Sports days in the heat being cancelled

[LovelyBath77]

Kind of wish ours was. It's meant to be really hot this week and it will be at 1.30pm. Poor kids.

My god, they could have been killed... 🙄

Won't anybody think of the CHILDREN?

No need to overreact, Patriarchy Death unlikely but heat exhaustion and sunburn a very real possibility during three hours of direct sun.

Our prep had theirs today.

Very sensibly the distance races have been postponed to take part earlier over the next couple of days. The children sat under gazebos whilst they weren’t competing. All wear school hats and they reapplied sun cream. Plenty of water drunk.

It was bloody uncomfortable watching

Ours is Thursday it is going ahead in predicted 29 degrees. My kids really want us there but my two year old twins for 5hr in this heat is frightening me, 10am-3.15 as one in each of infants and juniors. Picnic lunch with older kids in between. Taking a pop up tent but short of tying the toddlers to it, not sure keeping them in it will work! Older kids feel like they’ll be fine doing sports day in this heat though, having asked them how they feel about it.

Sports day in June was a shitshow in 1987 and it's still a shitshow now. We could fix ALL this moaning, dehydration, heatstroke and sunburn by simply having it in April. Nobody is ill from a mild rain in late April, many people are ill from being made to sit for 3 hours at midday and "cheer your classmates (punishment for being uncheerful)"

I was ill every year. headache, vomiting, sleepiness. My mother once told my teacher "She misses sports day or she misses the day after, but she will inevitably miss a day."

Not everyone handles hot weather. It doesn't make them a wimp, they are usually the people walkiing the dog in -5C while the "I LOVE the sun!"ers shiver over a radiator for 4 months of the year. People are different and always have been. It's not a modern weakness.

I'd be happier if it was in the morning, it is from lunchtime and usually goes on till home time, it will be boiling. school is asking parents for gazebos like some of the others are saying.

Sports days - my idea of hell, especially in this kind of heat.

FWIW, hotter countries kick school kids out when it reaches a certain temperature (30C in the shade in Bavaria, I happen to know). The Spanish traditionally take siestas. The heat in Britain is humid, thanks to all our rain and geography and whatnot, so is much harder to handle than dry heat.

I wandered around on honeymoon in about 32C, sun cream, hat, shades, water, intermittent air con - still managed to get sunstroke. I personally am no longer blasé about it all. If you can handle it - good for you! I'm a lily-white, melanin-deficient northerner and can't.

why would schools cancel sports day due to heat?

Go look for the 'school didn't make my little darling wear a hat/sunscreen/ drink enough water eat' or some variation threads

Not everyone handles hot weather. It doesn't make them a wimp, they are usually the people walkiing the dog in -5C while the "I LOVE the sun!"ers shiver over a radiator for 4 months of the year. People are different and always have been. It's not a modern weakness.

YES- exactly this.

No I don't think YABU. My DD asked me if I wanted to go with her to my DGD's sports day the year before last,when she was in year 4. We were right in the middle of the hottest week of the year so far (temperatures reaching nearly 30,degrees),and apparently,there is absolutely no shade on the school field for parents to sit in. I said sorry,but there was no way I could sit out in the full glare of the sun,between 1.30 and 3.30 pm. I'm very pale skinned,and I keep out of the sun as much as possible,I hate putting on sunscreen as it makes me sweat even more. I also didn't fancy the idea of sitting on the grass,as I have dodgy knee and hip joints (rheumatoid arthritis) and once I sit on the floor,I have an almighty struggle to get back up again! It can be very embarrassing.

Madeleine, yes, Spanish school children are on summer hols now, I think.

Saw some sensible parents today with umbrellas.

I hate hot weather.
But I wonder why all those kids I saw in the beach at the weekend are still fine?
Any school will take sensible precautions with the kids.

My god, they could have been killed... 🙄

Are you always such a twat?

No of course they couldn't have been killed, that's a fucking ridiculous reply.

Go back to playgroup and come back when you have something of interest to say.
I'm a child of the 70's - my brother and I have had numerous pre-cancerous moles removed after being sun burned- which is fucking painful. But hey - we weren't killed!
I just rather protect my DD a bit more. I'm not a precious parent by any standard. Also I suffer from hyperhydrosis (not drip feeding, have posted on another thread) No amount of shade, cream or anything was going to make me feel comfortable.

So now we both have over heated, have headaches and despite drinking plenty of fluids feel generally shit.

But hey, nobody died. Fucking twat.

Beaches are generally cooler, or feel cooler because of the breeze. There is also a great big thing called the sea to cool down in.

You often have to be more careful at the beach with regards to burning as the temperature can feel a lot more comfortable than it actually is.

No sea at sports day. No breeze. Just direct sunlight and headaches all round.

It's not the running around that would worry me, I run in the heat. It's the sitting down in the sun for 2-3 hours waiting for various races. I'm a sun worshipper but I wouldn't expect a child to do it.

As long as they have a gazebo, hats and water I think it's fine though.

My children's sports days were held on the school playing field. No buildings, no trees, no shade. I used to keep only one of them at home in temperatures like this. The one who got heat exhaustion quickly. The other was fine. I don't tolerate hot sunshine very well and would never voluntarily sit in the sun. It's not wimpy. We can't help how our bodies respond to unnacustomed heat. I feel nauseated and get a headache in a fairly short time. It's not so much the heat as direct sunshine.

@PatriarchyPersonified

our of interest, how old are your children?

My eldest is 21, I'm 42 - I have been a parent for half of my life. I don't subscribe to namby pamby, nor to I treat my children like little treasures, or whatever the fuck else people think. We've been through a fuck load of shit in our lives, DD only being 9 bearing the brunt.
So when I say it's too hot to be sitting for 3+ hours in direct sunlight, I'm saying it's too hot.

I'll repeat twat again in case you missed it the first time.

Crunchy mint, the kids on the beach are a self selecting group who can cope. Mine wer not at the beach, they were in a dark room wondering when it will be safe to go out again.

DS2 went into the city today- 15 walk, 25min tram, then back again. He's now in his room lying down in the dark, hasn't eaten because he's queasy and his head is pounding. Not everyone can do it.

He's been ill in the past- almost calling an ambulance ill- delirious, sick, shuddering. We usually manage but sometimes life catches us out.

And I'm 48, have had 8 children if you include my foster children, and am pretty robust in the parenting stakes, FYI.

I used to teach at a British school in Egypt and our Welsh headmaster insisted on doing sports day in June when temperatures are over 35. We had zero shade as the school was in the bloody desert and there wasn't a tree for miles. I still feel hot thinking about that day!

How do kids in hot countries cope FFS?

As mentioned by a previous poster they generally cope by not staging a sports day at 1:30 in the afternoon of a blazing hot day. We've lived in very hot countries and very cold countries. My DC were generally a bit useless in the hot sun. It's energy sapping and it used to give one of them headaches. I played tennis everyday but would stop mid morning before the heat kicked it. I'd get headaches if it got too hot despite hats and water etc.
It's different in cold countries. It would have to be ridiculously cold to not go out. My kids would still have outdoor play at minus 25 and colder without a second thought.

Ds in year 1 had his yesterday 1.30 they sped it up where they could and kept them well shaded between activities

They all survived

Mad dogs and Englishmen, hey

Love the assumptions that schools are going to have gazebos and shade. Sadly not!