Julia Sims: What's up with kids wearing shorts in the middle of winter?

I have no doubt it’s a mind-boggling, frustrating phenomenon shared by moms across the country: kids wearing shorts in the dead of winter.

I assume - or, at least, I hope - I’m not alone in this.

I can’t remember exactly when Will stopped wearing pants. I definitely remember the switch from jeans to athletic pants happened about first grade. I’m a bit fuzzy on the transition from long pants to short pants.

How can it be that on the same sub-freezing days that I’m stuffing myself into long johns under work clothes, my nine-year-old is waltzing out of his room in gym shorts and knee socks?

Explained: Why do kids insist on wearing shorts when it's freezing outside

My husband, who’d finally had enough, uttered the words: “You’re going to catch pneumonia!” (One of those frightening moments when you realize you’re turning into *your* parents!) Then he went out and bought Will base layers to wear under the gym shorts and T-shirt. (Base layers are apparently now what they call long johns).

That worked... for all of a minute. Almost every day I pick up Will from school, those base layers are pulled up under his shorts!

At this point, I figure I’m not going to sweat it. If he’s cold, he knows where to find his pants.

As for me, I’ll be the one bundled up in long johns and turtlenecks, hands permanently clutched around a hot cup of coffee, thinking warm thoughts for an early spring.

Julia Sims is the mom of one, a former reporter for WRAL-TV.