Children Swimming in the Sea in February!

[Beccatheboo]

Today I witnessed a mum and dad letting their two young children (probably about 8 and 10 years old) swim in the North Sea - one clad in a bikini! Yes, it was relatively mild today, but the water was freezing (I tested it with my hand). The parents were wearing thick coats and the mum even had on a woolly hat. They only had one hand towel for the girls and they encouraged them to run around for ages only in their swimming costumes. AIBU to think that's crazy?! I'm all for experiences and 'toughening up' children, but I think that was irresponsible. Children are less able to regulate their body temperature.

Certainly not something I would do, and I would probably have thought it was a bit mad if i saw it!

Ah for gods sake, theres nothing wrong with it, and no-one forced them at that age.

Were the children upset?
Maybe they had been moaning they wanted to go in the sea so the parents let them (see how long that would last..hmm) and were ready and waiting with warm clothes.

Nope. Look at the loonsnice gentle folks who swim in the sepentine.

[[http://thenextchallenge.org/2010/02/cold-water-swimming/}]

Boosts the imune system and increases circulation

My parents let me do things like this and I would let my own children.

I expect the children would get out if too cold. They must have been into it, and maybe the parents had planned to wrap them back up afterwards and whisk them to a nearby cafe for hot chocolate.
Those kids will probably have fond memories of swimming in a freezing cold sea when they grow up!

My nieces and nephews ( ages 3-10 ish) ended up in the north sea fully dressed when we took them to the beach , the adults all thought it was kinda chilly and my son refused to go anywhere near the sea. For N&Ns it was the first time they had seen the sea and they were VERY excited about it. A change of clothes and a brisk walk later they were fine.

I have let DCs go in the sea in February. Fortunately they were young enough to go in just their underwear because I hadn't anticipated the request.

On the same day, at the playground near the beach, I saw a woman scolding her 'red faced through physical exercise' daughter because she wouldn't wear a coat after ages playing on the equipment.

Are children really less able to regulate their body temp?

I used to love running into and swimming in the sea in the winter when I was a kid! In the North East too!

Totally normal when you live in the West of Scotland! Hope they had fun.

Depends, I do a lot of outdoor swimming but I definitely would not be in the sea at this time of year with no wetsuit (probably not at all tbh).

All the people who swim in the Serpentine etc at this time of year will tend to be 'regulars' who are cold adapted. Agree to lots of benefits for immune system etc but I doubt these children were regulars.

But then there is a big difference between running around in the shallows splashing (fine imo) and being immmersed from feet to neck (when cold shock etc might set in) and from OP it doesn't sound like they were properly swimming.

the Bats have always felt the need to throw themselves into the sea whenever they are anywhere near it.

November, February, in fact once I remember a Boxing Day.

Bloody Brilliant.

Well, my youngest two (10 and 14) are goingsurfing tomorrow. They'll be weqring wetsuits though!
What you saw was a bit mad, but understandable if the kids don't get ro the sea much - abd they weren't forced in I'm sure.
As someone said, they'll never forget it.

FFS, I swam in the sea all year round as a kid! unless they were crying as being forcibly dunked YABVU

Yes children are most definitely less able to regulate they're body temperature - the smaller you are, the larger your surface area to volume ratio and therefore your body temperature can be more greatly influenced by your environmental temperature.

Living very near the seaside (as in fact I still do), when I was the age quoted by the OP we were in and out of it routinely from March onwards.

I can't see any healthy child suffering from a February swim either, tbh. Presumably they'd chosen to have a dip and were quite at liberty to come out of the sea when they'd had enough.

We live near the sea and have a beach hut and its common tbh. It's a test of mettle for all the local kids here and mine have survived ok :D

YABU - DSis and I have both swum at that age in the North Sea

You can't tell whether or not the parents had warm clothes waiting, hot drinks and how long the children had been in/were going to stay in.

Kids don't seem to care about the cold or don't feel it. There were kids here during the snow playing outside in t-shirt, shorts and no shoes. I walked past in about 12 layers, heavy coat, scarf, gloves, hat etc etc and was

We have photos of me and DSis on the beach in our pants with other children in the background wearing winter coats and woolly hats. If I remember, we were the ones who insisted we wanted to do it

Character building. Fun too. Relax!

I was gutted when my midwife banned an ew years swim when I was 26 weeks pg with Ds. I have never stopped mine going in and routinely carry spare underwear in my bag

OFGS get something to really worry about.

Never did me any harm. GRRRRR