Are we raising a generation of wimps?

Teetonetal

I recall in the late 80's and early 90's schools were always closed due to broken heating or snow issues in the winter, so what as really changed?.

@dominic The UK is not at all geared up for snow, because you get so little of it.

Here in CH I've had over a meter of snow sitting around since mid Nov, and it often snows for a week at a time, we have the tools, the practices, the right tyres and snow chains, a permanent winter snow clearing force and everything works. Everyone on my street as a big snow rotavator. You just cannot compare,

Fretwired

Blame health and safety, the fear of litigation, teachers not wanting to travel but we have become a nation of wimps. There's a village green about one minutes walk from where I live which when I was young would have had kids chucking snowballs and building the odd snowman. It's pristine with about 3-4cm of snow - kids seem to prefer the warm indoors. We'd have snowball fights at school (now banned). People are definitely wimpier - centrally heated homes and gadgets.

57Deluxe

/\ they can enjoy all the snow they like once they have completed an education and secured jobs where they can earn money to spend on skiing holidays and shit...

Octafish

Dominic said:

I'm just upset thinking about all those poor children in Switzerland,Austria,Bavaria,Sweden,Norway etc  that have to go without any education for 4 months of the year ........because ,of course, they must close all the schools there 

Are you willing to pay extra taxes/have publics funds set aside to ensure we have the same winter/snow infrastructure that they have in those countries for a couple days snow every few years  

BRISTOL86

Fretwired said:

Blame health and safety, the fear of litigation, teachers not wanting to travel but we have become a nation of wimps. There's a village green about one minutes walk from where I live which when I was young would have had kids chucking snowballs and building the odd snowman. It's pristine with about 3-4cm of snow - kids seem to prefer the warm indoors. We'd have snowball fights at school (now banned). People are definitely wimpier - centrally heated homes and gadgets.

Isn’t that just evolution? Go back far enough and people lived in caves and got their kicks by carving rocks but it doesn’t mean they didn’t abandon it once something slightly less shit came along. 

crunchman

Octafish said:

Besides it doesn't happen that often so can't we just let the kids have a snow day and stop being miserable joyless bastards. Considering most kids off school seem to be spending the day out playing the snow, I hardly think anyone can accuse them of being wimpy and wanting to stay in the warm and dry. 

Mine will go out for a bit and then complain they are cold.  Then they will probably spend most of the day on YouTube.

Matt_McG

What VimFuego and Octafish said.

Countries that have heavy snow regularly have infrastructure designed to cope with it. Countries that don't, don't. Tampere airport in Finland never closes, for example, even in the heaviest snow. Heathrow closes at the slightest dusting. There's good financial reasons why the Finns made that decision, and the UK did not.

My son's school in west London is closed, which is deeply inconvenient for us in terms of child care. We can walk to the school, so it's never an issue for us getting there. But the local roads around the school are narrow, and difficult to navigate safely in snow, and the public transport is very disrupted. Teachers who live 10 or 20 miles away have difficult journeys into work, and may struggle to get home. Many of them will have kids themselves, so it's no good just telling them they have to put up with taking 3 hours plus to get home.

I'm lucky enough that I can work from home if I have to, but if I travelled into work, I'd face the likelihood of adding multiple hours of travel onto my journey, and if I had to make it back for childcare (which I often do) I'd be screwed.

I grew up in Scotland in the 70s and 80s, and remember going to school in very deep snow. I also remember days when the schools were closed because the heating couldn't cope, or the roads were unsafe. So it's hardly a new thing.

Octafish

Fretwired said:

Blame health and safety, the fear of litigation, teachers not wanting to travel but we have become a nation of wimps. There's a village green about one minutes walk from where I live which when I was young would have had kids chucking snowballs and building the odd snowman. It's pristine with about 3-4cm of snow - kids seem to prefer the warm indoors. We'd have snowball fights at school (now banned). People are definitely wimpier - centrally heated homes and gadgets.

Must be the area you live. The were loads of kids out on sledges/building snowmen etc round here yesterday.

Legionreturns

My school has been closed for two days now. Annoying the fuck out of me as I'm on supply so that's just costing me money. 

I made it in yesterday to be turned away. The snow drifts are barely 4 feet deep, don't know what the problem is. 

Octafish

crunchman said:

Octafish said:

Besides it doesn't happen that often so can't we just let the kids have a snow day and stop being miserable joyless bastards. Considering most kids off school seem to be spending the day out playing the snow, I hardly think anyone can accuse them of being wimpy and wanting to stay in the warm and dry. 

Mine will go out for a bit and then complain they are cold.  Then they will probably spend most of the day on YouTube.

Well I guess you've raised a generation of wimps then

Fretwired

Octafish said:

Fretwired said:

Blame health and safety, the fear of litigation, teachers not wanting to travel but we have become a nation of wimps. There's a village green about one minutes walk from where I live which when I was young would have had kids chucking snowballs and building the odd snowman. It's pristine with about 3-4cm of snow - kids seem to prefer the warm indoors. We'd have snowball fights at school (now banned). People are definitely wimpier - centrally heated homes and gadgets.

Must be the area you live. The were loads of kids out on sledges/building snowmen etc round here yesterday.

Fair enough .. you have tough kids. I can only go on what I see .... kids round here are probably on their iPads and iPhones ...

Bluebeard

The snow is not that bad where I am but when the scaremongering newspapers are reporting "SNOWMAGEDDON WORST STORM IN 50 YEARS GOING TO HIT EVERY INCH OF THE UK" it makes people a bit worried

DLM

Dominic said:

I'm just upset thinking about all those poor children in Switzerland,Austria,Bavaria,Sweden,Norway etc  that have to go without any education for 4 months of the year ........because ,of course, they must close all the schools there 

@Dominic You say that, but:

https://www.thelocal.de/20180228/extreme-cold-wreaks-havoc-on-suburban-trains-in-munich-and-berlin

It has been especially cold lately.

Octafish

Fretwired said:

Octafish said:

Fretwired said:

Blame health and safety, the fear of litigation, teachers not wanting to travel but we have become a nation of wimps. There's a village green about one minutes walk from where I live which when I was young would have had kids chucking snowballs and building the odd snowman. It's pristine with about 3-4cm of snow - kids seem to prefer the warm indoors. We'd have snowball fights at school (now banned). People are definitely wimpier - centrally heated homes and gadgets.

Must be the area you live. The were loads of kids out on sledges/building snowmen etc round here yesterday.

Fair enough .. you have tough kids. I can only go on what I see .... kids round here are probably on their iPads and iPhones ...

I'm in Essex where even the water's hard! To be honest I saw some kids out yesterday who were out just wearing tracksuits and trainers although they had made the concession to a scarf and gloves. I went all old person for minute - 'you'll catch a nasty cold'

crunchman

Matt_McG said:

What VimFuego and Octafish said.

Countries that have heavy snow regularly have infrastructure designed to cope with it. Countries that don't, don't. Tampere airport in Finland never closes, for example, even in the heaviest snow. Heathrow closes at the slightest dusting. There's good financial reasons why the Finns made that decision, and the UK did not.

My son's school in west London is closed, which is deeply inconvenient for us in terms of child care. We can walk to the school, so it's never an issue for us getting there. But the local roads around the school are narrow, and difficult to navigate safely in snow, and the public transport is very disrupted. Teachers who live 10 or 20 miles away have difficult journeys into work, and may struggle to get home. Many of them will have kids themselves, so it's no good just telling them they have to put up with taking 3 hours plus to get home.

I'm lucky enough that I can work from home if I have to, but if I travelled into work, I'd face the likelihood of adding multiple hours of travel onto my journey, and if I had to make it back for childcare (which I often do) I'd be screwed.

I grew up in Scotland in the 70s and 80s, and remember going to school in very deep snow. I also remember days when the schools were closed because the heating couldn't cope, or the roads were unsafe. So it's hardly a new thing.

I live and work in West London.  The schools should be open.  I think I said it above, but there is a guy in my office in Acton who has come in from Kent this morning.  Teachers could make it in.  It's not like it's hilly around here.

Fretwired

What the kids where I live think ...

Sporky

gubble said:

It's not just eh young-uns. Two members of my team (both well over 40) called me this morning saying they didn't want to come in because of the snow.

We have less than an inch of snow here and the roads are gritted and completely clear.

I didn't make it to a training course yesterday, and I wanted to go. 1cm of snow but an hour and a half only got me 6 miles; it looked like another hour to the M25.

That's not me being a wimp. It's a shitload of cars in the way. I'm not sure how being braver would have moved those cars aside so that I could sail through like a champ, but I'm sure all the people calling others wimps will have an answer for that.

Tomorrow I have meetings in London; I can walk it to the station happily enough, and today the trains are running. There's more snow forecast though, so what do I do if the trains are cancelled? Yesterday proved that I can't drive there (unless I leave at 4 in the morning). Both meetings could be done via web conferencing, so why bother leaving the house? I'm certainly not going to do it just so that some miserable old bully on the inferwebs doesn't get to call me a wimp.

Heartfeltdawn

RobDavies said:

All local schools and colleges closed this morning because of this:

https://imgur.com/a/tUdva

This is country is truly pathetic at times.  

So who are the wimps here in your view? 

If you're calling the schools that, then it's down to legal considerations for safety, both to and from school and within the school gates themselves. One kid gets smeared, a parent launches a legal claim, you end up in a world of mess. If you've ever seen the amount of paperwork for a child falling in the playground who grazes a knee, let alone a broken wrist or other such common ice-related injury, you'd know. 

Kilgore

No 'Four Yorkshiremen' sketch yet?

munckee

boogieman said:

Health and Safety innit. 

Nope, peoples desperation to sue anyone for anything and preparedness to lie about the cause/extent of their injuries plus insane judges deciding the man/woman in the street has no responsibility for their own safety!

@RobDavies you got it worse than we did and my son's school is closed and my office is on skeleton staff closing lunchtime.