Dad shocked to discover actual weight of children’s school bags

A Westmeath father who decided to weigh his children’s school bags after the elder of his two sons complained that his back was hurting from the strain of lifting the heavy satchel was stunned at what he found – his 10-year-old is carrying almost eight kilos daily and the 12-year-old is carrying a school bag weighing 9.9 kilos.

“And that’s before you even put lunch or a bottle of water into it,” says Mark Rowan, who lives in Castletown Geoghegan, who has gone public online with his concern.

The weights were particularly shocking to Mark as he is qualified to train others in manual handling, and the guidelines advise that in the case of an adult woman, the maximum weight they should lift if the object is away from their feet is 3kgs, and if it is at their feet the limit is 7kgs.

For an adult male, the weights are 5kg if away from their feet and 10kg if at their feet.

“If you are lifting off a counter or something the weights go up, but they’re [children] lifting them [school bags] off the ground,” says Mark, adding that as far as he’s aware, schools don’t give the youngsters any instruction on how to lift those sort of loads safely.

“Most back injuries don’t happen instantly, they happen gradually over time,” says Mark, who works in social care and has seen at first-hand how many people suffer from bad backs.

While 10-year-old Arthur and 12-year-old Marshall are now lifting weights beyond what an adult male might be expected to lift, happily, the same isn’t the case with regard to his younger children, five-year-old Summer and nine-year-old Ivy.

“The bags just seem to get heavy once you hit fifth class,” says Mark.

Mark shared his video on both TikTok and Facebook and has received a lot of private messages from parents who share his concerns about the long-term damage the issue may be causing to their children’s health.

Offer to demonstrate lifting

So concerned is he about the issues that he has volunteered to go into any local school in order to teach the children how to lift their school bags in a way that will minimise the risk to their backs.

“I will do it free of charge,” says Mark.

“It’s not about the money: I’m happy to go into any of the local schools that want me to, and through my job, I am garda-vetted.”

The content of the video is not the usual subject that Mark and his wife Cheryllee have been posting on their family-friendly channel, MarkRowan809, which focuses on local spots of interest around the midlands that are ideal for family days out – many of which are free.

The couple tell the history of the venues or attractions, and Mark believes it is good for the mental health of the family to explore those locations and share experiences with others. And, he reveals, one of his best sources of information on locations in the area that are not necessarily well known is the members of the Men’s Shed group in Kilbeggan of which he is a member.

“Loads of the older generation come to me with these stories and through them I found places that were forgotten about,” says Mark.

• See facebook.com/markvrscarrauntoohil

Instagram: cher_mark_thecrawl

Tiktok: markrowan0