Too cold for shorts ?

My 28 year old son had to wear shorts at his first primary school throughout the 1990s. Long trousers were forbidden.

When I was at primary school in the 1960s boys were laughed at for wearing long trousers, by the male teacher! This was in the last year so they were 11 years old.

How short are these shorts? And does he wear long socks? [worried]

I don't think we should always give in to their 'wants'. Sooner or later he will have to conform, or run into trouble.

I am reminded of an outing with 1 year old granddaughter constantly removing her coat on a freezing winter day. It gets you in the end though. My brother in law still goes round in shorts at 54. When he was standing supporting his daughter at lacrosse last weekend though, and the match was postponed for an hour because one field was too icy......he may just have wondered if that was the best attire.

It's the men still wearing shorts that really bother me - Why? It is undoubtedly very cold. I still find builders wearing tee shirts when it is far too cold and film crews never wear anything other than tee shirts and shorts all year round, outside or inside - madness!

How absurd - in the 50s my primary school uniform for boys was short trousers; it wasn't till they went to secondary that they were allowed proper trousers. And all our posties here, both male and female, wear shorts all year round. The other day in the snow I asked the postwoman whether they were given a choice, and her answer was that since it always rains here, the long trousers take so long to dry that shorts are practical and comfortable. If the child is happy, well-nourished and likes his shorts, unless there is a specific uniform requirement for long trousers, the school should stop interfering!

My husbands( who admits to being 69) generation, can remember not wearing long trousers until he was 9 or 10. Where is the problem? We are talking about the days though when children had only just stopped being stuffed up chimneys!!

Seriously though, staff in schools are so afraid of being accused of lack of child care these days that they are super sensitive to any criticisms. Therefore any child who is not conforming to the norm has to be reigned in.

The boy sounds as if he is an individual, hurrah!!, these are the guys who will run our country and look after us in years to come and we need people who can think "out of the box" And if that means wearing shorts in winter, well..........

It would appear they would thatbags by eldest DGD (9) refuses to wear tights (or trousers) to school preferring to wear rolled down socks all year round. Her sister is the opposite and wears thick wooly tights. My DGD brought a note home telling her parents that the school did not think rolled down socks were appropriate for the winter. My DDiL wrote back to say;

A) DD is a very intelligent child and is in the top group for every subject therefore I am confident that if she was feeling cold she would be sensible enough to wear the tights that are provided for her at home.

B) The socks that she chooses to wear do not start their day rolled down!

No reply from school and no further notes.

Do you remember the liberty bodice, the suspenders and the wool stockings?

In Summer it was white ankle socks with the awful serge dress.Ankle socks at 16!

Oh yes, the stockings, the awful Lisle stockings!Which went with the awful gymslip.How lucky are today's girls with uniform.

Quite a right of passage as I remember it. Long trousers as boys and stocking as a girl.I remember it so well.

DH was a big, tall lad at 13 so his mother was quite unable to buy him the shorts that the school uniform requirements stipulated much to his older but shorter brothers' disgust! MIL had to write to the school to excuse him for wearing long trousers.

I remember my brothers in shorts at secondary school all through their first year!

Unless the child had complained of being cold or had looked uncomfortable then really, if it is part of the uniform to wear shorts, there is no real problem.

However I can say that schools are under so much pressure to be aware of any child who may be at risk of lack of care/ abuse/radicalisation/FGM etc etc it is probably an over-reaction to some recent 'awareness' training.

Best just to pop in and clarify the situation. It is not a major issue after all.

My DGD (aged 10) refuses tights or trousers unless it is actually snowing!

Young children don't seem to feel the cold at all. My GS has to be phsically levered into sweatshirt and coat to go to school, and always comes out of school with both in his bag whatever the weather and has to be levered back into them! The only concession he will make to warmth is a base layer under his polo shirt. He plays football and does cross country in driving rain and last weekend in sleet and takes it in his stride. He is not alone in this by any means. I agree with everyone who has said the school receptionist should be taken to task for her remark - it is completely out of order.

My GS insisted on shorts until Christmas but we sent him back in long trousers this term as it is colder now it's January.

((((Our postman wears shorts and a shirt whatever. ))))

I do think the school are wrong to interfere unless the boy is shivering which it seems he isn't.

NB The shorts were very thick, as were the socks in 1950s.

Golly its a while since I heard 'nesh' Nellie!!

What's needed is an appointment with HT to discuss uniform policy, to clarify that parents provide acceptable choices, to complain that school secretary's comments are totally out of order.
I had the opposite problem. School said shorts for 5yr-old boys. I said my asthmatic child with a history of chest infections would wear shorts in spring/summer but would be in long trousers in bad or cold weather. In Scotland an LEA-run school does not have the right to dictate the details of uniform to that extent so end of argument.

Omg I called you all old!!!

I'm off to lie down in a dark room young ladies !!

Haha?

Less of the 'old' if you don't mind, NanaandGrampy!

The shorts boys used to wear to school in opur young days came down to their knees, and socks came up to the knees. School short trousers these days are considerably shorter.

I would tell him to put his long trousers on like the other boys. And behave himself.

Thank you old ladies !

It's good to know he's not the only DGS who doesn't feel the cold!

I shall recommend my DD sees the headmistress and talks about how the receptionist dealt with this.

Me? I'm off out to buy the little lad a few more pairs of shorts

Yes all those poor little boys with red knees.

When I visted my Dgs last week we were round at t'other grans.

Dgs had a threenager melt down about wearing his trousers and he had gone round in his pyjama bottoms. When we came to go back to DDs he refused to wear any trousers so he walked the five minutes back home via the play ground with his bare legs sticking out under his anorak. This was last Tuesday and it was cold and windy. He really does not seem to feel the cold.
DD said he was out playing with the sand tray yesterday. All you get if you say "are you warm enough?" is "I am fine thank you"!
He is very unlike his nesh Nanan!

What all the other posters say.It is not acceptable for your daughter to be insulted by anyone at the school( least of all the school secretary.)Is it the school rules that all the boys wear long trousers?My DGS has to wear long grey trousers to school.