To think kids should be able to walk in the rain

[MiaMarshmallows]

To school if it is less than 30 minutes away?

@WorraLiberty

What can the schools do about it?

Well that's a question the parents should be asking the schools, if they're bothered about it.

But like I say, it's easier to carry on adding to the traffic chaos and pollution, so I can't imagine many parents approaching the schools to find out.

Well, we can ask the schools until we're blue in the face, but it won't enable them to magic up the space necessary for 500+ children to store their wellies, waterproof coats and trousers, will it?

I can't believe the responses on this thread! Yes, of course people and children can and should walk a 30 minute walk. Wet weather gear doesn't have to be expensive. A walk is good for the kids, getting a bit wet doesn't harm them, and surely it's better for everyone (not to mention the environment) than getting in a car?!

I have walked most of my life, we did not have fancy rain clothes as children. You just wore a coat with a hood and lace up shoes. Sometimes changing into plimsolls at school, but that was it. No one used an umbrella.
All kids did the same, and poverty was rife and people had big families. Thats just how it was and few people had cars and where we lived public transport was poor.
At one stage I wore cardboard insoles covered in a plastic bag as I had a hole in my shoe and there wasn't the money to buy new ones. My late mum rode a bike in all weathers until she was 80 and her brother walked miles in most weathers until he was almost 90.
I use a rollator for any distance and walk daily .
You don't need special clothes or wellingtons.
Yes we got wet but it didn't harm us .

I used to walk 2 miles to school in all weather, rain and heavy snow. No one got driven to school, we never considered getting a bus. Of course it's ok, it's only water.

I like the Scandinavian approach: there's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing.

Wet weather gear should be an essential part of any child's wardrobe.

Not if you already own a car?

Agree! Think there are other ways to build resilience other than getting splashed on by passing cars, stepping into puddles and getting to school wet.

My secondary did today and do every day. They have a 30 minute bus ride and then a 15-20 minute walk depending on whether they stride or dawdle. Luckily the weather cleared up and the sunshine at break time finished off the drying out process. They are fit and healthy, it won’t do them any harm.

build resilience What does that actually mean though? It's such an overused term, another that has escaped from the cod psychology of Social Media gurus.

@bakingdemon

I like the Scandinavian approach: there's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing.

Wet weather gear should be an essential part of any child's wardrobe.

Isn't that an Alfred Wainwright quote?

Anyway, I totally agree with you, but you also need a proper drying area to let your stuff dry properly. Most UK secondaries (and many primaries) just don't have the space to store hundreds of pairs of waterproof boots, alongside jackets and trousers.

So even if kids DO have that stuff, wearing it to school just means they have to cart it around with them all day, meaning it just gets shoved into a plastic bag and stays wet.

I don't consider disgruntled children sitting steaming in damp clothes in overcrowded classrooms to be a particularly good way to build resilience. Very unpleasant for those sitting next to them.

@Goldbar

I don't consider disgruntled children sitting steaming in damp clothes in overcrowded classrooms to be a particularly good way to build resilience. Very unpleasant for those sitting next to them.

Hope you don’t teach your kids it’s “unpleasant” to sit next to children whose parents don’t drive, who have no other option but to walk. Or do they not count and it’s just the children whose parents have chosen to make them walk who become so unpleasant after a bit of rain on them?

Depends if they have coats and shoes fit for walking in the rain and whether the roads they walk on are busy with huge puddles they'd get splashed by.

I think people forget that a lot of parents drive on to work after drop off. It's not as simple as saying walk to school, even if working from home as you may need to be back working sooner than the 30 minute walk back. Car pooling and school buses are more realistic ways at reducing school traffic.

@RobinPenguins. What I don't understand is why anyone would make a virtue of sending their kids to school sopping wet if there was another option, be that driving them or proper wet weather clothing or bringing a change of clothes.

You're not going to get teenagers in waterproof trousers and kagools 🤣

So rather than having them sit in wet clothes all day I ran them on in the car. They walk most days so on days like today I don't mind making their lives a bit easier - also helps with household harmony!!!

Are your kids made of paper?

I used to walk to/from school in the snow! Parents were working so I had no choice...

Yabu re English schools. Not because of the walking part, that’s easy, but because English schools have nowhere to put wet weather kit and nowhere to eg take off waterproof trousers without soaking classroom carpet / blocking hall etc. If DD goes to school in a downpoor then her options are

1. Carry umbrella thus keeping head dry but getting rest if body soaked, especially feet and then spening morning in wet clothes and probably catching cold;
2. Wear full on waterproofs and remove these in playground while standing in pouring rain thus getting soaked then hand them to parent to take home;
3. Wear full on waterproofs into school to get changed inside and get told off by teacher / soak premises;
4. Drive.

If English schools had a drying room like in many Northern European countries then walking to school in the rain would be easy. But it’s not.

I used to walk about that, rain, snow or shine, every day when I was at primary. With DM who was a teacher at the school. And that was in the 60s, before goretex was invented... gabardine 'mac' or some sort of nylon anorak.

YANBU.

Of course it's fine, but it's a bit shit to spend a day in soaking clothes don't you agree?

My children walk home from school not half hour more 10 -15 min. I have had phone calls from concerned parents who have spotted them walking in rain telling me they were going to get wet.
Anyhow they seem to like wet says and change into dry clothes when home

@Skysblue

Yabu re English schools. Not because of the walking part, that’s easy, but because English schools have nowhere to put wet weather kit and nowhere to eg take off waterproof trousers without soaking classroom carpet / blocking hall etc. If DD goes to school in a downpoor then her options are

1. Carry umbrella thus keeping head dry but getting rest if body soaked, especially feet and then spening morning in wet clothes and probably catching cold;
2. Wear full on waterproofs and remove these in playground while standing in pouring rain thus getting soaked then hand them to parent to take home;
3. Wear full on waterproofs into school to get changed inside and get told off by teacher / soak premises;
4. Drive.

If English schools had a drying room like in many Northern European countries then walking to school in the rain would be easy. But it’s not.

That's interesting.

So are all English schools exactly the same size? You're saying none of them have room? You're saying the children in all English schools get told off for changing out of their weatherproof clothes?

What about the schools in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland just out of interest?

I would wager this is likely the case in all of London 🤷🏽‍♀️ Someone correct me if I am wrong?

Not sure about other places.

I can’t believe what a big deal some people are making of this. I managed to walk to school in the rain without specialist waterproofs in the 2000s and carry around a coat/umbrella (and PE kit, and whatever other stuff - food tech/D&T supplies) and I didn’t dissolve, become traumatised, have any of my stuff go mouldy from damp, or sit in a puddle all day. I dried off within about half an hour and got on with life!