Shorts under skirts for girls - a new thing?

[Biggrizzlybear]

A discussion on a school parents chat has brought up something I'd not thought about. Apparently a number of parents of September reception starters (girls) are looking for shorts to go under their daughter's school dresses "to make sure they're decent." I don't remember this happening when I was at school. Is that not what pants are for? I don't know what to think about it. On the one hand, I don't want my daughter to look indecent in comparison to everybody else. But I don't want to teach her that how she looks and dresses is indecent when she's fully dressed. If her dress is long enough, surely she'll be decent. I doubt she'll spend more than a minute or two a day with her dress over her head!

Do little girls wear these nowadays? Am I being silly or neglectful in some way?

I agree with others that surely more active girls should be encouraged to wear shorts - gender neutral and practical. When I was at school we did wear pants under skirts, but I would have hoped we could get past the need for a different boys and girls uniform right now, at least for primary!

As a frequent thrush sufferer, the thought of spending the heat of summer running around in lycra shorts, pants and a skirt also makes me wince a bit!

Pants cover bum and vulva - I’d be deeply worried that a glass of 5 year old pants might be considered indecent or arousing and I don’t want my daughter to think she needs multiple layers to cover her body. My DD is 9 and does gymnastics- her feet are rarely on the floor. She tends to just wear shorts or leggings and I wouldn’t be asking her to wear shorts under skirts - I buy decent pants that cover what they need to.

It just starts that messaging that women’s bodies need to be covered up to stay safe and I’m not doing that.

DD wear black boxers under her skirt in the summer. As good as cycling shorts. All the girls wear them or cycling shorts. They like doing handstands at break time.

H&M's 'boxer brief' knickers are excellent.

I've just bought my 4yo DD 'boyshorts', which are like boxer briefs for girls. She's very active, and I don't think modern knickers guarantee enough coverage. I don't want to put her in shorts. I don't want her getting any weird messages about modesty or shame. She's little and carefree, and I want to keep it that way for a little longer. All she knows is she's got new pink pants with cats on.

I made a fuss at school a few times when dd was told she can't do cartwheels unless she wears shorts. Well not a fuss exactly, just asked what the school policy is ,and if shorts aren't required why is DD being told that, or worse stopped from playing .

Now she's 8 she asked herself to wear them and I'm ok with that. A lot of children will naturally become more private and body conscious as they age. That is fine, what is not fine is to tell a 5 yo she can't do x,y,z because someone might get a flash of knickers. She always wears boxer shorts anyways.

Yes they are relatively new and they are awesome. Basically thin bicycle shorts under dresses mean little girls never get chastised for sitting properly or hanging upside down. It means freedom for girls to just be kids and still wear dresses if they want.

@sleepyhead

We did cartwheels and handstands and hung upside down off bars. Sometimes we tucked our skirts into our knickers to stop them falling over our face.

At some point clearly little girls were told to feel ashamed about their knickers. That's a pity.

Same. I think I spent half my primary school playtimes hanging upside down on the climbing frame, dress over head. I noticed a handful of parents putting their DDs in shorts/leggings under their dresses when DS1 was in reception 11 years ago. By the time DS2 left primary 9 years later there was only a handful of girls who didnt wear anything over their knickers. My very sensible friend buys her DD boxers from the boys section. They cover everything that needs to be covered without needing more layers.

www.next.co.uk/G592550s2/690830#690830

These boys’ trunks are a bit nicer.

Never heard of this daughter is 33 didn't happen when she was at school, granddaughter is 11 never heard anything about shorts from her but she does wear trousers to school.

At dd school (primary) you are not allowed to do handstands, cartwheels etc if you have no shorts in under a dress

What madness is this? Why what happens if you show a flash of knicker FFS. Some rules are ridiculous.

@EinsteinsArousedSausagesHCB

My DD likes to climb and roll around etc. She also finds that knickers can be a bit uncomfortable when doing this. So she wears 'modesty shorts'.

Fucking hate that they are called that! They are just a pair of blimmin' boxer trunks that you'd find in any boy section.

DD loves them though as she finds them very comfortable. They are from next.

Wearing shorts under summer dresses was a thing 20-25 years ago when I was at primary school. We definitely wore them whilst it was summer because we were doing cartwheels, handstands etc.

I still wear shorts under dresses in summer now. I even wore shorts on my wedding day under my massive dress. They’re comfortable and stop thigh rubbing too.

I’d not accept my girl being “chastised” for sitting or playing.

My DD and friends spent their playtimes doing handstands and hanging from the monkey bars. They all wore skorts or short cycling shorts under their skirts. After all, boys don't flash their pants in the same situation, why should girls?

My dd wore "girl boxers" which didn't gape like some girls knickers do.

ArriettyJones
I don't think it would have crossed my mind to ask the school, just buy grey school shorts at the supermarket. would the school really have pulled you in to tell you your daughter couldn't were them?

out of interest does your school allow girls to wear trousers?

It was so normal 10 years ago to see mix of girls wearing dresses, skirts, trousers and shorts. Has it really changed that much? in fact it wasn't even 10 years ago! last dc in primary was 5 years ago.
that goes for two primaries at opposite ends of the country.

www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-partners-girls'-seam-free-shorties-pack-of-3-multi/p4229088

Or ones designed for girls.

It's not new my 15 year old wore bike shorts under her uniform dress for summer term whe she was little, lots of hand stands and cartwheels and she wanted them like all the other girls had.
They wore them when we lived in the US too, she had summer sets that were flowery dresses with the matching short in the same colours in stripes or solids. They looked cute.

Oddly my eldest got told off last year when she was in year 6. She was sitting on the floor and her skirt was bunched up as skirts tend to sometimes. She was told to pull her skirt down and cover herself. She was wearing navy shorts under her skirt. They can't win.

No shorts option at our school either. Those who suggest just wearing them have clearly never done battle with our head.

Some of the girls in my sons school wear culottes type dresses in the summer

DD's school doesn't allow shorts or trousers for girls.

I mean no uniform shorts, not shorts under skirts.

Oops I didn’t mean to quote someone, I don’t know why that happened. Sorry @EinsteinsArousedSausagesHCB

My DD wore shorts under skirts from the age of 2 as she spent most of her time climbing, rolling about etc and I thought it looked nicer.

Lots of girls wore shorts under skirts in the Infants and juniors. I bought her girl boxers so she don't have to, and it was her choice ongoing. The boxers were to cover up her bum cheeks as she's a very active girl/bit of a flasher.

Just asked her if girls still wear them in high school. She said yes sometimes, why? I said someone was asking. She said that's like asking if people wear socks. She's 14.

When I was at Primary school we did handstands, don't remember any girls wearing shorts, we just showed our knickers the boys weren't interested they were too busy playing football on the other side of the field, maybe more innocent times? This was the late 90s/early 2000s...