My daughter started middle school this year. I'm only exaggerating a little when I tell you that I spent the first two weeks in a permanent clench, memories of my own awkward middle school years washing over me in an unexpected wave of PTSD. But the good news is that she absolutely loves it; she's adjusted well, both academically and socially, and most of my fears, it turns out, were for naught.

The only thing she doesn't like about middle school is just about the only area where I never had any sort of problem, back in my day. The issue: Backpacks and lockers.

Her elementary school had a row of hooks outside each classroom to hold bags and coats. The truth of the matter is that the only time her backpack came home full was when the art teacher told everyone to take their projects -- she just didn't have much "stuff" to tote.

We knew middle school would mean more gear, and she was excited to be getting a locker, and we discussed how to best manage what she carried when so that she wasn't schlepping eight sets of books and binders around all day long. In theory, it was all going to be fine... and in reality, well, it's been a little more challenging.

Challenge the first: At my daughter's school, sixth graders are given one locker break each day. That's it. I guess in seventh and eighth grade they get a bit more freedom to visit their lockers between classes, but for these kids, once a day is all they get. And for about the first month of school, that one locker break was only about an hour in -- for the rest of the day, everyone had to carry everything they needed for practically every class. (That break has since been moved to a bit later in the morning.) That was particularly problematic because...

Challenge the second: Backpacks are not allowed in the hallways. I'm pretty sure that -- upon hearing this -- I actually said the words, "Say what?" Kids are allowed to tote their stuff to and from school in backpacks, but according to school rules they are to head directly to their lockers and stow their packs immediately upon arrival, and backpacks may not be taken out again until the end of the day.

If I work very hard at it, and make my thinking as convoluted as possible, I almost understand why the school has chosen to ban backpacks as a matter of safety. So, fine. They felt it had to be done, they don't want kids carrying packs in the halls. Okay. But the kids aren't being given multiple opportunities to visit their lockers, and they have a lot of stuff. My daughter has class materials as well as a musical instrument and a packed lunch, and although she's big enough to start stealing my shoes, she's still only about 70 pounds with a couple of bricks tied to her. Plus she's only got two arms. It is physically impossible for her (and many of her fellow students) to manage everything she's required to carry without a bag to put it all in.

The school doesn't want to be unreasonable, of course, and so... students are allowed to use tote bags. Yes. Tote bags are permissible in the hallways and classrooms.

Do not ask me to explain to you why an opaque tote bag is somehow safer than a backpack (truly, if it's a safety issue, make students use clear or mesh backpacks, I say), because I cannot. But that's the concession the school is willing to make.

Every day my daughter packs up her backpack and heads to school. Upon arrival, she puts her backpack into her locker and transfers its contents into a tote bag I brought back from BlogHer '09. She's still carrying way too much stuff, but at least now she has to carry it all on one shoulder rather than in the ergonomically-designed backpack I bought her!

(I find the situation a little frustrating, in case you were unclear.)

In the grand scheme of things, maybe it's not a huge deal. But we're not the only ones struggling with backpacks and/or regulations designed to "keep things running smoothly."

Laura at Catholic Teacher Musings asks if her readers' schools have rules regarding backpack weight:

How heavy are your children's backpacks?
Yikes! Sometimes, I lift the backpacks to see how heavy they are and I am amazed that a 100 pound middle school child isn't in traction from the load.

Kansas City Star's Jennifer Brown is trying to make light of her high school daughter's weighty situation:

I can’t help but think there’s one particular career path that really would benefit her obvious, er… strengths: Chiropractic medicine.

“Think about it,” I tell her. “Everyone carries a backpack, right?”

“Right.”

“And pretty much nobody has time to get to their locker between classes, right?”

“Right.”

“And just look at those children, all bent over at the waist, contorting themselves to carry the weight equivalent of a VW bus on their backs all day every day.”

“Yeah…”

“If you squint and look at them just right, what shape do their little bent-over bodies look like to you?”

“Ummm … dollar signs?”

“That’s my girl!”

Well, it’s not such a stretch, you know. If I were looking at future lucrative careers, I’d definitely look into being a chiropractor. Eventually these kids will have to take off their backpacks, and the person who can pop them back into human form after they do is going to clean up, I tell you.

Author Joanne Kimes of Sucks and The City shared my, er, not-quite-joy in having a daughter new to middle school this year:

And I can actually see her spine start to curve because of the enormous amount of weight she’s forced to carry around in her backpack. We weighed it. With books it weighs 30 pounds. My daughter weighs 65. The poor thing is like a dung beetle schlepping around a gynormous piece of pooh…in the valley heat to boot! Today, it’s predicted to reach 104 degrees!

Robbin Out Loud's daughter doesn't even get to carry a tote bag, sounds like (and suddenly it seems like my kid gets the better deal, actually):

Now I remember when I was in high school and we had to change classes and we didn’t always have the ease of going to our locker between each class. Heck my 10th grade year my locker was on the “sophomore” hall and most of my classes were on the “Senior” hall. Heck I never made it back to my locker most of the time. My daughter has a middle locker and she has someone above and below her. She has 4 minutes to go to her lock, bathroom and get to class. I depended on my backpack to carry my books for me. To really top it off she has to walk to and from school. They do allow her to carry a backpack before and after school put she has to put it in her locker during the day.

One thing we've not had to deal with, yet, is the issue of, ahem, personal hygiene items when you're restricted in what you can carry. And just today Kelly of Mocha Momma (who is an assistant principal at a high school) shared about how her school -- which already doesn't allow backpacks in the hallways -- is now cracking down on purse size, leaving many of the girls frustrated because big purses are "in" right now and all they have. Kelly could easily just grumble, but that's not her style:

Some of the biggest complainers have come to see me in my office or caught me in the hallway or a classroom:

Why can’t we carry big purses? I saved up $50 to buy this and it’s the only one I have! I can’t buy another one.

This is stupid! I’m a good girl. Why are we always getting punished?

Who even SELLS small purses? Everything in the stores is big.

These girls are right. They’re also pretty whiny when they come talk to me so I decided to take something ugly and turn it in to something pretty. I asked seven girls to help me coordinate a Purse Drive for school and I’m using my blog to spread the word.

(Kelly promises that more details on how her readers can help support the purse drive are coming.)

I am dangerously close to going on a tirade that begins with "Back in my day..." and ends with, "Now all of you whippersnappers get off of my lawn!" Seriously, I understand that with the spread of violence in schools, what kids are carrying (and what they may be hiding, I suppose) becomes an issue. But it just seems like something that's taken on a (complicated, annoying, troublesome) life of its own. Is prohibiting backpacks (or, as in Kelly's school, big purses) in the hallways really going to cut down on violence? In this digital age, are there really still no good alternatives to weighing kids down with pounds upon pounds of books, particularly when they're not even allowed to carry them safely?

There has to be a better way. Doesn't there?

BlogHer Contributing Editor Mir also blogs about issues parental and otherwise at Woulda Coulda Shoulda, and about the joys of mindful retail therapy at Want Not.