to think schoolgirls shouldn't wear short skirts?

[cruelladepoppins]

I mean really short, barely bum-covering, as I saw at our local senior school open day yesterday evening?

It was just indecent. Even with thick tights. Do the boys (and teachers) just look in another direction?

How do the girls run around, bend to pick something up etc?

I was talking to the mum of one of them, and she says she's dreading when they do their work experience this year, she just can't get her DD to understand a pelmet might not be appropriate for a workplace. They think it's OK because everyone wears them to school. I'm not kidding, I didn't see a single knee-length skirt, nor even a just-above-the-knee one.

I'm the mother of boys (oh-oh) - any mothers of girls out there care to defend the teeny-skirt idea?

Thats ridiculous ,teenagers have always been self absorbed .. some people have always disapproved of their dress and style..nothing has changed

I used to regularly flaunt scvhool uniform rules to breaking point.

My favourite was a bum skimming black pinafore dress, hugely oversized (thanks dad) pinstriped shirt, crochet tights and DM boots. I tied my tie and tucked the 'fat' end into my shirt so it was skinny.

The trick was to make sure you did it on days your teacher wouldn't give a damn. (bless triple D&T, P.E and Double Art every wednesday)

Yes teens have always been self absorbed, but today they can almost literally isolate themselves from the adult world. I see it in my own step kids. They have SO little general knowledge, because they never watch 'adult' TV, being tucked away in their own room with their own TVs. They only ever watch MTV or Hollyoaks or whatever. When they come to stay with us and our 'one' TV they call us 'posh' for watching the news. My eldest SD turned up to my DS's Baptism in a pelmet and boob tube. Looked like she was off clubbing rather than going to a church service. She had absolutley idea that her clothers weren't appropriate for the occasion. She honestly thought she looked great. None of the older rels knew where to look. DH asked her to put something else on , but she hadn;t brought anything else with her.

I realise I am making myself sound like a real old grump, but teens just seem to me to be far more of a 'race apart' than they used to be.

Well I disagree ..my teenage ds and his friends are very clued up on current affairs and he watches very little tv ..the whole point of teenage outrageous dress is so adults disapprove

..well it sounds like you are doing a good job then. Do you have any girls out of interest? Boys wear those stupid droopy arsed jeans don't they but nobody thinks they look like male hookers wearing them though. Just like daft teens.

Yes I have two older girls ..both have been teenagers..both now perfectly sane adults

Hmm. There seem to be very few people on here who wore short skirts to school themselves. My school introduced a uniform-only policy in my 4th year (1999). Cue instant Britney Spears lookalikes wandering about in skool disco slut-wear. I was one of them. However, we had a strict code where the length of your skirt was okay no matter how short, but to wear a black bra under your white shirt was just plain wrong. Also, I still remember one girl who wore trousers that fastened with corset-style laces at the front, and we thought she was a total slut.

My school had those nasty 6-panelled skirts that flared out and looked vile if you rolled them up, those who were desperate to look cool used to laboriously unpick the seams and sew it back together straighter and shorter...

...probably explains why they didn't actually teach us needlework as a lot of really couldn't be arsed to do that. Although we did come unstuck in 6th form when we had to make our bloody skirts.

Right well marge I am 21, and so not much has changed since I was a teenager. I did wear short skirts, lots of make up etc and was very interested in boys. I have blonde hair, extensions, make up...I probably looked just like one of these girls your describing, and to be honest if you saw me on a night out you'd probably still think it. But your impressions would be a far cry from what I am actually like. I have never bloody watched hollyoaks, and I am rather clever thankyou very much

I did used to spend a lot of time in my room watching TV/on my laptop, but mostly because my mum and dad wouldnt have wanted to watch what I did, and I just liked to listen to music sometimes! When you start to develop your own interets it's not neccesarily practical to sit in the same room as your parents all night. There is more to a person than what they wear.

Hope my SDs learn how to dress like nice professional ladies, rather than Britney Spears then cos they are both job hunting!!! Of course DH and I are the very last people in the work they are likely to listen to. Perhaps they ought to have dress code advice sessions in their career advice at school!

Well I'm 51, Mandy and no not much has changed regarding adult disapproval We all wore god awful platform boots to school and thought we looked good

marge from my days of working in offices I have to say the younger people tended to be the smartest and most professionally dressed.

There is a level of slack amongst certain people that have been working for years

(think hideously creased linen cropped trousers, flip flops and spaghetti strap vests on hot days)

the school my dd2 attend sell the skirts - if you wear a pelmet you get given an old skirt in lost property and there are enough in lost property to cloth a whole class..! so much less incentive for wearing of pelmets, but most of the girls seem to wear trousers and not many in skirts though they are much longer.

my eldest went to a school that had many a pelmet and not many girls wore trousers

I wore short skirts to school, but usually of the flared, mid-thigh variety. All my friends did. One of my friends got a very short, tight, jersey number once and we all mocked her because it was shorter than her blazer. We called it her belt.

This was all in the early to mid-90s and we were all very tame and naive. I'd never have had the confidence to wear anything my mother would refer to as a pelmet!

To be honest, I don't see what the problem is really. It's just a skirt.

I'd absolutely refuse to send my kids to a school that insisted on suits or 'business casual' in 6th form. Eugh.

Isn't it something we all did in our teens? I did.

But now at only 25, I feel very mutton dressed as lamb if I wear a remotely shortish skirt with thick black tights on! lol

I work in an office and yes the yonger ones are generally smart. They are the ones that got the jobs. I expect as well as their intellects they took nice smart clothes with them to their interview.

I am not saying that all women/girls who wear ultra short skirts, lots of make up and have extensions are thick or slappers, but I am saying that sadly, this is the first impression that lots of folks will form on first glance!! No matter how intelligent or otherwise you may be why would you want people to think that about you?.

Back to the point of girls wearing short skirts to school though. As a Mum of boys I just think the pupils could do with as little distraction as possible while they are in class.

I don't think the boys at my school cared much about the skirts. It makes little difference how short your skirt is when you're all sitting at desks.

Marge, I know where you are coming from and realise that it makes me sound very old and prudish. I really don't like the modern look that girls are going for and admit I call it the 'hooker' look. They all seem desperate to look like Jordan or a Playboy playmate - even the really well brought up, well educated girls. Probably doesn't help that in my day we dressed like Lady Di in frilly/lace, high necked blouses and then moved on gratefully to Docks and the grunge look. Do all these young girls realise they look like hookers? Thinking of that Cher girl from X factor - she looked beautiful when she had a classier makeover.

Surely they are sitting down in class, and their skirts - short or otherwise, are under the desk.

If boys can't cope with the distraction of seeing girls' legs, how are they going to manage when they have to play mixed football?

Haha, Well unless they are aiming to be Premiership footballers I shouldn't think a bit of distraction during PE would affect their career prospects too much.

There is a child in my dd2's class who wears her skirt mid-thigh. She's 8!!!

Why why why ...?

Surely mid-thigh is fine, particularly with thick tights?

Surely mid-thigh is fine, particularly with thick tights?

When I was at secondary school the teachers were allowed to ask you to kneel to make sure that our skirts touched the ground. They had hideous spare skits if ours were unsuitable.

In sixth form our skirts were ankle-length.

As a mother of a secondary school age boy I think it is extremely unlikely that what girls in his class wear to school is going to have any impact on his career prospects.