Why are you letting your children get burnt?

[GreeboIsMySpiritAnimal]

At a large park and keep seeing fair skinned, blonde/ginger children, running around with no tops going increasingly lobster pink.

Mine are olive skinned with dark hair and eyes, but are still covered up and have factor 50 and hats on. I wouldn't have thought I was an especially protective mum, either.

Ok, I shouldn't judge, but it just looks so sore.

@Figgygal me too. They seemed to think it was my responsibility at like 6 years old . I’ve had horrendous sunburn and I’ll be very surprised is I don’t get skin cancer .

My parents saw suncream as an extravagance. Also and I've never understood why, my parents refused to let us wear a t-shirt in the sea in the South of France, like the local children did, even though we wanted to.

My Dad used to insist that you need to burn to get a tan and that getting a tan was a good thing, even for little children.

He's very wary of the sun these days but my mum is still a sun worshipper.

Going pink is very different from having painful sunburn.
Obviously not recommended, but as a child who had painful blistering sunburn, your OP about how awful it must be is hyperbole.

@munema Sun cream used to be very expensive. I remember 30 years ago paying £15 for factor 8 - the highest I could buy. Using the bank of englands inflation calculator that is equivalent to spending £36.66. If that was still how much a tube of sun cream cost there are plenty of families that would see it as an extravagance.

No idea why people are rushing to the defence of parents who don't cover up a toddler in 32 degree heat.

A lot of people I think don't realise. My mum has dark olive skin, spends 10 mins outside and looks like she's been abroad for 6 months. Then she had me who spends 10 mins outside and ends up with sunburn (redhead)
People say to me when I go outside to vape, oh you won't burn in 10 mins. Yes, yes I will!

To add to that. My mum has been abroad twice in her life and never sunbathed. She was having physio on her arm, she hates her upper arms so always covers them and the physio saw a mole. They actually removed it that day and it was skin cancer

My kids are mixed race (white & asian) and I still put factor 50 on any exposed skin if I know they are going to be outside in this kind of weather for more than 10/15 mins.
I’m the Morticia Addams variety of pale, and have been horrendously sunburned a few times in my life - the pain is real definitely wouldn’t risk subjecting my kids to that!
They’ve never gone the slightest bit pink in the sun, but I put that down to genetics (they have both inherited their dad’s darker skin tone!), the sunscreen and the little wetsuits they wear in the pool etc. They both have a bit of a T-shirt tan but I think that’s just inevitable!

@jennymanara you're right. I was pleasantly surprised when I went to stock up at superdrug recently that I could buy branded suncream for a similar price as I paid for my first mates holiday in Tenerife in 1989!

You're also right that factor 8 was the strong stuff. As teens our favourite was factor 2 oil

To be fair, most fair children go quite pink just from running around. Doesn't necessarily mean they're sunburned. I was looking after a child today in fact who went really pink on arms and face and she really looked burned but she was lathered in cream and she returned to a normal colour once she'd had a bit of a rest indoors

Like Queen said, I've noticed a few olive skinned people with very pink toddlers and l wonder do they just not realise.

Saying that, DS(13) who is always out and is really quite tanned on arms and legs came home yesterday a little pink.

Fortunately he was totally fine this morning, but I think the sun is so much stronger than we are used to.

Tonight A&E departments all over the country will be full of sunburnt children. OP is not wrong.

People will bend over backwards to counter some incredibly valid arguments OP, I wouldn't worry.
There is no excuse to not cover up your child in this heat

I'm one of those people who look burnt when hot (and so does my DS), however I would still judge parents of children who look pink if they don't have at least a T-Shirt on to cover up their back and shoulders! Children really shouldn't be running around half naked in scorching sun.

Yesterday we went out with our son, we covered him in sun cream before leaving on getting him his arms and face are slightly burned, he was wearing a T-shirt and I got him in a hat on off as he won't wear anything on his head, I didn't neglect him? How can you judge someone on their child being slightly sunburn? How can anyone be accused of neglect from a bit of sunburn?

I have read that we’ve become so worried about applying factor 50 that children run the risk of not getting enough vit D!

There’s a happy medium isn’t there.

I do factor 30 with very frequent applications.

My DS is blonde haired blue eyed but fairly olive easy to tan skin and he went on holiday with his dad and came back with a clear tan which I hate.

I do agree and struggle when seeing little ones burnt

You seem to have received a number of ridiculous answers stemming from a seemingly valid question, OP. Regardless of how pink someone goes in the heat and whether or not it is burnt skin, yes of course people should be protecting their children in the sun. I don't know how anyone can argue against that common sense.

I do agree they should really have hats and tops on but as people have said you don’t know they were burnt. My toddler is always smothered in factor 50 every hour but his face and arm look red after 10 mins in the sun I’m always paranoid people will think I’m letting him burn but once he cools down he’s fine.

My little blondie (strawberry-ish) goes very pink when he’s warm too. We were outside for an hour and a half this morning (and I kept moving him to the shade but he wasn’t having any of it), he was wearing factor 50, had a hat and a T-shirt on, and still looked like a little lobster. I can assure you that after a cool bath, he was back to normal.

I don't understand it either. I planned my day with 3 little ones so that we went out early this morning running about in the woods with factor 50 on. Drive home at midday so we were in the car with air con on when it was really hot. Stayed indoors until about 3pm then went into the garden with more suncream and t shirts and I set up activities (water tray etc.)in the shade so they wouldn't play in the sun. Even so they were all hot and bothered and wanted to go indoors after about 40 mins.
I wod be so upset if they got sunburnt. I remember some awful sunburn as a child. I wouldn't want them to suffer that knowing it can be avoided.

And what did the parents in question say when you spoke to them then OP?

My 18 month old son has my olive complexion. When it is hot and sunny I cover him in factor 50, reapply frequently, and avoid being outside during the hottest parts of the day.

However... he will not wear a hat. I have tried every style imaginable, but he just pulls them off as soon as they touch his head.

He also gets a red tinge on his arms when he is hot, which could be misinterpreted as burn, but disappears when he cools down.

I'd hate to think people see me as a bad parent because my toddler throws his hat off. But what can I do?

For what it's worth, he has never been sunburnt despite not wearing one. And we have just returned from Turkey where the temperature was upwards of 28 everyday.

I don't get it either. Our local outdoor pool is littered with children in swimsuits that provide no coverage. They should be wearing rash vests (Factor 50) and hats. Cuts down on the amount of sunblock needed too.

I spent about 2 hours in a park today. A couple came and sat near me with their baby. I'm not sure of the exact age but it was crawling and not able to stand. It had no hat on and just a babygro. They were there for about an hour.

Now they may have dunked him in a vat of factor 50 before he came out - but no hat? The poor little bugger hardly had any hair! I wonder if they will be surprised to be in A&E tonight...