jacket and one good shell jacket, while my wife has 6 down and top coats of different thicknesses and a couple of different shell jackets. That is, we base our dressing on different things, I myself adjust the amount of clothes under the jacket, while the other keeps much of the same clothes under the jacket and adjusts the clothing to fit using the thickness of the jacket. The latter, my wife's method, is more suitable for the situation when height growth has ended. By the way, you can be clothes shopping with growing children all the time if you try to keep almost ten suitable jackets for them.

The influence of the sun on spring clothing is great. It's cold in the morning, hot in the afternoon when the sun warms up, and cold again in the evening when the sun goes down. Good outerwear and layering help here. In its simplicity, in the afternoon, the child can lighten his clothes by taking off one separate sweater and putting it in the backpack.

Outerwear selection criteria

Our own experiences with children's outerwear are mainly based on Reima overalls, so there are no major points of comparison to offer. Our outerwear for spring is shell overalls or pants and jackets. The children themselves can influence whether it is trousers or overalls. They also get to influence the color of the clothes themselves. We parents, on the other hand, make sure that the characteristics we want can be found in the clothes. In this way, the clothes become pleasant for everyone, and when they are pleasant, they are also used. Shell clothes have developed a lot and come with different features. The biggest balancing act is usually how much water the garment holds and how breathable it is.

Our spring overalls have been Reiman's Reimatec collection, whose products are waterproof, breathable and durable. They have worked really well for our active children and we only update the new ones as the children grow. In our everyday life, the most important thing is that the garment holds "one weekday's" amount of water and should still not feel cramped inside. Reimetec's overalls are breathable and they keep the wearer dry for a time suitable for our needs. With the second child, i.e. in the second or third year of using the overalls, we have noticed that in heavy rain, water starts to seep through the shoulders if the overalls are worn outside in the rain all day. It's something that knowing the overalls would last for many years, if it didn't stay small. So we don't prefer perfect rubber suits for our children that never let water through because of their poor breathability. Of course, raincoats like that also exist separately for really heavy rains. A raincoat is suitable for staying in a momentary, heavy rain, but pretty quickly the child will feel hot and stuffy inside it if he moves at all with it on.

It's always good to think about these things

With each piece of clothing, it is good to think about how long it will be used, where it will be used and what will be done with it when it is no longer used. After playing outside and being in the rain, children's clothes can usually be dried well at home and in day care. Schools, on the other hand, rarely have proper drying space for wet clothes, but they are then dried at home at the end of the day.

In the next blog, I will share our experiences on what to wear under shell clothes.

Author - Juuso Aho

Juuso is a father of two children, a former special forces soldier and a current wellness entrepreneur who runs his own Boxinbox coaching center in Hämeenlinna. In addition to the center, he is one of the founders and trainers of Tora Tactical Fitness , which is focused on developing the operational capacity of the authorities. Juuso also has experience with the late Aki Hintsa's Formula 1 coaching team from 2014, when he was responsible for overall coaching of Jean-Erik Vergne. Aki's studies and the year abroad gave Juuso a lot professionally, and eventually led him to entrepreneurship. Among other things, Juuso has tried to utilize these teachings in his own coaching.