To suspect a causal relationship between effing World Book Day and family breakdown?

[Blu]

Long. No soplogies - I need to get this off my chest!
DS has a perfect Willy Wonka outfit. He decided last week that on no account would he go to school as WW and insisted that he wanted to go as a dinosaur from his dinosaur encyclopaedia. With sinking heart I agreed and did my best to rise to the occasion.
Bought tubular dishcloth roll from Halfords.
Spent Sunday with DS painting it all with brown and green dinosaur skin design.

Got up at 5.30 a.m (after late work meetings last night and Monday night). Struggled to sew it all together - tubular body, sleeves with carboard claws made by DS, tail, stuffed with slightly inflated Tesco bags to give bulk without drag-it-down weight. Ruched the tail up by sewing along it, giving it a pleasing upward curl.

DO comes in and makes coffee, muttering about why don't I reduce my hours and concentrate on parenting a bit more.

DS puts on outfit - it looks much better than I imagined it could.

DS gets out onto the doorstep to leave for schol. Stops. "I don't think I really want to go as any sort of character".

DP tells him he looks good, DS is adamant and starts to take off Authentic Iguanadon outfit.

DP whisks him upstairs and returns 5 seconds later with blue IKEA knight cape and Narnia book.

"He's going as Peter or Edmund from Narnia".

We stomp off to school. 4 other boys are in IKEA knight outfits. No-one has anyhting half as good as an anatomically correct home-made Iguanadon.

I return home with the intention of putting DS into care, divorcing DP, sending a letterbomb to the HQ of World effing Book Day, and committing myself to a mental health establishment for treatment of the effcts of these initiatives on anyone who is a WOHP, single parent, SAHM with smaller children in the home to care for, SN children to care for or anyone even slightly creatively challenged.

A miniture wardrobe? Im-pressed!

Oh thank you all, you have made me laugh and/or burtured my self-righteous indignation.
thank you for the badge, Bugsy.
You have all made me laugh. I was laughing too - a bit - so don't worry about sniggering at my expense!

yes, Batters, please DO give him a look - but i might put your DP in charge of werewolf etc sotumes in our house, too!

And yes, clues to a book would be much more educational

I knew when i read that post about a homwork pheasant while Ds was still a toddler that the school years would send me to the edge!
Shall I advertise the iguanadon costume on the For Sale boards?

Blu - you should re-craft the Authentic Iguanadon and wear it yourself to meet them this afternoon.

DS tried to change his mind about Captain Patch after I had spent most of the night making it - fortunately this was Tuesday so I had time to talk him back into it. Then proceeded to hype it for the rest of the week to stop him wimping out. Had he tried it this morning, he would have got "costume or school uniform" - at your DP for letting DS get away with it - come to think of it, maybe DP should be made to wear the AI!

Forgot to mention in my earlier moanathon that my pager went off at 10 pm last night, so I had to fix a computer fail and rerun an accounts update. And that both last night while DH was contemplating his fantasy football team and this morning I had to persuade DD that she couldn't wear her Snow White costume to nursery.

Blu don't advertise it now. Wait 51 and a half weeks and you are sure to get a much inflated price.

God poor you and big pat on the back for all that effort! Hopefully he can wear the outfit another time.

I hate all these blasted 'days' that we have or National Turnip Week or whatever.... its just getting silly and out of hand, puts too much pressure on parents and the children hardly take any notice of it anyway.

Good thinking Bozza.
The fantasy football scenario would have had my temper at inferno level - much sympathy!

Ex - it IS very stretchy.....oooh, yes, very tempting...noting more embarrassing than a costume with a tail than your Mum in a costume with a tail....

That takes me back to the nativity play. I spent a whole weekend fashioning a giant papier mache doves head by wrapping zillions of sticky bits of newspaper round a balloon, painting it, cutting out a face, sticking on millions of little white feathers adn a beak, making a feathery dress with wings.

DD got into position on stage, decided she couldn't breathe wearing it, and literally bounced it off the stage and into the audience.

Message withdrawn

Just don't tear it - as Bozza says, this time next year you will be able to name your price.

I think I may have DS a little too convinced that Mummy can make him anything at all. His choice for a potential Narnia-themed party?

... a beaver!!

Best WBD dressing up outfit I have ever done this morning. Book - The Awful Egyptians. Costume props - 2 rolls of white Andrex loo paper....and got wrapping. 8 year old's idea - not mine!

It does sound really stunning, blu. I do think ds was quite lucky not to be forcibly deposited into it and dragged to school after all that effort. Though perhaps it was wise to resist this temptation in case someone called the RSPCA to report a distressed and abused iguanadon sighting...

LOL.

My DS has gone as William Brown.

He is a schoolboy. In a school uniform. Just like DS's.

So go on Blu - did you?

I'm a bit as I foolishly said yes to play date for tonight - so now I don't get to go and see them all in their costumes.... or get feedback on my efforts

god, kids just don;t really get it do they? apparently dd discarded all her Burlar Betty props (torch, gloves, mask, hat, handbag of stolen goods) and went into assembly in, erm, a stripey t-shirt and black trousers.

This thread has cheered me up immensely! Our school are doing dressing up tomorrow (Friday) for World Book Day. My two girls are going as Charlie & Lola. Fine, all organised weeks ago and their costumes are all ready for the morning...... but presumably all hell will break lose tomorrow!

DS got to assembly and "forgot" who he was (as in his character, I think, but I wouldn't be too sure he didn't forget his name as well!) when they all had to say.

Spiderman it is next year, then!

Thank bloody god that ds was ordered to dress as a skateboarder, so a hoodie (which he has) and jeans and trainers, which he also has.

It really is homework for parents this dressing up business, pisses me off no end.

but funny thread!

RIGHT well to cap it all only 3 children in DS's class bothered. One was DS obviously, one was dressed in Snow White costume and the other DS has forgotten about. So all that aggro.....

"And Miss R only looked throughmy book she didn't read it"
"Well DS it did take us a week to read".

Is ours the only school that turns the whole bloody thing into a competition? There always has to be a prize for the "best" costume. Usually the one that has cost the most

No our school made it into a bloody competition too. I hate that. However when I picked up Ds I found that all the children had voted on the winner. There was only one winner and it was a child who has downs syndrome. I saw him coming out of school and he seemed really pleased. It made me feel that a really fantastic thing has come out of World Book Day for all the children in that school, and that the staff are helping the children to value difference.

God I am glad my school doesn't do this. They do celebrate world book day but we don't have to do anything and the kids get a book voucher each.

Ours was definitely not competitive. Not fair - I wanted to win something