Feminist Pub XVIII, in which the Bluestocking greets the first signs of spring with a glass of something soothing

I've just had a poignant moment where I realized how much I am out of touch with my homeland. I'd completely forgotten about the bank holiday. Completely immersed in US time and hadn't even remembered it existed.

I can remember going to stay with my aunt in Italy when I was a teenager. It was April and about 25C, so I wore shorts and summer dresses. My aunt said that the local women wouldn't take their tights off until late May whatever the weather - it just wasn't done

Try living in Germany! It was 20 degrees out the other day and other mums were surprised that DS was in a t-shirt and shorts. A few weeks ago, it was freezing in the mornings but well over 10 degrees by the afternoon, yet the kindergarten had insisted they all put their rubber trousers on over their normal ones to play outside, plus all the outdoor clothes they'd brought in the morning - in DS' case, a jumper and coat and hat, over his t-shirt. Some of the kids were in long sleeved polo necks with vests!! Poor child. He says "PLEASE tell them I don't have to wear all of these clothes!"

I'll pass on your feedback to the Dove marketing team if you like (won't make any difference - they've already spent the budget on the ad you find annoying).

When DS was at his old school I used to have to hide his shorts during October half term to stop him wearing them in the face of similar disapproval.

Plenty of life left in this thread. I get told off for "letting" DS wear shorts in the winter. He chooses what he bloody wants to wear. Honestly.

My DC wear their scruffy clothes for mufti day.

Is there a lawyer around? If I use Dove shower cream and don't feel that my skin is softer and smoother after just one shower can I sue them? Bloody advert is driving me up the wall.

New pub for the bank holiday weekend!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/2369090-Feminist-pub-XIX-The-Bluestocking-meanders-into-May

I'm going to miss DS wearing shorts all year round (he needs long trousers and a blazer from September). He always goes through the knees of his trousers.

Mind you, DD (10) is rebelling against her summer uniform this year - apparently 10 year olds don't wear stripy summer dresses.

DS had a mufti day today - I find that much more difficult than uniform (he lives in Primark jogging bottoms at the weekend, but these are deemed too scruffy for mufti).

I agree with everything else said about uniform, though, and I'm glad I don't have to buy DS one.

LOL! I think I've probably thought about it too. I like that sort of dresses.

Oh, I used to love the gingham dresses at primary school. Something about the material and the edges. I wish I could wear one as an adult actually, but it would look silly!

I saw bits of it briefly but switched over. Couldn't face it ...

Did anyone else watch Reggie Yates Extreme Russia?

In particular 'Teen Model Factory'?

I feel so sad & numb after seeing that.......... we have a long, long way to go to destroy the patriarchy.

This was just a technical screening; there will probably be a full day in too.

When will you hear if you got it fib? Good to hear you killed the coding.

I still have it. I killed the coding exercise.

As for uniforms, maybe I am the odd one out but I was very grateful to wear one to school as on non-uniform days it was glaringly obvious that I lived in a very different world from my very wealthy classmates.

Sorry to go backover, but I watched The Grim Sleeper, recommended by lager
I noticed at one point his first wife was blamed for turning him into a woman hater, and then later his current wife, because if she didn't spend so much time away from home, he wouldn't have had the opportunities.

I was shocked to learn that after a conviction of possession, the right to vote, claim housing help and claim any welfare is removed, having a conviction makes getting a job difficult so what are people supposed to do to live? Wouldn't that scenario make people more likely to return to crime?

It was a grim but interesting watch, thanks for recommending lager

That was my experience too at school in France kickass. That said, I never minded school uniforms except for the one at the private school I went to for a couple of years, where as a teen I had to go to a woman's house and strip off to be measured up for tailored uniform while she and her (female) colleague commented on my body. Utterly humiliating

The thing is Nicked (and others), that where uniform is never worn, kids care less about what to wear each day. Yes, there are the few who are complete fashionistas, but those kids are the same about uniform anyway. I teach in a private school and you would think that it would be a fashion parade with labels everywhere, but it isn't at all. There's one or two each year who start to develop style etc, but I have never heard any kid being laughed at for cheap clothing (and we have some on assisted places who don't have much money at all, in a private school with wealthy kids) or wearing the same thing every day or anything like that. Beyond a bit of friendly banter (and it is good natured) about wearing different sports team kits, there are no problems between kids. Uniform just seemed to provide a load of opportunities - it divided those kids whose parents would let them break the rules from those whose parents insisted on sticking to them. Some families can't afford black shoes AND gym shoes, so their kids are constantly in trouble and doing detentions, or having to wear the hideous lumps of black plastic that the market sold super cheap.

I know that where non-uniform days are a big exciting thing, then the pressure is on, (and it costs money!), but never having uniform just keeps it much lower-stakes all round.

When I was younger, I hated the uniform itself, but was glad to have it at comprehensive school, we were poor and there's no way my mum would have been able to afford fashionable clothes, whenever we had non-uniform days she would let me stay at home, at juniors I remember getting teased for having nicks and ascot trainers instead of Nike and for wearing hand me down clothes from my best friend, so it was nice not to have that hassle at comp.

The PE kit though! Tiny skirts with "shorts" smaller than my knickers, suppose it's a step up from knickers and vest at primary school but still... the only thing PE helped me with was copying my Mums handwriting to forge notes.

Seriously DS1 must be a hamster in his past life the way he chews his clothes.

My DSs have opinions about which pair of shorts/trousers and what shirts they would wear but they all look the same to me and I don't care. But we just go to H&M and buy a few things once in a while. They are quite scruffy but hey ho. They look equally scruffy in their tattered and stained and patched school uniform ...

I like school uniforms a lot because I'm lazy and DD hates clothes shopping. In one sense she's a 'straightforward dresser' but OTOH she's going to have to have more than two identical pairs of black skinnies when she starts 6th form this autumn! And about 4 shirts and a couple of jumpers she'll actually wear, the result of me carefully trawling shops. (OTOH she's delighted she'll be able to wear Docs.)

I agree about school uniform. My DC are quite straightforward dressers, though, so I tend not to be able to say anything when people say that they like school uniforms because otherwise choosing what to wear in the morning would be a nightmare. Would it?

I hate school uniforms too. I think they are useful when you go out on trips and things so you can make sure you have your own pupils and haven't left any behind/gained extras, but for a lot of school thats the one time they aren't expected to wear their uniforms I agree that they cause a lot of problems, I spend a lot of time telling pupils to do up their ties and tuck their shirts in. Dd2 has the choice of wearing her gingham dress or sticking with the trousers she's worn all winter, so warm days she wears the dress (and most of the boys seem to wear their shorts those days) and cold days the whole school is dressed in trousers, with the occassional girl wearing a skirt with thick tights just like in the winter. That's the case with all the state schools round here, but the private one does expect everyone to shift to Summer uniform at Easter, so girls in gingham and boys in shorts, at least they're all equally freezing.