Nursery - uniform?

[eatentoomanygrapes]

Our 2 year old has just started having his settle sessions at a nursery we’ve been on the waiting list for for a year. He was at a childminder previously.

Been very pleased so far with how it’s going aside from one thing — they’ve only just told us about branded jumpers and tops they want us to buy, and seem quite pushy on making us buy them.

All the other kids there were wearing them but as he’s gonna be there four days a week that either means buying four or constantly having to be washing tops.

I really don’t see the need for a two year old to have to wear a branded top for nursery, I’d rather he just wears whatever is clean, he has a whole wardrobe of tops, jumpers and t shirts.

I asked if they’re mandatory and she looked sort of surprised and said, well, no, but… and it seems like no one else has ever asked that question? I just sort of said we’d get back to her.

i suppose my question is — does your child wear a uniform to nursery?

My question to you was whether your kids T-shirts usually last more than one year? Your first post said about how you wouldn’t want to spend money on something they’d only wear for a year. Do your kids (specifically your nursery age children so age 2-3) clothes normally last more than a year?

I wouldn't have wanted my child to wear a uniform at nursery age
I wasn't precious about her normal clothes getting dirty either
So I would send her in in normal clothes if it's not compulsory

I bought DD’s nursery uniform (2 polos and a jumper for 3 days, so not crazy) and she’s pretty much the only one who wears it I think.

Pros:
adorable
saves ruining normal clothes
she knows where she’s going - can tell it’s a nursery day (fine on a good day)

Cons:
we already have a stash of nursery clothes so not necessary
she knows where she’s going - can tell it’s a nursery day (terrible on a bad day)

Tbh I’d rather my kids’ school didn’t have a uniform at all, or at least joggers rather than school trousers, so generally I’m more on the ‘no uniform’ side of things. So YANBU.

Yep I wore a nursery jumper 30 years ago. My primary school then didn’t have a uniform :)

My DD was in a nursery attached to a primary school.
They didn't do branded clothes small enough to fit anyway, so for her 3 rising 4 year I bought a plain sweatshirt in school colours (in size 2-3) and she wore that (to help indicate nursery days, see above)

I found uniform handy, just bought 5 tops and 2 jumpers, labelled them, passed them on to younger child

Is there a reason they need branded tops, eg because they often do walks/trips out?

My DCs wore branded nursery uniform - it helped them to differentiate between nursery days and home days.

Meant I didn’t have to worry about their nice clothes getting paint etc on them and meant that DD specifically was always suitably dressed for activities. Uniform wasn’t compulsory at their nursery and many kids didn’t wear it, but often it meant girls flouncing around in party dresses and not wanting to paint or do messy play due to keeping their clothes pristine, or having skirts riding up when they were in the park etc.

Our nursery was next to a public play park where they would go a couple of times a day. I imagine having them all in uniform would have made it easier to keep them all together and spot a runaway easier!

TBH you’re going to buy clothes for them to wear on those days either way, so they may as well be durable branded polos and sweatshirts instead of whatever you’d have bought them otherwise. Then their other clothes are for weekends and non nursery days.

As for needing a change, mine occasionally needed spare trousers but rarely a spare top, and if so they’d have a random old t shirt in their bag or use something from lost property for changing, that’s not an issue.

None of the ones near us do as far as I know. Ours certainly doesn't, if they take them out anywhere (it's a site with other things on it) they put them in branded hi Vis tabards but that's all.

Even the preschool attached to the school only suggests a light version of the school uniform and that's optional even then but we knew that in advance and adjusted our future buying plans for clothes in that size. If you've already got a wardrobe of stuff that's suitable then I'd crack on and then as you start needing to buy next size up generally then maybe review again?

Mine are 13 and 11 and had nursery uniform.
There was logo stuff... but plain was fine too.

And just on the 'saves own clothes getting messy' we simply have a system where if it's brand new it's for home, then when it starts looking a bit sad it goes in the nursery pile. Most of what she wears at nursery was stuff that got bought new and lightly worn for DD1, now it's been washed and faded it's fine for DD2 at nursery and she gets bought her own new stuff for at home as needed.

Most of her mates at nursery are in simple comfortable clothes, washed clean but with the odd stubborn paint stain, suncream marks on the neck, etc

DT’s started nursery in babygros and then wore older clothes, hand downs or cheap supermarket clothes. Eventually most of it ended up too stained for anything other than the bin.

I would buy the t-shirts. They get so stained with paint etc that it'll save their own clothes from getting ruined.

Our nursery has a uniform for the final year before they start school (they act like a school nursery and have all the kids in the same academic year together). It's a jumper and a t shirt with branding, I think. Not compulsory but I think most of the kids like wearing them.

He already has a bunch of clothes he wears to the childminder that I don’t mind getting ruined, so I do resent spending more money on clothes he doesn’t need, that I don’t even like — I’ve never liked polo shirts, and royal blue is a colour I’d never choose anyway. I’m not going to bother!

Private nursery no, school nursery yes. I just bought 1 branded cardigan (for photo day and any trips) then rest supermarket ones in school colour and a pack of plain polo T-shirts. Then she wore joggers or leggings with it. Apart from summer when I bought the gingham dresses, just cos she looked cute in them! 🤣

My son has just started pre-school attached to a school and he has to wear uniform, but they’re not overly strict on it. He attends 3 days a week and I bought two shirts and one jumper, one pair of shorts. He’ll be attending 5 days per week from January and so I’ll buy a few more clothing items before he increases his days. If his t-shirt isn’t dirty on his consecutive days he’ll repeat wear, but it’s not a huge chore to wash enough for the week ahead. I have no problem him wearing uniform and he looks super cute in it.

If its not compulsory then just politely say no thank you. It may be that other parents have felt coerced into buying the items because they didn't want their child to stand out. You can be the one to start a trend. Children spend long enough wearing often uncomfortable school clothes absolutely no need to start earlier than necessary.

At preschool (2.5 years) there was a jumper and tshirt , but not mandatory. DD had one branded T-shirt.

At nursery (attached to the school) it was full uniform. At least the bottoms were joggers.

@Bernadinetta

My older child at school - her branded school shirts and cardigan yes is wearing them for second year so that's ok
The twins are in the nursery attached to the school but the logo says nursery on it therefore they can't be worn when they start reception - so yes it's a complete waste

Agree with this.

Good clothes don't get wrecked, morning are much easier.

If it's not mandatory, I'd just smile politely every time they mention it and carry on NOT sending my kid in in the 'uniform'.