Seriously, more snow? The only thing worse than yet another week of herding my kids through the chilled gunk puddles and over the banks of thawed and refrozen slop to cross the street is hearing everyone continue to complain about it.

Still, I have to admit it’s pretty much impossible to bear in silence. So maybe it’s time we start looking at our winter precipitation bounty in a positive light. If you concentrate hard enough, there are at least a few benefits. Consider this:

• We’re all finally getting our money’s worth out of all that snow gear we bought for our kids. Last year, I bought my daughter snow boots, a new parka, and ski bibs and then complained when they were all still in pristine condition come winter's end and she’d outgrown everything. Ditto her special toddler-sized sled, which sat unused in our storage cage. Not so for this year’s stuff. In fact, we’ll be lucky if it makes it through February in usable condition.

• It’s giving the city the chance to really perfect a snow removal routine. As December’s snowstorm proved, it’s hard to do something really well when you’re out of practice, but haven’t we seen some tremendous improvement over the past couple of storms? After all, no city vehicles have been captured on camera crashing into anything in weeks and snowplows have even been spotted on a few Brooklyn side streets. And somehow, fully two thirds of the discarded Christmas trees on our block have been picked up after only three or four weeks at the curb.
• Some of us haven’t had to move our car in over a month. If you parked your car in a spot that had street sweeping on Fridays only the week before Christmas and you haven’t had to drive anywhere, you are probably enjoying what must be a record-long reprieve from the alternate side parking rule shuffle. Sure, that may come to a crashing halt when you have to dig your vehicle out of a snow bank to bring a bookshelf home from IKEA, but in the meantime, it’s been nice, right?
• Snow makes it fun to play outside in the cold. In years past, I’ve had to work pretty hard to get my daughter to get a little fresh air and exercise in the winter. And really, who can blame a kid for not wanting to climb on ice-cold playground equipment or frolic upon the tundra of the Great Lawn. But sledding rules. As do building a snowman and having a snowball fight. Today my daughter and her schoolmates even had a blast digging out a buried car with their mittened hands.
• The sprinklers will be on all summer at the playgrounds this year. Remember how when there’s a drought, the Parks Department limits the amount of sprinkler time at the playgrounds? Well our reservoirs are sure to be filled to the brim this year, so in about six months, we’ll all think fondly of this winter’s filthy slush when it’s reborn as a refreshing cascade of clean water to cool our over-heated, dehydrated tots.