I live in L.A., so I wear shorts year round.
I’m 68, and I don’t suppose parents in my area would have let their kids out of the house wearing shorts in the winter when I was a kid, no.
They did, however, routinely let their kids out of the house wearing skirts, if those kids happened to be girls. In fact, starting in fifth grade, I was required to wear skirts to school, whatever the time of year (and no, they weren’t down to our ankles at the time.) We were allowed to wear slacks under them on the way to school if it was really cold as long as we took the slacks off when we got there, but we certainly weren’t required to do so.
So I doubt the issue had anything much to do with whether our legs were cold.
I work in a warehouse with no real place to change that is either freezing or somewhere to the hot side of a Turkish prison. I wear jeans year round which confuses people to no end and several people wear shorts even in sub-freezing temps. Basically for the same reason; whatever we’re comfortable in. I don’t know that I’ve seen people in the streets much wearing shorts in our Pennsylvania winters but to be honest I haven’t really looked all that hard.
I run in shorts until it gets into the thirties. It’s not uncomfortable at all to me.
People used to ask me if my feet were cold, when I was barefoot on frost. I always thought it was a bit of a stupid question. If my feet were cold, I wouldn’t have been barefoot.
I wore shorts in the winter because those were easiest to get over the brace on my broken leg. I’m in Colorado, so a place with real winters. I broke my leg in December a few years back, and I wore shorts for all of January and into February. I guess I could have gotten sweat pants or something loose and baggy to go over the brace, but I was never cold enough to bother. With a broken leg, I wasn’t spending much time outside, but I did have to do the normal outdoor stuff that is unavoidable in urban life.
Anyway, it wasn’t that bad. I haven’t worn shorts in the winter since then, so it wasn’t great, but I don’t remember thinking that I was freezing or anything like that. Maybe a winter coat and getting around on crutches kept me warm? My point is, that when it is 28F and sunny, wearing shorts and a jacket is pretty far from freezing to death. 16F, overcast, high winds, with blowing snow? Yeah, that’s not shorts weather.
If your head, feet, and core are warm you don’t need much else. I go to the gym after work all winter long and change into shorts. I just wear them home from there even if I have to stop at the grocery store.
People who work in public schools are mandatory reporters for abuse, neglect, etc of children. So when children are under dressed, under fed, under medicated, bruised and beaten, etc somebody needs to figure out what is going on and if something bad is happening. Teachers care, and get concerned when a child is outside in 10 degree temps and not properly dressed. Is it because the kid is trying to be a bad ass, or is it because his guardian is strung out on meth and can’t afford to buy him pants so he has to wear shorts, the only thing he owns. The thing is that children in general don’t complain, and somebody has to figure what is going on.
So when “nobody else cares” about a kid who might be freezing his balls off, maybe it’s a good thing that somebody asks a few questions and tries to help him. Seriously, “If they were cold they’d wear something else”?! There’s a good chance they don’t have something else. I’m sure that every morning mom asks Timmy if he wants to wear shorts or warm pants when he walks to school in a snow storm, and Timmy makes a bad choice and mom just lets him leave.
Why would anybody ever complain about children wearing shorts in the winter? It doesn’t affect me, and I don’t give a shit what anybody wears, as long as they seem comfortable and well taken care of. Adults can make bad choices and do what ever they want, but when it comes to minors things are different. They don’t make choices as much as having things forced upon them. So yeah, it can be an issue when children are not dressed appropriately.
I’ve always run cold: by the time I think “gee, it’s uncomfortably warm” other people are melting down. Used to carpool with Furnace Man: his half of the car would fog up, mine wouldn’t. Dude was the remedy for Raynaud’s Syndrome: your hands feel like a chunk of ice with five icicles each? Just touch his shoulder for a minute or so and you’ll be back to normal (and that through shirt and suit jacket!). Discovering that he only wore long pants to the office because of social requirements didn’t surprise any of us.
This is not about abuse or neglect, or kids being too poor to afford winter clothing. It’s not even about bravado. It’s simply a fashion that does no harm.
See this report from the Today Show:
It’s freezing, but boys just want to wear shorts! Should you let them?
Kids definitely feel the cold less than adults. I’ve noticed that for decades.
The babies who nap in sub-zero temperatures
For generations, Icelandic babies have napped outside in freezing temperatures
My experience of serious winters in the USA comes from living there in cold states for several years. At home in Cape Town, winters are not as cold, but I live by the sea, and I often see small kids playing in the water all winter. The water temperature may be 15°C (60°F) and a cold wind may be blowing, but skimpily-dressed kids aged about 4-8 are happily splashing around, playing and laughing in the sea, while their parents are sitting bundled up on benches.
Well there’s your problem right there, and it’s probably its own thread. School people should be schoolin their students, not looking for reasons to investigate their parents.
reminds me of what a co-worker was telling me a while ago. he was muttering about his 12 year old son running around outside in nothing more than a hoodie, shorts, and sneakers. he was clearly cold but insisted that he wasn’t. finally came to a head when the kid kept turning up the thermostat in the house. He had a picture of the kid running around outside in shorts in the snow and said “look. if you ain’t cold doing this, you ain’t cold in the goddamn house!” and put one of those lockable covers over the thermostat.
all because the kid “didn’t want to look like a dork” in front of his friends. Curiously, none of his friends wore shorts out in the cold.
so yeah, I’m going with you in that some people just do stupid shit. Adolescents are especially bad.
I have lived in a couple of places (notably Seattle and Colorado Springs) where the weather in the early morning has very little to do with the weather in the early afternoon. Shorts and a ski jacket are very sensible in such places.
I have a friend that simply has what I guess you’d call a sensory issue of some sort that simply cannot stand the feeling of long pants against his skin. He’ll do it if he has to for work or if it gets too brutal but otherwise he’s in shorts.