Not to make my children change out of school uniform after school

[gingerfrizz]

I've never made them and they've never bothered, and it seems to be the same with many of their friends too. With 5 kids it saves on washing too.

The 3 youngest girls will happily play in the garden or go on playdates after school; the only time it's been an issue is at softplay where they have to take ties off for H&S reasons.

The elder 2 girls will go out with friends after school or if home, will either do homework or slob around and don't seem bothered, often won't even take shoes or blazers off.

Odd, or the norm?

Oh shit, following what nalubeadsgirl said am I going to be in trouble for letting eldest DD go to cinema with her friends this evening and they were all still in school clothes

Nah never bothered to get them to change.

Ds (16) seems to like his uniform so much he sits around the house in his blazer and tie lol!! ( or puts his navy/ burgundy stripe dressing gown on and floats around like a teenage Noel coward!).

My children used to eat beautifully and without making any mess UNTIL they went to school. There it seems that they rush their dinner in order to go out to play/lunchtime club etc and are eating whilst talking (not concentrsating) to their friends.

I find the yoghurt spitting when you open the lid is not exclusive to any particular age group. Also, despite wearing coveralls, ds seems to manage to get paint/glue/whatever all over him too.

LeQ perhaps you should google it? I promise it won't damage you like some of the other things on here...

I don't see how it saves on washing. Wearing the uniform day in day out on weekdays would save on washing...but smell/be disgusting, unless you have the cleanest kids in the world? If you're providing a clean uniform every day...that is just as much washing?

I think everyone's free to choose what they do, but don't understand how it saves washing and maintains the same levels of cleanliness?

I'm always that anyone can get away without a fresh uniform every day! DS comes home filthy pretty much every day from lunch, playtime, painting... He's only Year 1 but I can't imagine it being any better any time soon. He's got five sets of uniform so I don't have to fret about getting Monday's uniform washed, dried and ironed in time for Thurs.

He wears it until bedtime unless we're going out anywhere, in which case he gets changed (and has a good scrub down with a flannel to make him vaguely presentable).

It probably doesn't maintain the same level of cleanliness but perhaps the point is whether that level of cleanliness is really necessary? We have a cult of cleanliness in this country imported from the Us I suspect. It's often a complete waste of water, energy and yes, time!

DS changes into jogging bottoms as soon as he's through the door but keeps his polo shirt on til bed. He wears a clean polo shirt every day and clean trousers every other day.

It saves on washing because my DS would get changed out of dirty school clothes into clean normal clothes and get them dirty before bedtime.

He is an actual dirt magnet.

It saves on washing because if the uniform is clean enough to be worn another day then it is. And anyway, surely it depends on the age of the child.
Is it more acceptable for teenagers to stay in uniform than younger children?

Mopswerver you sound like me! I hate the fact that at our Tesco there is a whole aisle and a half dedicated to cleaning products. I like to live in a clean house, sure, but not in a totally sterilised, smelling of fake scent environment.

And so many of the products are simply the same thing, but diluted or concentrated, and price changed accordingly. My cleaning kit consists of 5 things. I buy others only when and if absolutely necessary!

The amount of energy used and water (which is polluted with all these unecessary products) wasted is awful

As well as time wasted

Agree buttonmoon78. I am proud to say that I have never bought a Glade Plug-in!

My DS has a change of shirt and trousers everyday, other bits like tie and jumper get hung up stay in his school bag until found

Mine don't get home til gone 6 most nights and bedtime is 7:30 so there doesn't seem much point getting 2 sets of clothes dirty and wasting their relaxing time. Dd1 is extraordinarily un-grubby for a small child so she can usually get 2 days out of jumpers and dresses anyway. Dd2 is usually filthy but then will get more so in the hour she's watching tv or colouring (how is that even possible) so no point getting her changed.

gingerfrizz not if they were behaving no! ;)

It's just it has been known (more often than maybe parents realise actually!) that we get calls to say 'badly behaving children messing about in park' or 'children playing on scooters being a menace'....and we have to try and work out which child it was! (which in smaller schools is actually quite easy). Why let you child potentially get in trouble for something they do out of school?! Keep the reputation of the school clean :)

(though as I said last time, not saying at ALL that your children are poorly behaved!)

Something to do with, you're wearing the school uniform therefore you are still representing the school.

My 6 year old son gets changed as soon as he comes home except Friday's when he doesn't have to.

He's usually pretty clean so can get a couple of days out of his uniform. The clothes he changes into can usually be worn a couple of days too.

I always think he'll be more comfortable in other clothes.

It transpires that there are greater mingers in the world than my children; DD 13 and her friend went to another friend's for a sleepover last night - DD and friend have just returned, friend is still wearing yesterday's school clothes........!!

Bumping an old thread here, but my younger son (11) always gets changed as soon as he gets home from school, although my daughters (14 and 15) and older son (16) almost always keep their uniform on late into the evening. They usually swap their school sweatshirts for zip up hoodies and although the girls always keep their ties on, my older lad usually takes his off at some point and puts it in his pocket, and sometimes puts on joggers if going to the skatepark as he often does with his mates, although most of them as also seem to keep wearing their school shirts, although some without ties after school.