Special dressing up days at school - number day nightmare

I don't really stress about it too much, maybe as DD is younger. I don't think the school wants parents to slave away for hours or buy polyester Amazon outfits destined for landfill.
She just wore her own clothes for number day. We didn't have any with a number on - but the school said if no number clothes then any is fine.
For Victorian day I ordered from vinted, seller didn't post in time so she wore her Elsa dress 😅 and actually so did a few others!
The wear yellow day she just wore some rainbow clothes. It isn't a big deal in our house!

Its stressful when the school wants something at a couple of days notice when every penny is accounted for until payday and you are at work so even if you had the ability and fabrics to be making stuff you dont have the time

I remeber thinking it would be an idea for someone to make good quality outfits thwt could be rented out for these days. Leave deposit and get it back when you return outfit. Unfortunatley i dont have the sewing skills

I love World Book Day but I am militant that it has to be mainly cobbled together from things you've got already. The whole point is that everyone does their best but it's all a bit approximate. The internet has ruined it because once someone has bought an actual Alice in Wonderland costume online, anything homemade looks very subpar in comparison (see also birthday cakes) so now it's stressful and not fun 😞

It's absolutely fine to colour in a bit of paper yellow and write Golden Ticket on it - pin it to normal home clothes and you're Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

If i could i would just keep them home.

I don't know what numbers day is so maybe I'm misunderstanding but I recommend you get creative with the idea rather than the execution and just send him in with a head in a box,

Se7en.

I absolutely hated those days - they only appeal to parents who like to show off their craft skills (I didn't have any). And when it came to bringing in stuff you were "helping" them with at home - like making decorated (real) Easter eggs, the competition was always won by the child (really parent) who had created a fancy tableau. If they really want it to be for the children's creativity they should include a sheet of suggestions and help for the parent. How was I supposed to suddenly dream up an outfit for "recycling" day? My mother never had to put up with this nonsense.

Send child in with a pie (Pi). Then they can eat their 'fancy dress' at the end of the day...

OP, the teachers hate these days too. My husband is SLT in a primary school, and realised late on Thursday night that it was number day the next day. Cue much swearing and trying to find a t-shirt with a number on. He didn’t have one. Some years he has refused to dress up. We didn’t have the spare money to waste on Amazon tat for dressing up like a Shakespearean character. I wish schools would just stop the days altogether.

Surely the added educational value is questionable.

It's supposed to be fun and encourage engagement with the topic. This obviously won't suit some children, but most seem to enjoy these days.

I hated it. I didn't have the time, money and most of the imagination or creativity to magic up an outfit. Thankfully there wasn't that many of them. My two always went as Matilda on World Book day. They wore their own clothes and that was that. The school uniform itself is enough of an expensive without dressing up days adding to it.

And while I’m on a roll… my other pet hate is ‘just being a spare pair of trainers you don’t mind getting wet/dirty’. I’ve taken to keeping shoes that have been outgrown for this purpose but it’s not very nice to have to squeeze kids into a pair that is a bit too tight for the purposes of crawling through some sort of muddy pit.

So many - fortunately have never had the rockstar or number one but remember one of my friends having the rockstar one and tearing her hair out.

My eldest liked them, my youngest isn’t as bothered. I don’t know if this is universal but it has seemed like the girls have been more enthusiastic than the boys. Last one we had was Egyptian day and all the girls had themed dresses and went to town with makeup and eyeliner and most of the boys were in jeans and a T-shirt.

I actually hate the colour ones the most. ‘Just wear something yellow.’ Well no, I don’t have loads of yellow actually so the ‘just wear’ inevitably involves a last minute Amazon purchase for something that won’t be worn again.

Numbers day? What fresh hell is this? Never heard of that one. Bet there’ll be a lot of 6 7s.

I used to hate the stress of WBD when I had 3 DC at primary school. At the end of the day a prize would be awarded to the child whose parents had spent the most time and money on their costume best dressed child in each class, and in the younger classes it inevitably ended in tears at pick up time as there was only one winner and 29 losers and up to that point they’d all thought their costumes were the best. So there’d be extra pressure from the DC to come up with a good outfit. Thankfully, the competition element was axed by the new head. But then we got Crazy Hair Day which seemed to be a platform for the mothers of girls to compete, and which most of the boys ignored. And what was the point of it?

I am so glad all this is behind me now.

when I worked in a primary school and we had dressing up days I found it stressful as well! I didn't want to be boring and wear same outfit each year (apart from Roman or Victorian day)
I feel your pain 😘

I am not a fan of these days either but my son likes not wearing his uniform (which is very strict and more like a secondary school uniform).

I bought a load of make your own badges on Amazon for a few pound and we just make some badges and attach to normal clothes, job done. Yesterday he went as 10, he loves October as it's Halloween and his birthday so we did a number 10 badge and a few Halloween ones and a few birthday ones (used stickers on the badges). Took 5 minutes.

These things can be as stressful as we allow them, our school always says not to buy a costume etc... lots of people do. I do not. For my son the joy is not wearing a school shirt for the day, adding an elaborate, probably sweaty costume would just ruin his day.

At our school, Number Day -yesterday -was wear something ( anything) with numbers on or go as a rockstar (TTRockstars ). Most kids had felt pen numbers on old t-shirts, some ( me included) wore rockstar gear ie biker jacket/jeans or something sparkly. Some had bought stuff, but not many… and there were quite a few “6,7” tops😏
Some forgot.
It really doesn’t have to be elaborate! Same for Victorian, Egyptian, World Book Day… just think of something that requires jeans and a T-shirt if you really can’t do anything else, but at least you’re taking part ,, which is what matters. We never ask for anyone to go out of their way to buy/make stuff unless they want to!

Can't they simply wear their clothes inside out on number day? That way the size labels would show - and knowing your size (or quite often an age range on children's clothes) is an important use of numbers.

Numbers day was the easiest day. Just got an old t-shirt and wrote a lot of numbers on it in fabric markers. One time I just drew a Domino on a white t shirt.

That's far too sensible

It always used to cause anxiety in our house too. We don't do them at my school anymore, the odd non-uniform day or wear a certain colour day but nothing on a theme. Often families have enough stress and expense in their lives without schools adding to it with ridiculous ideas that haven't been thought through.

I hated it, my kids hated it (Both of my older kids didn't enjoy dressing up at all, even as the usual superhero or princess stuff). I used to just send them in plain clothes with a prop (like a number badge for number day) or something like a golden ticket for world book day. Props for the win.

My youngest has severe learning disability and autism and his school don't really participate in this stuff. Maybe the odd Pudsey day. It's sad in a way, but funnily enough I'm ok with it.

yr 4 and have never had a numbers day

tho have

world book day
Break rules day
Roman /egyptian/space etc day

school has a uniform online shop that can hire costumes for £2/3

peopl who buy off amazon etc can sell to school for few pounds so it’s a win win

I found the way to relieve the stress about it was to buy something cheap off Amazon. I started off trying to be crafty, but I’m not great at it, the kids didn’t appreciate it and it took too much time for the result.

I get the issue with one off throw aways, though. Would there be anyway to get the school to tell you all the dress up days in advance and then the PTA could run a costume jumble sale at the beginning of term?

My DS hated dress up days. He would choose to go in his uniform. I told him to say he forgot if challenged by a teacher or so on.
DD was interested in a few times, book week esp. but I'd give her a deadline of 4 weeks prior so that I had time to find stuff (we'd go to charity shops). I think she gave up on it when she saw how much effort she had to make for it (trawling through charity shops searching for particular items)
So glad all of that is behind us now

Secondary school has been a welcome relief from all this nonsense.

we had green day, red day, blue day, world book day, Halloween, pj day, odd sock day, mad hair day, sports day (always a different colour and a matching cap), Christmas jumper day and a mad scramble every Christmas for some random thing (pirate, lion, robot..) for the play. €2 donation for each, as well as the cost of clothing that often wasn’t worn again.

That was in addition to the spare change collection, multiple cake sales (requiring both cakes and cash), raffles (donate prizes and buy tickets), book sale, carol service, Christmas fair, sponsored walk, an annual dinner dance type fundraiser, and a “voluntary contribution” of €350