Flame amnesty : have you ever taken another child's clothes

[Bleachedandscrubbed]

At my children's naice Middle class school in a naice Home Counties town, it seems that there are uniform thieves, cutting out labels and nicking the nice stuff.

Can someone explain to me the thought process, especially given that I've just paid about £6 for 4 polo shirts and £10 for two pairs of trousers? It's hardly enough to make oneself a thief for, so why do it? Can someone fess up and explain?

This happened to me. DD attended an expensive private school in a very naice middle class area. When I went to pick her up I knew straightaway that she was wearing a dress that didn't belong to her, it was extremely long and had a big tear in it. They'd been swimming that day and it'd obviously got mixed up. Their was no name label, spoke to teacher and she has no idea who it belonged to. We waited two days and no other parent came forward to say that their child was now wearing a smaller dress in immaculate condition with no tears. The teacher realised I wasn't impressed and checked the name labels on all the girls dresses and was able to find my DD's dress. Fail to believe that the other girls parents didn't notice esp considering the size and quality difference between the two dresses!

Wow! Picking up some labelling tips here for when DD starts school. I need to stock up on huge indelible ink pens, get practising my stitching and invest in some un-come-offable labels (I'm sure there is a proper word but I need more coffee).

Our clothes have all been labelled but have still gone missing! I'm beginning to think embroidered initials is the only way to go!!

We've got all the way through nurserys and to years 4 and 6 without losing anything permanently, apart from the odd pen or pencil, never clothing, plenty gets lost temporarily but it has always come back.

I have to say that as they have got older and do more of their own self care it would be easy for me to not realise we had someone else's sweatshirt for a couple of weeks, they rarely wear them for more than the short walk to school, pop them on coat pegs in the hall for the next day and only get washed infrequently. Not like in the early days wgen they were in the wash every dsy because of dinner spills. Anything I do find gets returned ASAP though.

Ds2 sometimes 'exchanges' items with other kids in his class, but they're usually returned within a month or so.

Except for the single, brand new Clarks shoe. If it had been the pair, I could've understood- but one? With his name still clearly written on the inner sole. That, of course, turned up the minute I'd given up and gone and bought an identical pair.

I have not, but my dc do it on regular basis. Like they pile up their jumpers in a playground, and then don't really look if they're taken their own. Its uniform and all looks the same. Thats one of the reasons why i resent uniforms. If they had their own clothes, its very unlikely that Johnny would accidentally put on a pink with yellow dots top, belonging to Rosie.

We've not lost anything at primary school, might have swapped unnamed cardigans once or twice but as long as they come home in something I'm not too bothered. I do do the trick with writing their names inside sleeves of expensive things like coats though.

Preschool however was a pain in the arse. I lost two pretty cardigans within two weeks. They weren't expensive but I was so pissed off. The lady that ran the preschool said her spare clothes always disappeared. Children would go home in spares and they'd never come back. I donated some lovely old clothes once, she said they'd all gone. I was really pissed off at that, I could have sold them or donated them to charity. How come other people seem to steal stuff but no bugger ever seems to donate stuff back?

One of the mums at school is convinced that people are targeting her dd. The funny thing though is that it's things like one shoe or one sock. Who steals one shoe or sock? She won't have it that her dd might have just lost it.

Those of you who hold on to clothes ready to return them if you get your own back... don't you think the other parent is doing the same?
I've been volunteering at my kids school on my day off, for 4 years now. The last couple of times I've asked the secretary if I can check the lost property box for one of our own jumpers, she's told me very pointedly to help myself. I look on the couple of unlabelled jumpers as my reward for all those Tuesday afternoons helping the paid teaching staff

And, btw I am alway and the amount of stuff in the lost property. Every couple of years they put it for sale cheaply at the summer fare and most of it sells (like the unlabelled helly hansen coat for a fiver that my friend beat me to last year!)

I think often people don't notice.

When dd2 was in year 1 she managed to exchange polo shirts with a lad near her. She had the pretty girlie ones with puffed sleeves and bumpy edgings. He (from a family of 3 boys) didn't
He wore it about 3 times before I collared his dm and asked to swap back. She was very that she hadn't noticed the name, he was even more when he realised he had a girls' one on.

i got so sick i got my sons surname embroiderd on the front under the school logo. Haven't lost one since.

One got returned almost in shreds so obv. the stealer (and it is theft if labeled) didn't want it anymore.

I've never lost any uniform or accidentally taken anyone's but dd2 did once eat and bring home someone's packed lunch.

The box was identical to hers and unnamed like hers.

She came out of school as a high as kite and ever so thankful for her jam sandwhich, sausage roll, fizzy pop and mars bar. She thought all of her christmases had come at once

We kept the lunch bag and I assume they kept ours. I still wonder what the child who got dd2's lunch thought of their 50 50 bread ham and salad sandwhich and mixed fruit salad with a bottle of water

We label lunch bags now. Dd2 was most upset when her lunch was normal the next day.

So far everything of DD1s that has been clearly labelled and lost has made it's way back, including the time a jumper had clearly made it's way home with someone else and been washed by them and returned as it smelt very strongly of someone else's washing powder.

One day when DD1 came out without her cardigan yet again, the TA did just tell me to take an unlabelled one from the pile at the back of the classroom.

I, for example, have got no idea how many uniform pieces we have. Things are often left at friends' houses, friends' cars, at school...

I have not taken (maybe kept for a few days when things were keft here) but lost loads, some may have been knicked but most have been forgotten by mine.

When DS was in reception, starting a month after his 4th birthday, he had 3 jumpers as he was still a messy eater. I had to go to the classroom on a regular basis to retrieve his clothes.

My DS has 'lost' so many jumpers, trousers, whole PE kits, plimsolls - generally when he gets changed from PE. His stuff has vanished when it is time to change back, and as it's the end of that day, the other kids have dressed and left so it isn't possible to get everyone to check they have the right stuff on. Even if labelled, it doesn't return.

I've searched the lost property box often, and teachers will come out and say 'If you find anything that fits with no name label, just take it'.

I felt awful when he kept complaining his brand new shoes felt tight for about a week after school started in September last year. I kept saying well your feet were measured, the leather will stretch they'll be okay. When I checked them, one was a new size 3 (correct) and one was a size 1 and clearly not new! Yet no one admitted they had the other size 3 so they could get the size 1 back, even though the teacher sent a letter out and asked all the kids in the class...

I have been guilty of this. First time was DS's last day at nursery (he was going to s closer one) and the staff dressed him in someone's jacket. My mum assumed I'd bought him a new jacket and never mentioned it. Then the jacket was left at my mums. A couple of weeks later she gave me it, and the mix up was realised. I put in the car and planned to drop it back at the nursery, but as it was out my way I never quite got round to returning it.

Another time my dd came home in her blazer and I hung it up, the weather changed and it remained in the wardrobe until the following spring, when I realised it wasn't her blazer !

Both times were totally accidental so I like to assume anything we lose is accidentally taken too

At least everything I've got is through merit hard work and honesty. I bet half of these middle class I grow my own veg and bake my own pie mummy's are sahm. Nothing against sahm but if a single mum dares to say she sah she's dragged over the coals. I can't stand daft women who think oh my husband's a Doctor. I'm so sucsessful. Erm no you're not your husbAnd is.

The only way is to write the name on the inside of the garment itself, not on the label. This will make your lost item less attractive to those who cut out labels.

We took another child's shoes on holiday for two weeks. Dc2 was lucky, the pair we had were slightly too big. His pair were two small on the other child. We didn't notice! Luckily nursery did. It was an accident. I think also it's down to children. Dc1 hasn't lost anything, dc2 already down a school fleece and has been at school a lot less time.

I label everything and write In sharpie up the arms. Plus buy colourful coats from unusual shops - uniqlo, Lands end. Etc. eBay.

Having a child who is highly disorganised (ASD) meant at one school that we lost nearly £300 worth of kit in coats, jumpers, lunch bags, PE kits and even bloody spare underwear he had his bag that a TA gave to another child without informing me (wouldn't have minded had they had told me)

It's disgusting and i think it's indicative of the school - it based on how they control parents access to areas and how they teach respect of property to the children. That school simply did not care that there was clearly a lot of stealing going on and from a child who needed support - in fact the school blamed him.
We moved from that school to a school four times the size and have never lost anything since. But they support him, teach the children respect of property and parents are not allowed into cloakrooms without a member of staff!

I got iron on labels for my boys stuff when they started school. Two jumpers each, the labels don't come off they are very secure.

One went missing so we asked the teachers to keep an eye out (only a small class of 10). Another child was found wearing our son's jumper with his name written in biro on the label . And when I mentioned it in passing to another parent, she said the other mum had said WE pinched HER jumper and put a label in it! Cheeky mare.

On the other hand, DTS1 has unfortunately had some soiling issues. On the odd occasion he's been caught when there's no spare pants in school (we do provide them but sometimes they've used them all and another accident has happened before we've been made aware), we've borrowed other pants. However we always buy a brand new pack to replace.

when my DD started at her very naice middle class school she "lost" 3 brand new cardis in 6 weeks. It was mid winter when she arrived at the school, so she would come out freezing cold. Each cardi had a lovingly hand sewed label inside (PFB). I looked in lost property and was moaning about careless kids and a parent said "Just take one in good nick in her size - everyone else does it" - this from a terribly, terribly posh Surrey mummy.

There is a reason that some people are well off - they think nothing of stealing from others.

I replaced all DDs cardis with sweatshirts, and found that sewing a label on the trim around the collar with a big zig zag in white cotton, visible from the back of the blue uniform, was an effective deterrent. Too difficult to unpick you see.... When DS2 left the school last year, 6 years after DD left, we still had some threadbare jumpers of DDs.

Might these work? (disclaimer: i've never tried them so dont know how well they last), they are permanent markers with ink thats invisible but glows under UV light.
www.amazon.co.uk/Permanent-Security-Markers-Complimentary-Blacklight/dp/B004W81JQU

I have a great image of someone turning up to the school with a big UV flashlight and watching one of the innocent-looking children light up like a christmas tree with the name of the real owner in huge big letters :D