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Original poster

Coat gone 'missing' from pre school

167 replies

lulubells · 26/11/2015 08:42

My daughters coat has mysteriously dissappeared from her nursery. The nursery say a parent or someone by have taken it home by accident. I'm totally WTF! I've written her name in it so fingers crossed it come back. Anyone else have any experience of this. I'm livid.

OP posts:
Goingtobeawesome · 26/11/2015 13:15

My 14 year old has list loads of stuff and does not care. It makes me Angry. Inspired by this thread I have phoned his school to request they make him go to lost property as he brought someone else's top home and doesn't have his for this week. Shorts haven't been seen for weeks. He's said nothing to me. A brand new top was nicked last year but school replaced it ten months later. DS will be livid at me ringing but I've had enough.

This thread also made me wonder if we should start a thread on here to report what is missing so that people can check if their child has extra. There's a fair chance something could be returned via the brilliance of mumsnet!

I'll start - Goggles
White PE top
Purple PE shorts
Yellow/blue stripes games top
....

ruthsmumkath · 26/11/2015 13:16

Once my daughter had her named 1 day old nice trainers taken from our gym crèche and a very very old nasty pair were the only ones left - never saw the new ones againConfused

LittleLionMansMummy · 26/11/2015 13:21

I 'lost' a box of champagne fudge I'd bought my parents back from a school trip. I was gutted and remember it to this day because I think they thought I'd eaten it

clam · 26/11/2015 13:27

It never fails to astound me the number of new, good-quality coats we find abandoned around the school that are not named! WHY do people not do this?

frumpet · 26/11/2015 13:31

I think sometimes it depends who collects the child , I remember my Dad bringing home DD from school for me when I was waiting for a plumber to come round . She merrily skipped through the door wearing a coat I had never seen before . Returned it to school the next morning and apologised profusely to the other mother . I imagine she had been calling the 'thief' all the names under the sun .

Strangertides1 · 26/11/2015 13:31

This has happened a few times with us. It's normally a parent or guardian who normally doesn't do pick ups collecting the wrong stuff by accident. I learnt this as a mum apologised to me, dad did the collection, lol! It always gets returned the following week. If it keeps happening ask the workers to keep her coat in the class room, plus don't buy expensive coats and always have a spare at home.

BollocksToThat1 · 26/11/2015 13:35

Buy cheap for school. Never ever take expensive items to school.

Labelling helps kids and parents but won't stop stealing.

Disturbing but true. I lived in a nurses home in the 80s and anything not red hot or nailed down was knicked.

I once had mince knicked out of a sodding frying pan. Angry

Topseyt · 26/11/2015 13:35

Don't waste your energy being "livid" or "fuming" or you will go insane.

It is the start of a very long road.

I am another who had whole PE kit go missing. It was a brand new one for my DD1 when she started secondary school. Was logoed, embroidered and only available from the specific supplier. Named and labelled throughout, but DD unpacked it on the school bus and left it there. She was 11 then and did get a dressing down from me about it.

I kept phoning the bus company and a week later got it back from their lost property office. Luckily for DD.

Various items have wandered over the years, and usually wandered back again if clearly named.

teatowel · 26/11/2015 13:41

I think secondary schools should just hand out a blazer as they go in in the morning. My son spent the whole of his school career in unnamed blazers from the lost property box. His (named one!) must have been being worn by somebody else!

ghostspirit · 26/11/2015 13:45

i agree thing do get lost thats just how it is... but i know of people who loose things. to then see another child wearing it a couple of weeks later. the parent knows its not theirs.. it happend to my friend. when the kids took their coats of she looked at the label on the coat and it had her sons name in it.

zipzap · 26/11/2015 13:50

ds2 has currently lost his games kit - sports teacher said that those doing after school clubs could leave their kit bags in the changing room. For the first time ever, ds2 was doing after school club (which is different from and not to be confused with the after school clubs) and thought that he needed to leave his pe kit in the changing room. A day later when he realised otherwise, it had gone and still hasn't turned up anywhere.

When ds1 was at infant school, he'd gone to school in his wellies as it was snowy, but they weren't there to come home in. A few days later, I did some hunting in the cloakroom and found them - another child had been wearing them. So spoke to the other child's mum to say that I was taking them back and that ds hadn't taken her child's wellies, so they must be around somewhere. Turned out that there was a third child with the same wellies, who had taken the other child's wellies. Other mum was really indignant that I wanted ds's wellies back straight away as other child had managed to end up with two pairs of wellies at home. She tried complaining to the teacher that it wasn't fair, that her ds would get wet feet etc and that as mine had managed for the last few days then he would be fine.

Needless to say I took the wellies and left her ranting.

spiderlight · 26/11/2015 14:06

The one time DH collected DS from nursery unsupervised, he came home wearing two identical scarves at the same time and completely the wrong hat. I made DH go straight back out (in the snow) to take the extra ones back in case another child would have to walk home freezing.

MERLYPUSSEDOFF · 26/11/2015 14:59

If you school has not strict uniform laws re coats, get them one form the charity shop. That way when it goes missing you've only lost £4.

I write my kids names in permanent marker on the inside rib at the neck, the label, the pocket linings, anywhere. WE have 'lost' four pe tops and were only yr3.

I know pieces get taken as I have watched mums size their kids up out of the lost property box and take it home.

You can't cut the neck off a sweat shirt to remove the name but you can unstitch a label. I've had stuff given to me with labels cut out or names scribbled out by the teacher - 'Is this xxx's top?'

The crappy ones get left in the box and the mean parents take the nice ones home.

THAT'S when you can get the arse about it.

HSMMaCM · 26/11/2015 15:01

DD lost her trainers 2 weeks into year 7. I made her pay for replacements to teach her to take more care. When she got all her work back at the end of year 11, she got her trainers back too. Several sizes too small and well worn (not by her).

PurpleCrazyHorse · 26/11/2015 15:22

We buy DD's school coats from eBay or car boots/charity shops. That way when they get damaged/lost it isn't the end of the world. In fact I get my MIL to buy them as she likes trawling around looking for them!

The things I worry about losing most are her school shoes as they're the most expensive things to replace (and a pain for us to get into town mid-week). Label everything but expect to lose cardigans, gloves, scarfs etc as standard.

middlings · 26/11/2015 15:25

Poor OP, she came on here cross for a bit of support and all she's got are stories about children sharing shoes and brass instruments.

Come back OP! Hope you've had a cuppa and managed to shrug this off. Likelihood is it will turn up - and I'm sure it was nice and cost a lot but I second the charity shop/ebay advice.

DD1 goes to pre-school in a very nice, barely worn, coat that I got on eBay for a fiver. DD2 will wear it next year!

MrsDeVere · 26/11/2015 15:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MummaB123 · 26/11/2015 15:47

My daughter got someone else's trousers sent home in her bag, as they'd all got muddy outside. So I washed them and took them back and said that her original pair weren't in there, so when another parent brought them back, could they let me have them. They had her name in them.
I couldn't believe it when the next week I saw another little girl wearing them. They were far too small for her too! How did her parents not know they were her trousers?!
I didn't have the nerve to say anything (how do you accuse a child of stealing your child's trousers?!), and I never got them back! I was furious!!!

Topseyt · 26/11/2015 16:06

I don't think anyone is having a go at the OP. Just saying that this is something that goes with the territory of having pre-school and school age children.

Irritating of course, but you soon learn that nothing that really matters or has any real value should go to school if you can possibly get away without, especially for very young children.

We've all been there and have the t-shirts.

TimeToMuskUp · 26/11/2015 16:08

DS1 is 10 now but in Reception (pre DS2) I walked him to and from school often with the dog. One afternoon he was struggling on the way home and I was a bit snappy with my "come on, hurry up" and it wasn't til we got home he mentioned his feet hurt. Now, DS1 is a big lad and wore a size 1 shoe when he began reception. His mate E had the exact same shoes, but in a size 10. They'd put the wrong shoes on after PE and poor DS1 had walked home in shoes 3 sizes too small while his evil kraken-mother yawped at him to hurry up.

Your entire life will be spent asking "But how could you have lost another shoe/coat/pair of trousers" so label everything and don't sweat it. Generally stuff turns up eventually.

MegaClutterSlut · 26/11/2015 16:41

My DC school every half term put lost property outside on a table for parents to go through. As I walked past one mum was grabbing handfuls of jumpers, coats, pe kits she didn't look in the clothes for labels so I know they don't belong to her and quickly walked off. By the time I managed to get to the reception to let staff know she was gone Hmm

Goingtobeawesome · 26/11/2015 16:48

It's no good saying buy cheap for school when there is a uniform.

amicissimma · 26/11/2015 16:49

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

mrsjanedoe · 26/11/2015 16:51

It's no good saying buy cheap for school when there is a uniform.

not in pre-school. (well, not around here at least).

In primary and secondary, state school uniforms are very cheap to be fair (again, around here). Private ones are a different game!

Goingtobeawesome · 26/11/2015 16:52

Not here they aren't.