or are four school dressing up days in the space of 3 weeks too many (and a quick poll)?

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

Strictly speaking this should probably be in 'Primary school' section but as AIBU gets plenty of traffic and I really want to know whether my kids school is unusual...

Anyway, this week our primary school (where I have 2 children attending), has just had a Mardi Gras day requiring party clothes (yr1 only but that is my daughters year), the next day all cubs, brownies etc. could wear their uniforms to school, next week for world book day all children are to dress up in a Myths and Legends theme, the week after my sons year are doing an Egypt day and are required to wear Ancient Egyptian dress (which will be far from authentic considering the time of year!).

Now I like dressing up and quite enjoy finding costumes (though I am not going to have any joy trying to get ds to wear a plait and white shift!), but I am currently sahm with enough time and disposable income to manage this sort of thing. But what about all the people who do not enjoy/ cannot afford/ do not have the time for the process of gathering costumes? How are their children going to feel?

I think it is ott to have as many dress up days as we currently do at this school, as a Governor I will be raising this issue at the next meeting, but is this the norm at Primary school now? Am I being a spoil sport, do children need to be dressed up to learn properly or something?

When I was at school we managed to learn about Romans without actually dressing as a Centurion fgs! So am I a miserable git? Do all primary schools have umpteen dress up days each term (usually about 3-4 anyway)?

Way too many. I think there should be no more than one a term that is whole school, and maybe one other per class for project work a year. I would not be happy at that many. Although I don't really count thinking day/Baden Powell day as dressing up as such.

Thank the lord not!
I feel a right plonker on the rare occasions that I have to dress up and I dreaded it when my children were small.
Not being remotely handy with a needle and thread I found dress-up days a nightmare.

YANBU. sometimes my DC school has 2 close together and it annoys me. Once a term is enough, any more becomes a hassle and also detracts from the enjoyment imo. Bah humbug!

Too many.

Acceptable is provide costume for nativity/xmas play, wear something spotty/stripey/jeans for charity, one book or historical. ie 3 per year max.

Yes thinking day isn't really the same but I think part of the issue is communication to the parents that these days are happening - in the case of the Mardi Gras day I had one day notice in the form of a sentence on dd's homework sheet that I did not see. Fortunately for me I got a text from a friend warning me but other parents did not and so not everyone was dressed up. This happens often as all it takes is to miss a line in a newsletter and your child can be the odd one out.

I would slightly more generous with 4 a year, but 4 in a month is ridiculous. YANBU.

I agree one per term plus nativity is manageable and we are over that at the moment by some measure.

bump. So how many dressing up days do your primary schools have?

YANBU! Ridiculous!

When I worked full time I used to dread school 'events'. They were/are few and far between thankfully, but what you describe is ridiculous!

Now I am PT I can give much more thought and time to the non-uniform days, I enjoy doing it.

But not to the extent you describe, that's shocking, what are they thinking?

Surely your DC have '[arty' clothes - if not then just add glittr, and if they are in brownies / cubs then they already have those clothes.

Couldn't you make the myths / legend outfit the same as the Egyption?

Mine just goes in his favourite football/superhero outfit, regardless of the theme. He's happy and the school knows not to expect too much from me.

Mine HATES dressing up, he is on the autistic spectrum and always has a meltdown on dressing up days. I would completely freak if we had that many dressing up days! YANBU

It sounds like a pita, but it also sounds like you were unlucky to have to deal with all three - I'd imagine a large proportion of parents only had to deal with one or two. We've got a Carnival Mufti day on Friday, and I know that whatever years it is that are doing Romans and Egyptians (and Ancient Greeks iirc) dress up because I've seen them in the playground (classes here usually dress up like that on the days they present their work as an assembly to the rest of the school)

I'd be miffed if the school slammed us with a ridiculous amount of money raising Mufti days in a short space of time, but curriculum based ones are different (although I'd probably grumble about it )

All four, sorry!

YANBU what a faff all those dressing up days would drive me potty ,

Our school doesn't do 'whole school' days (apart from 3-4mufti days a year when we have to pay for the privilige of our DCs having major strops because they haven't got the latest must-have fashion accessory )
However, each year group has maybe 1-2 dress up days a year, usually related to the topic they are learning about - Roman, Viking, 17th Centruy, Tudor, Victorian, WW2 etc. The problem comes when you have more than 1 DC and their dress up days coincinde.
We normally have at least a couple of weeks notice of when costumes are required.

Too many, we had this last term when I was heavily pregnant and also still at work, it made me want to scream. Ended up spending a fortune.

YANBU

YANBU-it's a bit much, although I don't count Thinking Day etc as "dressing up", it's just an alternative uniform

YABU, it's fun. I like my children having variation and topics and dressing up at school.

I do have dc who like making costumes, dressing up etc, so it's not a problem in our house. We are all pretty handy at turning a cardboard box and pair of tights into a costume.

My 10yo made her book day costume 6 months in advance this year. Unfortunately it's an enormous tortoise made out of a huge cardboard box, it's been in the way now since September and book day still isn't here.

I have 3 children at school and have to provide 6 outfits this month

Unfortunately none of which can be reused unless I can find a book about an Ancient Egyptian fairytale written by Roald Dahl.

fennel we get around 3 weeks notice, I had to make a monkey costume, a pizza, little bo peep and the final nail in the coffin when dd was a dove in the nativity, not a fecking sheep like everyone else, nothing I could just go buy in tesco, all whilst working 3 days a week trying to finish of my Msc work and 8 months pregnant, twas hell, hell I tell you.

The other thing that gets me is in 1 week ds had a teddy bears picnic, a non uniform day and a school trip all in the same week, how am I supposed to remember all this, tis a leetle much

And usually I enjoy a bit of craft.

Thank you for your replies - it helps to gain a bit of perspective.

Thank you for the suggestions for the costumes - I really do not have a personal issue with this as I have the time to source what I need and I quite enjoy it. BUT I do still think it is unnecessary to have quite so many in each term. Mardi Gras 'party clothes' day was not necessary as the children made masks and pancakes at school anyway - that was more in keeping with the theme than wearing party clothes and the lack of notice was an issue.

So is this usual? I am getting a mixed picture at the moment - maybe there are quite a few schools with a dressing up fetish then? As I say I don't want a ban - just a bit of restraint.