When it comes to back-to-school shopping, a backpack is now probably the most critical item that you will need to purchase. If your child is in kindergarten through third grade, a department store brand of backpack will probably do just fine. Cheap is all right, and color and design can be a major factor in your purchase. At least, this is true as long as your child is not a pack rat and is not in the habit of hauling rocks to school. Yes, it is a good idea to try to get a good fit, but most young children are not required to drag multiple heavy textbooks to and from school.
Once your child gets a little older and is coming home with textbooks, the backpack situation changes. Now it is important to spend a few extra dollars to make sure that your child is not causing physical harm to him or herself in the process of transporting the necessities of school life.
For years, I purchased department store backpacks for my children, and they were just fine. For ten dollars, I could get a new backpack that would last for the year. By the end of the year it was not in great shape, but all in all it had survived the trials and tribulations of hauling school material. Then we moved to a new school district that did not give sufficient time for the kids to go to their lockers between classes. The ten dollar backpack lasted less than a month before it began bursting at the seams from the weight of the textbooks for all of the classes at once. So I turned to LLBean. Now, my family has always been on a strict budget. The idea of paying $56 for one backpack was absolutely mortifying. BUT … I noticed that many of my children’s friends were toting LLBean backpacks and that they had clearly been around for at least a year. I say that they had clearly been around that long not because they were bursting at the seams or showing any other kind of breakdown in the backpack, but because they were fairly dirty – and because I asked them how long they had had them.
So I bit the financial bullet and purchased three LLBean backpacks for my daughters. LLBean has a lifetime guarantee and I was bound and determined that if that expensive backpack so much as burst a stitch, it was going back for a refund! That was seven years ago, and my youngest daughter just graduated from high school – with the same LLBean backpack. Amazing!
Aside from the fact that the LLBean backpack absolutely was up to the wear and tear, there was also the fact that my children’s problems with aching backs and shoulders almost completely disappeared. This is bearing in mind that at one point we weighted my middle daughter’s backpack when it was filled with nothing more than the essentials – and it weighted 22 pounds. She weighed 95 pounds. This is totally unhealthy, but in some schools today – such as the one that my daughters attended – it is also unavoidable. When purchasing that backpack (and, obviously, I suggest checking out LLBean’s selection) be sure that the backpack has a waist belt, well-padded shoulder straps, and plenty of individual compartments. Make sure that when it is packed, the heaviest items are closest to the back, and that it is filled neatly to avoid shifting.
And if you are facing the same sort of problem that we faced with lack of time between classes forcing backpack overload, complain to the powers-that-be. In our case, it did no good whatsoever. But you never know. Perhaps at your school they will actually care about the physical damage that they are inflicting on your child.
