[Closed] Kids giving each other massages - bad?

FFS - it's a shoulder massage not the sort of massage you get in Amsterdam.

just think it's a bit strange. If you went into work and they asked you to massage your work colleagues you would be uncomfortable with that.

But this isn't work, it's school. If I dressed up in a school uniform and went to work my colleagues would no doubt feel uncomfortable. That doesn't mean it's inappropriate for a child to wear a uniform at school.

my 5 year old niece is being taught 'massage' at her school, all the kids sit on the floor in a chain and practice very basic stuff on the person in front of them. She loves coming home and showing her parents and grandparents 🙂

she did it on me and it took less than a minute to do the stuff she had learnt and it was harmless.

couldn't sense anything sinister or wrong with it to be honest.

Can we not make work more like school though? Free (room temperature) milk at break times, followed by running round the carpark playing british bulldog?

Not sure quite how I'd feel if my son's primary school started this.

I guess for the kids it's just a bit of fun, but unfortunately we adults are too aware (I'd err towards paranoid) about 'inappropriate' contact.

Although quite why on earth this school deems it necessary to introduce these special measures to calm children down after their lunch break is beyond me.

I mean, 'Relaxation techniques' for primary school kids?????

🙄

as a forum are we not firm believers in 'play time' for adults, hence riding bikes in the woods with friends when we can?

my worry about this is that kids are being taught 'stress'.

Stress wasn't in my vocabulary until I got a job.

OTOH it's pretty hard to see any benefit to this.

I sometimes have some sports massage because I'm old and creaky and prone to injury. I'm also able to "relax" sufficiently to get some de-stressing benefit from it. Hard to imagine that the kids won't to some extent just be messing about and tickling/poking each other.

Sounds to me like another dumb idea by someone who thinks kids are just small adults.

Massage is a great way to relax, I started a thread about home massage a while ago, but STW is a bit slow and takes ages to catch onto the good shit 😉

As for a school teaching shoulder massage, how dare they try something new or take a modern approach, next they'll be servicing nutritionally valuable food that is also edible for lunch 🙄

Is this better or worse than kiss chase?

... it makes such a difference to the way the children calm down and get focused on their work.

Looks like a massive benefit to me!

I can't see anything wrong with it in the slightest. Do you think they've not been touching each other (tig, football, whatever) all lunchtime?

Or are people projecting a sexual element on to it that the children won't even be aware of?

next they'll be servicing nutritionally valuable food that is also edible for lunch

now THIS is just plain crazy talk

... it makes such a difference to the way the children calm down and get focused on their work.

Stressed teachers create a stressed classroom environment, sounds more like a ritual that some dippy teachers have introduced as an alternative to just being calm and authoritative.

There's nothing in that article about stress.

It sounds more like a way to alter the kids' mood from belting around the playground mode to concentrating on work.

Hmm wish they'd teach em to read or even spell the word massage first.

There's nothing in that article about stress.

I was just using "stressed" as the opposite to "calm and focused".

No foot massages, I hope

[img] [/img]

I think then you're looking for 'excited' or 'giddy'

If I dressed up in a school uniform and went to work my colleagues would no doubt feel uncomfortable.

I do hope there is [b]no[/b] pics

In my uni course we massage people most days. Before people say it's part of the course - it is not. There is nothing wrong with touching people.

It sounds more like a way to alter the kids' mood from belting around the playground mode to concentrating on work

In the olden days children would learn that they need to calm themselves down when back in the classroom environment.

It was probably called self-control or something like that.

It's an important behaviour to learn.

Do any parents on here routinely massage their kids after they've been playing outside with their friends?

Or do we teach out kids a bit of discipline and to learn to calm themselves down?

We're going to be creating a generation of diva's if we're not careful, kids coming home from school "oh, what a day, get me a clean towel and the oils mother, I need a massage..."

😆

That's true but only because we've been brought up not to touch each other which seems a negative thing to me, might be different in other cultures I think.

Hmm! Guess so as I wasn't brought up being taught not to touch others.

I can't see any harm in kids giving each other a shoulder massage, really what is the problem?

I go into work and am massaged/massage my colleagues quite often.

All well and good but things slide and soon massages become like social kissing where you're expected to do it...........'I DON'T WANT TO KISS YOU, YOU ARE NOT MY WIFE AND I'VE JUST MET YOU!!'

Hmmm.

That could make introductions awkward and unnecessarily long-winded.

I'm ok with a handshake or the kiss-on-the-cheek thingy for the ladies, but I really couldn't be bothered giving a massage whenever I meet someone new.

What about the kids who dont like to be touched?

That sounds a bit wrong, it wasn't meant to. 😕

what about kids who dont want to learn maths?

more kids that grow up comfortable with touching other humans in a non-sexual way might mean less STWers in future generations 😈

i find stroking the face (like in the film face off) is a good way to introduce yourself to new people.

Do any parents on here routinely massage their kids after they've been playing outside with their friends?

Or do we teach out kids a bit of discipline and to learn to calm themselves down?

We're going to be creating a generation of diva's if we're not careful, kids coming home from school "oh, what a day, get me a clean towel and the oils mother, I need a massage..."

Do you think we were brought up as kids just like our parents or our kids will bring up their kids like they were

Times change as do attitudes and schooling
Seems fairly harmless and a reasonable thing to do tbh bet there is someone aged 90 moaning that all they got at school was a damn good thrashing in their day and wrote learning and it never did them any harm.What kids need to do is get out and play and go scrumping and get off their social media i-thingyamies etc

NO harm in it from what I can say

Amusing to hear someone argue for Yoga instead of massages in Yorkshire...my times really have changed

i find stroking the face (like in the film face off) is a good way to introduce yourself to new people.

At what point do these massages become inappropriate (front/chest). Where do they draw the line and Police this.

Also IMO it puts a teacher in a potentially dangerous area where kids can have stories etc that are misconstrued.

Are the teachers advocating this idiots? In principle its an innocent/good idea. Its a ****ing minefield though.

funbags is a great name for a handbag company.

HTH x

It sounds more like a way to alter the kids' mood from belting around the playground mode to concentrating on work

I also find this explanation unpersuasive.

One way that this sort of thing can go is that it gives the kids an excuse not to behave well and removes responsibility for their good behaviour from them.

"Sorry miss, I couldn't help hitting him/smashing it/throwing it/shouting - I haven't had my massage so I'm still in boisterous mode"

It's "modern parents" type nonsense.

In the olden days children would learn that they need to calm themselves down when back in the classroom environment.

It was probably called self-control or something like that.

It's an important behaviour to learn.

Do any parents on here routinely massage their kids after they've been playing outside with their friends?

Do any parents on here routinely do things with their kids that are designed to calm them down after they've been playing?

Yes obviously, everyone does. Stories and quiet time before bed being the most obvious example, but lots of times in the day when kids need a bit of a pause. Any idiot knows that you can't take a kid straight from full on running around play, dump them in bed without any calm down time, and expect them to go to sleep straight away and painlessly.

Kids benefit from time to calm down after they get excited. That much is bleeding obvious to anyone who has ever put a kid to bed, taken them to the park, or generally looked after kids at all.

Whether massage is the right thing to calm kids down, I don't know, but it seems pretty harmless, and I imagine that if it didn't work they'd stop doing it pretty quick.

Kids benefit from time to calm down after they get excited. That much is bleeding obvious to anyone who has ever put a kid to bed, taken them to the park, or generally looked after kids at all.

What's also bleeding obvious is that most schools have been managing to do this without massage for the entire history of schools.

Devils advocate but are there any vending machines in said school?

What's also bleeding obvious is that most schools have been managing to do this without massage for the entire history of schools.

Yeah, they probably do it an any number of ways. Massage is just one idea of a way to help kids calm down, same as reading a story book, or whatever else they may come up with. When it comes down to it they're all just some kind of calm down activity.

So unless you object to teachers doing actitivies designed to calm down kids after playtime, which only an idiot would, what is it that people object to about massage in particular? That it is a new idea? Or is it really some weird thing that any time two kids touch each other it is practically like they're having sex and it is dirty? Or just that massage is a bit hippy?

So unless you object to teachers doing actitivies designed to calm down kids after playtime, which only an idiot would

What if I object to massage, but not to any of the many other tried and tested ways?

Does that still make me an idiot?

what is it that people object to about massage in particular?

The same thing I already said once, in the post immediately before your first post.

Come on, only an idiot would ask someone what it is they object to just after they had said what they object to.

It turns out [url= http://www.massageinschoolsassociation.org.uk/index.php?massageinschools ]massage in schools[/url] is all the rage.

Despite my previous cynicism etc, apparently there are numerous benefits from it, other than just calming everyone down ...

The same thing I already said once, in the post immediately before your first post.

"Sorry miss, I couldn't help hitting him/smashing it/throwing it/shouting - I haven't had my story book so I'm still in boisterous mode"

So how is that different? Why doesn't that happen?

No you quoted the wrong bit he wants and old fashioned way to deal with the problem SIMPLES

It's "modern parents" type nonsense.

I think he wants to bring back corpoal punishment in schools to instill some self control 😉

RPRT it is all jest I would be shocked if you did think this

So how is that different?

Because listening to stories is not being hyped up as some new magic bullet means of getting kids to behave.

I'm not really against massage per se. What I'm against is the introduction of "quick fix" solutions as a response to poor behaviour.

We don't need more techniques, we need better application of the techniques that we've already got.

It's typical consumerist behaviour.

The answer is always "do/get something new and different" when it should usually be "do things better"

That way, when it doesn't work you just blame the new thing and no one has to take responsibility - just find another new thing.

Its not something new and different - its remembering basics.

touch is useful and calming. IMO an initiative to be applauded

Its not something new and different

OK hands up ANYONE who has EVER had massage in school.

Maybe it's just me and in fact massage has been a regular part of behaviour management in every school in the country for all of history...

...except the ones I went to?