to think that you cannot work full time and support your children's education?

[IslandGirlie]

I've tried to juggle FT work and 2 DCs, they are in Reception & Y1 and failing miserably!
This month I've missed a few school request/ preps for events & kids are having to rush to get things ready for said events. Teachers sending notes to remind things..
I feel like I'm not supporting them in their school work / not spending quality time with them.
Is it possible to be on top this and work full time? School sends at lest 1 email a day! Most days it's two!! There's is always a leaflet in the bag..
DH works full time too and he is helpful as much as he can do. I can't stop wondering that it's not possible to work FT and support children.
How do you do it?

Same here. I'd send them in in a home jumper with a cut out paper father christmas seleotaped to the front. Would do.

SheGot
We did splash out on a couple of Poundland Santa Hats for the vaguely festive mufti day just before the end of term. No chance of a Christmas jumper that would never be worn again.

Am at compulsory Christmas jumper.

And the educational purpose is...?

That's the $64,000 question bobo. This, incidentally, is the sort of thing I and I suspect plenty of others were referencing upthread when we talked about things that exclude children whilst demonstrating no proven educational value.

Like tan leggings.

Dear god, does everything have to be educational. My kids loved wearing the Christmas jumpers, hats etc. not expensive

I'd imagine that the educational purpose of Christmas Jumper day could be (depending on the age of the DC):

Raising money for charity and discussing how some people don't live as comfortable a life as others
Showing how it's nice for the school to come together as a community and have fun
Showing how the different symbolic images of christmas are used
Talking about the different colours used for Christmas (red/green etc)
Inviting children to discuss the story behind the jumper they are wearing e.g. Rudolph or santa etc.

Every day is a school day so they say and there is educational merit in everything.

That said they could have been more flexable and suggested that children could dress festively for example christmas jumper/in christmas colours or with tinsel or hair bands or socks or whatever.

I really don't think making children wear Christmas jumpers made by people on shit wages paid for by people also perhaps earning shit wages is a great idea.

Personal viewpoint, obviously.

do we think that not buying the jumpers would encourage the employers to pay more?

If people want to raise money for charity, they'd maybe be a bit better off asking for donations from people who haven't just shelled out twelve quid on an item of clothing that will be worn once.

Whether or not the jumpers are expensive depends entirely on how much money you've got and what price jumpers you have access to kilmiur. It's not really ok to make blanket statements about what constitutes expensive, because some people could buy a dozen of the things without even noticing and some people have £5 to last until Monday. And no, not everything has to be educational, but schools have no business doing unnecessary stuff that will exclude some DC when there's not even a proven benefit!

Whilst I am inclined to agree with that (apart from the 12 quid) Isn't it all about this though?:

www.textsanta.co.uk/

So donate to charity then. You can donate a larger amount if you don't have to buy a stupid fucking jumper. It's bollocks - all it does is encourage people to make pointless fucking gestures that make them feel as though they're doing something when in fact they're just wasting their fucking money.

Just before the end of term my boys were asked to come in Christmas themed clothes although parents were just told it was a non uniform day so I was only told about 2 minutes before leaving the house about the theme. So the only one bothered about trying to comply emptied all the Christmas stuff out and made do with a Santa hat. It all sounded quite voluntary and easy - no big deal. If schools make it competitive or compulsory that is when you get problems.

I have no problem with a school talking about the idea of giving and looking out for others who can't provide for themselves, which is what charity is about. I have a huge problem with schools looking to raise money for charity. If they want to teach charity they can do it without money. Our town does it by having the children donate their time to certain tasks in the Senior Citizen center and the local homeless shelter. Money should not come into it.

myotherusername All the points you have raised can be easily achieved without having parents give cash to the school for a charity fundraiser.

Funnily enough - I was talking to the cashier in the supermarket the other day ... just about general cost of Christmas, how it all mounts up. An older lady and she said really felt for a younger friend -they were really struggling this Christmas, 4 DC and their DH had lost his job etc etc- then she said the thing that reduced her friend to tears was an out of the blue request from the school for the DCs to wear Christmas jumpers - she didn't have £40 spare.
Thankfully our school don't do this...or I think I would say something.
It is OK to say just decorate a home jumper.
But my DCs wore hoodies -they didn't own jumpers. I would have had to buy jumpers for them to decorate... (They did get jumpers last year - but not 'Christmas jumpers' -ones they can wear them all Winter...and if necessary I would send them in those - not decorated! )
Also if you are feeling sensitive about money, that your DCs are missing out, like you have failed them -sending them to school with a bit of tinsel attached to their school jumper because you HAVE to - it is all you can afford when all their friends have 'proper' Christmas jumpers is probably going to make you feel a lot worse...
(And agree ...it is just encouraging more consumerism, more waste, more pressure ...another way of getting people to spend on something they don't really need ... - better let the DCs wear any home clothes and stick £1 (or more) in a charity tub - if their parents want /can afford to...)

yes I know want2b only the first thing I said related to charity. My post was in response to there being no educational benefit to wearing a christmas jumper - I was pointing out some examples of where there could be educational benefit.

I am neither promoting or complaining about charity events or dress up/down events in school, christmas themed or otherwise. I only have high school children now and they attend a school that has a policy of no dressdown events, ever, so it's of complete irrelevance to me. We give to chosen charities on a regular basis.

myotherusername I am in the very fortunate position where buying a Christmas jumper or two has no impact to us a family. I am also fully aware that it is an issue for other families to afford this. Education isn't about making families feel shame but about opening doors for the children from all families so they can have an opportunity to learn a skill that is in higher demand, therefore get paid enough to support themselves and any family they have in the future. Those examples of educational benefit that you list are all achievable without parents having to buy a Christmas jumper.

Even in Primark the reduced price Christmas jumpers are £8 each.

For a family with 4 DC that is GBP32. That is an awful lot of money to be spending on an item of clothing that is for a specific event and probably won't fit the following year.

It's the cost of a massive Christmas turkey dinner, really. It's just crazy, the whole thing.

....and I repeat, I wasn't recommending buying the jumpers, I was responding to the point about there being no educational value. I already said that the event could be more inclusive and just say to dress festively, ie. uniform with tinsel on it etc. My children went to a primary school with a huge proportion of kids on FSM. i was brought up on a rough council estate in the 60s and 70s in poverty. I know what it is like to go hungry and poorly dressed.

Again, not recommending buying fucking christmas jumpers, but surely if you have 4 DC they aren't all the same size so they can be handed down? it's not like a christmas jumper goes out of fashion.

myother - if you don't already have the jumpers you have to buy them in the first place...once you have them -yes of course you can hand them down -so next year it will be a lot less -probably just need one for the eldest... but the first year if you don't even have one...
(And as it was a surprise for the cashier's friend -I think this must be the first year - otherwise it would be an expected expense)

I know. i was referring to this: For a family with 4 DC that is GBP32. That is an awful lot of money to be spending on an item of clothing that is for a specific event and probably won't fit the following year.

i.e. If you have 4 DC then it might not fit the child it was bought for but will likely fit another child. And also you may actually be able to wear it again, maybe on like ermmm Christmas or to other christmas things/parties?

patiently waits for someone to say that the DC might be of different genders or have unusual age gaps or DC1 might be fat and DC2 skinny

I don't even know why I am still here arguing about christmas jumpers that I am not buying and don't care whether anyone else buys either....and on that note, I'm off to bed.