8yo girls must wear shorts under skirts...

[MyFirstMyLastMyEverythingBagel]

... In order to play on the bars in the school playground?!
My 8yo DD came home from school yesterday upset as she wasn't allowed to play on them - the teacher had said she needed to have shorts on as the boys would see her knickers.
I'm really upset by this, she is 8 years old and has a life time ahead of her to be worrying about modesty/body image without the school instilling it in her at 8. We've had a lovely summer, much of it spent splashing in the river / sea, DD totally in self aware in her knickers and a t shirt.
I'm actually pretty cross and plan to speak to the head about it, but want to know if iabu? How would you feel about it? My child is a child and I don't feel she should be made to feel self conscious about a brief knicker flash when she is playing.

"Marklah girls being encouraged to wear shorts instead of a skirt as part of the school uniform is encouraging girls to modify their clothing in case someone sees their knickers"

Exactly! Surely you can see the contradiction in your post, Marklah?

Goodness me how ridiculous, some days that's the only view I get of my daughter - her knickers as she cartwheels around the house! at our school they are allowed to wear shorts/trousers like the boys and sometimes she does other days she wears a skirt. The world will not end if a boy sees her knickers. At the infants they used to get changed for PE in the same classroom. This is the way to make little girls ashamed of their bodies!

Let's put all girls in mini burkhas from the age of 2, lest boys are tempted to act inappropriately around them. Problem solved.

I agree with liz70

Bah - my post deleted part of itself.

Should have started with 'If girls want to wear dresses then they should be allowed to jump/run/climb in them without fear of reprisal. To say that girls must wear shorts under skirts...'

After reading through and commenting on this thread, I got home today and realised that DD had her pyjama shorts on underneath her skirt. I asked her why she was wearing them and she replied "So I can do gymnastics at playtime". I asked what shorts have to do with that, and she told me that a teacher told her yesterday that she wasn't allowed to do gymnastics if she wasn't wearing shorts!

The rage. I had no idea her school enforced this stupid rule too!

Nope, just playtime at school! She said they sometimes get the mats out for the children to do cartwheels etc. on but she wasn't allowed to as she didn't have shorts on

Interesting that the school uniform list says "Girls (summer): checked summer dress
Boys (summer): polo shirts and shorts" If flashes of knickers are such a big deal why not have shorts as the uniform?

It really annoyed me. I want to phone the school to complain but I've already been on the phone to them all week about a separate issue, I really don't want to be That Parent!

i knew this would turn into a muslimbashing thread come to expect it online and offline ppl obsessed and paranoid with muslim and islam

yorkie muslim women not driving in saudi nothing to do with islam, its the arab culture get your facts right please. When the only source of transport were horses and camels all the women used them. when cars were introduced the corrupt king and his bafoons decided women werent allowed to drive cars. the stupid king does as he is told otherwise he will be overthrown and he likes his power and money so he wouldnt want that would he?

We HAD to cartwheel in dresses as shorts or trousers weren't allowed at school. I suspect most small girls who wear shorts or trousers now do so because they're far more practical for tree climbing and playing football (something else we weren't allowed to do), not for modesty. And warmer, in the case of trousers.

That said, knickers mean that bottoms are covered and that should be sufficient.

OP YANBU

YANBU at all OP. Do complain to the head.

I genuinely can't believe this!! Can we can a mumsnet campaign to educate schools that this isn't ok? God the world makes me sadder every day

YANBU. Teacher should not be imposing adult norms onto an 8 year old. There is enough to destroy innocence in the world without teachers suggesting that this is inappropriate.

Skirts are very freeing, they can be considerably less restrictive than shorts depending on the design.

Thankfully DD3's school isn't so daft. Some parents do make their daughters wear shorts under their dresses or skirts/pinafores, though. I even had a girl suggest to me that DD3, while attempting a cartwheel in the park, should be wearing them. Ermm, nope.

My piss is boiling for you on this. Can I come with you to school when you wipe the floor with the teacher? Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

That is a brilliant point amd ine i would raise with the head

I remember when I was five or six ( late 60's) a boy asking to see my knickers at school......my mum went straight to the school to sort this out
We too did PE in best and knickers

Agree with liz70. Problem solved.

I did P.E in my pants and knickers in the late 90's and the younger kids was still doing it in the early 00's and we all got changed in the same room up until we went into year 6. Personally i felt very uncomfortable with that (at 10/11) but i started my periods just before my 10th birthday. Its not unheard of for girls to start younger, a friend of mines daughter got her first visit a few months ago and she was only 8 in July! :0 I'm not defending the school, but perhaps theres more to this.
I mean no female of any age would want to flash her sanitary items and youngsters could get preoccupied and forget.