Coatless kids

It's a phenomenon I registered long ago and wondered if the youngsters were really more hardy than we were at that age. I also wondered if my mother's warnings that I would 'catch my death' if I went out without vest, liberty bodice, school blouse, jumper, blazer and raincoat, headgear etc. I don't think these protected me at all, given that I got all the flu and colds available. Do these children suffer from all these afflictions by going about partially clad? I used to shudder when I saw my DGD ride off to school on her bike in blazer and shortish skirt - no overcoat. She now seems to be a perfectly healthy young woman of 21.

Maybe the youngster don't feel the cold, but the problem might arise if they are outside for longer than they anticipate. If the bus didn't arrive for instance, and they were left waiting at the bus stop in sub zero temperatures. Their body temperature would drop and they would definitely feel the cold then. Imagine waiting for an hour in a freezing east wind with no coat.

Unfortunately, you can only try making them wear coats, you can't actually make it happen. They will always want to do the same as their friends.

It is very strange but it's not new. There is apparently something very 'uncool' about wearing coats when you are a teenager. When I was at secondary school in the early seventies, we did wear coats going to school (I guess because our Mum's made us) but at break/lunchtime no way! It could be absolutely freezing and we wouldn't wear our coats because 'no one else does'!. Although there were cloakrooms, they were unused by that time because things would get moved or stolen so we had to cart everything round back then. When my daughter was at school in the nineties, they did at least have lockers but again coats were very uncool and definitely not to be worn. They'll grow out of it and won't come to any harm.

I agree that lockers are absolutely essential for secondary schools and parents should do everything possible to make the school provide them. There are so many things children need, it's just not right to make them carry everything around. If things are stolen then the school needs to find a way to deal with this and prevent it happening, but lockers would at least ensure the items are not available to steal.

I started work at 15,I clearly remember walking almost two miles in the snow in a tiny mini dress and high heeled sandals regularly ...sometimes you have to suffer for fashions sake...lol.To be honest I dont feel the cold and can often be seen out in the garden or street in bare feet,even in -1 like today .
My mother was very fashion led so she never bothered about the sandals etc .Did me no harm.I have a son who is always cold ,wears 3 or 4 layers even indoors.

I remember wearing short skirts and having bare legs when a teen, I dont remember being cold.

The only coat I really remember was an afghan coat which smelt awful that I wore with loons and a crop top.

...sometimes you have to suffer for fashions

paddyann54 my Grandma liked her fashions, she had been a professional seamstress before she got married.
One of her favourite sayings was,
"Let us be elegant, or die!" 👗

what are loons ?

Flared trousers from the 70s.

Theexwife

Flared trousers from the 70s.

Yes and they sat low on the hips and therefore had no waistband or pockets, just a zip. I had them in yellow, burgundy, black.

Franbern

I do not understand show so many secondary schools have no where for coats to be hung, etc.

These youngsters have to carry around with them all day a heavy back pack. Surely cannot be good for their growing bodies to have to do this. Ans this is the reason why so many of them will not add to that a heavy coat or jacket, etc.

Wonder how many people in employment would put up with these conditions

It certainly isn't good for them, they can develop what our GP called "Paperboy's Back".

Although lockers were provided at my DC's school, there were not enough for one per pupil. They also had to trail from classroom to classroom and change text books in between which took time.

I'm not sure if the DGC have their own lockers but some rules seem ridiculous and bereft of common sense, eg they had to wear their blazers indoors even in the hot weather until they all protested.
Yet I see boys walking home in shirts and PE shorts in the cold

Someone mentioned netball players. I played hockey right through my teens and up until I had my first child.

We wore short sleeved tops, knickers and tiny skirts with knee length socks. Whatever the weather that’s what we wore. Frozen pitches, rain, fog etc. our games teacher would be on the sidelines in hat, scarf, huge padded coat and fur lined boots.

After leaving school I still played and sometimes we used to play against older teams where the women wore tights. We used to laugh like mad at them.

I don’t think young people generally think it’s cool to wear coats. If you go into town at the weekend they are all out in the shops, and later the bars and clubs without coats, just in shirt sleeves and short dresses. I think they have an epiphany at about 25 and realise that coats do serve a useful purpose after all.

Theexwife

Flared trousers from the 70s.

Not sure those ones are loons actually Theexwife - believe they had to have a split-knee - or they would just be "flares".

Many of them were 2-tone.
Will see if I can find a picture.

lived on an island not alot of snow but ontop of the snow there would have 4-5 inches of ice we would go out side with only sock to play kick the can tshirt and jeans was 15 years old
moved inland and more snow still barely clothed

Also think younger children nowadays are given much more choice about what they want to wear, hence ankle socks in the depths of winter, and thick tights in mid summer.

We wore what our mothers put out for us, as did my own children.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202401/medium-444784-1000016332.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202401/medium-541900-1000016333.jpg

Loons were full length trousers (some even on the floor) that fitted tightly around the waist or (more usually) hips and were very tight around the backside/groin/thigh and legs as far as the knee at which point they flared out.

Can't seem to find many images of the split-knees to be honest as most people wore less dramatic versions of glares I think - I should raid my early Polaroids!!

I knew a few young men that wore them. I just had "regular" albeit 30" flares.

It's not just school children.. I was in Edinburgh over a very cold weekend in December. I was amazed at the number of women (off all ages) bare arms and legs out on the town. I was frozen, for the first time for ages.

I must admit, I did similar years ago when leaving clubs but in my part of the world it tends not to get that cold.

thanks for the information.
presumably a variant from the word, pantaloons.

We didn’t have lockers - we had coat hooks and there were never any coat thefts! What is wrong with schools these days? No space, no common sense!
Where do the teachers put their coats?
Something sensible must be done surely!

My granddaughters stay at mine some weekends and even though I live in a very warm house they wear pyjamas and Oodies and I wonder why they’re not sweating! But when they go out they often don’t wear coats and the eldest doesn’t wear one to secondary school. It’s mystifying.

We did have lockers when I was at school. We lugged our coats and bags round anyway because the lockers were all on the ground floor, but lessons, especially end of day lessons might be on floor 6 or out in the annexe.
I insist my classes put coats on before going out if it’s cold or wet, but they’re often picked up by parents without coats, so I can see why children think coats are unnecessary.
Crazily, at high school DGC not only have no lockers except in PE changing rooms, but also now have to lug a bag with a laptop in everywhere as well.
Re open coats-just look at people in town. Few coats fastened, except amongst older people.

Just last week, I was surprised to see my 19yr old DGD wearing a full length padded coat. My DD told me that this is fashionable at the moment. Showing more maturity?
Her 16yr old sister was still in the ‘ as little as possible ‘ mode!

The kids here would get detentions if they didn’t wear the correct uniform in the correct way. They are amazingly strict on uniforms , state and private. Hope it doesn’t change. I think the peer group pressure is to all look the same.

If parents would label clothes, they may stand a chance of being returned. I volunteer in primary school, and yes children do not seem to feel the cold in the same way, but at the end of every term there is a couple of bin bags full of uniform left. I do go through and look for names and the staff will give them back if I find one, but they do not have time to keep doing this.
In the secondary school they provide lockers on a 1st come basis so not all can get one BUT they are right at the back of the school, and my grandson would get in to trouble for being late for registration because it took too long between being let in to get there and back to class .