To ask why people have clothes “for nursery”?

I think I unofficially had nursery and non nursery clothes just because the nursery ones would come home with permanent paint on them! They weren’t rags though, just supermarket t-shirts and leggings most of the time. I similar ones for non nursery clothes.

I'm quite happy to state that I did a lot less messy play with the kids (paint, glue, glitter, mud pies, sand pits) than nursery did, one of the advantages of sending kids to nursery in my view. I did buy cheap multi packs of supermarket clothes for nursery on purpose because of the amount of messy play there, though I did buy new ones quite often as there is a limit on how scruffy i'd let the kids get. We did play out and go outside for walks etc lots, but that was a factof 10 less messy than nursery on the whole!

90% of our clothes are for both but I think I just have a scruffy child 😂I can't be faffed with having two sets of clothes. Our nursery doesn't do aprons but everything comes off.

What a bizarre response.

I had nursery clothes for my daughter. They were cheap so it didn’t matter if they got wrecked with paint, mud etc, easy to get on and off, and comfortable. If she was doing anything messy at home, we used those clothes too. We just called them play clothes.

I wouldn’t send her all dressed up to nursery, what’s the point in that?

DD is at school now, but when she was nursery aged, at home, there was a time and a place for messy play. If I've just put her in a nice, new outfit to go out for dinner, I'm not then going to get out the paints or let her loose in her mud kitchen. I'll put her in old clothes if she's going to be rolling around in the mud, and I'll put an apron on when she's painting, or eating spaghetti, whereas at nursery they often forget or one of the kids gets it on their hands and then touches another child, etc., and I would never want a child not getting stuck in because they are worried about their clothes.

Tbh I always dressed her nicely for nursery because she's not that messy of a child and it was Covid when she was born, so she didn't have many special occasions to wear nice clothes to, but you do have to accept that anything they wear is likely to end up completely ruined. If you have the type of child who destroys everything they wear beyond repair immediately then it makes more sense to send them in in old clothes as they're going to come out like orphan Annie anyway.

Giving away clothes which might not look nice but are still totally functional is better for the planet too, rather than buying new just to get wrecked.

Clothes for nursery or in our case, dd's sen school are a thing

But the clothes you're describing sound awful 😅

Clothes for nursery are joggers, t shirts and sweatshirts. They don't need to be new but still need to be clean and in decent condition without stains, eww

Yanbu, people shouldn't be trying to sell clothes that are only fit for the dump

I absolutely have clothes for nursery - lots of plain tops and trousers that I’m very happy to get covered in paint. I wouldn’t give away anything covered in paint but I do separate clothes into the nursery pile and the weekend pile - things that are a bit nicer and I don’t want returned filthy.

Dd is 28
I still have nightmares about her and black paints!

I used to work in a nursery and some of the kids got so upset if their clothes got a little dirty because their parents would be mad. One girl, about 2 years old, was sent in full school uniform, tights, shirt and tie, pinifore and cardigan; because her mum didn’t want her proper clothes ruining. But she wasn’t allowed to get the uniform dirty either. She would barely move off her chair as she was so afraid of dirt! My kids always wear nice clothes, but I don’t care if they get dirty at all. I used to think the dirtier my eldest came home from school or nursery, the better time she’d had!

I'd send DC back to nursery in clothes that had been spoiled there or in second hand clothes, but I wouldn't buy spoiled clothes specifically for that purpose. TBH I don't think I've ever seen ads like that.

I did this as well.
Not exactly rags, but ones I didn’t mind getting trashed or going awol.

i use to donate clothes to the nursery for spares and sometimes mine would come back home in them.

I always had clothes for nursery for DD - plain tops and leggings from Primark / supermarkets that I wouldn’t mind getting paint stains on / slime that doesn’t wash out etc. Same with shoes - cheap and cheerful, ones you don’t mind getting wee on. “Nicer” clothes (Zara etc) were more for going places / out in public as I can put a bib on and clean DD as she’s eating and be more attentive so they don’t get ruined.

Your first point though about giving clothes away that have holes in them etc is a bit cheeky - I used to give away things without stains or even the “nicer” clothes she grew out of for nursery as parents typically buy their own nice things and hand-me-downs are usually ones you don’t have a monetary attachment to so you don’t mind getting messy.

I don’t send them in rags, but they get soooo filthy at nursery. Paint, food, don’t talk to me about the pumpkin soup!! So if they didn’t go in stained clothes I’d need to buy several new outfits a week. Every. Single. Time. I’ve thought oh well they can wear that even though it’s quite nice, it’s been destroyed. I am very good at washing stained clothes but it’s not my life’s passion.

Clothes my kids went to nursery in often ended up stained and sometimes lost, despite being named.

I'm not complaining about nursery (though losing stuff was a bit annoying) as I'm glad they had fun doing messy activities that were not messing up my own house!

So I didn't usually send them in wearing anything "nice". They didn't wear rags though! Just plain supermarket or primark tops/ leggings that were cheap to buy and easy to wash. If they got stained or raggy they went in the bin.

The one time my youngest begged to wear her favourite dress she spilt her drink on it and had to be changed. Dress must have been put in wrong bag as didn't come home. 6 months later I saw another little girl in nursery wearing it. Didn't say anything as it would have been too small for daughter by then.

People try and get rid of raggy clothes all the time- on FB, to charity shops etc - and trying to “sell” them as something useful is perfectly normal. It’s related to hoarding behaviour, they don’t want to throw it away.

its also perfectly normal to have nursery only clothes, usually cheap clothes you don’t care about getting ruined.

there is a difference between the 3 year olds who attend nursery 3 hours a day and the children who are in 10 hours a day from 12 months. My daughters were the latter and aprons etc are less effective in those environments

My son wrecked his nursery clothing. 🤣
He'd be in the paints and mud and would get food everywhere.

At home, I'd be able to whip off his eg bean covered top and throw it in the washing machine before it stained, obviously nursery can't. I'd also be more careful about eg buying paints that are less likely to stain. Nursery aren't(which is fine).

He was at nursery to have fun and in his case at 15, fun still = mess.

I would only send him with (clean) clothes that had gotten stained at nursery though. I didn't want them to think all his clothes were stained! 🤣 Also, only stuff that fitted and didn't have holes etc.

Nursery actually said to me once that they loved that I didn't care if his clothes got dirty.

I wouldn't have tried to pass on his stained nursery clothes though. It's one thing sending him in, in clothes that you know where the stains come from but another thing wearing clothes stained by another child (unless its a sibling maybe).

My kids have only ever been to school nursery, so they had school uniforms and I never had to think about it l but if I did, it woukd definitely be the faded hand me downs or cheap primark stuff. It would always be clean, it might be faded/bobbles, have a stubborn stain on or tiny holes. If they're at home, they change into those for messy play or playing out in.

My daughter is in year one now and her school polo shorts and sweatshirts have a few paint stains and pen stains on. They're clean, but I'm not buying a pack of new polo shirts or jumpers every week when these are still fine, just have stains that won't come out. I keep one spare pristine sweatshirt and tshirt for the primary aged kids back every year (only buy the supermarket branded ones, not expensive logo ones) for photos, trips etc.

We don't have "nursery" clothes, but we do have clothes that are not for nursery because she drops food, there is paint, glitter, glue, water, mud, she might drag herself around the floor outside etc.

These are all things that I can "limit" at home if she's in clothes not suited to it. Or make sure she's in clothes suited to what the activities are.

Or maybe at home parents put aprons on their kids for painting, or strip them down to their nappy so you can bath them when they are messy instead of ruining clothes

We have nice clothes for weekends and outings, and then we have a uniform for nursery (private). For weekdays after school we have cheap basics from Sainsbury’s or Primark.

Because nowadays at home parents don't let there kids get messy!! Most keep there homes and children immaculate sad really!!

Nursery clothes get trashed so I always buy second hand. They end up stained instantly. Keep the normal/nicer stuff for at home

DD2 has nursery clothes (all cheap from Primark) that I don’t mind if the paint doesn’t wash out of in case the nursery workers don’t/can’t remind her to wear an apron before doing something messy because they’ve got however many children to look after. Then we have home clothes for normal activities and “nice” clotthes for if we go somewhere for dinner etc. Same as I have my work clothes, normal clothes and nice clothes.

I put my son in clothes I don't like for nursery. He's only 18m, so it's the weird slogans, odd seasonal stuff and a spare vest that has an odd stain on it but is otherwise functional.

It's no different than knowing he's going to a party in the afternoon but doing muddy play in the garden in the morning and dressing him accordingly.

My DS once came home from nursery with his jacket pockets full of worms.