To create a fuss about my son not having access to water today in school

[Icantfeelmyface]

Hello .
My 8 year old son is a bit of a fidgeter, and has difficulty with keeping still . He has a replacement teacher for the past 6 weeks and he has struggled with various issues relating to her " shouting at him all the time " and him feeling picked on everyday no matter what he does .. won't get into the detail but meeting was held and she reassured me that this wasn't the case and she works on praise as well .. .. he told me after the meeting the teacher said in front of the class " why you telling your mum that I'm picking on you "?... Decided to leave things and move on... However today he comes home from school and tells me he had no water the whole day as the teacher said he was fidgeting too much with his bottle and told him to put it away from the table . All the other kids had their bottles on their table . He has said he had a few sips at lunch time and then nothing until after school club at 4 pm 😳
Am I being unreasonable to email the head teacher ?

Not even in the summer of 76!

Children (and adults as well probably) should be drinking a whole drink roughly every 90 minutes rather than constantly sipping. A continence specialist nurse told me that she is seeing an increase in children with continence problems because they are sipping from water bottles and their bladders are tiny because they aren't drinking proper sized drinks.

So you totally and utterly believe word for word what an eight year old told you with full context? There is one born every minute.

I have children. They aren’t always key witness reliable- you should know that.

Don’t be one of those parents. Cause frankly you are on the verge.

And? I grew up without water bottles and had constant 30 degree weather for months in school. This is getting ridiculous. A couple of days of hot weather and it’s like an Armageddon.

OP needs to work with her son on learning coping strategies so he lessens the fidgeting

I let my class have water bottles in the classroom today - on the floor by their chairs only. I also told one of them to put his back and ask for his drinks when I spotted him squirting water all over the floor on purpose. Once when he asked me I was in the middle of giving instructions so said no. I dread to think what he told his mum - I’m expecting a summons from the EHCR in the morning. Oh well. They’re nine by the way.

To be fair, the people who did die aren't on MN ;-)

If I close my eyes I can still smell, and taste it now... uuuuugh.

Sorry OP, agree with PP's here, if he only had a few sips at lunchtime he was clearly not thirsty - tell him he must have a good drink at break and lunch, as well as before school. And not fidget with stuff.

Well, you generally don't die from it twice tbf.

Don’t forget the almighty, deafening clang of a metal one bouncing off the table and onto the floor. I duck and cover every time! 😬😂

Everyone saying it didn't do you any harm.. being thirsty allt he time in the 70s and 80s when you are a small child was really shit. The dinner ladies at our school used to stop us using the fountains at break time too. Our only liquid was warm in homogenates milk which we would get into trouble for if we didn't drink it. It was awful. People used to smoke in our face then as well, is it ok for that to happen to a child now?

So he can kick it, and so can the others at the table.

I also genuinely don’t remember my DD having a water bottle in the classroom @Icantfeelmyface Big drink at breakfast, water fountains at school, lunchtime drink and then sometimes I’d meet her at school gate with a drink/ juice box on warmer days.
Water bottles in the class room sounds like a temptation and a pain for the teachers and they’re never far from a break and a drink.

Maybe on this occasion try backing the teacher @Icantfeelmyface and say to your boy he needs to try not to fidget if he wants to keep his privilege of access to water outside of break and lunchtime?
teacher may like it and it may save the head some work?

It sounds like your child is struggling to make the right behaviour choices and then complaining that there were consequences. I expect he was allowed to go to his bottle a couple of times during the afternoon, he's just being stroppy as he didn't like not being allowed to keep it with him. If he hadn't messed with it, disrupting and distracting the class he would've had it on the table like the others. As a parent I'd be explaining that today he needs to behave.

You say your son figits a bit. Have you ever seen him in a school environment? Perhaps was constantly fiddling with his water bottle disrupting the rest if the class. Low level disruption in a class can be really destructive so making hin put the water away was probably all the teacher could do. If he was thirsty he should have drunk his fill at break time.

He knows how to get his water bottle returned to him, stop fidgeting and disrupting other children's learning.
Get him told! Rather than pandering to him, educate him to sit still, listen and get on with his work.

In my (secondary) school, students are allowed water bottles on the table with the expectation that they are not a distraction or a nuisance. If they were, they would be taken away.

But re the constant sipping from bottles, I am late 40s and if i don’t have a water bottle on my desk to drink from each hour, I don’t find it very pleasant (dry mouth!) but that maybe comes from doing 5/6 hours of teaching each day and talking a bit too much!

So he did have a drink "all day"

He had whatever he drank before school, a drink at lunch and a drink after school.

I wouldn't email the head about this...I would re-enforce with my son the importance of not messing about with his bottle during class, and having a proper drink at break and lunch.

What is it... about 2 hours between school start and break? And then another 2 between break and lunch and then another 2 or 3 till home time? I do think that is plenty of drink times without needing a bottle on the desk constantly , especially if a kid is going to be disruptive with said drink

YADBU! He couldn’t have been thirsty if he only had a few sips at lunch. And why didn’t he have a drink at morning break?? Your son is grumpy about being told off, so is trying to get you on side by using this water bottle story and turning a minor thing into a drama. You’re playing right into his hands. Tell him he must drink at break and lunch.

FWIW, my school doesn’t allow any bottles in class. They all drink at break times and at lunch.

But he still had access to water just not directly in front of him on the table? He could have had a drink at break and lunch and could ask if he could have a drink if he really needed it during lesson too?

If the bottle was constantly getting played with it seems reasonable to put it out of the way.

This. Boys often feel picked on by teachers I have noticed. I’d go and tell her that and ask her why she said that in front of the class.

This relatively recent idea that kids should have access to water all the time is just silly. True - if they are thirsty, they should be able to get a drink within a reasonable time (e.g.break or lunchtime) but humans really don't need to cart around liquids 24 hours a day. When did you last hear of someone dying of dehydration in the UK?

Ignore all the 'back in my day' responses OP. I'd love to know how many of those posters went all afternoon without a drink yesterday.

The truth of what happened may lie somewhere between what you and your son have said, and what the teacher will inevitably say. For example did he really just have a 'few sips' at lunch, or did he say that to add to weight to his complaint? In any case I don't think it's unreasonable for children to have constant access to their bottles on a day as hot as yesterday, and it did get hotter as the afternoon wore on, so how thirsty he felt at lunchtime is not relevant. I would just ask what happened, and make the point that he said he was really thirsty. Hopefully then the teacher will ensure he knows that if he can't have the bottle on his desk because of the fidgeting, he can ask her for some water if he gets thirsty.

Yabu. He is obviously messing about in class. Thd teacher told him to put his bottle away and stop fidgeting with it. She didn't say he couldn't have a drink. This water bottle nonsense has got out of hand.