Coatless kids

Someone mentioned netball players. I played hockey right through my teens and up until I had my first child.

We wore short sleeved tops, knickers and tiny skirts with knee length socks. Whatever the weather that’s what we wore. Frozen pitches, rain, fog etc. our games teacher would be on the sidelines in hat, scarf, huge padded coat and fur lined boots.

After leaving school I still played and sometimes we used to play against older teams where the women wore tights. We used to laugh like mad at them.

Franbern

I do not understand show so many secondary schools have no where for coats to be hung, etc.

These youngsters have to carry around with them all day a heavy back pack. Surely cannot be good for their growing bodies to have to do this. Ans this is the reason why so many of them will not add to that a heavy coat or jacket, etc.

Wonder how many people in employment would put up with these conditions

It certainly isn't good for them, they can develop what our GP called "Paperboy's Back".

Although lockers were provided at my DC's school, there were not enough for one per pupil. They also had to trail from classroom to classroom and change text books in between which took time.

I'm not sure if the DGC have their own lockers but some rules seem ridiculous and bereft of common sense, eg they had to wear their blazers indoors even in the hot weather until they all protested.
Yet I see boys walking home in shirts and PE shorts in the cold

Theexwife

Flared trousers from the 70s.

Yes and they sat low on the hips and therefore had no waistband or pockets, just a zip. I had them in yellow, burgundy, black.

Flared trousers from the 70s.

what are loons ?

...sometimes you have to suffer for fashions

paddyann54 my Grandma liked her fashions, she had been a professional seamstress before she got married.
One of her favourite sayings was,
"Let us be elegant, or die!" 👗

I remember wearing short skirts and having bare legs when a teen, I dont remember being cold.

The only coat I really remember was an afghan coat which smelt awful that I wore with loons and a crop top.

I started work at 15,I clearly remember walking almost two miles in the snow in a tiny mini dress and high heeled sandals regularly ...sometimes you have to suffer for fashions sake...lol.To be honest I dont feel the cold and can often be seen out in the garden or street in bare feet,even in -1 like today .
My mother was very fashion led so she never bothered about the sandals etc .Did me no harm.I have a son who is always cold ,wears 3 or 4 layers even indoors.

I agree that lockers are absolutely essential for secondary schools and parents should do everything possible to make the school provide them. There are so many things children need, it's just not right to make them carry everything around. If things are stolen then the school needs to find a way to deal with this and prevent it happening, but lockers would at least ensure the items are not available to steal.

It is very strange but it's not new. There is apparently something very 'uncool' about wearing coats when you are a teenager. When I was at secondary school in the early seventies, we did wear coats going to school (I guess because our Mum's made us) but at break/lunchtime no way! It could be absolutely freezing and we wouldn't wear our coats because 'no one else does'!. Although there were cloakrooms, they were unused by that time because things would get moved or stolen so we had to cart everything round back then. When my daughter was at school in the nineties, they did at least have lockers but again coats were very uncool and definitely not to be worn. They'll grow out of it and won't come to any harm.

Maybe the youngster don't feel the cold, but the problem might arise if they are outside for longer than they anticipate. If the bus didn't arrive for instance, and they were left waiting at the bus stop in sub zero temperatures. Their body temperature would drop and they would definitely feel the cold then. Imagine waiting for an hour in a freezing east wind with no coat.

Unfortunately, you can only try making them wear coats, you can't actually make it happen. They will always want to do the same as their friends.

It's a phenomenon I registered long ago and wondered if the youngsters were really more hardy than we were at that age. I also wondered if my mother's warnings that I would 'catch my death' if I went out without vest, liberty bodice, school blouse, jumper, blazer and raincoat, headgear etc. I don't think these protected me at all, given that I got all the flu and colds available. Do these children suffer from all these afflictions by going about partially clad? I used to shudder when I saw my DGD ride off to school on her bike in blazer and shortish skirt - no overcoat. She now seems to be a perfectly healthy young woman of 21.

I laugh at some of the lads around here hat on adidas jacket gloves and wearing shorts!

Definitely georgesgran!

It was ever thus, I think! My small GC don’t seem to notice the cold at all. That’s weird to me, having grown up in a house without CH and feeling perpetually cold.

I imagine these half-dressed children are the offspring of the men I see around wearing shorts in sub-zero temperatures! 😂

You live near me gloriagranny!

Some of us still don't use a coat if we are in the car and not going to be outside for long...I don't use it to the gym for example or to the library or supermarket as there is parking right outside. I do wear it to the hairdressers because of it's location in relation to parking - and if needing to be outside for some time eg if I need to navigate pedestrianised town centres or am out "walking".

I have a padded fluorescent jacket in the boot of my car in case I break down but realised only yesterday that I hadn't worn an ordinary coat for ages.

When I went to secondary school (1956-1960) we had a cloakroom which was locked during the day except for lunch time. This was to prevent theft and also to stop children nipping off early.

Unfortunately it was made of open metalwork. So those of us who were smart (and wanted to skive off) hung our coats on the outer wall. There we could unhook them so that they dropped to the ground and we pulled them out through the 6 ins gap.

When we got to age 14 we had free periods. About once a month my friend and I used to get signed in on our class register and then "bunk off" for the afternoon. Once you were registered it was just assumed that you went off to another class. We were never caught.

However I can never recall girls wandering around with skimpy clothes. That must have come later.

I just don’t think they feel the cold. My GS has always fought tooth and nail not to have to wear a coat in any weather. I’ve never ever heard him say “I’m cold”. He’s now a teenager and like most of his friends, when not in school he wears shorts even at this time of the year. I remember years ago, we were coming back from a day trip to Boulogne on a coach where the heating had broken down and there was ice on the inside of the windows. I’ve never been so cold. We drove through a town and youngsters were turning out of a nightclub wearing next to nothing but jeans and tee shirts not a jacket in sight. They didn’t seem to notice the cold.

We call it ‘wine bar uniform’ Glorianny? Hardy up North.

We have an alleyway alongside our house which is used by many secondary school children morning and evening. We often see coats being taken off as they turn the corner out of parents' view and being put back on again in the evening. It's quite a ritual! Some girls roll their skirts up at the waistband too.
I remember my daughter doing just this - and I did too, though the skirt had to be unrolled again once I got to school as there was a strict 'inch above the knee' rule.

Last night I came out of choir rehearsal at 9pm, the same time as a girls’ netball practice ended. Girls came out in the cold with no coats, in just their PE kit, some with T shirts and totally bare legs, just black knickers! We adults wore coats, scarves and gloves.

Schools would have to have a lockable locker for each child - and room for the lockers. When I went to school we hung our coats on our named pegs and they stayed there. No one ever had their coat taken. I don’t think that would happen today.

I was interested to find that my GD seldom does her coat up. I never did when I was her age and all the time I was at school. I can't help wondering if there's some connection...

I feel the cold more now so my coat is done up more often - but not always!

Here in the NE it's practice for when they grow up. They shed clothes year after year until they are old enough to go clubbing, girls in skimpiest dress possible, boys in short sleeved t-shirts.
I on the other hand have reached the stage of adding a layer every decade.