To think actually most children don't have plain black or brown t shirts?

[TennesseeDays]

DC are both in a school production next week.

School aren't asking us to make elaborate costumes, (which I am very grateful for!) Instead, they are making a big point about making things easier, so parents have been asked to provide a few "simple things that most children will already have at home".

DC1 needs plain black leggings and a plain black t shirt, DC2 needs plain black leggings and a plain brown t shirt. Brown, what child has a plain brown t shirt!

AIBU to think that those are actually quite unusual colours for plain t shirts? I am struggling to even find any in the shops.
I don't mind making a bit of effort for a costume, but I find it a bit galling that I am having to trawl the shops, and will probably end up having to buy plain white t shirts and dye them, while school has assumed everyone would have these things readily to hand.

Hands up if your child has a plain brown t shirt and where on earth did you get it from

And I definitely give more than a week's notice. I normally send the first costume letter out around 4-6 weeks in advance, if not earlier. Then a reminder before hand.

Mine would have black... Because of the various productions they've been in that frequently ask for a white or black t-shirt.
However hard they try to keep it easy, they can always get things that are basically easy but that child doesn't have. I can remember particularly with dd1 who was quite specific on what she wore, school asking for"grey school trousers and trainers". Every child has that, don't they?
Actually, no. She never wore trousers so only had skirts/pinafores and hated trainers.

DC primary has done assemblies mostly in black t-shirts for years. Our local variety store routinely stocks black shirts in kid sizes.

YANBU

What I don't understand is: if the school can provide the complicated bits of the costume, why don't they also provide the T shirts?

Surely it is more sensible for the school to buy a bunch of brown t shirts in age 4-5 (say) and keep them at school and use them for future plays, rather than asking a fresh set of parents to buy individual T shirts every year?

It's not a money thing, I don't mind paying the cost, but it's so wasteful of everyone's time and of course of the Tshirts themselves.

I always ask (and usually receive) to borrow bits from friends through facebook.

The school can provide any part of the costume minipie (or at least ours can). I just try to cut down on the money and time requirement on me by passing the buck to parents for the parts that I can. It's much quicker and cheaper to only buy the costumes that parents can't/won't source than to have to find every single one.

It's also a storage thing. My costume cupboard is only the size of a small room. It's one thing to store a (for example) Tinman or Toad costume in an average size. It's quite another to store a class set of identical t-shirts in every conceivable colour.

We've had this many times. Turned the tops inside out and cut out the labels. Job done.

I remember having to dress DS as a teddy bear for a teddy bear's picnic production. I bought the cheapest white cotton t-shirt I could find and some pyjama bottoms and dyed them chocolate brown in the kitchen sink. I'm surprised more schools don't actually suggest dyeing white t-shirts etc as no one has random "plain orange/yellow/black' t-shirts lying around.

Sorry OP you don't have ones to turn inside out I saw after! H&M are pretty good for plain Ts. Once had request for orange and green Ts so headed there. As mine get older we get lazier in terms of 'that'll do' and we keep a bag of random clothes for these surprise 'dress as a Victorian chimney sweep/giant sunflower' requests!

I got some fruit of the loom ones from amazon for about £2 each as my DTs team colour is black and they didn't have any. I bought a few random colours like red and green and yellow for future christmas/superhero/easter events.

YANBU.

We had this at Christmas - school asked for a plain black t-shirt and plain black trousers (not the uniform colour) at short notice. The black trousers were easy enough to find in supermarket school uniform sections, but it was a right PITA finding a plain black T-shirt. I never thought of turning a T-shirt inside out until seeing the tip above

But the really annoying bit? We went to the Christmas play, and DS1 wasn't even wearing the black T-shirt I eventually found. He was in his normal school uniform shirt

Mine have both colours entirely thanks to previous requests from school

Brown one was a polo from either Asda or Sainsburys, black one was from Peacocks, leggings were from Sports Direct.

Our kids have always needed black concert wear, so this problem doesn't faze me. You can get what you need at EBay.

Ds has a brown t shirt. It's fugly so naturally it's his favourite t shirt.

I agree - especially when you are told it is something you will have at home....it never is!!
Although I do have plain black tshirts and legging ...would be happy with that - but brown I agree a PIA. Especially for a girl...
I had the same- brown tshirt and brown trousers/leggings - 12 yrs ago (pre internet being so popular) I ended up phoning a multitude of shops to ask them - I got them from Ethel Austin (not sure they exist any more?)...the last shop I had on my list to phone -phew! I thought I was going to have to make something.
Then a year later she could have worn orange or brown - she told the school she would be wearing orange - I told the school she would be wearing brown and squeezed her in them I actually kept them for DD2 but so far no requests for all brown...they would be too small now anyway.

The black I can understand. My DD's have black leggings and plain shirts from h&m. But brown?! No one really wears brown tshirts do they... That's just weird.