AIBU to think a three-hour sports day is too long?

[DriveVerySlowlyPastNumber23IWantThemToSeeMyHat]

AIBU to think a whole school 3 hour sports day is ridiculous?
11am - 2pm.
A range of activities.
DD is in Reception.

Seems short compared to ours.

Used to love sports day.
There was a whole different, relaxed, fun atmosphere and everybody seemed to enjoy it.

Yeh that's not each year group though. I get splitting by key stage.

I hope your children are as delightful as you are 🙃

'Every single person I know with a child...' perhaps read the comment before being sarcastic 👀

I have literally never heard of a 1 hour sports day, either when I was at school or my kids (who have been through 5 schools (4 kids, moved house)). Plus sounds crap. In our school sports day the years all compete and then a house is crowned at the end of the day as the winner. It’s a nice day, refreshments are served and the head makes a bit of a speech to the winning house.

I honestly think if you’ve found a solution and your kid has a nice day that’s the end of it- if you find fault with everything the school does for the next 6 years you’ll just be making everyone miserable.

I've never found fault with anything at the school. Quite the opposite in fact. I always so thankyou for the events etc.

Our sports days are usually all morning or all afternoon and separated into key stages.
There is never an easy answer to anything that involves letting parents watch. Parents complain if they can't come to an event but also complain if the timing isn't right for their circumstances.
For some parents a sports day over lunch might work better, as maybe they can take one hour before and after their own normal lunch break so aren't missing much of the working day. Lots of people now work from home and can flexi time.
You also seem to miss the point that while the school might say parents can take their child home after, they don't have to and there will be children who have to stay til the normal end of day or even have to go to after school club. It is your child you are saying will feel sad, but not all children will feel like this.
Also are you a single parent? Lots of helpful suggestions about alternating which parent attends. There will be lots of events in the future and it might be worth thinking ahead with your partner if you have one about who will go to what event (if you want a parent to attend). Also if you have grandparents available we find that a high number of them will attend school events if parents cannot.
There are lots of ways you can try and make it work if you want to.

Ridiculous for you? Imagine the poor teachers who has to do this… a three hour PE lesson 🙃

I've just put all of the events at my kids school that I am invited to attend between now and the summer holiday into my work diary and it totals 14 hours, and that's not including stuff at the weekends. I've also not included volunteering for school trips because I realised I needed to opt out of those years ago because I just don't have time. Almost all of those events are at the end of the school day so between 1-3pm which means I either need to take a whole afternoon off (using up even more leave) or negotiate a wfh day with a long lunch. In reality whilst my job is fairly flexible I can't attend everything without using up too much of the leave I need to cover holidays, and some work meetings are just immovable by the time the school calendar is announced. Most parents are in the same situation and just have to suck it up.

And if you have 3 kids in different years? You need to take 3 days off rather than I d

Yeh it was supposed to be a comment about how few people you clearly know. Or they all attend the same school....

While your previous experience may have been limited to 1 hr mini versions of sports day, the original and dominant concept is very definitely more whole day based. The name being somewhat of a giveaway……

Yes, some schools or areas may have done their own take and let the common name, and they’ve been tending to get shorter.

How few people I know? I have many friends with school aged children and many friends who work in schools. They've all never heard of 3 hour sports days.

Now don't you look ridiculous 🙃

No... you are still the one who looks ridiculous

For asking if something is unreasonable because it's not the norm where I live? Okay then.

Where DO you live op? Most posters are uk based… do you live in the uk too?

Yep! North East 😊

No, for being argumentative toward anybody with a different opinion.

Argumentative? Have you seen some of the comments on here? 🤣 🤣🤣🤣

To fair you returned to the thread 4 days later just to argue with a poster.

You've been unanimously told you're unreasonable so it would be logical to accept that this is perfectly normal across the vast majority of the UK.

No, I returned 4 days later because I didn't see the reply. I am entitled to respond to people, especially on my thread 🤷🏻‍♀️

It’s far too long @DriveVerySlowlyPastNumber23IWantThemToSeeMyHat , no idea why you’re getting a hard time

They are also excruciatingly boring, so I’d just say to your DC that it’s too long and you can’t be off work

I really think the time has come to scrap sports days tbh

Mine are long out of primary now but their school used to do the more serious races 10-12, then packed lunch on the field - children sat with parents/ grandparents or with friends families if theirs could come, then silly races like egg and spoon about 1-2/2.30 then we could take them home off the field or children could stay at school until usual home time.

I had four children so for me the primary years went on for a long time! Their dad and I took turns, I swapped work shifts around, recruited grandparents and their uncle for when I couldn’t go. Most years they had someone, some years they sat with friends families. I always tried to get to their first and last.

It is hard to be working parents but these are the events that become memories of their childhood and it can be hard when you’re in the midst of worrying about work and money and juggling everything.

I genuinely can't tell if you're being sarcastic? 🙈 Apologies if you're not 🙈

No, not at all!

I am a veteran and they’re bloody awful, I was so glad when mine went to secondary and I was spared 😂