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Original poster

Doing P.E. In just knickers?

260 replies

Radley · 10/11/2006 16:19

DD2 (4) came home and told me that she has done pe for the first time, in just her knickers.

Am I over reacting thinking that this is out of order?

Also, DD1 (7) came home and said that pe today had been running round the field etc in her normal uniform and her trainers, when she has got a tracksuit etc (this was asked for specifically a short while ago)

OP posts:
nearlythree · 11/11/2006 21:59

But it's not everyone, is it? The older children wouldn't be in knickers. Dd1's school is small and once a week she does PE with children aged up to 7. Besides, I still think it is right for her to learn that in public you keep your underwear covered.

Wallace · 11/11/2006 21:59

what is unusual behaviour?

Heathcliffscathy · 11/11/2006 22:02

morningpaper, agree with your posts.

tragic sexualisation imo.

morningpaper · 11/11/2006 22:02

nearlythree: WHY the need to keep underwear covered in public? Why is swimwear ok but not underwear?

(Mine frolick naked anywhere they feel like it, I do not give a toss)

Wallace: I think it is unusual for a 4 year old child to feel embarassed by her body. I cannot imagine why one would feel that way. I don't mean anything sinister, but I don't think that is normal.

morningpaper · 11/11/2006 22:03

Sorry Wallace, perhaps "healthy" is a better word. I don't think a four year old who is embarassed by her body is fostering a healthy attitude towards her body.

nearlythree · 11/11/2006 22:08

I'm very keen not to sexualise my dcs, and don't see that keeping underwear covered has anything to do with that at all. I don't get the arguement about swimwear unless any adults here go swimming in their underwear at the public pool. The dds very often eat their dinner in their knickers (they are a bit messy, bless them) and I often have just my bra on if ds has just sicked up on me, but we don't eat in our underwear if we are in a resturant.

I just think it's knowing how to dress, where.

chonky · 11/11/2006 22:08

agree with Twig and SHPHH. We always did PE in our knickers and vest - AFAIK I haven't been traumatised as a result.

FawkesBride · 11/11/2006 22:10

nearlythree - ditto your post. And yet my brother and sister were fine with public nudity - so it's unlikely that I had learned this behaviour from my parents/family.

Just knickers would have made me very uncomfortable and anyone who thinks that every 4/5 year old should be happy as larks like this is being narrow-minded. I'm glad if their own DCs are relaxed about this but they shouldn't assume that I'm an uptight, sexually-repressed, paedophile-fearing harridan because I wouldn't want my own children to do PE half-naked.

TyrNannyOgg · 11/11/2006 22:11

It's only underwear!

Interesting to note that it is the prudish, "Oh-my-sweet-Lord-not-in-Public!" posters that have the shy children.

Wallace · 11/11/2006 22:12

It may not be the norm for a 4 or 5 year old to be embarrassed about their body (not so much embarrassed, but more a wish to keep her own body private in my dd's case, I think), but when we went on a nursery outing to the beach there was a whole range of behaviour, from naked frolicking(younger boys), to some of the older girls wanting to get changed in private. Only one or two of the girls would have been happy to paddle in just their knickers.

I don't know yet how she will behave when she goes swimming with the school (a pathetic 4 sessions a year, but that's a different thread...), but I am presuming she will try to change privately. As I said, she may become accustomed to it because everyone else is doing it.

Maybe part of it is that dd is extremely socially anxious to the extreme - she is selectively mute, so it really is just part of her personality

nearlythree · 11/11/2006 22:14

Interesting judgement that not wanting my dd1 to do PE in her underwear makes me a prude, or that she is shy - actually she isn't and I have no idea if she would care or not. And dh would die laughing to hear me called a prude. But if you want to judge someone without knowing anything about them, go ahead.

TyrNannyOgg · 11/11/2006 22:16

Well, if she doesn't care, why do you care? Who on earth do you think will be looking at her?

morningpaper · 11/11/2006 22:16

I think that the reason people don't like children doing PE in their knickers is that we think knickers = sex, small children naked = sex, small children around adult men = sex, underwear = sex

I can see no other reason at all

Heathcliffscathy · 11/11/2006 22:20

isn't the point that if the PE teacher has paedophile tendencies (and that is absolutely what is being inferred here) then even if they were doing PE in their duffle coats it would still be bad.

as they haven't, knickers are not an issue.

TyrNannyOgg · 11/11/2006 22:21

I just do not get it I really don't. The children's genitalia are covered up, and by the sound of it their shameful nipples too. Why would it be different in a bikini?

morningpaper · 11/11/2006 22:22

I think it's awful that there are so many young teenagers in my town who are made to wear school uniform! Everyone knows that school uniform is a complete turn-on for perverted men who are undoubtedly salivating etc etc etc

nearlythree · 11/11/2006 22:23

I am finding this all so weird. I have no problem with you thinking it acceptable for your dcs to do PE in their underwear. Why do you have a problem because I think differently? I don't see my dc's underwear as having anything to do with sex, FGS! Nor do I have a problem with men seeing her in her underwear - the head of teh school is a man and I am sure he must see them changing. It's a social thing - unless you all go to the gym or swim in your knickers?

morningpaper · 11/11/2006 22:24

Please excuse me while I go and put a vest on my cat now, so that no one can see her shameful nipples when she rolls over for a tickle

morningpaper · 11/11/2006 22:24

but nearlythere, IN THIS CLASS they ARE all doing PE in their knickers!

morningpaper · 11/11/2006 22:25

(Actually I HAVE gone swimming in my bra and knickers on occasions when I have forgotten my damn bikini. Why not?)

nearlythree · 11/11/2006 22:26

I give up.

And MP, I take it you think I am not all there if you are calling me Nearlythere again?

morningpaper · 11/11/2006 22:26

doh

nearlythree · 11/11/2006 22:27

MP, did the pool let you in? Or do you mean at the beach? I'd find the beach acceptable (nude bathing and all that) but not a public pool.

IssyK · 11/11/2006 22:27

To me it's an issue about choice for young children.

They should be allowed to have their dignity, and not have the decision made for them that they must do PE in just knickers/undies, just because they're 4/5/whatever and shouldn't be uncomfortable.

TyrNannyOgg · 11/11/2006 22:27

Um, why is it a social thing?

Different social rules apply to me. I am 26. If I piddle up a back alley on a Wednesday afternoon, I risk being arrested for indecent exposure. This is not true of a 3 year old.

My breasts are functional, my genitalia are sexual organs. This is not true of anyone who has not reached puberty.

People would looked askance at me if I wore just a bra to go shopping in - nobody would bat an eyelid at a 4 year old in a vest.

This is because differant social rules apply to children. Applying adult constraints is inappropriate.