be furious with 'light-fingered' parents at dcs school?

[northernlurker]

Went to pick dd3 up from after school club today and her coat has gone. It's VERY distinctive and she loves it . She had it lunchtime, says she hung it up and by 5.30 it was gone. Checked the whole area, lost property and outside. I know what's happened - same thing that happend with a sunhat last year - some feckless idiot will have turned up at school pick up when it was raining without a coat, seen that hadn't been taken from the peg and has pinched it. Bet it will mysteriously reappear in a day or two. At least I hope so. I'd better not be there when they return it though - I had to take her home distraught, thankfully it had stopped raining by then. Of course worst case is they've just nicked it. Poor dd3 was so sad. She really loves that coat. Her name is in it btw.

It's not that distinctive, we have the same coat. It's a widely available brand. Perhaps a child has one at home and the person collecting thought this was their one.

Teachers can really only have two responses to this

1/ I will ask if anyone has taken it by mistake.
has to be mistake as heaven help the teacher that is perceived to think that a child/parent has stolen something.

2/ I will keep and eye out for it.
As the teacher cannot go through everyone's bag without someone complaining.

I don't expect the teacher to do anything. The children in the class are Year1/2 and I haven't seen a coat like this there. We'll see if it reappears.......

That coat is lovely, my friend's DD has it (not yours, obvs....)

I feel your pain NL its a pain in the hole. Only a couple of the many items that went missing from my kids over the years ever turned up.

The only one who never had anything go missing was dd with SN simply because she was obsessed with keeping her belongings next to her.

Theres a bransby coat on ebay

Oh this is so sad.

I am sorry for your dd, NL.

There are people about who think nothing of 'borrowing' another child's clothes/shoes/etc.

Sometimes it is the people who can most afford to buy their own, and assume no one else gives a monkeys...it is odd how they will spend as little as possible on uniform that is 3 sizes too big so that it 'lasts', though.
Same with taking another child's (named) scooter and leaving it in their garden for about 6 months. They think no one actually monitors their stuff, or cares if it goes missing as they can just take someone else's too.

I hope it comes back NL.

here

It might be good as a spare - was listed before yours went missing.

Is there Kali? It wasn't listed late yesterday was it?

Well it's a wet morning here, lucky dd3 has another raincoat to wear to school

Its the ine rooners has put. I had my stuff nicked loads and i was always blamed for loosing it. Now im thinking it wasnt actually me

x posted with Rooners. Thanks. Will keep an eye on that and see if ours comes back by Friday. That one has a different lining to ours - which was sort of cream but could be a good option.

I've sewn a few stitches of bright yellow thread into a visible seam on all of DS's uniform, in case someone pinches it. As the thread is sewn really tight, it's almost impossible to effectively remove, and even if they take out the name label, DS will be able to see if someone's wearing his stuff.

So what happens if your DC's stuff goes 'missing' (especially school logoed stuff which is very expensive) and you just say to the school 'nope, sorry I can't afford to replace that sweater, they will have to come in wearing one from home'? They'd surely have to let you? Or help towards the cost of a new one? Or something?

Obviously this isn't helpful in the cases of non school uniform items, but if the school enforce expensive uniforms then surely parents (in some cases) just can't afford to be shelling out over and over. Especially in the case with the lady whose son kept having his £12 school sunhat stolen?!

I've had this happen at nursery though. I sent DS in cold weather in a nice, thick, fleecy hooded top and it went. I bet whoever took it was delighted. What a bargain for them... I don't understand how people can steal from children. And it is stealing. I don't care if you don't notice at first and wash it and then notice. It isn't yours, so hand it back.

inmysparetime that's a really good idea! Which seams did you do it in and how noticeable is it? Could you explain further?

One of my DD's new school shoes went missing after PE just before Xmas, looked everywhere, 5 months it appears when teacher is cleaning up.

Do they not clean up more often.

People who take things probably think that other people do as well, and that it's how the world goes round. Scrotes.

My lovely niece went to nursery from 9 months. My sister learnt pretty quickly that she needed to be sent in Tu, George or Florence & Fred stuff. The first time stuff went missing she assumed was an accident, the second a coincidence, the third, she noticed that it was only pricier things that had disappeared. Whether it was staff or parents being given the wrong bag of soiled clothes and deciding to keep them or ebay them, they were gone for good. In two months three outfits vanished. Once she started sending her only in supermarket stuff, nothing went missing.

Sharpie marker, name scrawled over every concievable surface inside easy to lose items like coats, hats, cardigans, gloves, shoes, PE Kit... my dc are klutz's and i know some of the stuff that goes walkies is them losing it, but I also know some gets taken and not returned yes im looking at you woman whose child was blatantly in my dc's hat this summer

But it's a shame you have to send them in wearing supermarket stuff * havant because some of it is good, but a lot of it is total crap and bit great quality, so with stuff like t shirts and jumpers, at about £5-£8 each, I often end up replacing them, so I could have bought a vertbaudet jumper at £14 which would last, but ill end up buying 2 F&F jumpers at £8 each over the same period, because it won't wash well, or the seam will go all baggy or something, just so that it won't get nicked because it's a Tesco one!

It isn't much in it, but it does add up. The honest parents always end up getting seen off.

Inmysparetime, what a good idea. I'm going to do the same. DS1 has just started secondary school and has lots of expensive school-logo PE kit and I really don't want that stuff going missing.

He once had to take his watch (a Christmas gift from my sister) off for a swimming lesson and it was never seen again, despite me hunting high and low, asking at the office, asking the swimming teacher. I reckon someone took a fancy to it and pocketed it

It's funny I've had 4 kids go through Primary school and lost very little in the way of uniform, perhaps we have just been lucky! We've had a couple of fleeces go missing and someone accidently went home in my ds's school shoes but everything has been returned quickly within a day or so.

My sister had a mixture of stuff, as most of us do, with a few things from pricier places bought in the sales or given to her as gifts. I've no problem whatsoever with supermarket clothes. Apparently the thieves have! It meant that she had very lovely nightwear for the next 3 years as older relatives kept giving her mum clothes vouchers for her.

School wise, PE kit seems to go walkabout here but usually turns up within a week or two.