to think it is far too cold to have children going to school with bare legs?

[MollyRoger]

I have noticed 3 or 4 children (boys and girls) at ds's primary school with bare legs this week.
I have been through the stages of children demanding to wear superman outfits at nativity plays and wearing wellies in heatwaves in August, so i know sometimes you have to pick your battles but, FFS!
Last week, it was minus 7 and 8, and these children were wearing tiny pinafore dresses, and bare legs and wellies. The snow was actually deeper than any children's wellies.
2 boys had shorts on. We walk a mile home and my ds was complaining his legs (which had thermals under his trousers) were cold so god knows how these children were feeling.
Just

loudlass my youngest is now 14 and is made up with her waterproofs she has been told she is wearing them, buses aren't running a full service so its a good hours walk and she ain't having any more time off through the cold she's just recovered before Christmas from being ill.

loudlass - mine would get waterproof trousers if they could wear trousers. They are not allowed and I would rather send them to school than fuss about them having about an inch between sock and trouser.

curiosity when mine weren't allowed to wear trousers they still wore them to and from school just changed at school.

It is neglect to send children out in shorts in this weather.

madamecarti - I knew no children who wore shorts in Yr 5 or 6. 99 per cent of the boys opted for long trousers as soon as they left Infants.

Schools are so hot inside your children will boil if you put them in thermals/tights/leggings under trousers

No Molly
I am making the comparison between sending a 13 year old to school in pumps (which his mother bought him as his winter school shoes) during snow (OK according to MN) and sending a primary school girls (possibly up to Y6) to school bare-legged.(big no no per MN)

I don't think YABU. FWIW, inappropriate clothing for the weather conditions is now listed as a safeguarding concern in the Every Child Matters outcomes.

Until this year my DS3 insisted on wearing shorts every day, summer and winter. I let him as he insisted he wasn't cold. Even when we went skiing when we got back in the afternoons he would take off his skiing gear and put shorts and boots on before going out to play in the snow for several hours. I was quite shocked when I learnt that the disapproving mums in the school playground had complained to the school about my negligent parenting. He never felt cold and has not taken one day off school in 3+ years for illness (touch wood, cross fingers etc).

This year age 8 he is wearing trousers rather than shorts most of the time, his choice.

Sake! No healthy child is going to die from wearing short trousers to school in cold weather. Not unless you peg said child out on Mount Olympus too.

If they are not walking far it´s probably not going to harm-and wellingtongs might be the only "snow proof" footwear they have-not an indication of how far they are going.

Madness. People who are used to an outdoor active lifestyle normally dress their children in proper clothes.

wellingtongs?!

I keep telling ds (age 6) to do his coat up and put his gloves and hat on but as soon as my back is turned... I have no idea why he doesn't feel ruddy cold but apparently not. Wouldn't put him in shorts in this weather but have given up on the argument about putting two pairs of socks on.

DS wears shorts every day to school - his choice (he wears trousers or shorts at home, his choice too, if he wanted to wear a dress, that would be fine too ). I'd rather shorts and dry legs than soggy trousers any day. He'll get a lift to school tomorrow, be inside all day except for break when he'll be running about, then get a lift home, so not sure when he's going to freeze.

Pikelit -some of us aspire to looking after our children a bit more than just not letting them die

Even if they don't FEEL cold, they are cold. Children run around and feel hot and take their clothes off. That is why they need adults to look after them.

I'm with you Zapostrophe. There are far more important battles to have with kids than about what they are wearing.

my youngest dd always likes to wear socks(knee high in winter) on PE day as she does not like trying to struggle in and out of tights , teachers dont help them (dont blame them I wouldnt if I had a class full) and she doesnt like being last or feeling she is going to be last. she doesnt like trousers either.

Fairy?! No, they run around and get hot just like us. They might forget to put their clothes on again when they cool down. I'm all for the providing choice and learning from experience. I want my kids to dress themselves as soon as they are able so they can hone their common sense and independence. But can someone please explain what wearing shorts in winter will actually do to a child that is making so many of you all so insencsed about it? I mean really, even if it isn't a uniform issue what concern is it of yours how someone else dresses their child?!

Curiositykilled I'm not incensed. However any children wearing shorts near my parents' house (in Northumberland) would probably have ended up with hypothermia last week. It was minus 15. Although I suspect people were still going out drinking semi naked in Newcastle...
It doesn't really bother me what other people do with their kids, as long as the kids in question aren't suffering. I would personally rather have a battle over coats/trousers/tights with my dcs than have it raised as a safeguarding concern though. But then I HE so probably over-think this stuff, especially as I already have to run the gauntlet of disapproving 'why isn't he at school' type comments everywhere I go...