To think was a a bit wrong.

[Canthisonebeused]

Not sure why but this doesn't sit right with me, what are others thoughts. It's not a big deal but did bother me a bit.

7 and 8 year old girls doing handstands and cartwheels in the playground at school. Boys being silly laughing at their pants and did not die down after being told not to by playground staff. Therefore girls are sent in to put PE shorts on under their dresses.

I just think they are little girls FFS who care if their pants are showing and the boys should have been delt with. I just don't think it's a good message to sent to girls.

No, they were laughing at the girls and the girls were told to modify their attire to make the boys behave.

If a group of girls were laughing at your DSs knees, would you expect him to be told to go and put trousers on rather than shorts?

I don't agree that the girls should have been told to cover up, I think it shouldn't be an issue. I think uniform is unpractical and unsuitable in some schools. Pants are funny to some kids, knees, not so much.

I don't agree that the girls should have been told to cover up

That is the point of the thread? the girls were told to modify their attire so that the boys would behave. You seem to think that is acceptable. As a mother of both boys and girls, I don't.

I would tell my boys to calm down and play elsewhere and tell them that it is not OK to laugh at people.

I would tell my girl that they can wear whatever they like.

As a child of the 70s, we all did handstands, etc and didn't cover our knickers.

Telling girls to cover up or otherwise modify their behaviour because the boys couldn't behave is just the start of the stupid shit we have in society, where women are still expected to change their behaviour to accommodate male behaviour, rather than men actually taking responsibility for their own behaviour.

WeddedBliss look, as I said I have a 7year old. Of course she finds daft things funny, she's at that age. However, my point is that when she is playing with her friends doing handstands they're focused on their play, they're counting how long they can do it for, counting how many cartwheels they've done. They're not standing round shrieking hysterically at the sight of eachother's knickers. They're happy and enjoying themselves; it seems a damn shame that another group of kids can come along and laugh and cause the girls to be pulled away from their game, to be made to go off and get dressed "more appropriately" to "preserve their modesty" (wtf?) because the boys just won't be told to leave them alone. I think that's really shit actually.

And no, of course I'm not implying that the boys will grow up to be rapists. I'm saying that girls grow up with the idea that they have to make sure they're dressed appropriately if they don't want to attract unwanted attention. The onus is on them, not the boys or men.

If some boys

Yanbu and as a mother of four boys and a girl I would be livid at my daughter being told off/to change het dress in this situation and if my boys were the ones doing the laughing then words would be had and they would be told their behaviour was not appropriate.

I don't think it's acceptable I have said that. Please read what I have said rather than getting all hysterical at everything I say.

I have read what you said. You think its OK for the boys to laugh at the girls because their underwear was showing when they did cartwheels.

I'm not getting at all hysterical.

The boys should have been sent to play elsewhere if they were unable to stop laughing at other children.

It's not up to girls to have to change their clothes or stop their game just because the boys in this scenario couldn't manage their own behaviour.

Not only were the boys disrupting the girls' game, they also disobeyed the staff's instructions to stop.

Do many boys collapse into helpless laughter when they see pants whilst getting changed for PE? If not, then they are a) specifically laughing at the girls because their pants are on show whilst playing and b)perfectly able to control themselves.

I think uniform is unpractical and unsuitable in some schools.

The girls see managing to do handstands and cartwheels perfectly well. Most schools allow for girls to wear shorts and trousers if they wish so these girls have probably chosen to wear dresses (I can't even get my DD out of her summer dresses into winter uniform so I don't fancy my chances of forcing her to wear trousers). By blaming the uniform, you are essentially saying that girls should modify their attire because the boys can't behave.

I have read what you said. You think its OK for the boys to laugh at the girls because their underwear was showing when they did cartwheels.

It's not OK to laugh at the girls but you can see why it happened as some of them find pants funny at that age. Nothing to do with boys dominance over girls. The girls are not to blame but neither are the boys, they are all just behaving like children do.

By blaming the uniform, you are essentially saying that girls should modify their attire because the boys can't behave

I say uniform should be modified for both sexes, like I said earlier. Why do older kids wear 'suits' to high school, learning doesn't just happen sat at a desk and when you see them playing footie in their lunch hour it looks so rigid!

A dress is a stupid impractical piece of clothing for an active girl. Apart from flashing pants, dresses can get get in the way on climbing frames etc. I hate my dd's school dress and wish the school would get with the times and ditch it. Lots of the girls wear the dress relatively short and add cycling shorts.

I have a 6yo and 8yo (girl and boy). Neither wants people to see their pants. I agree with the PE shorts being put on, in fact I think they should be the actual uniform and the dresses should go in the bin.

The girls see managing to do handstands and cartwheels perfectly well.

But when does it stop too, I know children that have started periods at 8 and 9. I can imagine cartwheeling in a dress is pretty embarrassing when that happens.

I think I have derailed myself here with school uniform but it does annoy me, at my high school when I was younger we were never allowed to wear trousers. Always skirts.

At most schools girls can wear trousers or shorts If they want to.

A girl old enough to have periods will probably be wanting to preserve her modesty a bit more. But most young children (of either gender) don't care that much. Bloody hell it's all the rage for boys to wear jeans low slung with pants showing and my six year old has shorts that fall down slightly and you can often see his boxers, no one cares.

It doesn't matter if ssomeone catches a glimpse of a child's underwear fgs.

It is the boys behaviour that should be dealt with here. It is not ok to make the girls responsible for the boys behaviour. And that is the message you are giving them by telling them to put shorts on! It's victim blaming culture.

Because it would be horrifying for a boy/man to know that girls/women wear knickers and have periods. Swriot, how can we expect the poor things to deal with know let?!

A flash of knickers (of any age) when you are doing a cartwheel is nothing. It's a non thing. The school/we as a society have made it into an issue that it just isn't.

I would just be proud my kid had the coordination necessary to do a cartwheel. They sure wouldn't have inherited it from me!

*deal with that knowledge.

I'm with you OP.

I don't like the message that it's ok to laugh and look at the girls pants if the girls were silly enough not to put shorts on kinda thing.
Early victim blaming?

Boys should be taught respect. Girls shouldn't have to modify their clothing or their behaviour. And if you think they should, you are perpetuating the idea that girls are 'asking for it' and 'boys will be be boys' and are not responsible for their own behaviour.

Goodness, are we blaming girls at primary age now?
Bloody ridiculous, the boys were being silly. If they were being silly in a classroom about a different issue they would have been told off and told not to be silly, but because it's girls and underwear, look who gets told to modify their behaviour. As I said: Bloody ridiculous.

Starting the cycle nice and young. Girls modify your behaviour because of boys behaviour.

Because it would be horrifying for a boy/man to know that girls/women wear knickers and have periods. Swriot, how can we expect the poor things to deal with know let?!

Not horrifying for the boys just maybe a little embarrassing for the girls. No matter how much we say dont be embarrassed it still happens.

"If an adult was doing handstands in the part with a dress on and flashing her knickers, pretty much everyone would think it was inappropriate."

WTF!?

Boys laugh at pants etc, it's normal, no one is disputing that but what is being disputed is what behaviour should be modified? The boys getting silly and uncontrollable and ignoring the adults instruction. Which as it happens is never acceptable in school in my option but for reason in this instance it was acceptable.

Some posters seem to be stuck on justifying that the boys were laughing at something that within normal age and development is funny. It's not then justifiable under any circumstances to get the girls doing handstands and cartwheel and showing pants which again is acceptable under normal age and development, to cover up. It was an easy option and wrongly acceptable that the boys were ok to laugh and the girls had to cover up. That isn't acceptable.

So in the same vein if someone was laughing at a child wearing glasses then the glasses should be removed? Or more relevant if boys were laughing at a visible bra strap the girls would need to wear a jumper to stop the boys laughing. I don't think anyone would find that acceptable the boys would simply be told to stop and they would be expected to stop, so why not in this instance?

As it happens my dd didn't mind that the boys were laughing she was able to shrug it off, some of the girls were getting annoyed and so all girls were sent to get shorts on.