Son cut his hair in school

[Shmee1988]

Hi everyone. I'm just looking to gage some opinion on this one. My DS is 5 and in year 1. Yesterday when my DP collected him from school he had a HUGE chunk of hair missing, right at the front of his head. My DP asked the teacher what had happened and she said she didn't know as she hadn't even noticed the (astonishingly obvious) massive chunk of his hair missing. When asked, my DS said that him and his friend had both cut there hair with scissors while doing an arts and crafts lesson. Another child had also cut up a tennis ball behind the sink.... I was a bit upset that this was able to happen and annoyed at the lack of supervision but no harm done (this time).... so my attitude has been very much 'kids will be kids, it'll grow back' no need to make a fuss. However, upon relaying this funny anecdote to others, it seems that some people feel I'm not taking it seriously enough. I did speak to the teacher and she said she was distracted by another group of kids and I understand that she cannot have eyes in the back of her head, all kids need supervising and my DS is old enough to know it was a stupid thing to do. Apparently some others are of the opinion that I need to be raising my concerns with the head and be more concerned about the level of supervision. Dont get me wrong, I am concerned and I've made this known but it can't be undone and I don't see what good will come of making an already stressed out teacher feel bad about it. Equally, it could of been so much worse and someone could of got hurt. Am I being too relaxed?

YANBU - give the teacher a break, she's likely stressed enough as it is.

YABU- take it more seriously and complain about the lack of supervision of 5 year olds with scissors.

If they're using the kind of scissors we had in arts and crafts in primary school, i'm surprised he was able to cut his hair at all!

I'm 45 and did this at maybe 5? I can vaguely remember being paraded out to my Nan and her being told what I'd done and then the 'telling offs' I got from her, all the way home, my grandad when he got in from work, my mum when she picked me up and my aunts/uncles at the weekend.
I put 'telling offs' in inverted comma's because it was more along the lines of 'Well don't you look silly now", and "You won't do that again in a hurry" than harsh punishment or anything. The thread triggered a memory but it's not an experience I remember vividly or anything.
I don't recall my DD ever doing it, but she's certainly done other similar stuff permanent marker makeup 😫
It's just one of those things kids do I think, and scissors for kids that age are going to be just about able to cut paper and things of similar thickness and not much else so there's no 'danger' as such.

I don't understand why so many people feel the need to complain about everything and anything, normal stuff that although may not suit is hardly dangerous or traumatising. The complaints culture is strangling all the services we have.

As per OP, the issue is her friend being alarmed at her relaxed attitude and think she needs to start a war with the school over it. Friends are "those parents", clearly.

Mine did it, right at the start of Y1. Big chunk out of one side of his beautiful long surfer hair. His poor newly-qualified teacher was absolutely petrified coming to the classroom door to tell me, bless her! I just burst out laughing. There were Certain Parents in the year who would have marched straight to the Head, but there's no way one teacher, even with a TA, can watch 30 kids every second of every day.

It's in Childhood bingo , a DIY haircut isn't it? They usually only do it once. DS did it at that age, I can just imagine him thinking... Scissors... what else can I cut.... Trousers?...desk...Hair!

My DD did this a couple of months back at home! She took some scissors, God knows from where! She has a way of finding them no matter how hard I try to hide them… anyways, I was invited to a show and play session in her class a few weeks later and they put out activities that they had done throughout the term.

Lo and behold, there is a tray set up with printouts of faces on sheets of paper and a load of wool and scissors for kids to cut up the wool and create hairstyles on the faces (encouraging them to talk about their different hair). And it was then I knew exactly where she got the idea from to cut her own hair!

It’s a rite of passage. It’ll either happen at school/nursery or at home under your supervision. Take a photo and bring it out when he is 18.

This is the sort of thing that complaining about will make you ‘that parent’.

Most 5 year olds have impulse control issues. It would have been cut in seconds, no way I would expect a teacher to be watching 30 kids with scissors closely enough to stop them. The lesson learned is that he needs to live with the haircut until it grows back. Actually a pretty safe way to learn a lesson and no blood spilled.

As a primary teacher I'm amazed the class has scissors that can cut hair. Mine are all blunt and covered in pritt-stick. Yes, I have pritt sticks! If you know you know 😉

I'm assuming they were safety scissors with blunt ends and probably not particularly sharp. They generally wouldn't be able to cause an injury but could cut through hair ok.

The teacher can't watch every child every time. I'd guess that the children were told to be careful but your son and his friend chose to get up to a bit of mischief when no one was looking. The natural consequence is a daft patch of hair until it grows out.

A child cutting up a tennis ball is rather odd and frankly pretty bad behaviour. I'm surprised the scissors could do that.

The only way you could avoid this kind of thing in a class of 30 would be to ban scissors, which would be a shame.

It could easily happen (I'm assuming they were safety scissors)

But the fact that not one person noticed for the rest of the day is a bit concerning

Oh it wouldn't bother me to be honest. Little kids are impulsive and no harm done.
Far more serious stuff ahead. Dd had most of her ponytail cut off in a science lesson by the little git sat behind her in science in year 7. School didn't see fit to tell me and waited til I got home from work to a devastated dd.

I suppose at a push safety scissors could cut hair. But a tennis ball??? I'd be more bothered about the sharpness of the scissors they're using to be fair!

Thanks everyone for your replies. I really didn't think I was under reacting. The teacher even said to me this morning that she was thinking about it in the middle of the night and doesn't understand how it happened, bless her. It's just a shame that we have a big family wedding coming up with lots of photos to be taken of the kids, I kind of wish he'd of chosen any other weekend to be this silly 😜

My DD cut her own hair in reception. She actually cut a boy's hair, got told off, then retrieved the scissors and cut her own. She actually did a really good job and cut herself a perfect fringe. Her teacher phoned me and let me know.

I don't think anyone thought it was anything but quite funny. It is quite typical of my DD to absent mindedly continue to do something she's been told not to do. It isn't malicious, just like the world sometimes washes over her and she's still there doing her thing.

Argh if someone cut my DD's hair she would be devastated as would I TBH.

In your case the kids did it to themselves and
there was no real harm done and I can see it could be hard to prevent.

I'm less in line with those laughing off one kid cutting another's hair without consent. That is really really not ok.

My DD too cut her fringe at nursery, aged 3. Nursery phoned to tell me and were expecting me to be furious, from what they said afterwards. I thought it was really funny. I didn't tell her off but did talk about the importance of not using scissors near her face. Then I took her for a haircut and the hairdresser laughed too, because it happens all the time. 20 years later, we still laugh at the photos. So even in a small nursery class with two adults present, it happens. Work of an instant for memories of a lifetime (in your case, wedding photos) 🤣

Years ago a boy in my class cut off one of my plaits - I thought it was funny and thought I could just have one in the middle. I was about 6 at the time.
My mothers didn't think it was funny but said there is nothing to be done about it now - it's your hair you find funny and have to live with it. In the end she cut the other one off.

Teachers do t have eyes in the back of their heads any more than parents do. It’ll grow back and he probably won’t do it again.

Let me guess. Class photo is coming up? 😁

I dont think it is naughty to cut your own hair, theyve seen adults do it and are trying it out themselves. Its silly to say it could have been worse as presumably he knows not to cut another child’s ear off, and someone would have alerted the teacher if he had tried.

When our youngest did it around the same age, he did it at home with pinking scissors from a craft kit in his Charlie and Lola magazine. Had a very interesting “fringe” for a while.

Nope. Just a big family wedding !!😫

Twice I've had 8 years old in year 3 cut their own hair...definitely know better at that age. Both times the parents blamed the children not me. If they had blamed me I would have been a bit annoyed. Your reaction sounds normal to me.

I did it at home in the 90s. Thank goodness noone would have considered reporting to social services.

Can any of those judge parents say the have never taken their eye off the ball? No. At best, they have just been lucky that nothing happened when they did.