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'd rather it wasn't the norm but it is and you may find your DD comes home from school asking for shorts, either because she has noticed her friends wearing them or because one of them has mentioned something. Policing of other girls behaviour, particularly clothes choices starts young!

I've been wearing 'shorts' under skirts for > 30 yrs! But I guess it's new to some.

It's not new, but I think it goes in and out of fashion. I've never worried about it, but I've met some kids who are more sensitive about that than others. Boys boxers are a great idea (but then I wear boxers when I don't need a pad, I find them comfortable), I do find some girls underwear is weirdly flimsy.

Obviously not with school uniforms, but my daughters have both leaned towards dress + legging or other soft trousers whenever they can do so. It's a little odd with my younger daughter who loves to pair twirly dresses with tracksuit bottoms. It has been useful as we've a lot of nettles around here and it keeps their legs protected, but it's always looked a bit of an odd sight, I think.

H&M sell ‘boxer’ briefs for girls. DD finds them really comfy.
www2.hm.com/en_gb/productpage.0624612001.html

Never heard of it and never had a discussion about it with my DD.

I was at primary school in 90s and I never wore shorts, neither did anyone else at my school that I remember.
We would occasionally tuck our skirt into the bottom on our knickers when we were in yr 5/6 but in the lower years? Nah!
I know for little boys and girls there isn't much difference, but I would have thought buying boys boxers, they might be a big baggy around the crotch?

What a coincidence, I came on to post about this very thing. I was approached by 7yo DD’s teacher about this today. She suggested I might want to put shorts on her under her dress but I told her I wasn’t really comfortable with that idea . She then suggested that it might be more ‘modest’ so I told her I wasn’t really happy about a 7 yo being asked to be modest. Apparently DD says when it was mentioned earlier in the day she told them that her knickers covered her bum so there was no problem. If she was unhappy at people seeing her underwear I would listen but I’m not happy with her being told to cover up. She’s 7 for goodness sake, so what if someone sees her pants while she’s doing a cartwheel.

I was in school in the 90s and always wore shorts under my dresses/skirts. Mainly because I didn’t want to flash my knickers when doing handstands 😂

My daughter says they often wore their games skort under their school skirt as when they used the climbing frame boys would look under their skirts. They should just have all kids wear trousers...

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.

Chastised!? seriously? who the fuck is Chastising girls for being girls?

as pp me and friends would be hung upside most of play time wearing skirts. never felt embarrassed or made to feel bad about ourselves.

what is this message telling our daughters?

I get it if girls if don't want show their pants when playing. But who is giving them this massage in first place?

You can get summer culottes and culottes dresses.

Cant say I ever considered putting dd5 in shorts under her skirt. Seems a bit pointless at that age. Plus dont forget they will have to change for PE class and at that age an unnecessary layer will slow them down further.

She wears boden skorts a lot in the summer though as they are good for holidays and summer camps as girls shorts can be ridiculously short.

I'm nearly 40 and we wore cycling shorts under skirts and dresses.

How are girls expected to climb trees etc otherwise ? They'll chafe the inside of their thighs. Plus most kids don't want anyone seeing their knickers whatever gender they are.

Pants are modest enough, and I think it's wrong to put the idea into a child's head that there's anything wrong in accidentally flashing an undergarment. Kickers are clothes. It is not "indecent" or "wrong" for them to be seen.

However, I did get her some cotton cycling shorts when she asked herself. She must have been around 8. By then she had spent most of her days doing cartwheels and she was only concerned with wearing her "prettier knickers" when she wore summer dresses .

It did occur to me to buy her some boxer shorts instead of the cycling shorts, but she was adamant they were for boys and refused to wear them.

She's now 11 and wears gingham culottes in summer. Much cooler and comfortable than the grey polyester school shorts.

@TeaSoakedDisasterMagnet

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

I may have unnecessarily quoted a few posters when I first discovered the quote button.

You can buy girl boxers in primark

I think it’s a good idea if the wearer is comfortable in them.

This thread has reminded me of the awful bloomers/knickerbockers we had to wear under our summer dresses at school in the 70s. They were made from the same material as our dresses so not really noticeable if your skirt blew up. The elastic around the legs though was incredibly tight and I although I was thin in those days, I’d have horrible, sore mark around the tops of my thighs in the evening. I realised that most of the other girls didn’t bother wearing them, so ‘forgot’ to put them on eventually! Happy days! 😂

Just buy decent pants- shorts-style snickers will cover her.

My girls both did this at primary school, but only a pair of thin cycling shorts! When they're playing on the fields, sitting cross legged in class, or there's a gust of wind - it just means they don't have to be so worried about their clothing!
They're not looking for you to put a bulky pair of shorts under her dress or skirt - a pair of cycling shorts are more than enough and they're really not that hot - they're a similar material to knickers but just cover more

@flack Why?

These look great!
www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-partners-girls'-seam-free-shorties-pack-of-3-multi/p4229088?size=13-14-years&sku=237960253&s_ppc=2dx92700051922680012&tmad=c&tmcampid=2&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9r_b-amY6gIVyIBQBh18ZA5NEAQYASABEgJUBfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Sitting crosslegged on the carpet with modern thin gappy knickers on can reveal parts of the vulva. Would you be ok with a boy's testicles or penis poking out of the side of his pants in the classroom?

If girls knickers were made of thicker material (like boys' pants!) and were lower cut (old fashioned girls knickers were cut more like those pants you get for babies designed to cover the nappy) girls would be comfier.

Why do shops design girls' pants to be thinner and smaller than boys' pants? Why do so many girls' UV suits cut in "high leg" style (even the ones with long sleeves) when the boys' equivalent has shorts?

Nobody as far as I'm aware puts shorts on their daughters at our infant school, daughter is in year 2 now and has never mentioned wanting to wear them and she sure as heck would want to if someone else was! Son is in yr R and not noticed shorts on any girls there either when I've been in to help. Also not seen any knickers when the kids are sat down though obviously I'm not specifically looking out for them!

it just means they don't have to be so worried about their clothing!

The problem is that until a grownup makes it an issue, not a lot of girls are actually worried about this. The worry starts when it's being mentioned,demands made etc.

@Pollyputthepizzaon

Knickers are to cover vulvas. If you then need shorts to cover knickers to cover vulvas what is next? Tights to cover shorts to cover knickers to cover vulvas?

An accidental flash of a 4 year olds knickers is not indecent. Is there a suggestion that some of the adults might be aroused by a flash of pant? That’s a big problem and the solution isn’t to cover the pants it’s to deal with that adult.

^^ this

Also m&s sell 'boy shorts' for girls which are generously cut