Dear Free-Range Kids: You’re the only one I can complain to (I’ve tried bringing this up at the school, but have been told it’s for student safety)! It has been raining on and off today, no thunder or lightning. We just got an email outlining the procedures to dismiss the nearly 900 kids from my son’s elementary school.
Lenore here. The boldface is mine:
Good Afternoon Parents,
.
Our weather has been unpredictable today. We are anticipating that we might have to alter our afternoon dismissal due to the rain. If it is raining, we will follow the following protocols.
.
Bus riders will go the gymnasium until their bus arrives.
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Walkers will proceed to the cafeteria until safe outdoor conditions can be confirmed. If there is no lightning and it is not raining too heavily, students can be released to walk home. If parents want to pick up students from the cafeteria, you will need to do so through the front office and we will radio for your students.
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Gold lot students remain under the covered portals. Teachers will direct and supervise the students’ transition to the vehicles. Parents will not be expected to pull down to the portables. Please plan to be patient as we ask for students’ names and find them among the group waiting to be picked up. Putting student names and grade levels on a paper in the front window helps to expedite the process.
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Purple lot students will remain either in the main building hallways or the primary building hallways. Teachers will ask parents in the cars for student names and radio inside for students to be escorted outside to their cars. Putting student names and grade levels on a paper in the front window helps to expedite the process.
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Thank you for your understanding and patience during this dismissal. Please remember we only use this process if the weather creates unsafe conditions for our students. We appreciate your help to keep all students safe and dry.”
.
And what great training should they ever find themselves under sniper fire!
Maybe the school administrators learned their rain evacuation procedures here? (U.S. Navy photo by HMC Josh Ives/released)
Rainy day dismissal is like this at our elementary. It’s ridiculous. My kids know they aren’t made of sugar and they wont melt! Added to all the chaos is all the parents with huge and obnoxious umbrellas that they wield with no concern for others because their Special Snowflake can’t get wet!
Our school has an unpublicized policy that when it’s raining heavily, your kid can be dismissed early without getting a tardy. I tar advantage of that every time it’s raining. We get out early and avoid the mess!
diane on
Same at our school; it’s ridiculous. I am so glad my 4th grader is walking home alone this year because it has released me from this circus. Even if it’s raining. She has an umbrella in her backpack. If it’s a severe thunderstorm, I’ve told her to wait at the school and if it doesn’t let up, to call me. She loves to walk in the rain and play in the puddles. So far we’ve had one super torrential rainy afternoon, and her dad went to pick her up.
Kimberly on
Living in the subtropics I find that hilarious. My 12 yo niece and 8 yo nephew would inform them “We aren’t that sweet” (translation they aren’t going to melt in the rain.) We have enjoyed the zoo or park in a rainstorm. Don’t get me wrong – lightening and thunder (as opposed to heat lightening) they know we are going to take shelter quick. We have sat in the car listening to audio books in the driveway waiting for a bad patch of lightening to pass.
Several years ago we had to rethink storm day dismissals at my school – but that was because of above the knees (adult knees) water on one side of the school. There was a narrow sidewalk that went over a fairly deep ditch. So real concern that a child could be over their heads with a misstep. Also there was a worry about fire ants (they create rafts out of their bodies to save others – and float in flood waters) and snakes in the high waters. (our nurse had been bit by a rattler earlier that year, at her home nearby and nearly died) This was after a long drought that left the ground hard as concrete and unable to absorb water and a new parking lot. We had golf umbrellas to help keep kids dry if it was raining buckets, but we did hold walkers if lightning was dancing around the school or everyone if we were under tornado warnings.
Mel on
Clearly not a school in Seattle. I think we might have something like this if the sun is shining at pickup.
This is obviously not a school in Germany. If German kids were dismissed early because it rained, they would have early dismissal at least 80% of the time! In preschools kids play outside when it is raining. That is why the shops sell waterproof coveralls for kids. Kids in elementary school walk or ride their bikes to and from school in the rain and I have yet to see one melt. I guess American kids are made of different stuff than German ones.
BL on
Sigh.
I remember walking home from school in rain, and running up to puddles and jumping in with both feet just to make a big splash.
Then, after I got home:
Mom: You’re all wet!
Me: Um, well, it’s raining outside.
Mom: I still don’t understand how you got so wet!
🙂
mer on
On my way home from work one drizzly day, I got stopped by a bus dropping a kid off. Mom was in the SUV at the end of the driveway, kid jumped in, mom put it in reverse and backed up the drive.
If this keeps up Olympic swimmers are going to have to wear floaty things on their arms and life jackets.
Sorry, keeping kids (especially boys) away from mud puddles stumps their mental growth.
Now, Kimberly has pointed out some valid reasons for caution, but that should be the abnormal situation, not the normal one.
Katie G on
You boldfaced “good afternoon”?
Beth2 on
I an so confused. Was this letter distributed by a school in a desert climate? How have they never had the issue of “rain” come up before? How rare is it to them?
lollipoplover on
This is one of my pet peeves. A consequence of this fear of rain is the neuroses it creates in young children.
Our neighborhood kids bike most days to school…except if it is raining steadily in the morning, then they walk with in raincoats. One of the younger kids is petrified of…rain. She won’t even walk in it, has to be driven door to door by her mom. When I asked the mom why she said, “My kids aren’t like yours”. Huh. So we gave her hand-me-down raincoats and extra umbrellas. She didn’t find any humor in this. I guess the mom just wants her daughter to not be scared, but when do you conquer this fear that happens at least once a week??
There is no such thing as bad weather, just poor clothing choices!
My kids have waterproof coats, backpacks, and an appreciation for rainfall to grow our garden and trees.
The only thing these procedures do is create a bottleneck of traffic and poor air quality around our precious students. Acid rain, anyone?
pentamom on
gap.runner, I don’t think this describes an early dismissal, just a change in the procedure for dismissal.
Beth on
What did schools and parents do before Pick Up/Drop Off became a thing worthy of capitalization, and drama? A contingency plan for early dismissal due to snow, I can see. A contingency plan for plain, ordinary dismissal during rain? Not so much.
BL on
“How have they never had the issue of “rain” come up before?”
In the bad old unenlightened days, nobody was intelligent enough to realize it was raining.
We Are So Much Smarter Now ™
BL on
“What did schools and parents do before Pick Up/Drop Off became a thing worthy of capitalization, and drama?”
Fifteen years ago? Twenty years ago?
It used to be, the final bell rang, and the kids just scattered and left. Those who rode buses proceeded to the bus stop. Those who walked home, began walking.
It was complete anarchy, I tell you! Anarchy!
Jess on
Still remember the day we went to the San Diego safari park on a drizzly day, and there was hardly anyone there and most of the animals were out. Plus, the rain didn’t last long and then it was sunny and a bit wet. One of our best visits, by far.
There was also a super rainy day a several weeks ago and this large depressed dirt patch in our neighborhood had a good-sized puddle. My husband took the kids out on their bikes and they proceeded to have races and mud fights. Why would anyone want to miss out on that?
Bridget on
Oh brother. Violent storms with high wind, thunder, and lightning…YES, take precautions. A little rain…go 9out and play in it!
Vicki Bradley on
It’s incredible the extent to which some adults feel the need to over-manage every aspect of kids’ lives. How is it possible for these school administrators to take something as ordinary as dismissal time on a rainy day and turn it into a complicated, anxiety-riddled event? I come to the same conclusion every time I read about situations like this, which is to put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the media, lawyers, and insurance companies – those 3 institutions are becoming the bane of our existence!
Ben on
Yes, it can be incredibly annoying to get wet from a torrential downpour, but guess what? Parents and kids can decide on how to handle that themselves. School administrators shouldn’t make things so complicated. Either the kid in question walks home, goes to the bus, or heads to the parent’s car, or they call and ask to be picked up if the weather is too bad.
Why does this have to be so hard?
Avin on
So it stormed yesterday in New Orleans. We haven’t had rain for several weeks and it all came pouring down through the entire course of the day. The streets were flooding and traffic was an absolutely nightmare. One could say that it actually was pretty unsafe to be driving around yesterday. Fortunately, my son’s school didn’t feel the need to contact us parents until the power went out about 30mins after dismissal. Maybe we’re just not too finicky about it since we live in a generally rainy environment; like in the very rare case that it snows here, everyone loses it because it’s something we’re not used to dealing with in our area.
lollipoplover on
“School administrators shouldn’t make things so complicated. ”
More than likely, administrators are accommodating the complaining parents who don’t want their kids to get wet or even damp and feel any discomfort. Same ones who make calls when their kids play in snow at recess and come home dripping wet or go to aftercare and get the floors wet. Now snow on a recess yard or grass is off limits to all and is kid kryptonite.
What on earth will these kids do when they have to walk on a college campus in….weather? Do you call out of work when it’s raining?
One of my all time favorite memories with my daughters is surfing and being far out in the ocean when a sun shower hit the beach. We watched with amusement the masses pack up and run for cover while we let the cool rain from the comfort of the warm ocean. Beautiful.
Dienne on
Y’know, I’ve often thought someone should invent some sort of plastic or rubber kind of jacket thing that people could put over their clothes when it’s raining.
Oh, wait….
Qute on
I will never understand why people freak out about rain. Years ago when my oldest two kids were about 6 and 7 they were sitting with their dad on our front porch in a mild rain waiting for me to get home from work. One of our neighbors was standing up on the porch chatting with him and when I pulled in and parked in the drive the boys came bolting down the stairs to greet me. She actually hollered at them to get out of the rain. I just stared at her impassively and said my kids are allowed to get wet. It’s not going to hurt them. And then we stood there in the driveway for a few moments looking up into the rain and giggling. I didn’t care that I was in my office clothes either. My husband told me later he was trying not to bust out laughing at the look of indignation on our neighbor’s face when I totally blew off her concerns and then played a moment with the boys in the rain still dressed in a skirt and heels LOL.
Wonder how I survived walking to and from school in the rain, usually without troubling to take an umbrella (which as a kid I regarded as more trouble than it was worth)… and sometimes in the midst of high winds and lightning strikes.
We were taught not to stand under trees and lampposts, not to be irrationally afraid of lightning, or to run screaming at the sound of thunder.
I think you are forgetting that there might be someone in a family with the wicked witch of the West. In that case, of course, the parents or the kids would melt if there was rain and the rain got on them.
Beth on
@Reziac, exactly! I don’t remember my mom caring for one second if it was raining, thundering, lightning, or snowing when I came home from school. Through the years, it was my job to get to and from school, not hers. I had appropriate clothes for the weather, was taught what to avoid if there was lightning, and no one worried as far as I can recall. I supposed she might have secretly worried if there was an electrical storm, but she didn’t get in the car to come get me either!!
Marianne Lappin on
I am a retired insurance claims adjuster. I believe that most of the changes in recent years came from litigious parents who want to blame everyone else for what happens to their child. Sometimes bad stuff just happens; it is part of life. I have seen parents come after the owner of a swingset after their child fell and seriously broke his arm. The base? A lawn of thick, lush grass, the kind my grandkids love to play on because it is so soft.
John B. on
A few years back when I was visiting the Philippines, it was raining profusely with huge puddles forming. I was taking a taxi home from the travel agent when I noticed a bunch of young boys, about 7- to 10-years-old, BUTT NAKED splashing in the puddles! Seeing that was the shock of my life but those kids were having the time of their lives and this was in the city, in broad daylight for everybody to see. I couldn’t help but think if a scene like that unfolded in the United States, the police would be called and the kids would be rounded up and covered with blankets. Child Protective Services would then be called and the parents would be off to court while their kids would be placed in foster homes. Of course, mostly because of the public nakedness of the kids but splashing in the puddles without their parents around would not have helped either.
Now as weird as this was, I’m certain the kids were not harmed or scarred for life as a result of their “naughty behavior”!
In California on
Two years ago my child’s school cancelled a WHOLE DAY of school due to rain. No, there was no flooding worries. It was simply a rain storm. I cannot even share with you the reasoning as the only reason stated was that we would experience a rain storm. Yes, it rained. Yes, it was windy. But nothing different than any other rain storm other than we were and still are in the middle of a drought, so no one was used to rain.
Parents still went to work. Everyone else continued on with life as normal, but school was closed.
Dean on
A puddle without a child in it, splashing, is wasted.
We herptologists have a policy we call “dressing for indifference:” that we should be dressed and equipt to do whatever we set out to do regardless of the weather. We teach this to our children, and were there any chance of being heeded, we could teach it to these schools as well.
So they are afraid of rain, but not the massive flooding and destruction global warming is going to cause by driving kids 5 blocks in a useless gas guzzler SUV. This is what is wrong with parenting today. There is never a larger picture about children in general, it is always about crazy stupid individualism and that special snowflake might get wet.
Anyway I guess this is why people look at me like I have horns on my head when I tell them about our Icelandic vacation with young kids.
Katie on
@mer
Seriously! That is just ridiculous (the SUV driving idiot). And those idiots are the ones causing all the extra water and flooding too. Not to mention children that will never be able to function in society.
Rebecca on
I live in Seattle. This makes me laugh.
EricS on
*palm to forehead*!
I don’t know one kid that doesn’t like playing in the rain, in puddles, or mud. Ok, maybe not so much the mud, but I still know some kids who like/don’t mind getting dirty when they play.
The adults of today are wimpiefying our children in record numbers and time. The only way this stops is if common sense parents unite and pressure stupid adults into not being…well…stupid.
Pressure is what made some adult authorities this ignorant. It will be pressure that reverts them back to reality. Nothing moves forward on it’s own. Let’s all start nudging. 😉
Dee on
My son is a walker (yay!) and it was POURING yesterday when he left. A kind parent (who ID’d herself as “Lizzie’s mom” lent him an umbrella for the walk home. I love everything about that. The fact that he walked home, that a random parent felt comfortable speaking to him, that we have a village where you just hand out stuff like that, that we returned it to the school with thanks to Lizzie’s mom. No, he wouldn’t have melted, but he was pretty drenched even w/ the umbrella. It was kind and something you expect in our childhood (or maybe that would’ve been a ride home from a random parent you never met before).
Donna on
Wow, you people get rain? It is apparently done raining in Georgia.
Should it ever decide to rain again, I will happily drive my kid to school in the rain. I don’t particularly like sitting places in wet clothes and shoes so I don’t expect her to do it. Pick up is another story. She has enough clothes for 10 kids (the spoils of having lots of bigger friends) and can change when she gets home.
I used to walk to school in snow up to my knees and sometimes make sad faces at friends in passing cars, once in a while receiving a pity ride. It was fun to sit in the radiator in 3rd grade and dry out.
Proud of my son’s elementary school. This year the overarching integrated theme is “We explore the Outdoors”. Each child is required to keep a rain coat and boots in their locker so they can go out to recess even if there is non-extreme inclement weather, and even when it snows. This is different from past years where anything potentially slippery or muddy was verboten.
“Walkers will proceed to the cafeteria until safe outdoor conditions can be confirmed.”
I love that analogy that I saw a while back. It was about the huge increase of allergies. Due to the sanitized world, the immune system doesn’t get worked. Therefore its development get stunted. It starts to treat things that are not poisonous as poisonous! Just think about the explosion of peanut allergies. The body reacts as if peanuts are poison!
We are also teaching children that droplets of water that falls from the sky as dangerous.
Dienne on
John B. – young kids, especially boys, running around butt naked used to be a pretty common thing in this country too. Boys and girls used to swim separately and boys almost always swam naked. Even when girls were around the boys tended to be naked. No one thought anything about it. It’s charming to see vintage photographs of times when nudity, especially among children wasn’t such a big deal. Another freedom our children are growing up without.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities”.
Voltair
Peter on
The lightning thing makes me chuckle.
Probably about 15 years ago, my roommate’s nephew called me up. He was kind-of scared–we were having an impressive thunderstorm. Loud booms. And that’s not necessarily that common for the southern California area–at least where we are. He was probably about 7 or 8 and his brother was a couple of years younger. Mom was at work and there was no Dad (that’s a long story). He wasn’t sure what to do.
I told him to wait for the flash and, in a calm voice, start counting “One mississippi, two mississippi…” until you hear the boom. Multiply the number you got to by 5. That’s how many miles away the lightning strike was. I sat on the phone while he did this and it was about 25 miles away. That calmed him down quite a bit–knowing that it wasn’t that close made him feel a lot better.
I told him that if you can’t get past “two mississippi” before you hear the boom, unplug the TV and sit in the middle of the room away from the windows and walls and wait until it gets above “two mississippi” before turning things back on again.
(I’ve heard 5 & 7, by the way, as the amount to multiply by. As I understand it, it’s based on elevation. It’s not completely accurate, but it’s a good rule of thumb as to whether the storm is approaching or leaving…)
In my life, ive gone to school, church, and work in less-than-ideal weather, including snow and ice storms, thunderstorms with tornado warnings (once woke at three in the morning to blaring tornado sirens), and a wind storm that killed power for almost a week. The kids will not melt from a bit of rain.
Comments about kids scared of rain brought to mind a college roommate of mine. This was not ten years ago. She was absolutely terrified of rain. It was silly.
pentamom on
In most cases, at least where I live, torrential downpours rarely last more than ten minutes, and anything else you can manage reasonably comfortably with an umbrella (barring lightning which is a different issue.)
So kids will get moderately wet getting to the bus or the pickup line, and kids who need to walk or bike can wait under shelter for ten minutes until it lets up.
But if they used that approach, somebody wouldn’t be earning a couple of days pay thinking up, writing up, and setting up this system.
NY Mom on
Poor babies!
lollipoplover on
@Backroads-
Ombrophobia is fear of rain…apparently a common fear in children:
All of this talk about rain makes me want to listen to my favorite song by Burt Bacharach, Raindrops keep falling on my head.
@pentamom-
If you give a kid a smartphone, they can download good weather apps and pinpoint precipitation to plan their trips and avoid downpours. My kids swear by Weather Underground.
“John B. — young kids, especially boys, running around butt naked used to be a pretty common thing in this country too. Boys and girls used to swim separately and boys almost always swam naked”
Interesting documentary on this – in schools, no less!
Heavens to Murgatroyd…Now I’ve really seen it all.
Lenore, could you follow up with this particular parent to get a re-cap of what actually went down during the pick-up?
Chris G. on
Around here, in Western PA, some parents drive their kids to the bus spots when it’s cold & snowy. Then in the afternoons, send these same kids to after school ski club at a nearby ski resort. What a dichotomy.
Rachael on
One more reason I’m glad we homeschool. When it rains, the kids head out in search of puddles!
I’d prefer my son arrive at school dry (he doesn’t need any more distractions), but I don’t have a problem delivering dry clothes if really needed. Getting wet coming home is no big deal as long as it’s not also really cold. Even at that, my son has polypropylene fleece outer clothing, so he’s pretty warm even when drenched. We’ve been backpacking in the mountains (summer) where we’ve hiked for hours in heavy rain. We got soaked, but our gear was all protected, so when we stopped for the night we were able to get into dry things. Sometimes we even hiked in our bathing suits. He never complained – it was fun!
Seriously? I love this one – it’s so off the wall, it’s hilarious :-).
And we need a good laugh from America right about now …
Emily on
My childhood:
Mum “come on, go and play outside – you’ve been in too long”
Me “but it’s raining! I’ll get wet”
Mum “put a coat on. And you’ll dry out”
An attitude which led to lots of outside fun and happy memories of toasty evenings in PJs and fluffy socks after a day outside.
Papilio on
Because of *rain*? Water falling from the sky is something children need to be protected from?? What the what, people. I mean, yes, it sucks to cycle in, and it sucks to arrive at some destination with wet knees, but sheez, it’s still just water.
@Hineata: It would have been hilarious if it weren’t so serious…
In other news: Enjoyed yourselves with our royals? 🙂
that mum on
Wow, being from BC this is beyond ridiculous to me… I live in a friggen temperate rainforest.
I could understand if we were talking hurricane or tropical storm kind of situation but c’mon, a little rain?
There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad gear.
My oldest (11) refuses to wear a raincoat — she’s too cool. She is out in a hoodie in torrential rain. We had 3 days in October without rain, they were overcast. I think I got her in a coat 1 of those days and she later just had it around her waist… she is still alive and has not yet melted. Has not even caught a cold.
You know how the Inuit people have so many words for snow—here we have that for rain.
If the kids here didn’t go out in the rain they’d never go out, but then I guess that is reality for some people anyway.
K I’ll get off the soapbox now
pentamom on
“Anyway I guess this is why people look at me like I have horns on my head when I tell them about our Icelandic vacation with young kids.”
How did you get to Iceland without guzzling any fuel?
And why won’t MY emojis work? Tried to put in a silly smile, no dice.
Wish it would stop raining here…supposed to be nearly summer.
CrazyCatLady on
Oh my gosh! I “know” who was behind this! You see, years ago I taught at a large afterschool/preschool care facility. I was….the swimming instructor. Yup, I taught the kids to swim and was their lifeguard for free swim time (older kids) while the younger ones napped.
This rule…is the rule of one of my former students. It just has to be! Who else would have rules like this other than kids who INSISTED that they go back to the facility when it was sprinkling, while they were in the pool? WET, IN THE POOL! Like it was acid or something. And, sorry to say, this was in the late ’80s and early 90’s.
In fairness, we adults would gather up the towels and put them under the tables to stay dry, but those kids just had been so brainwashed that they couldn’t be in the rain.
lollipoplover on
@Papilio-
Brilliant!
Yesterday was cold and rainy. I didn’t really go out much…very depressing day overall. Today is beautiful and my dogs are begging for their walkies so I’m heading out to soak up some sun. We need some sunshine.
While drinking my coffee, I looked over the study notes of my 5th grader for her social studies test. It’s on Native Americans. She is learning what natural resources they used and their connection to the environment. So foreign but cool to these kids that spend 90% of their day indoors. But back to the topic, Rain, it’s listed as a resource for te Easter Woodlands Native Americans. According to her notes They had ample cedar and birch bark to make canoes and summer wigwams for shelter. They had to deal with very cold winters (they used turkey feathers to keep warm and dry) and hot summers. But under resources for the four seasons (back before you had bottled water delivered to your door), the RAIN, the streams and lakes (and fish) helped them survive. They needed the rain and used it as a resource. This generation fears getting wet and needs an emergency procedure to deal with it. Come on Mary, don’t fear the resource.
P.S.- Post election here in the US, I’ve stolen so much Halloween candy and watched David Bowie’s “I’m afraid of Americans” youtube video on repeat while hiding in my closet from my children animals, and husband. I’ve removed all Orange from my home as my personal little protest. In a country where Duck Dynasty and Honey Boo Boo are highly-rated shows, why are we surprised when a reality TV star is elected to our highest office? I’m still in disbelief. And need to get this chocolate out of the house…
BL on
@CrazyCatLady
“Who else would have rules like this other than kids who INSISTED that they go back to the facility when it was sprinkling, while they were in the pool? WET, IN THE POOL! Like it was acid or something. And, sorry to say, this was in the late ’80s and early 90’s.
In fairness, we adults would gather up the towels and put them under the tables to stay dry, but those kids just had been so brainwashed that they couldn’t be in the rain.”
I can remember going outside for gym class in high school, playing flag football, in fairly steady rain on a number of occasions. It was refreshing! Of course, we all showered afterwards.
Papilio on
@Lollipoplover: “Yesterday was cold and rainy. (…) very depressing day overall.”
Yeah, same here, though I guess it’s no surprise most people in this country would vote Democratic if we could.
(Also, ahum, cough cough, do you realize we put the day before the month in dates? Yesterday when we got the news, it was 9/11… Cough cough.)
“I’ve removed all Orange from my home as my personal little protest.”
Made me LOL, because that, of course, we didn’t do, as it’s our national color… 😀
“In a country where Duck Dynasty and Honey Boo Boo are highly-rated shows, why are we surprised when a reality TV star is elected to our highest office? I’m still in disbelief.”
And even worse in a sense because he *didn’t* get more votes than Clinton – baffling as I’m used to a PR voting system! (So the system IS rigged…?)
We’re wondering what would have happened if at least the electoral votes would have been divided proportionally.
Workshop on
Letting our kids grow up to be self-sufficient adults probably isn’t a political discussion.
Can we please not do this?
Thanks.
JLM on
Meh, rain. I have to physically restrain my kids if it rains, because they make a mad dash to the trampoline in their swimmers (even in winter) so they can Jump in the rain.
70 Comments
Rainy day dismissal is like this at our elementary. It’s ridiculous. My kids know they aren’t made of sugar and they wont melt! Added to all the chaos is all the parents with huge and obnoxious umbrellas that they wield with no concern for others because their Special Snowflake can’t get wet!
Our school has an unpublicized policy that when it’s raining heavily, your kid can be dismissed early without getting a tardy. I tar advantage of that every time it’s raining. We get out early and avoid the mess!
Same at our school; it’s ridiculous. I am so glad my 4th grader is walking home alone this year because it has released me from this circus. Even if it’s raining. She has an umbrella in her backpack. If it’s a severe thunderstorm, I’ve told her to wait at the school and if it doesn’t let up, to call me. She loves to walk in the rain and play in the puddles. So far we’ve had one super torrential rainy afternoon, and her dad went to pick her up.
Living in the subtropics I find that hilarious. My 12 yo niece and 8 yo nephew would inform them “We aren’t that sweet” (translation they aren’t going to melt in the rain.) We have enjoyed the zoo or park in a rainstorm. Don’t get me wrong – lightening and thunder (as opposed to heat lightening) they know we are going to take shelter quick. We have sat in the car listening to audio books in the driveway waiting for a bad patch of lightening to pass.
Several years ago we had to rethink storm day dismissals at my school – but that was because of above the knees (adult knees) water on one side of the school. There was a narrow sidewalk that went over a fairly deep ditch. So real concern that a child could be over their heads with a misstep. Also there was a worry about fire ants (they create rafts out of their bodies to save others – and float in flood waters) and snakes in the high waters. (our nurse had been bit by a rattler earlier that year, at her home nearby and nearly died) This was after a long drought that left the ground hard as concrete and unable to absorb water and a new parking lot. We had golf umbrellas to help keep kids dry if it was raining buckets, but we did hold walkers if lightning was dancing around the school or everyone if we were under tornado warnings.
Clearly not a school in Seattle. I think we might have something like this if the sun is shining at pickup.
This is obviously not a school in Germany. If German kids were dismissed early because it rained, they would have early dismissal at least 80% of the time! In preschools kids play outside when it is raining. That is why the shops sell waterproof coveralls for kids. Kids in elementary school walk or ride their bikes to and from school in the rain and I have yet to see one melt. I guess American kids are made of different stuff than German ones.
Sigh.
I remember walking home from school in rain, and running up to puddles and jumping in with both feet just to make a big splash.
Then, after I got home:
Mom: You’re all wet!
Me: Um, well, it’s raining outside.
Mom: I still don’t understand how you got so wet!
🙂
On my way home from work one drizzly day, I got stopped by a bus dropping a kid off. Mom was in the SUV at the end of the driveway, kid jumped in, mom put it in reverse and backed up the drive.
If this keeps up Olympic swimmers are going to have to wear floaty things on their arms and life jackets.
Sorry, keeping kids (especially boys) away from mud puddles stumps their mental growth.
Now, Kimberly has pointed out some valid reasons for caution, but that should be the abnormal situation, not the normal one.
You boldfaced “good afternoon”?
I an so confused. Was this letter distributed by a school in a desert climate? How have they never had the issue of “rain” come up before? How rare is it to them?
This is one of my pet peeves. A consequence of this fear of rain is the neuroses it creates in young children.
Our neighborhood kids bike most days to school…except if it is raining steadily in the morning, then they walk with in raincoats. One of the younger kids is petrified of…rain. She won’t even walk in it, has to be driven door to door by her mom. When I asked the mom why she said, “My kids aren’t like yours”. Huh. So we gave her hand-me-down raincoats and extra umbrellas. She didn’t find any humor in this. I guess the mom just wants her daughter to not be scared, but when do you conquer this fear that happens at least once a week??
There is no such thing as bad weather, just poor clothing choices!
My kids have waterproof coats, backpacks, and an appreciation for rainfall to grow our garden and trees.
The only thing these procedures do is create a bottleneck of traffic and poor air quality around our precious students. Acid rain, anyone?
gap.runner, I don’t think this describes an early dismissal, just a change in the procedure for dismissal.
What did schools and parents do before Pick Up/Drop Off became a thing worthy of capitalization, and drama? A contingency plan for early dismissal due to snow, I can see. A contingency plan for plain, ordinary dismissal during rain? Not so much.
“How have they never had the issue of “rain” come up before?”
In the bad old unenlightened days, nobody was intelligent enough to realize it was raining.
We Are So Much Smarter Now ™
“What did schools and parents do before Pick Up/Drop Off became a thing worthy of capitalization, and drama?”
Fifteen years ago? Twenty years ago?
It used to be, the final bell rang, and the kids just scattered and left. Those who rode buses proceeded to the bus stop. Those who walked home, began walking.
It was complete anarchy, I tell you! Anarchy!
Still remember the day we went to the San Diego safari park on a drizzly day, and there was hardly anyone there and most of the animals were out. Plus, the rain didn’t last long and then it was sunny and a bit wet. One of our best visits, by far.
There was also a super rainy day a several weeks ago and this large depressed dirt patch in our neighborhood had a good-sized puddle. My husband took the kids out on their bikes and they proceeded to have races and mud fights. Why would anyone want to miss out on that?
Oh brother. Violent storms with high wind, thunder, and lightning…YES, take precautions. A little rain…go 9out and play in it!
It’s incredible the extent to which some adults feel the need to over-manage every aspect of kids’ lives. How is it possible for these school administrators to take something as ordinary as dismissal time on a rainy day and turn it into a complicated, anxiety-riddled event? I come to the same conclusion every time I read about situations like this, which is to put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the media, lawyers, and insurance companies – those 3 institutions are becoming the bane of our existence!
Yes, it can be incredibly annoying to get wet from a torrential downpour, but guess what? Parents and kids can decide on how to handle that themselves. School administrators shouldn’t make things so complicated. Either the kid in question walks home, goes to the bus, or heads to the parent’s car, or they call and ask to be picked up if the weather is too bad.
Why does this have to be so hard?
So it stormed yesterday in New Orleans. We haven’t had rain for several weeks and it all came pouring down through the entire course of the day. The streets were flooding and traffic was an absolutely nightmare. One could say that it actually was pretty unsafe to be driving around yesterday. Fortunately, my son’s school didn’t feel the need to contact us parents until the power went out about 30mins after dismissal. Maybe we’re just not too finicky about it since we live in a generally rainy environment; like in the very rare case that it snows here, everyone loses it because it’s something we’re not used to dealing with in our area.
“School administrators shouldn’t make things so complicated. ”
More than likely, administrators are accommodating the complaining parents who don’t want their kids to get wet or even damp and feel any discomfort. Same ones who make calls when their kids play in snow at recess and come home dripping wet or go to aftercare and get the floors wet. Now snow on a recess yard or grass is off limits to all and is kid kryptonite.
What on earth will these kids do when they have to walk on a college campus in….weather? Do you call out of work when it’s raining?
One of my all time favorite memories with my daughters is surfing and being far out in the ocean when a sun shower hit the beach. We watched with amusement the masses pack up and run for cover while we let the cool rain from the comfort of the warm ocean. Beautiful.
Y’know, I’ve often thought someone should invent some sort of plastic or rubber kind of jacket thing that people could put over their clothes when it’s raining.
Oh, wait….
I will never understand why people freak out about rain. Years ago when my oldest two kids were about 6 and 7 they were sitting with their dad on our front porch in a mild rain waiting for me to get home from work. One of our neighbors was standing up on the porch chatting with him and when I pulled in and parked in the drive the boys came bolting down the stairs to greet me. She actually hollered at them to get out of the rain. I just stared at her impassively and said my kids are allowed to get wet. It’s not going to hurt them. And then we stood there in the driveway for a few moments looking up into the rain and giggling. I didn’t care that I was in my office clothes either. My husband told me later he was trying not to bust out laughing at the look of indignation on our neighbor’s face when I totally blew off her concerns and then played a moment with the boys in the rain still dressed in a skirt and heels LOL.
Wonder how I survived walking to and from school in the rain, usually without troubling to take an umbrella (which as a kid I regarded as more trouble than it was worth)… and sometimes in the midst of high winds and lightning strikes.
We were taught not to stand under trees and lampposts, not to be irrationally afraid of lightning, or to run screaming at the sound of thunder.
Gee, there’s a theme…
I think you are forgetting that there might be someone in a family with the wicked witch of the West. In that case, of course, the parents or the kids would melt if there was rain and the rain got on them.
@Reziac, exactly! I don’t remember my mom caring for one second if it was raining, thundering, lightning, or snowing when I came home from school. Through the years, it was my job to get to and from school, not hers. I had appropriate clothes for the weather, was taught what to avoid if there was lightning, and no one worried as far as I can recall. I supposed she might have secretly worried if there was an electrical storm, but she didn’t get in the car to come get me either!!
I am a retired insurance claims adjuster. I believe that most of the changes in recent years came from litigious parents who want to blame everyone else for what happens to their child. Sometimes bad stuff just happens; it is part of life. I have seen parents come after the owner of a swingset after their child fell and seriously broke his arm. The base? A lawn of thick, lush grass, the kind my grandkids love to play on because it is so soft.
A few years back when I was visiting the Philippines, it was raining profusely with huge puddles forming. I was taking a taxi home from the travel agent when I noticed a bunch of young boys, about 7- to 10-years-old, BUTT NAKED splashing in the puddles! Seeing that was the shock of my life but those kids were having the time of their lives and this was in the city, in broad daylight for everybody to see. I couldn’t help but think if a scene like that unfolded in the United States, the police would be called and the kids would be rounded up and covered with blankets. Child Protective Services would then be called and the parents would be off to court while their kids would be placed in foster homes. Of course, mostly because of the public nakedness of the kids but splashing in the puddles without their parents around would not have helped either.
Now as weird as this was, I’m certain the kids were not harmed or scarred for life as a result of their “naughty behavior”!
Two years ago my child’s school cancelled a WHOLE DAY of school due to rain. No, there was no flooding worries. It was simply a rain storm. I cannot even share with you the reasoning as the only reason stated was that we would experience a rain storm. Yes, it rained. Yes, it was windy. But nothing different than any other rain storm other than we were and still are in the middle of a drought, so no one was used to rain.
Parents still went to work. Everyone else continued on with life as normal, but school was closed.
A puddle without a child in it, splashing, is wasted.
We herptologists have a policy we call “dressing for indifference:” that we should be dressed and equipt to do whatever we set out to do regardless of the weather. We teach this to our children, and were there any chance of being heeded, we could teach it to these schools as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w40ushYAaYA
So they are afraid of rain, but not the massive flooding and destruction global warming is going to cause by driving kids 5 blocks in a useless gas guzzler SUV. This is what is wrong with parenting today. There is never a larger picture about children in general, it is always about crazy stupid individualism and that special snowflake might get wet.
Anyway I guess this is why people look at me like I have horns on my head when I tell them about our Icelandic vacation with young kids.
@mer
Seriously! That is just ridiculous (the SUV driving idiot). And those idiots are the ones causing all the extra water and flooding too. Not to mention children that will never be able to function in society.
I live in Seattle. This makes me laugh.
*palm to forehead*!
I don’t know one kid that doesn’t like playing in the rain, in puddles, or mud. Ok, maybe not so much the mud, but I still know some kids who like/don’t mind getting dirty when they play.
The adults of today are wimpiefying our children in record numbers and time. The only way this stops is if common sense parents unite and pressure stupid adults into not being…well…stupid.
Pressure is what made some adult authorities this ignorant. It will be pressure that reverts them back to reality. Nothing moves forward on it’s own. Let’s all start nudging. 😉
My son is a walker (yay!) and it was POURING yesterday when he left. A kind parent (who ID’d herself as “Lizzie’s mom” lent him an umbrella for the walk home. I love everything about that. The fact that he walked home, that a random parent felt comfortable speaking to him, that we have a village where you just hand out stuff like that, that we returned it to the school with thanks to Lizzie’s mom. No, he wouldn’t have melted, but he was pretty drenched even w/ the umbrella. It was kind and something you expect in our childhood (or maybe that would’ve been a ride home from a random parent you never met before).
Wow, you people get rain? It is apparently done raining in Georgia.
Should it ever decide to rain again, I will happily drive my kid to school in the rain. I don’t particularly like sitting places in wet clothes and shoes so I don’t expect her to do it. Pick up is another story. She has enough clothes for 10 kids (the spoils of having lots of bigger friends) and can change when she gets home.
I used to walk to school in snow up to my knees and sometimes make sad faces at friends in passing cars, once in a while receiving a pity ride. It was fun to sit in the radiator in 3rd grade and dry out.
Proud of my son’s elementary school. This year the overarching integrated theme is “We explore the Outdoors”. Each child is required to keep a rain coat and boots in their locker so they can go out to recess even if there is non-extreme inclement weather, and even when it snows. This is different from past years where anything potentially slippery or muddy was verboten.
“Walkers will proceed to the cafeteria until safe outdoor conditions can be confirmed.”
I love that analogy that I saw a while back. It was about the huge increase of allergies. Due to the sanitized world, the immune system doesn’t get worked. Therefore its development get stunted. It starts to treat things that are not poisonous as poisonous! Just think about the explosion of peanut allergies. The body reacts as if peanuts are poison!
We are also teaching children that droplets of water that falls from the sky as dangerous.
John B. – young kids, especially boys, running around butt naked used to be a pretty common thing in this country too. Boys and girls used to swim separately and boys almost always swam naked. Even when girls were around the boys tended to be naked. No one thought anything about it. It’s charming to see vintage photographs of times when nudity, especially among children wasn’t such a big deal. Another freedom our children are growing up without.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities”.
Voltair
The lightning thing makes me chuckle.
Probably about 15 years ago, my roommate’s nephew called me up. He was kind-of scared–we were having an impressive thunderstorm. Loud booms. And that’s not necessarily that common for the southern California area–at least where we are. He was probably about 7 or 8 and his brother was a couple of years younger. Mom was at work and there was no Dad (that’s a long story). He wasn’t sure what to do.
I told him to wait for the flash and, in a calm voice, start counting “One mississippi, two mississippi…” until you hear the boom. Multiply the number you got to by 5. That’s how many miles away the lightning strike was. I sat on the phone while he did this and it was about 25 miles away. That calmed him down quite a bit–knowing that it wasn’t that close made him feel a lot better.
I told him that if you can’t get past “two mississippi” before you hear the boom, unplug the TV and sit in the middle of the room away from the windows and walls and wait until it gets above “two mississippi” before turning things back on again.
(I’ve heard 5 & 7, by the way, as the amount to multiply by. As I understand it, it’s based on elevation. It’s not completely accurate, but it’s a good rule of thumb as to whether the storm is approaching or leaving…)
And I thought my school’s was ridiculous.
In my life, ive gone to school, church, and work in less-than-ideal weather, including snow and ice storms, thunderstorms with tornado warnings (once woke at three in the morning to blaring tornado sirens), and a wind storm that killed power for almost a week. The kids will not melt from a bit of rain.
Comments about kids scared of rain brought to mind a college roommate of mine. This was not ten years ago. She was absolutely terrified of rain. It was silly.
In most cases, at least where I live, torrential downpours rarely last more than ten minutes, and anything else you can manage reasonably comfortably with an umbrella (barring lightning which is a different issue.)
So kids will get moderately wet getting to the bus or the pickup line, and kids who need to walk or bike can wait under shelter for ten minutes until it lets up.
But if they used that approach, somebody wouldn’t be earning a couple of days pay thinking up, writing up, and setting up this system.
Poor babies!
@Backroads-
Ombrophobia is fear of rain…apparently a common fear in children:
http://www.fearof.net/fear-of-rain-phobia-ombrophobia/
All of this talk about rain makes me want to listen to my favorite song by Burt Bacharach, Raindrops keep falling on my head.
@pentamom-
If you give a kid a smartphone, they can download good weather apps and pinpoint precipitation to plan their trips and avoid downpours. My kids swear by Weather Underground.
Only in America? Sadly not any more
“John B. — young kids, especially boys, running around butt naked used to be a pretty common thing in this country too. Boys and girls used to swim separately and boys almost always swam naked”
Interesting documentary on this – in schools, no less!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGt_HUSSyQQ
Heavens to Murgatroyd…Now I’ve really seen it all.
Lenore, could you follow up with this particular parent to get a re-cap of what actually went down during the pick-up?
Around here, in Western PA, some parents drive their kids to the bus spots when it’s cold & snowy. Then in the afternoons, send these same kids to after school ski club at a nearby ski resort. What a dichotomy.
One more reason I’m glad we homeschool. When it rains, the kids head out in search of puddles!
I’d prefer my son arrive at school dry (he doesn’t need any more distractions), but I don’t have a problem delivering dry clothes if really needed. Getting wet coming home is no big deal as long as it’s not also really cold. Even at that, my son has polypropylene fleece outer clothing, so he’s pretty warm even when drenched. We’ve been backpacking in the mountains (summer) where we’ve hiked for hours in heavy rain. We got soaked, but our gear was all protected, so when we stopped for the night we were able to get into dry things. Sometimes we even hiked in our bathing suits. He never complained – it was fun!
Why didn’t the school call the National Guard?
Seriously? I love this one – it’s so off the wall, it’s hilarious :-).
And we need a good laugh from America right about now …
My childhood:
Mum “come on, go and play outside – you’ve been in too long”
Me “but it’s raining! I’ll get wet”
Mum “put a coat on. And you’ll dry out”
An attitude which led to lots of outside fun and happy memories of toasty evenings in PJs and fluffy socks after a day outside.
Because of *rain*? Water falling from the sky is something children need to be protected from?? What the what, people. I mean, yes, it sucks to cycle in, and it sucks to arrive at some destination with wet knees, but sheez, it’s still just water.
@Hineata: It would have been hilarious if it weren’t so serious…
In other news: Enjoyed yourselves with our royals? 🙂
Wow, being from BC this is beyond ridiculous to me… I live in a friggen temperate rainforest.
I could understand if we were talking hurricane or tropical storm kind of situation but c’mon, a little rain?
There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad gear.
My oldest (11) refuses to wear a raincoat — she’s too cool. She is out in a hoodie in torrential rain. We had 3 days in October without rain, they were overcast. I think I got her in a coat 1 of those days and she later just had it around her waist… she is still alive and has not yet melted. Has not even caught a cold.
You know how the Inuit people have so many words for snow—here we have that for rain.
If the kids here didn’t go out in the rain they’d never go out, but then I guess that is reality for some people anyway.
K I’ll get off the soapbox now
“Anyway I guess this is why people look at me like I have horns on my head when I tell them about our Icelandic vacation with young kids.”
How did you get to Iceland without guzzling any fuel?
Easy, pentamom. 🙂
@pentamom: http://tinyurl.com/njjg3fs ? 😛
@Papilio – love it !
And why won’t MY emojis work? Tried to put in a silly smile, no dice.
Wish it would stop raining here…supposed to be nearly summer.
Oh my gosh! I “know” who was behind this! You see, years ago I taught at a large afterschool/preschool care facility. I was….the swimming instructor. Yup, I taught the kids to swim and was their lifeguard for free swim time (older kids) while the younger ones napped.
This rule…is the rule of one of my former students. It just has to be! Who else would have rules like this other than kids who INSISTED that they go back to the facility when it was sprinkling, while they were in the pool? WET, IN THE POOL! Like it was acid or something. And, sorry to say, this was in the late ’80s and early 90’s.
In fairness, we adults would gather up the towels and put them under the tables to stay dry, but those kids just had been so brainwashed that they couldn’t be in the rain.
@Papilio-
Brilliant!
Yesterday was cold and rainy. I didn’t really go out much…very depressing day overall. Today is beautiful and my dogs are begging for their walkies so I’m heading out to soak up some sun. We need some sunshine.
While drinking my coffee, I looked over the study notes of my 5th grader for her social studies test. It’s on Native Americans. She is learning what natural resources they used and their connection to the environment. So foreign but cool to these kids that spend 90% of their day indoors. But back to the topic, Rain, it’s listed as a resource for te Easter Woodlands Native Americans. According to her notes They had ample cedar and birch bark to make canoes and summer wigwams for shelter. They had to deal with very cold winters (they used turkey feathers to keep warm and dry) and hot summers. But under resources for the four seasons (back before you had bottled water delivered to your door), the RAIN, the streams and lakes (and fish) helped them survive. They needed the rain and used it as a resource. This generation fears getting wet and needs an emergency procedure to deal with it. Come on Mary, don’t fear the resource.
P.S.- Post election here in the US, I’ve stolen so much Halloween candy and watched David Bowie’s “I’m afraid of Americans” youtube video on repeat while hiding in my closet from my children animals, and husband. I’ve removed all Orange from my home as my personal little protest. In a country where Duck Dynasty and Honey Boo Boo are highly-rated shows, why are we surprised when a reality TV star is elected to our highest office? I’m still in disbelief. And need to get this chocolate out of the house…
@CrazyCatLady
“Who else would have rules like this other than kids who INSISTED that they go back to the facility when it was sprinkling, while they were in the pool? WET, IN THE POOL! Like it was acid or something. And, sorry to say, this was in the late ’80s and early 90’s.
In fairness, we adults would gather up the towels and put them under the tables to stay dry, but those kids just had been so brainwashed that they couldn’t be in the rain.”
I can remember going outside for gym class in high school, playing flag football, in fairly steady rain on a number of occasions. It was refreshing! Of course, we all showered afterwards.
@Lollipoplover: “Yesterday was cold and rainy. (…) very depressing day overall.”
Yeah, same here, though I guess it’s no surprise most people in this country would vote Democratic if we could.
(Also, ahum, cough cough, do you realize we put the day before the month in dates? Yesterday when we got the news, it was 9/11… Cough cough.)
“I’ve removed all Orange from my home as my personal little protest.”
Made me LOL, because that, of course, we didn’t do, as it’s our national color… 😀
“In a country where Duck Dynasty and Honey Boo Boo are highly-rated shows, why are we surprised when a reality TV star is elected to our highest office? I’m still in disbelief.”
And even worse in a sense because he *didn’t* get more votes than Clinton – baffling as I’m used to a PR voting system! (So the system IS rigged…?)
We’re wondering what would have happened if at least the electoral votes would have been divided proportionally.
Letting our kids grow up to be self-sufficient adults probably isn’t a political discussion.
Can we please not do this?
Thanks.
Meh, rain. I have to physically restrain my kids if it rains, because they make a mad dash to the trampoline in their swimmers (even in winter) so they can Jump in the rain.