Why don't teenagers wear coats to school?

[milkybarsrus]

its freezing cold, it's been raining yet both of mine insist they do not need coats for school. they just trot off in uniforms complete with blazer and a scarf around their necks. Now they are getting colds regularly and i'm sure its because they refuse to take a coat! They said that there is nowhere to put them in school and they are to bulky to carry around all day! My youngest is nearly blue when he gets in from school, so any suggestions on how to keep him a bit warmer without wearing a coat would be appreciated TIA>

they are barmy, invincible and too coooool

that is exactly it...

there is nowhere to put them in school and they are too bulky to carry around all day

sympathies, my 13 yo dd is just the same

she has coats, won't wear 'em

she will take a brolly if its raining, thats about it

btw, colds are caused by viruses, not by getting cold

I have given up now, I don't suppose she will contract hypothermia on the 10 min walk to school

jog? i know ds(15) is the same. though he occasionally wears gloves

Yes and why do all teenage girls have to carry Jane Nor bags or whatever it is instead of school bags

I say you can always tell what a school is like by the size of bags that the kiddies take to school - no bags or small trendy handbag type things - crappy school

maybe we should all lobby for lockers

I've given up trying. DD wears a long sleeved t-shirt under her blouse, then her jumper and her blazer. I offer her a coat everyday, but she never takes it. Give them the option of gloves, hats and scarves and then you've done your good mummy bit. They'll soon grab a coat if they really want it.

You don't get colds from being cold either.

Lockers would be the sensible option yes, but you know they'd end up with month old sarnies in there, missing items of clothing and screwed up, wet, smelly sports kit!

All our kiddies have lockers - they always lose the bloody keys tho

Same here - Will ask ds (13). Same reason they don't tie their shoe laces and wear their trousers half way down their arses I guess

dd wears scarf but no coat, and brolly if tipping down.

She canno be bothered to lug the coat about with her all day. She says lockers are all broken and waste of time.

Its funny isn't it. Whilst your lo's are at primary school and you can't get them to put a coat on, others look at you with horror and judge you for being a bad mother. Once they are teenagers though, those same people just look at you with sad eyes and seem to say, 'I feel your pain!'

DS1 11, normally takes one in his bag but won't wear it because of carrying it around all day.
Why i can't get him to understand that he can put it in his bag when he gets there and carry it (like he does already with it in his bag!), i just don't know!

Agree because coats are't cool.
Especially suitable for school / chosen by your mother type coats

My DS has just come home from university for a few days because he is ill with cold/flu.

Guess what?

Comes out of railway station WITHOUT A COAT!!! And its absolutely freezing here.

My DD nearly 13 is the same. Refuses to wear a coat of any description. Comes home soaked and freezing. I've given up trying to understand why, apart from having to carry it round all day. Now we have the saga of the BAG! Rucksacks are not cool, neither are messenger bags...too big. Insists on taking her stuff in a handbag. Then there is the SHOE issue. Insists on wearing flimsy ballet/pump type things. And all she says is, well everyone else does. I said I was going to stand outside the school and see for myself. Yep, she was right.

I decided fairly early on that this was a lesson I'd leave the boys to learn for themselves. I reckon by the time they are top juniors they are old enough to make the decision for themselves, and if they get cold and wet, they can take the consequences. I can't tell you at what age they learn that wearing a coat when it's cold/raining is a good idea - because it hasn't happened yet!!

Dh and I wear coats when necessary, and we are 44 and 45, so all I can say is that sometime between the ages of 15 and 44, they'll learn! And by then, they'll probably have their own children and be wondering why they refuse to wear their coats to school - and we can laugh and remind them how bad they were at coats!

They do around here - trendy checked pea coats. Its a school culture thing.

at our local senior school they have to carry with them all day anything they take to school sports kit muscial instruments, books and then a big bulky coat on top is deemed un-necessary

DD will wear her coat, but only because we spent weeks and weeks tracking down one which we both liked. However, teenagers seem to think that a scarf is all that's needed to keep warm in winter (and oddly, cool in summer ).
As for shoes, DD1 found some ballet-style pumps in M&S's Footglove range, which all her cool and trendy friends approve of . What would Cod say .

with my two it is because the school have banned coats from coming into the school, yet give them nowhere to put the coats in the meantime.

they seems to think that as most of them wear blazers, and they get either the bus or get dropped off by car, they have no reason for the coats.

make me so

banned coats from coming into school?
bloody hell!!

I just had this conversation with dh the other night. as ds1 started senior school in september, so while he's only 11 he still doesn;t wear a coat to school and neither do the majority of his friends.

We went to great trouble to find a plain black 'trendy' cost in the holidays a coat he was really pleased to have. Black showerproof but fleece lined for warmth, thin with no padding so could be folded in his bag, with only a small logo on the chest, but guess what?

Yep thats right hes worn it once! I dropped him off at school one morning even though its only a ten minute walk and hardly any of the other children wore coats, one or two girls with checked woolen coats and massive great big handbags but i don;t recall seeing a single boy wear a coat.

I never understood how DD could bear to go to school in freezing weather wearing just a shirt. She said that the classrooms were hot and she once forgot to take her jumper with her when she moved class, then when she went back for it the next class (much older pupils) threw it all around the room and wouldn't let her have it.

She said she just got used to the cold and didn't really notice it. Then she went to university and the first thing she bought was a coat! (She also stopped being a vegetarian as soon as she left home - after 8 years of us cooking veggie food!)

That's teenagers for you!