To have chosen not to send him

[tarapinn]

Sponsored walk today for year 7 at school. 4 hours duration between 10-2. 30 degrees. They sent an email out last night saying lots of the walk is in the open but they would also be stopping for plenty of shaded rests.

He was getting texts today from friends saying they were 'dying' 😄

I chose to keep ds at home.
My mum thinks I should have sent him.

Who is being unreasonable?

Not unreasonable. My kids school has a fun day with inflatable assault course, my daughter said kids were getting heat stroke and a few threw up.

I think YABU to think it's funny that other kids that did do the walk were clearly not enjoying it.

But YANBU to keep him off.

YABU, unless your child has ongoing term illness or SEN I think you need to teach them resilience, like the cross country running in the depths of winter it was unpleasant but part of building resilience. Lots of kids have had sports days the last few days and at year 7 he should know to drink plenty of water, wear a hat and wear suncream.

@IBelieveInAThingCalledScience

Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Australian kids wouldn't do much for about 7 months of the year!

If they had sunscreen/hats on,.plenty of water and rest breaks they'd be fine!

I can't speak for the other countries but in Italy the kids are off for 12 weeks over the summer, they break up at the beginning of June to avoid the hot weather. They also would not be out doing sport in the middle of the day.

YANBU- not when the walk was in the hottest part of the day. I don't think the way schools have to run these events for big groups is necessarily the best set up for avoiding getting ill in these sorts of weather conditions.

I spent months every summer in Portugal as a child. No one stops living through the heat of the day, they just move to the shade or go indoors. You get activities like outdoor exercise in places with little shade out the way by 10/11am or do them from about 4pm onwards. Going out for lunch means sitting indoors with aircon or under umbrellas or something designed to give some shade. If you're out and about on errands or something, suncream, cool drinks, walk in the shade where you can etc. Buildings are also designed to be as cool as possible. This is a literal hot spot in our weather- our buildings are quite rightly designed to keep the heat the rest of time!

People who live in warmer climates are obviously more used to coping in warmer weather but that works both ways, too. The last time I was in Rome in late September early October, I was in my summer clothes with a light layer on top, maybe had a couple of autumn items with me. My friends were similar. It was gorgeous weather and we saw plenty of other tourists in similar clothes to us. The italians we saw were wearing their autumn jackets or jumpers and l understood enough italian to get the gist of someone complaining they were cold!

Heat of the day- 30 degrees and with high UV levels to boot- surely that's a recipe for heat stroke and sunburn! You are definitely not being unreasonable.

A very silly idea to have children out in the sun at midday. And four hours is totally ridiculous. I was sweating after just ten minutes outside yesterday, and that was only sitting reading, with a bottle of water handy.
I wouldn't have allowed a child of mine on such a walk either.

@vivainsomnia

My DS did the DoE weekend camping and walk the weekend that beat all the record a few years ago. it was 35 or 26 degrees. That was a 7 hours walk carrying very heavy equipment. They all managed just fine with many stops and plenty of drinking.

So yes, I do think you were a bit precious.

I'm glad they were fine but it could very easily have gone wrong and was frankly downright irresponsible.

There have been well publicised incidents of military recruits dying during this sort of exercise.

Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Australian kids wouldn't do much for about 7 months of the year!

When I used to go to holiday club in the summer in Italy it started at 2pm (too sunny before hand) and if the leaders decided it was too hot/sunny for outdoor games after 2pm we'd do indoor games in a cool hall instead.

Admittedly 30c was fine, it was 35c when they'd say it was too hot.

I think it's quite person dependent too. My DH can do stuff in the sun. If I'm moving around in it for more than 15 minutes I feel really poorly. Even with water & hats etc. I just can't cope with it.

I used to live in Spain and my DD (and every other child) did PE and sports ... just not during the hottest part of the day.

When were teaching in a Med country we were on Summer hours, finshed at 12.30 for the day, from about June until the end of September, bliss!

@JudgeJ

I used to live in Spain and my DD (and every other child) did PE and sports ... just not during the hottest part of the day.

When were teaching in a Med country we were on Summer hours, finshed at 12.30 for the day, from about June until the end of September, bliss!

Yep we did that throughout June too - school finished at 1/2pm (basically lunchtime) - and the first couple of weeks of September.

Even through the rest of the year when it wasn't super hot they still didn't schedule physical activities during the middle of the day

Thanks again.

I really don't think I'm being precious or not teaching him resilience. There are many many ways to do this without risking heatstroke etc. I just don't believe in making the dc do things for these reasons when I know I would hate to do it myself.

And I know I put a smiley face about his friends texting him. I don't think it's funny (hence not sending ds ). I put it because they weren't actually dying and were texting ds all sorts of funny sarcastic things about the walk.

And for the record, my mum has come round and thinks it was a bit mad now!

@katedan

YABU, unless your child has ongoing term illness or SEN I think you need to teach them resilience, like the cross country running in the depths of winter it was unpleasant but part of building resilience. Lots of kids have had sports days the last few days and at year 7 he should know to drink plenty of water, wear a hat and wear suncream.

You know heatstroke kills people, yes?

@User5827372728

I wouldn’t have kept him home but sent him in and expected school to provide a more suitable task for him for the day

Is that not just going to be a ball ache for everyone involved and embarrassing for the son?

YABU, unless your child has ongoing term illness or SEN I think you need to teach them resilience, like the cross country running in the depths of winter it was unpleasant but part of building resilience. Lots of kids have had sports days the last few days and at year 7 he should know to drink plenty of water, wear a hat and wear suncream

Ffs, here comes the ‘we walked to school in the blizzards with no shoes on’ brigade.

You do realise properly physically fit, mentally astute adults in the military succumb to heat stroke don’t you?

It can affect anyone, doesn’t mean you have to chuck your kids down the mine to build resilience. 🤣🤣🤣

Its not just that other people are use to the heat in other countries, they also have different things to cope with it, for example in Canada my friend's place has air conditioning in her house, I don't think I have ever lived in a house that comes with air conditioning that is not just opening the windows.

Or (I think) its Norway that has heated pavements for the snow, where as here in the south of England, we panick and shut down schools when we see a snowflake.

We are built for rain and complaining about the weather

Our school cancelled their planned hike and did sports at school instead where they could access water shade and rest.