Yesterday, I watched my 11 year old son walk home from school, hunched over, under the weight of his very full backpack.  He was definitely red faced, and huffing and puffing as he took it off. 

I had to see for myself if his backpack truly deserved all that labor he was seemingly putting out.  After picking it up and saying, "Holy smokes this is heavy!" I felt the need to weigh it.  Guess what the scale registered?  A whopping 17.4 lbs.!  No wonder he was tired and hunched over!  After all, he only weights a little over 80 pounds.

The backpack weigh in
The backpack weigh in
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Now I know they have kid's backpacks that have wheels and you can drag them along the sidewalk like luggage.  There's only one problem there: the wheels are tiny and not meant for snow, slush or icy sidewalks.  If the wheels are made bigger to accommodate rough terrain, then the backpack wouldn't fit in the tiny school lockers.  Is this a recipe for back problems for our children or should kids just "suck it up" and deal with heavy backpacks because that's just "the way it is"?

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