Skirts to school

They sound like great parents. The little boy asked to wear it, they discussed with the school, no one is bothered so they are letting him do what he wants. It’s a piece of clothing. It’s nothing to do with you so I would just mind your own business. I’d be concerned if my child was a bully, not if he wanted to wear something that didn’t fit the societal norm.

I’m guessing this didn’t happen in Doncaster.

Stay out of it if you cant be supportive

My DS wore superhero outfits to every dress up day with fairy wings. And sometimes a tutu. Grew out of it, he didn’t get confused that he was a girl. Leave it alone OP

In my experience as mum of a bullied child, kids are not nearly as cruel as parents. Often the singling out of an odd child to pick on starts with gossip at home. 5 year olds wouldn't pick up on it but there will be an outcry among parents (obviously from this thread) who will be terrified it's catching.

Projecting your issues on to them is your problem to deal with, apart from controlling thing

Dressing up controlling as concern is not a good thing in society

This. A few of the boys in DD8's school wear dresses/skirts and nobody even mentions it. They're all encouraged to develop their own personalities, and being able to wear whatever you want is part of that.

Precisely. Why parents use their own children as the weapons to fight these battles, I don’t know. It’s so unkind, and entirely preventable.

It's their business. Leave them to it.

FWIW, in my DCs' primary school, the was a girl who wore boys uniform and boys shoes. Nobody cared.

There’s a kid at our school who wears princess dresses for any kind of dress up day and i used to see him in social settings before he started school and he always had some kind of sequins/ dress. Never wore girls uniform tho. The mum said to me that she’s choosing her battles, if he ever says he wants to be a girl, that’s a conversation but right now, she’s letting him be. Not helpful, just sharing

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-13362586?app-referrer=deep-link

But….you don’t ‘own’ your nephew. You’re really quite a periphery person in his life. He probably doesn’t - and as he grows up won’t- give a shit what you think? Stop with the main character syndrome

I don’t think little kids will give a shit. And by the time they do, he’ll realise that to and stop doing it. Or he won’t, as he won’t care

also, why should ‘no-one be wearing skirts’? Please articulate

Crack on, but don't start whining about teasing or escalate that into 'bullying and then expect the school to waste their time sorting out the problems they've created.

I honestly think it’s not a massive deal. Kids broadly speaking don’t care. And it’s just clothes. I love the suggestion of a kilt. There are societies where men don’t wear trousers (lot of Muslim guys round here seem to go for something floor length and tunic shaped, I don’t know what it’s called). It’s just cultural expectations and they can shift. 2/300 years ago men would have been in tights here! Maybe it’ll come back round!

Tell him he needs to follow the uniform policy and when he is older, he can wear whatever he likes.

We live in a big city so I guess you may want to factor that in. But none of the kids in my y1 dd’s class would care at all. They might mention it briefly as an oddity. Like they mention someone hopped into class or Joe has a new sister now. That’s it.

There wouldn’t be negativity unless the adults around them suggested it was noteworthy. And most of the adults here understand that people should wear what they want. Maybe just let his parents support him in being the kind of boy he wants to be and stop with the harmful gender stereotypes. You actively harm boys when you limit them this way. Would you say the same to a girl who wanted short hair?

Let the kid wear what he wants, good grief!

'worried about where it will lead to', maybe to someone who is comfortable in their own skin and not chained by gender stereotypes? Sounds great, the world would be a better place if nothing belonged to a particular gender other than literal medical things.

If the child is saying it's not fair he can't wear a skirt, then the parents should have had the discussion about how plenty of things in life aren't fair, sometimes we have to do what we don't want to etc. instead of asking the head to change a rule.

It should have been shut down by saying boys wear trousers, you're a boy, therefore you wear trousers. Presumably he could wear shorts instead of a skirt?

He will get teased, if not by his classmates certainly by older children.

I think you would be perfectly fine to say something. The parents don't have to take your comments on board but you can certainly give your opinion.

I think other children will notice and some will make unkind comments. DS had to take lunch on a school trip and took his lunch bag which has rainbows , clouds, lightning etc on it, another boy laughed at him and said it was babyish. DS told him that rainbows are science you can see and explained refraction 😂, he's a confident child and possibly ND, but he's also only 6 and children can be cruel.

DS 3 went through a phase like this a few years ago he would sleep in night dresses and went to school in jersey stretch trousers he finds regular clothing too restricted he stopped using the nightdresses after about a year (still no real pj's just loose shorts) but the girl jersey stretch trousers have stuck fortunately he is at a special school where they are not bothered by "material"

What im saying is it might be sensory he might be uncomfortable and restricted

Give him free choice. If he gets teased and dislikes it, he'll stop doing it. There are 2 fairly fluid children in one of DC's schools primary classes. No one bats an eye.

In order to break down gender stereotypes, we do need to accept boys wearing skirts as well as girls wearing trousers.
In somr schools, being transgender is perceived as cool - not saying your nephew is or wants to be transgender.
I would only worry about it, if he starts saying he wants to be a girl or to use the girls toilets.
As an aside, skirts are fine for school. Didn't stop me doing anything I wanted to do and much more comfortable.