Tomboys in Pink: The Large Pink Backpack

When I first became pregnant, my husband wished for a boy and I wished for a girl. We got a girl. And then more girls, three in all so far. But it didn’t quite work out the way I’d expected, because my girls are all complete and total Tomboys – my husband’s secret revenge. I love my girls, don’t get me wrong; they are my life and I would lie down in front of bulldozers for them. But I still wish for a girly girl, every now and then. Someone I could pass all this knowledge of shoes and handbags to – not to mention at least one child who didn’t possess my girls’ tendency to love all that is gross and horrifying.

Every day I send my three ladies off to school pristine and organised. And every afternoon they return to me dishevelled, dirty, and covered head to toe with questionable substances that may or may not be mud. Once they all came home with their new school pants in tatters, and I’ll admit that I contemplated some pretty heinous punishments when I calculated how much new school clothes were going to cost.

By far, however, the worst of it is the critters.

My girls are quite modern and curious and we have high hopes for their future careers as scientists or big game hunters. Right now what that means is that they are constantly bringing home bugs, frogs, birds, and various other slimy things, alive or not. Sometimes this is with great fanfare, as when they touched my heart by running a bird with a broken wing home, insisting we take it to the vet, and then spent weeks caring for it like a trio of hens over an egg. Sometimes this is with … less fanfare, as I frequently reach into the dark spaces of their school bags and discover … unpleasant things. And no matter how often I tell them to never, ever leave amphibians or earthworms in the pockets of their bags, they still do.

So, I got each of my girls a Large Clear Pink Backpack from the Clear Bag Store.

This did nothing to deter my little tomboys from collecting insects and moss from the woods every day after school, or, to be honest, from coming home looking like they’ve been playing rugby with the boys. I’ve come to adore my tough little girls, because these clear backpacks mean I can see at a glance what’s lurking in there. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been more earthworms. It just means I haven’t been surprised by earthworms in a long time.

There are other benefits, too. The bags are sturdy and can handle the huge number of books they have to carry around all day. The large pink clear bags are also easy to clean – they’re made of tough plastic and so I can just wipe them down. Which is good because these bags need a nuclear-level disinfecting every few days.