AIBU to hate school dress up days

[Lonecatwithkitten]

We have had notification that children in need will be a dress up day with the theme superheroes. Why oh why can they not pick an option which enables the wearing of home clothes.

I am a lone parent running my own business that offers 24/7 emergency care to be frank I have enough to do as it is.

I'm in the '£10 costume from the supermarket' club. I have neither the time, energy nor the inclination to make costumes from scratch.

YANBU

They are an utter waste of time and money, and serve no purpose whatsoever. If you're the kind of parent who has the time and/or the inclination to come up with costumes then great, but that should be something for play at home, not school.

Black clothes, eyeliner cat whiskers or cheap hallowe'en mask and a tail made from old tights stuffed with paper. Cat woman!!

Nice one leopard and another suggestion eminently achievable by a 10 year old.

I feel there are two different strands to this....of course 10 yr old can sort something herself (but if everyone else tends to go in bought outfits then she may feel a little at her home made effort - although one of my DCs insists on bloody homemade).
Second strand - there does seem to be a thing about schools just doing the lazy 'dress up day' and the children (parents) having to sort the outfit and pay a quid on top. World Book day drives me insane....dress up as a book character...er - no; my eldest is perfectly capable of choosing and reading a book and write a review about it....much better idea thanks.

YANBU.

We had 'pink Friday' this week. We were told on Wednesday. It was to raise money for a breast cancer charity and apparently organised but the school council. The mailing said to wear pink, even just pink socks, a tie, anything pink!

We have 2 ds's and I am not a pink person at all (in fact even that's an understatement!). Pink Friday was not well received in this house to the extent that ds1 didn't want to go to school.

On Wednesday evening our ds's made pink loom bands and we were all feeling quite relaxed about it. On Thursday both ds's came home saying that look bands weren't allowed. Cue another breakdown from ds1 who is going through a difficult stage in terms of managing his emotions.

Since we as parents have had no formal communication from school to say that loom bands weren't allowed, I agreed that they could wear them. Both ds's went to school happy.

Ds1's was confiscated while ds2 was allowed to wear his all day . Ds1 said he's asked his teacher if they will have a blue day for a mans cancer!! (I have explained that men can suffer from breast cancer too).

YANBU to hate these days OP.

Superheroes is one of the easiest. Just put some underpants on over trousers! Voila Superman/woman.
Or cheap teeshirt with S drawn in pen on the front.
Or scrap of fabric pinned on shoulders to be a cape.
Or any of the other suggestions here.
If you really want to buy not make, CiN is November and after Halloween supermarkets may have costume bits reduced. They have masks and ears in one I went to recently.

I was very relieved last year when dd's school decided to do headdress only for WBD. I'm just now wondering/having an idea about some kind of local dress up day 'costume swap' noticeboard (online or physical)???

Hate them and I'm a teacher! Guilt really set in when dd2 (unbeknown to me) made dd3 a Dorothy costume for world book day because I said she could dress in black and be a cat. Dd2 went to fabric warehouse, bought and made outfit. Dd3 came in a couple of evenings before wearing it. I gave in and bought her some twinkly red shoes. Felt very bad.

It just showed me how much it means to dd3. I felt very bad.

Dd2 has lovely moments.

Do it memememum...I have halloween stuff needs a home.

Where the hell does one get fur fabric from? I'm not a crafty person - I just don't have that shit lying around the place ready to pluck out from my sewing collection, 50s housewife style. Don't have a printer to print off a mask either. Plus, I know my limitations. Don't get me wrong, I'm with the OP in that me and DS do lots of nice things together and I break my arse running around delivering him to various clubs etc. But I am shit at crafty things, can't sew and have zero creativity in that area. So all of this bollocks from school about dressing up is actually a source of real stress, and one that as a lone parent who works full time I actively resent.

going - as someone in the know, why, in the name of the wee man, do schools do these dress up days? We didn't have them when I was at school, and we all seem to have emerged unscathed and with fond childhood memories regardless.

Fur fabric? One has to locate and drive to a craft place, find somewhere to park, pay over the odds for a bit of material and parking charges, drive home, cut up the fur fabric, and make an outfit that will never, ever be used again. Should only take a few hours - so, of course, is easy peasy to do.

I really don't know, but I promise it wasn't my idea! It's always an extra pain as children often have unsuitable shoes for the playground, are cold or hot, fiddle all day, get upset when tiara/mask breaks....

Tip: join the PTA. At least that way you might get advance warning of the theme!

No, I draw the line at the PSA - these women are scary! Have done the Parent Council at each school and still do the Community Council, so feel like I do my bit. Most of the dress down/up days seem to be the brain child's of our various pupil groups - it would be great if the school limited them to 2 a year, and gave parents advance warning at the start of each academic year. That would give us time to get in the fur fabric and capes.

PTA at our school have nothing to do with these days. I've tried that (and now can't escape!)

YANBU. Neither of mine will have anything to do with it (both have ASD). DS2 is amused by other kids dressing up, but it's the wrong clothes for school and he doesn't understand it, anyhow.

Nah, PTA doesnt know about these things any sooner.

Reading this thread these days don't seen overly popular...teachers please take note...

Not with adults anyway ... Caboodle

Our school only recently started doing dressing up for book day when we got a new head. I moaned about it, but when we got to school my dd raced excitedly across the playground in her pig costume with her friend, so I changed my mind. I thought if she got that much fun from it it was worth the hassle really.

I'm not sure they are wildly popular with all the children either...some like them, some can't be arsed, and some actively dislike them. It all seems a bit pointless.

Interesting SirChenjin that's not the message I get from my class. One or two make just a token gesture because they can't arsed or dislike them, but the vast majority report they really like it.

Perhaps your class happens to fall into the 'some' category I mentioned.

How do you manage these days at your school? As in - how much notice do you give parents, how do you actively link them to learning, how do you demonstrate their value etc?

That's what annoys me most - 2 days notice for a day that isn't relevant to any of this terms learning, for a somewhat random charity and that is strongly biased towards girls (like it or not, pink is a colour that girls prefer and are more likely to have clothes in).