To think good weather is no reason to cancel a trip?!

[WobbleYourHead]

DD is due to go on a trip to a local wildlife sanctuary tomorrow. They're walking there, spending a few hours at the place & walking back. It's just over a mile from school to the venue and the kids are Y1 so 5 and 6 (but mostly 6 at this point in the year).
Lots of mums on our class chat have today been saying how concerned they are about DCs being out in the sun all day and surely the trip should be cancelled in this heat. There are some saying they might request their DC are kept in school instead of attending the trip.
I appear to be the only person not really bothered by it as DD knows how to apply sunscreen, she'll wear a hat and have drinks. I also trust that the school will remind the kids to wear their hats, drink plenty and put extra cream on.
AIBU to think it's a bit of an overreaction on the part of the other parents?! I'm sure children in much warmer climates cope with school trips!

Are you working today? Ask the school if you can take your DD on the trip.

It isn't the norm waitforit but there are those on here saying all you need is precautions. It isn't that unusual in children with neurological differences.

You can't compare children living in Austrailia or Spain with children living in the U.K. Children there grow up with and are used to the heat. 30C might not be considered hot over there but for the UK, it is HOT.

It's only a mile walk and it's a wildlife sanctuary! It sounds like a great idea for somewhere to spend the day, miles better than a hot classroom and a hot tarmac playground.

Of course of a child has additional or specific needs the school and parents need to risk assess but for a school to cancel a trip outside because it's hot when they kids have access to shade and general precautions Is quite frankly ridiculous and what on earth is this behaviour teaching the kids.

First sign of heat/first drops of snow take a day off or change plans?

Good grief

I wonder if those saying adapt have seen their child being taken to hospital in an ambulance after collapsing because they have become too warm within minutes of being somewhere warm.

No, but I was taken to hospital myself as a child when suffering with heatstroke on holiday abroad. I don't have a medical condition, but unfortunately my parents didn't know enough about the risks and didn't teach me how to manage them.

If there are individuals who have a particular condition that means they cannot regulate their body temperature, then perhaps those kids should stay at home on hot days. The vast majority of us just need to learn how to keep ourselves cool.

I was a reception class TA for a while and it made me snort when child after child described themselves as dehydrated when they were, you know, thirsty!

Middle class school and for a walk in the local woods we had to ask parents to bring in wellies. Some complained as they didn't have any! No wellies for a child of 4??? Fucking maddness.

The school are wrong to cancel. A mile is nothing to a child, or shouldn't be, and the wildlife would be sensational today.

All kinds of wrong.

Current temperature in Western Sahara - 21C. Forecast high today 30C.

Current temperature London - 24C. Forecast high 31C.

So actually, hotter than the Sahara.

But a nice outdoors day, as long as in the shade and not standing in the middle of an open field all day, sounds much more pleasant than being indoors.

The UV is 8 or 9 here for much of the day. People are being advised to stay indoors by the health authority.

@bluebellvergreen I think you may have grown up in the same part of Spain that I lived, going by your username :)

Op I think yanbu. My kids all managed school, trips, walking longer distances living in a country where it's been this hot since April. Not everyone is suited to extreme heat, but this isn't extreme and as long as they are regularly sunscreened, kept hydrated and have regular shade time they should be fine! It would be a waste to cancel the trip.

Surely it's going to warmer stuck in a classroom all day than it is outside at a wildlife park/sanctuary place, with plenty of shade and a breeze?

Stupid call by the school, imo.

When I was training I went on a school trip to a farm- plenty of shade, access to water and we all had out lunch in the shade too. Coach there and back. All kids had hats and sun screen. I remember it now,it was baking hot. 3 kids and 2 adults were poorly with heat stroke.

I agree with AnUtterIdiot

It's all very well saying "Well, I survived the summer of 1976 with no sun cream and very little water! Blah, blah, blah.."

Not everyone copes in this heat. This is not Africa or Spain or Australia. Yes, the children can apply sunscreen, drink water and wear a hat but at that age, I expect a lot of them will forget to do those things frequently enough and end up getting burnt/dehydrated.

Perhaps I'm touchy about it though as I used to get awful sunstroke as a child (blonde hair and fair skin) after being in this kind of heat for a very short time. Walking a mile to an Animal Sanctuary, walking around it for the best part of the day and then walking a mile back in this heat, at 5/6 would have been hell for me and made me pretty ill, sunscreen and a hat or not.

If there are individuals who have a particular condition that means they cannot regulate their body temperature, then perhaps those kids should stay at home on hot days.

This.

My dd had severe joint trouble and even a short walk could end up with her in bed for the next four days. It did not mean I expected the whole blooming school to go around in wheelchairs!!! If only schools could be a little bit more flexible about allowing individual parents to withdraw due to specific problems and parents a little bit more willing to recognise that their child's individual problems might be just that: individual.

As it is, we are ending up with a situation where most children are never acclimatised to outdoor situations because of the constant fear that there will be one child, somewhere, who will struggle. Outdoor events are cancelled due to hot weather, wet weather, cold weather, windy weather. And obesity and sedentary-related illnesses are on the rise and we know that children are destined to die from them.

How bizarre. Helicopter parenting

cardibach I am old bird too and remember the long hot summer of 1976 very well. I was about ten at the time - we did not uses sun screen at all back then. The only screen that existed was Coppertone Cococnut Oil Factor 2 which was sold so you could 'enhance and speed up your tan' - it was not marketed as sun protection! Of course I realise that was unhealthy - I guess I am pointing out how far knowledge has come.

None of us came home sun burnt after a day playing out - we knew to go into the shade when we were too hot.

This was also the summer of the drought - so we could not even cool off with a hosepipe and a sprinkler as they were banned and if you wanted a bath it had to be under three cm deep. There was a line drawn round the bath in our hotel room!

The nanny state means that parents turn into over protective nannies too. They're probably the same parents that don't send little Jocasta to school in the snow because it's too cold!

its bizarre isn't it?! i grew up in a country where it averages 30deg every day all day with 100% humidity constantly - we carried on with life as per normal

Umm, 🤔 depends what you mean as 'life as per normal'. People's 'normal lives' in hot countries are very different to ours. Working days and school days start much earlier in the day to avoid the heat and many places still have 'siestas'.

BTW We lived in South Africa for much of my DCs childhood and they were rubbish in the heat. 😂 It really sapped their energy levels. I wouldn't have wanted them to go on a walk and day out somewhere in the heat if they could go another time.

They obviously used to do plenty of things in the heat but mostly you worked around in. They would come home from school early afternoon and would hang around inside or in the pool and would only go out later in the afternoon.

Absolutely ridiculous to cancel.

They should have something set up at school for kids of parents who refused permission and let everyone else go and enjoy it.

Sure there will be the odd kid who suffers from heat stroke or has other difficulties that might make heat hard to manage, and they should of course be kept at school, but most of the class would have been absolutely fine. What a huge over reaction.

No Broken, that child's needs need to be met. That doesn't mean the trip should be cancelled but it does mean the child shouldn't be expected to stay home. Either the child has their trip arrangements adjusted or arrangements are made to accommodate the child in school.

The thing is this is the second time it's been cancelled.

Last time it was cancelled because of heavy rain.

Poor kids (and poor teacher!) Hot classroom instead of shady nature reserve. Cancelling the trip could only make sense if the alternative was better, and that seems doubtful.

Re dogs - we took ours to a local park yesterday, he proceeded to walk fast between bits of shade and then flop down in it with an 'are you mad?' look. (He wasn't panting or distressed). So we asked him if he wanted to go home, he set off back to the car at a brisk trot. Spent the rest of the day alternating basking and lying in the shade.

It's utterly ridiculous to cancel and it shows what on earth we are teaching our kids and it's sure as hell not resilience or commen sense.

Total helecopter parenting.

My teen ds had a job as a kitchen porter and if you want hot go into that on a summer day but he stuck at the job while one snowflakes mummy ( kid 17) phoned in to say it was too hot for snowflake to work today.

It's teaching kids that changing their plans or staying at home is acceptable at the drop of a hat such as a hot day or a brush of snow!

Errol so we asked him if he wanted to go home

We asked the dog what she wanted for tea yesterday and I swear she answered