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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to wish World Book Day should fuck the fuck off!

302 replies

Toraleistripe · 24/02/2016 18:56

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!

OP posts:
herecomesthsun · 24/02/2016 20:13

We have a supply of dressing up costumes off Ebay, we rummage and improvise for school stuff.

unexpectedworms · 24/02/2016 20:16

Horrid Henry gives me a good excuse not to cut DS's hair for a few weeks more. It's properly scruffy already: perfect!

ds2 (nursery) can just go as a ninja/ Spider-Man. Can't be bothered!

BuddyC4t · 24/02/2016 20:20

Going for burglar bill. Stripy top, flat cap, mask, sack made from a dyed pillow case. Done!

Havingitall · 24/02/2016 20:22

DS loves the Simpsons. Last year I put him in his Dad's jeans with a cushion down the front, a white vest with a short sleeved blue shirt, unbuttoned, over the top. We painted his face yellow with his sister's face paints and put a yellow swimming hat on him, with his (artistic) sister drawing on the side hair/eyebrows. He looked fantastic; I took a photo and emailed it to his grandparents and aunties with the subject heading "Doh!" All agreed he looked the part. So, he went off on the school bus while his sister went off to her school dressed as Divergent's Triss (combats and a scowl, basically).
Come 5pm I had to send another email, headed "Doh, Doh, Doh". Lovely DS attends a special needs school, unlike his sister, and it turned out their world book day for some buggeringly indecipherable reason was not until the following Friday. He had arrived on his school bus as Homer, with everyone else in school uniform Blush. I asked him what his teachers had said and he replied with a totally straight face, "Don't worry, we can wash it off"!!!
He was actually quite sanguine about the whole thing - the next week I sent him in as Homer again and he won first prize, so a tale with a happy ending.

whattimewillyoubeback · 24/02/2016 20:24

I remember a brilliant big red stripy hat for the Cat in the Hat.
And someone who had twins and wrote Thing 1 and Thing 2 on their T shirts.
Willy Wonka is not too hard, a top hat, a waistcoat and five golden tickets made out of gold card.
At our school bought costumes never won the prize. Home made ones are more fun and much cheaper.
I can't wait to be a grandma and do the whole thing again.

IdaJones · 24/02/2016 20:26

It's one of those things where whatever you do is wrong so you might as well not worry about it.
Shop bought costume?
Lazy, non eco friendly, extravagent, putting other mums (always mums) to shame.
Hand sewn?
Show off, putting other mums to shame
Jeans and t shirt
Couldn't be bothered, might make kids in extravagent costumes feel silly
School uniform
Your poor child!

thegiddylimit · 24/02/2016 20:27

DD1 wants to be Hermione Granger and wouldn't wear my old Oxford cloak so we had to buy a costume. At least they are easy to find.

DD2 wants to be The Reindeer Girl, it's impossible to get a dressing up Sami outfit so we're negotiating an alternative. She always wants to be something from a book she loves which is great but makes things difficult to find the outfit.

ElizabethG81 · 24/02/2016 20:32

I was hoping to get away with fancy dress outfits that mine have already got, but NO, our nursery has got a fucking theme this year - they have to go as a character from a Julia Donaldson book. FFS.

SharkSkinThing · 24/02/2016 20:34

Horrid Henry....I'm all over that idea! Thanks, unexpected!

Paddington can fuck the fuck off!

Minipie - Tiger who Came for Tea?

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties · 24/02/2016 20:35

HackerFucker What about the mouse from Gruffalo , Cat in the Hat, The Tiger That Came To Tea or Tim from Topsy and Tim?

happydollplease · 24/02/2016 20:36

Hate it. My 3 year old hates dressing up as it is and they've narrowed the choice down with a Roald Dahl theme. I can just see 50 Matilda's at school next week!

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties · 24/02/2016 20:38

Lion ideas: Aslan from Narnia books or the cowardly lion from Wizard of Oz?

BitOutOfPractice · 24/02/2016 20:40

Any letter from the school that starts "we thought it would be nice..." used to give me the rage

MrsItsNoworNotatAll · 24/02/2016 20:42

It's shit.

EllieHJ · 24/02/2016 20:49

I can't bloody stand it either. My youngest has been in reception for less than two terms and they have had at least 8 dress up or mufti days (two of which I forgot). The last one was Maths day and they all had to dress up as pirates?! WTF. He'd just finished a nice bout of the sick bug which he gave to all of us and I forgot and sent him in uniform - he was miserable and I felt terrible. Luckily the teacher made him a pirate hat.

With the eldest we found an oversized coat and sent him in as one of the kids from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe - worked a treat and was easy.

Before I had 3 kids and wasn't running a business I once spent days making a Willy Wonka Chocolate Bar costume that was trashed by the time he got home. Sod that for a laugh.

Good luck with the outfit - just put them in home clothes and wing it.

elliejjtiny · 24/02/2016 20:53

Our school always say no costumes. So half the parents complain, saying they've already bought/made a costume. Then they say the day before that if they want to wear costumes they can. So the other half complain about the short notice. This year I've got 3 costumes to sort out so I hope they make up their minds soon.

ShoeWhore · 24/02/2016 20:53

Themes are a bloody nightmare - make it far too hard.

I'm too tight to go fully shop bought every time but too lazy to go for a full on homemade extravaganza either. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with WBD tbh. The kids love it though.

My top tip would be printing pictures off t'interweb, glueing onto card, cutting out and pinning to costume or stapling to a toilet roll tube to be slipped over the wrist.
Also start with whatever you already have and then come up with the character from that rather than the other way round. And don't worry about being fairly very very approximate.

Also I did buy a few basic ready made things that have come in handy for a few costumes: a Victorian urchin set of cap and waistcoat. Plus cat ears/tail and bunny ears. And a brown cape. And HP glasses.

A few easy ideas:
Tintin - white shirt, blue jumper, brown/red/whatever trousers tucked into long football socks, water pistol, gelled hair. Pic of Snowy printed off as above, worn on wrist.
White rabbit from Alice in Wonderland - waistcoat, bow tie, bunny ears, pic of a pocket watch printed off as above and safety pinned to costume. Draw on nose and whiskers. Cotton wool bunny tail on back of trousers if you can be bothered
Harry Potter - cape, school trousers, shirt and tie, HP glasses, lightning thing drawn on forehead, pic of Hedwig printed off and worn on wrist.
Oliver Twist - vaguely Victorian urchin looking clothes and bowl?
Cheshire cat - cat ears and tail, draw on nose and whiskers, plain black clothes, draw huge cartoon grin on cardboard and attach to stick.

KERALA1 · 24/02/2016 20:54

You all love it really. We'll be sad when they are surly teens

nattyknitter · 24/02/2016 20:55

For the poem one - wear purple and a red hat that doesn't go...

PastaLaFeasta · 24/02/2016 20:57

It's all boring Disney princesses here. First year we managed the witch from Room on the Broom, I was quite proud as it was all stuff already in the house. Now it's bought princess dresses which are boring, but I did some advanced planning and bought her costume for £9 as a Christmas gift. Last year's was also a Christmas gift but not purposely. It's princess dresses for any dressing up parties too, even if the theme is nothing at all princessy - do they grow out of this?

VoldysGoneMouldy · 24/02/2016 20:57

YABU.

I'm really excited about DS's costume Grin

fruitmedley · 24/02/2016 20:58

Both my boys (and loads of others) are going as Boy in a Dress. Very cheap dresses from primark, football socks and trainers. They also want me to paint their nails!

MyNameIsSuz · 24/02/2016 21:02

Oh my goodness, Burglar Bill is genius!

lalaloopyhead · 24/02/2016 21:09

Dds school ditched the dressing up a couple of years ago, great.....no! Replaced by make your favourite character out of a potato, followed by make a scene in a box...I would now welcome back the dressing up option!!!!!! YAabsolutelyNU

ExAstris · 24/02/2016 21:12

Poem character - ghost isn't too hard, right? Or Colonel Fazackerly himself if you can do a monocle.

COLONEL FAZACKERLEY BUTTERWORTH-TOAST
by
Charles Causley

Colonel Fazackerley Butterworth-Toast
Bought an old castle complete with a ghost,
But someone or other forgot to declare
To Colonel Fazak that the spectre was there.

On the very first evening, while waiting to dine,
The Colonel was taking a fine sherry wine,
When the ghost, with a furious flash and a flare,
Shot out of the chimney and shivered, 'Beware!'

Colonel Fazackerley put down his glass
And said, 'My dear fellow, that's really first class!
I just can't conceive how you do it at all.
I imagine you're going to a Fancy Dress Ball?'

At this, the dread ghost made a withering cry.
Said the Colonel (his monocle firm in his eye),
'Now just how you do it, I wish I could think.
Do sit down and tell me, and please have a drink.'

The ghost in his phosphorous cloak gave a roar
And floated about between ceiling and floor.
He walked through a wall and returned through a pane
And backed up the chimney and came down again.

Said the Colonel, 'With laughter I'm feeling quite weak!'
(As trickles of merriment ran down his cheek).
'My house-warming party I hope you won't spurn.
You MUST say you'll come and you'll give us a turn!'

At this, the poor spectre - quite out of his wits -
Proceeded to shake himself almost to bits.
He rattled his chains and he clattered his bones
And he filled the whole castle with mumbles and moans.

But Colonel Fazackerley, just as before,
Was simply delighted and called out, 'Encore!'
At which the ghost vanished, his efforts in vain,
And never was seen at the castle again.

'Oh dear, what a pity!' said Colonel Fazak.
'I don't know his name, so I can't call him back.'
And then with a smile that was hard to define,
Colonel Fazackerley went in to dine.

Love that poem!

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