My kids are left-kneed

I have come to the conclusion that my kids are left-kneed.  While Caleb is left-handed and Noah is right-handed, they are both left-kneed.  Meaning the lead with their left knee.  And usually that leading involved sliding on or wiping out or otherwise landing hard and rough on said knee.


This means that most of their pants, whether cheap, expensive or in between, look something like this after about 6 weeks of wear.

This is actually two gaping hopes. But I didn't think to take the photo until I had already started to repair them.


In my frugality, and out of principle that these are practically brand new pants, I started buying iron on patches awhile ago.

But I discovered there were two issues with them.  One frivolous and one not.  The not frivolous deal is that they just didn't solve the problem.  My kids were still left-kneed and continued to land, slide, slip and wipe out on their left knee.  So the patch would last for maybe two wears before it was curling up and peeling off.  Looking worse than the hole itself.  The frivolous reason is my own vanity.  As much as I am proud of my thriftiness and ability to stretch our dollars and make things last, I have to admit, I felt kind of bad sending my kids to school with patches on their pants.  I remember the patch pant kids growing up and, well, I didn't want to go there.


And then Brian had a brilliant idea.  Put the patches on the inside of the pants.  Now people have probably been doing this for years, but it never occurred to me.

You try to get the hole as closed up as possible and then, just like you would have on the front, lay the patches sticky side down and iron away.

And then viola!  It's fixed.  And it lasts easily 20 times longer than doing it the other way.  And looks a heckua lot less dorky cheap. :)


So there you go, for all you parents of left (or right) kneed kids out there, a way to stretch the life of the pants a bit longer, and with a bit less guilt.