to think DD can just put up with paint stained school dresses?

[Adikia]

I put her dress on her this morning to discover there's a paint stain on it, her other dress has been stained for weeks and no amount of stain remover is working, she has a painting apron at school but no one ever checks she's put it on.

The second hand shop hasn't got anything that will fit DD and a new dress is £40 (not an easy to get style) she breaks up the beginning of next week and has to go back in winter uniform anyway, so she will probably grow out of it after only wearing it a week. Money is tight but as usual Grandma's got my birthday wrong and sent me a card with money in (mines the end of July, my brothers was last week, she always gets us the wrong way round) So I could buy a new dress but I was saving it to take DD and DS out.

So AIBU to think that she can just wear the stained dresses til the end of term? or are people going to judge?

Totally fine :). All her classmates are probably the same, especially if the school isn't good at checking the aprons. And they're only 5. Even my dds' secondary school has been taking a lenient line on their usual draconian skirt length rules at this end of term. Everybody knows that buying new stuff for rapidly-growing kids just before school breaks up would be madness.

(Yeah, and those prices are ridiculous!)

(It isn't that long since I took a black Sharpie and coloured in the scuff marks on school shoes ;) )

My kids wear white polo shirts, dd2 comes home covered in board marker most days and it doesn't seem to come out, I send her into school with stains, I can't afford to keep replacing uniform, she will get some new come September but I'm not buying anything for the last 2 weeks of school.

Ours were £28 (£5 from 2nd hand shop)

Dd wentvto school for 7 years in paint/marker pen stained dresses.

A bit of paint or dirt is positive, it shows that the child's been involved in creative play.

A lot of the point of uniform for littlies is hard wearing school use only clothes so they're not spoiling their regular clothes, even with full blown overalls on and close supervision it used to be amazing where my class could manage to get paint, glue, sand and any other messy substance they touched. My teacher clothes were usually nicely stained with permanent painty handprints by the end of term too no matter how often I washed them. I got stares in the supermarket on the way home, but no one at school gave a second glance.

The dress is clean and perfectly wearable for its purpose, school a place for children where everyone gets children so no one is going to think twice about it or judge, and it's only got to last another week. Of course that money should be spent on something more important! Go spend it guilt free

Suburban, they aren't generally just handed down to siblings, more sold at the school gates to parents with smaller children.

Hamuketsu, do sharpies work on school shoes? I've been polishing them to try to hide the scuff marks

OK: I have to ask because it's been bugging me.

What on God's good Earth is a sharpie?

I thought it must be an embroidery needle (sharp), but clearly not.
And where did it come from? Nevvererdovit up to a few days ago and now it's like a rash all over MN!

sharpie is a brand of permanent marker pen

Bless you, m'dear x

I shall sleep easier tonight

My ds2 is the same as Oddfod's son - whiteboard pen on every single top and jumper (even DS1's which he borrowed for his school photo day!) AND paint on his pe kit (which the school let him wear after school on art club day for some reason - apparently without an apron given the amount of paint that gets on white pe kit) which no amount of stain remover will shift - he is staying in those stained items till the end of term!

Yanbu (but if it's acrylic paint it's worth having a go at it with rubbing alcohol and an old toothbrush, even if stain remover has failed).

Either send her in in a stained dress, or buy one that is waaaaayyy to big for her, in the knowledge that she will grow into it at some point!!!!

Just get into the habit of throwing all school clothes into a bucket of cold water to soak over night. Better to be safe than sorry.

DS2's school shirts are particularly bad at the moment. HOW does he manage to get black felt tip over SOOOOO much of his shirt????!!!!! Even soaking doesn't get all of it out..... sigh.....

I wouldn't buy her a new one, but if it bothers you (don't worry about what other people think) does she have a winter uniform that still fits that you can put her in. If not, don't worry. In DD's class I have seen some girls in winter uniform and some in Summer.

Actually, that is a pet hate of mine. DD is only in reception and we were instructed to provide a painting apron or old shirt etc. DD says that she has NEVER worn hers, hence why a number of her jumpers/polo shirts/dresses have paint stains on them. Apparently they're never told to put them on!!

I had DD's painting apron home to wash at half term, there was one splodge of PVA glue on it and not a single drop of paint there are only 15 kids in her reception class and velcro painting aprons they can put on themselves, would it really be so much work for the teachers to say 'put your apron on'? DS' reception teacher managed it with twice as many kids, using old shirts she used to have to help them do up, he still managed to get paint up his sleeves occasionally but never once came home with paint all up his top, even when they did waterbombs full of paint in the playground (as a lesson, not DS being naughty).

My ds looks absolutely awful in his uniform, all white polo shirts are stained with marker or paint, and a couple barely reach the waist band of his shorts.
One pair of trousers has a small hole in, the other has pen stains.
His shoes have lasted from September but he has finally managed to scuff through the leather on one, so I have been colouring in the hole with a sharpie and when they have been polished, they don't look too bad, but combined with the above clothing.....

And the sleeves.... OMG the sleeves! It looks like they've been chewed on by a dog or something. My DSs have taken to gnawing on their sleeves. Now it's warm they've moved to gnawing on their ties.....

OP, I coloured in the scuff with the Sharpie - it didn't quite match the shade of black but darkened the area so that polishing over worked much better than just polishing over the scuff itself. Did the job for a couple of weeks, anyway .

Yes, what do they do to cuffs, not one of the DDs primary jumpers had intact cuffs.

At least secondary jumpers are darnable. There's not much you can do with ragged sweatshirt edges.

I can do ragged sweatshirt edges - my machine has a darning stitch that works a treat. At £7 each our school jumpers are not extortionate, but I would like them to last longer than 2 terms...

I've replaced cuffs a couple of times as well when they got too bad.

My DD is in plimsolls as I have refused to buy new shoes until September.

No of course not. At this stage of the year, I'd send DS in with big holes in his shoes! (Although his are actually fine).

Neither of mine chew their sleeves thank goodness, my sister was terrible for it, its just paint stains, completely ruined white socks where she insists on taking her shoes off in the playground and ripped tights in the winter where she pulls them up funny with DD, with DS its mud, ripped knees and completely destroyed shoes thanks to his football obsession.