having been in the water below a dam its amazing just how cold it can be. The best part is, watching a friend drop an expensive knife in less than four feet of water and unable to retrieve it cause of the cold. Fortunately a few young kids came wading down the same river in this water and when they asked my friend what was wrong he pointed to the knife and the one kid simply went under and got it.
and to my point, perhaps younger people have better ability to not suffer the ill effects of such temperatures? I am sure many can remember being in snow or sweltering hot weather where adults all went indoors or such. Is it ignorance or something physical?
Having watched my kids grow up while observing this effect, I've come to the conclusion that kids' nervous systems aren't as sensitive as adults. That, or they are just brain damaged. :)
Ignorance is an interesting question. Does it not bother them because they haven't been conditioned that it bothers them? It makes me think of pain. The anxiety of anticipating pain and of what experiencing the pain will be like is often as or more significant than the pain itself and can cause significant impact on the sufferer's life irrespective of the pain itself. Dogs, on the other hand, do not anticipate the pain, so, even when they hurt, it doesn't have the same impact on their lives.
That's a long way around to get to this: maybe it's not the discomfort of the cold itself that is highly uncomfortable, but the anxiety of the anticipation of what the cold will be like, and that is not something kids have the experience to, well, experience.
I thought about this about falling. Kids do fall all the time, but instead of anticipating failure, they go all in for "success" (whatever success can be for a kid). More momentum is created, diffusing energy in a smoother way. The mindset shutting down the brain for the "negative" aspects of the situation, because it came from a desire not from fear.
I have similar thoughts when playing music, whenever I get a nice sound, I don't feel pain or exhaustion, but every time I fail it suddenly become tiresome.
Ha, just yesterday I went in the pool with my 3 year old. I was freezing and cursing (not in front of him of course) and he was as happy and active as on any summer pool day (I'm in the southern hemisphere).
Single data point: I used to have very cold feet when walking in the snow and in the rain as a child enrolled in scouts (8-12 year-old) and it went away when I entered my teens (I think). Today I do not suffer from cold extremities and I am more likely to go for a walk outside when it's raining or snowing because why not.
You get used to it really quickly, in my experience. Swimming in cold sea/lakes on holiday (in Greece of all places) the fifth/tenth or so time was way more bearable than the first.
Anyone can do this, because it isn't socially acceptable to play as an adult, the only people you would encounter already in the water would be children.
He's talking about her body temp, not the water temp. 13 c isn't _that_ cold a water temp for swimming. Plenty of people swim in 3 c water in the winter on Hampstead heath ...
