Too cold for six years olds to be outside for PE for 45 minutes?

[Married2aWelshman]

I'm all for getting the kids outside, particularly mine, but it was 0 degrees in London today and my DD1 told me that they did PE outside and they were all freezing in their tracksuit bottoms and school t shirts, also allowed school cardigans but that's it. No gloves, majority of them already coughing and spluttering as is the January norm. Some of the, crying. It's not like they were playing rugby and sweating their arses off. AIBU to have a word with the teacher in the morning?

But the OP said it was only 0 degrees- not even below freezing!

There is an awful lot of emotion on this thread when in fact the weather wasn't that terrible.

She says they worse trackie bottoms and a shirt and a school cardi- presume that could also mean a sweatshirt.

Without knowing what PE they did, gloves may not have been appropriate (though the teacher could have chosen a non-ball game.)

I think it's worth mentioning to the teacher, but unless they do PE in coats which would restrict movement, I don't know what options there are.

If PE involved a lot of running then I think they would soon warm up. Haven't we all seen joggers out in shorts and very little else, in all weathers? As long as you are moving, it should be okay especially when it's not even below freezing.

I would cry if I had to be outside in that weather for 45 minutes. Waiting for the bus for 15 minutes yesterday was bad enough.

I think having indoor PE in 0 degree weather would be much kinder. You wouldn't get me doing it and I don't think children should have to either. Whilst my children don't mind the cold and hate wearing hats and gloves, I remember how horrible it was doing PE in the cold. I am useless with cold and it makes me feel physically ill (worse since my thyroid messed up) and I have been that way since a child.

I think a lot of you don't understand how cold it was here yesterday. I have a bowl of water in a huge bowl out in the garden for the dogs. In the morning it was fine, in the day time it froze.

Yep. My face was stinging by the time my bus arrived.

AIBU to have a word with the teacher in the morning?

That depends what you mean by "have a word".

YANBU to ask the teacher what actually happened, no.
YABU to "have a word" in a Phil Mitchell-esque way

I love sport and being outside. But I also really feel the cold. So yesterday on my run I wore a hat, gloves, sweater and jacket. I was fine. I would NOT have enjoyed it in a t shirt.

Why can't children be given the same choice, if they want to wear more clothes they should be able to.

I think a lot of you don't understand how cold it was here yesterday.

I know how cold it was here yesterday' yes. Of course I do, because I was here.

In South London.

It was a bitterly cold wind. And school cardigans are mostly very light. However, it was a shortish time and better to go ahead with the lesson. Maybe ask the school to allow an optional warm layer to enable PE lessons in all weathers, or get a warm thermal layer to wear under uniform. [on the fence].

Indeed. Many things regarding the care of and wellbeing of small children have changed and/or been found not fit for purpose since our childhoods. I can't think why small children wearing completely inappropriate clothing running around in freezing weather should be defended or dismissed as character building. I have an army background and it was drummed into us repeatedly that we must wear weather appropriate clothing at all times or there was a good chance we wouldn't be able to perform our duties.

0 degrees isn't really cold though but if you're not used to it, it'll feel really cold.

Poor little mites. At the very least, they could have hoodies - hoods up and hands in pockets until they're warmed up. OP, do other mothers feel the same way you do? With encouragement from parents, the school might make hoodies part of PE kit - something like this: www.banana-moon-clothing.co.uk/kids-hoodies/product/heavyweight-youth-hooded-sweatshirt

The question I have is: did they go outside at playtime and lunchtime in their school uniform (which probably meant girls in tights and relatively open shoes, and IME is likely to have meant the vast majority had open coats or no coats at all)? How long did they go outside at playtime?

If they did, then going out for PE is probably OK, because in PE they would have been moving more continually than they were at breaktime, and many would have been more warmly dressed in joggers etc than they were for playtime.

Also, it's worth thinking about whether they were really outside for 45 minutes. If it was a 45 minute timetabled lesson for 6 year old PE, then with changing, and changing back, it was probably 15-20 minutes maximum actually outside!

We allow thick hoodies / sweatshirts for PE, and gloves if needed. Not mittens, not scarves, and not coats because they get in the way of the sports that we do. The issue with allowing 6 year olds to have gloves and hats is a) that many may not have had them in school, and they wouldn't have worn them at playtime anyway, and b) many (booble hats, unicorn hats combined with scarves, mittens....) are likely to actively get in the way of / slow down movement, which is the best way to keep warm.

We did outdoor PE in skirts or tracksuit bottoms (our choice), polo shirts and jumpers (our choice). Hats if we wanted them. Bit daft to think kids should be wrapped up in coats and scarves for outdoor sports. The school should allow hoodies and hats/gloves if the children are cold. If they don't feel cold (many children don't) then it won't hurt them to run round in 0 degrees for half an hour. Healthy, fresh air and exercise - what could be better?

Also, for those saying that the hall should be used - in every school I have taught in, the hall is a scarce resource. One class outside doing PE, one class in the hall would be normal, so that every child gets as close as possible to their weekly PE entitlement of 2 hours. The choice that the class teacher / school had was almost certainly to do PE outside, on a day when I bet they went outside for playtime, or not to do PE at all.

My 4 year old son's class go to the woods once a week for 2-3 hours, to run around and do activities. Lots of layers, hats and gloves and they have a hot chocolate mid session. They've got the other 4.5 days of the week to sit in a centrally heated classroom. The teachers and parent helpers all wrap up and have fun. No problem with it at all.

The 'cold doesn't cause colds' mantra has been repeated for years on MN, but I have always believed that if you are run down anyway, or brewing for a cold, then getting very cold/freezing for a period of time can make you ill, and that's what the research shows. I certainly know that sometimes I feel like I might get a cold, and if I have a relaxing time, not too stressed or cold, it goes away, and other times, if you have a busy time/get very chilled for some reason, you are sick the next day.

I am all for continuing with exercise outside, but with appropriate clothing and a t-shirt and thin nylon cardi is not that clothing. My dd has a thick fleece top for games in winter and jogging bottoms and that is better.

I also remember 'hockey hands' where you could hardly hold the stick through them freezing, and we used to wear knicker shorts as well, never any jogging bottoms. I wonder why I hate sports?

I also remember 'hockey hands' where you could hardly hold the stick through them freezing, and we used to wear knicker shorts as well, never any jogging bottoms. I wonder why I hate sports?

That's really why you hate sports? We got hockey hands too sometimes but I loved playing so I didn't care. Some people don't like sports, that's fine. But do you really believe getting cold occasionally in winter is the reason you hate all sport?

YANBU. Outer London here. Yes it was 0 / -1 all day yesterday but it felt worse to me - maybe a wind chill factor or something. I took my dogs out late morning wearing a thick jumper, fleece, thick coat, 2 hoods, gloves, heavy walking boots. Had to cut the walk short because I was frozen through despite walking briskly (which would normally make me feel hot). My hands were painful despite the gloves. I could hardly move my face. I'm no soft southerner and have lived in Scotland. But God it was cold yesterday!

On a side note - re getting colds and getting a cold.
I'm so pleased that research is coming out showing evidence for a link between being cold and being more likely to get a cold - it is not just a virus and the fact you get more in winter is because you are inside in enclosed, warm spaces more often more... Historically houses were a lot colder and people were outside - working and travelling etc - a lot more than they are now. I've argued for years there must be some correlation with being cold and getting a cold - or it wouldn't have been called a cold...
( And I had a quite heated discussion about it with a colleague - which led onto to how we didn't know everything and we still got things wrong etc- we were both biochemists ...)

We are heading towards a massive obesity crisis, people eating so much more and exercising less. Do you actually want to send a message to your kids they shouldn't exercise if it's cold.. Utter madness

Trife for years after school sports I played no sport. I don't know if you read the thread about the way school sports were run in the 70's and 80's, and how awful it was to be running around in a pair of large knickers in front of the public/the boys (who all had long shorts on), showering naked and being 'checked' by members of staff, having to tell the teacher if you were on your period, and going out in all weathers in a tiny t-shirt and the aforementioned knickers literally shaking with cold whilst the teacher stood around in her full track suit and gloves...I agree it wasn't just the 'hockey hands', it was the whole thing that meant that I associated sports with unpleasantness, humiliation (not picked for the team) and vowed never to do it again on leaving school, like the vast majority of girls who quit all sports and exercise around the teenage years.

Later on, I discovered there's lots of good ways to keep fit like dancing, exercise classes, swimming and so on which are actually enjoyable, so that was a revelation! And don't involve being freezing either.

Foureyesarebetterthantwo: Honestly, I think some people attach far too much significance/angst to stuff that happened at school and blame all their later feelings on it. Fair enough, having to get naked is unnecessary. But if you like sports, genuinely like them, being cold won't put you off them for life. It just won't.

Pink given that we exercised all through the 80's outside freezing in inadequate clothing, if your theory was correct, we would all love sport and be as thin as rakes.

It doesn't work like that. In the UK people don't wear the right clothes, in cold countries with lots of snow they don't send the children out in inadequate clothing, that would be considered quite neglectful and definitely linked to illness (unlucky as I understand it, the recent research shows that the cold virus causes the cold, but that and being very chilled/cold for a period of time may trigger them to make you feel ill, that kind of makes sense to me).

Pink braces - Do you actually want to send a message to your kids they shouldn't exercise if it's cold?

The point is it was exceptionally cold here yesterday. Personally I'd rather have been out in any of the other type of weather which would mean no outside PE (snow, rain etc). Friend's DD didn't do outside PE on Wednesday because of the extreme cold. They did it in the hall instead. Surely preferable?

Where on earth did this idea that staying inside when it's cold equates to you being an overeating elephant come from? What, no one has a treadmill/bike/yoga mat, Trife?

I'm disabled. I lift weights at my desk to exercise my arms, do side bends/twists to work my stomach muscles, I work my legs with bands and on a really good day I might manage some yoga. I can't walk more than ten paces without falling over so a stroll around the block or rousing game of hockey are both out.

This isn't entirely relevant to childrens PE but it's not like they have to go outside to exercise. At primary school (the early 90s) we had indoor PE in the winter in the school hall.

One of my nieces has great winter PE. They move the tables/chairs to the edges of the room and exercise in the classroom. They vary between things like aerobics and zumba to yoga and coordination games.

Being "soft" about cold weather is nothing to do with obesity, unless perhaps your view of what constitutes exercise is uncompromisingly narrow.

Fat shaming is a self fulfilling prophecy with children - does anyone think someone wants to change into their PE kit and stand around with other children when they're teasing you about extra weight? No, much easier to get out of PE in any way possible and try to hide your "enormous bulk" in the shadows and hope no one notices you. Banging on about obesity has little to nothing to do with this thread

The message you need to send is "if you wear appropriate clothing then you won't be cold and sport will be more enjoyable."

Trifle do you not understand the humiliation and misery that sport at school inflicted on some people? Of course that can put you off for life. You liked hockey, that means you were good at it. If your school was anything like ours, the team was pitted against itself (attack on one team, defence on the other) so the rest of us rarely saw the ball. If they did mix the team up, then the team players just used to pass to each other. So you ended up standing around freezing a lot of the time. If someone did pass to you, you were so panicked that you missed it, got laughed at, so no one did. I have started exercising now. More than 15 years after leaving school. But I won't go where anyone can see me, I have no desire to be laughed at, ridiculed and humiliated because no matter how hard I try, I will never be good at any kind of sport.

vixsyn: Of course there are other options for exercise. But those options are often more costly and less 'active' than the simple expediency of going for a half hour jog, aren't they? Obviously if you can't do outdoor exercise then there are many other ways you can keep up your fitness but that is hardly the point. I want my DD to appreciate outdoor exercise so she has a healthy attitude to fitness where she can pick and choose whether to go wild swimming, climbing, running, do yoga or join a gym. When she is 6 is the time to teach her this attitude. When she is an adult she can do what the hell she wants.