to wish World Book Day should fuck the fuck off!

[Toraleistripe]

Grrrrrrrr. I'm hate it. I am all for celebrating reading and books but this yearly dress up activity at school drives me mad!

I have 2 Dc, they both want me to buy ready made costumes which will cost £30 or more! So not happening. I will still have to cobble something together though. I can't be arsed. We don't have anything. I have scoured the Internet for ideas. Kids either don't like the ideas or I don't have the stuff.

Sod off WBD!

toomuch we have to pay for the privilege too. That's another factor of why I don't care what the DC are wearing. Had to pay for Halloween, roald Dahl & only last week we baked cakes which were sold at playtime for fundraising. I don't mind, but do wish I could just send the DC with a contribution of £5-£10 per term and just get on with going to school.

Btw - I now keep a change jar in my bedroom for the 20p, 50p £1 requests.

"Her school insist on no shop brought costumes so it has to be home made."

That's enormously arrogant of them.

I'm so glad DSs school doesn't do this. Firstly we don't have a favourite character from a book so it's me imposing stuff on him. I'm always a bit at this - lots of parents must do a lot more bedtime reading than I do!!

However a pp was right:
Make the costume - show off
Buy the costume - lazy cow.

There's almost competitive can't be bothered-ness/what a drag/don't they know we are working parents about at my kids school as well.

I dared to make ds a costume for something last year and was scoffed at for being "that mum". When we got to the event one of the scoffing mums deliberately looked all puzzled and said "what are you supposed to be?" Fuck. Off.

Given enough notice and a broad enough remit, I quite enjoy russling up costumes. I usually manage to spend less than £3-4 per child.

However this WBD our DC have been asked to dress as a character from their favourite book, which has pushed our budget to around £15 per child. Fortunately we've had time to prepare. Our DC will also be paying a minimum donation of £1 each to the school library. I would usually send them in with more than the £1 each, but after spending £30 on outfits, won't be this year!

Honestly, schools can't win! For two years we did WBD but with no dressing up (the deputy head can't stand it!) and the parents did nothing but complain saying that we were killjoys (they even threatened to go to the press). This year we are doing the dressing up and we have already had complaints about having to find costumes!! WHAT DO YOU PEOPLE WANT???

You can have WBD a without dress up. Lots of other stuff to do.

I can understand the "please don't buy anything special" line but if I already have a shop bought donkey costume for nativity, why shouldn't I repurpose it as the Highway Rat's horse (or whatever)

The school I'm visiting next week isn't doing dressing up as they have booked a storyteller for children, interactive stories round a fire pit in the forest school isn't compatible with Elsa dresses or superhero costumes (both of which are highly flammable).

DD wanted to go as Dog Star this year but I have nowhere I can buy yellow fabric and no sewing machine, and the local costume shop would be extortionate even if they had a yellow dog costume. DS couldn't understand why he couldn't be Iron Man or Darth Vader. Hence why we ended up going to Sainsbury's.

Thanks ExAstris my aged brain remembered the name Colonel Fazackerly, but always thought he was from Old Possum. I read both at school.

Hygge we got exactly a week's notice.

On top of a costume to buy, and expectation of buying a book (from the overpriced sellers), now have to pay for a workshop!

How much is this day costing!

I would rather just buy my DC a new book

We still have no official word from the school this morning Bathsheba

My DS's teaching staff were "not sure" this morning when I asked them. They have another event going on today though, which required a particular item of clothing.

I found that out on Friday at almost 5pm, when a text came through saying children who owned this item of clothing could wear it today to take part in a special event.

We were halfway down the motorway, for a weekend away, in a place with no shops selling this sort of clothing and no wi-fi to order it.

So that was annoying. 5pm on a Friday night, giving notice for something quite particular and needed for 8:45am on a Monday morning.

Children who don't one this item can't take part. The mood in the playground this morning was not good. More than half of the school feeling excluded from something today and nobody having a clue about Thursday.

On the way home I spoke to a parent who had heard from another parent who heard from someone else that a teaching assistant in Year 3 had said that on Thursday the children can wear any character costume but also have to take in the book their character comes from.

I've started putting a costume together now, out of stuff we already own, in the hope that this is right.

Well our school has a theme this year it's to dress up as a character from Roald Dahl book because is this 100th birthday this year.

God I love MN sometimes. I have just spent £30 on a turquoise dress with a bow on the back from BHS with next day delivery for DD2 who is determined to be the Little Red Haired Girl from Peanuts. Sigh.

I spent my entire sunday trawling the shops in my local town looking for a fucking turquoise dress. I even met her teacher in one shop & I might have been slightly grumpy about WBD.

DD2 also has her class assembly, parents invited to watch, on WBD which adds a whole extra layer of stress for both DD2 & me.

I work in a fucking bookshop! None of this WBD shite encourages kids to read, however the £1 vouchers the kids can exchange for a book are hugely popular.

Ds has decided he wants to be fungus the bogeyman! That will teach me to let him choose

I'm so jealous of a lot of you. Our school tells us what book and DD's year is doing "Here Come the Aliens."

There is seriously not a single "easy" costume in there. DD is 6 and will be gutted not to dress up. But there aren't even any ready-made alien costumes that look like the illustrations in the book.

I bloody hate WBD as a parent and as a teacher. I won't be dressing up at work on Thursday as I find adults dressing up bizarre weird

Luckily DD1 and her friends have decided to go as The Sleepover Club this year - though she's slightly put out that I've insisted on getting changed into fresh PJ's rather than rolling out of bed and straight to school.

It will probably be the one day of the year when DD2 doesn't want to dress as a fairy/princess/witch/vet, etc.

Yes, it can sod, sod off!. Not only does my DS's school ask them to dress up but also they are meeting an author and have the 'opportunity' to buy his book, which costs £5.99!

And DS wants to be Gandalf and I really, really can't make things but a bought costume is around £25 and probably won't come in time. I offered him a dark purple duvet cover and to staple some cotton wool pads together to make a beard, but he declined.

Hate hate hate being forced to make costumes, not everyone can do this in a way that wouldn't be completely shit and very embarrassing for their DC.

Plus I'm looking after a baby full time and organising a PTA event this week so it's really the last thing I have time for.

So glad about this thread!!

Supermarkets are jumping on the WBD bandwagon now. Lots of books themed dress up outfits in stock. Instead of spending money on a book, spend it on an outfit that might be worn a couple of times .

My son's going as Tim from Topsy and Tim, in particular the book where it's their first day at school!

The supermarket costumes annoy me meglett At my sons nativity, all the angels bar one were in identical Tesco angel costumes.

I'm totally stuck. DS wants to recycle his Halloween get up as Edward Scissorhands but it wasn't really a book and school already think I'm the antichrist. I'm thinking of one of two Johns - Lydon or Christie

I work in a fucking bookshop! None of this WBD shite encourages kids to read, however the £1 vouchers the kids can exchange for a book are hugely popular.

^
This....
WBD is a form of collective insanity that causes a heap of stress with very little benefit.