To wonder why teenagers won't wear coats

[littlefifi]

Minus figures this week and yet my 12 year old ds refuses to wear a coat or jumper because apparently other kids pick on kids who wear them? Is this a thing? Is being cold a cause for bullying now? He only started high school in September so I'm still learning the rules.

He wears a blazer but only a thin cotton shirt goes underneath. In full embarrassing mum fashion I can't stand to think of him walking to school in only that and being cold but I'm obviously not going to insist either, it's up to him.

Who would have thought coats were for the weak?

Do most dcs really not have lockers? Both mine always have (state schools). I totally get it then re coats- would be a nightmare to have to lug round all day.

In the depth of winter my DS goes out the house in a hoodie and shorts, yet in the summer it can be roasting hot and he goes out wearing a puffer jacket…it’s baffling 🤷🏻‍♀️

No idea about most schools but they don't have them at my childrens school. I think it's due to lack of space

Year 9 DS was hugely surprised when he wore his jacket the other day from the bus stop and ‘it stopped the wind’. Almost as if that’s what it was designed for 🫣
This is the same child that wore a hoody all summer and complained he was cold 🤦‍♀️

It was the same when I was a kid.
It was the ultimate 'uncool'.

If we want to get kids wearing coats we should all start telling them how we were exactly the same and isn't it cool they're just like us.

They'll be putting on two coats and 6 hats before you can say mu-uuum, that's not faiiiiir

Came on to say this, wait until the July heatwave, he'll wear one then .

I don't know what is more baffling, refusing to wear one in winter, or wearing a puffer jacket on top of several other layers in high summer. I even saw some teens wearing big parkas with furry hoods the summer before last.

My DD says that they have to carry it around the school and it’s annoying and that the blazer is warm enough. It took a while to get her to wear her coat. I did take her coat shopping so that she could pick something she liked.

Im not surprised that there is peer pressure but I have never heard of jackets being “uncool”

This.
The massive puffer is great for the football stands, less great when they have no locker at school.

Yes, over 40 years ago coats were objects of shame at my school. Because I didn’t care about peer approval and didn’t want frostbite, I wore a coat, and even put the hood up! I was getting my head kicked in anyway, so I figured I may as well be warm whilst doing so.

😂😂😂😂
Couldnt make it up!

My Dd is ASD and has refused coats for a long time. 2 years ago she went to school in the pouring sleet. She was wet and frozen all day and then demanded a coat.

Still won’t wear one when out, even if it’s freezing. She will pinch mine however, if we are together, but still refuses to own one.

My yr 9 doesn't wear a coat to school.
He wears a shirt and blazer and at a push a jumper.
He gets really hot and it's just a hassle to put in his locker etc.

However we drive him to and from school so really outside that much.

The coat I see mose of though on teenagers round here is the north face nuptse puffer. It's not waterproof and doesn't have a good but that doesn't seem to matter. Ds will wear his quite happily at the weekend just not to school.

At the local secondary school here they have to take off their coat once on school grounds (they're very strict on rules) and there are no lockers. Understandably most don't want to carry a bulky coat round with them all day. Mine has a thin rain coat she can easily stuff in her back pack for really bad rain but it won't keep you warm. She needs a few vests!

I didn't even buy the school jumpers as they both said there was no way they would ever wear them.

Year 9 and 11. Both mine wear a coat and all their friends do too (when it’s actually cold) - they have a 3/4 mile walk and lockers when they get there tho.

DS never wore a coat. His school didn't have blazers either. Polo shirts and sweatshirts with the sleeves pushed up was the order of the day even in freezing temperatures. He's 27 now and definitely wears a coat in the cold weather!

It was deeply uncool when I was a teen in the early 00s too - weirdly comforting that things don’t really change 😄

I'm a soft Southerner and spend the entire winter wearing a coat like a sleeping bag. But my Scouse cousins all went out in the snow in tiny strappy dresses and no coats and no tights. As long as he keeps moving he'll be fine.

Mine started wearing a coat again in year 11.

I wasn't wearing a coat earlier. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't, not a teen though haha. I don't spend enough time outside for it to have a huge effect, hat and scarf works. Granted, this behaviour did start in my teens.

It's not a new thing. I remember refusing to wear a coat as a teen and I'm 60 now.

I honestly used to just hate having to carry mine around with me and well as everything else. There was never anywhere to put them. And on public transport it got hot etc. didn't want to smell sweaty 😥

I was a teen in the 90s and you wouldn't have caught me in a coat. I remember going to the local fair in October in a bloody vest top. Continued on to going out clubbing into my twenties with no coat, staggering out at 2am in a mini dress in winter. Ruined the look!
You can barely separate me from my coat now!!

Veteran parent of two teenagers. After leaving school they started wearing coats again.

My ds can't be bothered carrying his from lesson to lesson he will take a thin rain jacket that gets shoved to bottom of his bag.

That's my thoughts. Doesn't even need to be black, any school colour, with a little reflective tape, would be so much better for kids walking to and from school too, especially in dull mornings in the rain.

Blazers are just pointless garments. Fine for a few weeks in autumn and the same again in spring. Not warm or waterproof for winter and a layer kids don't need in summer.