AIBU to be annoyed that school want us to buy even more clothes...

[FluffyAnimalsRule]

The DD school wants us to send the kids in dressed in bright coloured or patterned leggings for a cheering up dreary January day.

AIBU to resent having to buy new clothes every time the school has a whim for a way of dressing differently? - i don't have anything except dreary black and grey leggings for them. Every time there is a new idea for a dressing up day of some kind i have to buy something new. Last year they needed bright shorts and a cheery top for a summer's beach day theme. Neither of them had bright shorts - lots of dresses but no shorts (their choice, not mine) so i had to buy some.

Grrrr............

They have uniforms for a reason - let them wear them rather than me having to buy extra clothes all the time!

YANBU. And don't get me started about DSs school swimming lessons which required new swim shorts because he has to wear Speedo type trunks.

The pool require it apparently. Well not on the weekends they don't.

Luckily ASDA is cheap but this is a low income area and the lessons are only for 4 weeks. Grrr.

DO they own any coloured shorts? Just whack them over their black or grey leggings with a bright tshirt.

Who said anything about neglect?

Nobody, that’s what ‘imply’ means.

Careful Silverthorn

You don't want to imply neglect...

You got it 👏🏻👍🏻

Oh for goodness sake.

Please take your goading and incorrect inference elsewhere and stop being tiresome.

And also, irony. My work is complete.

I am a teacher and I hate these days at school because they do put pressure on the parents.

I always feel really sad for the children who do not dress up as they tend to get upset and feel excluded. Usually I try and find something for them to wear so they don't stand out as much.

How about using their normal tights and stick some stickers onto them? Fun for the kids to decorate and they'll come off at the end of the day so tights are not ruined.

Feedback to the school also. There are probably loads of parents who feel the same. The school might think they are being 'fun' not realising the pressure it puts on parents.

Put them in the bright shorts and tops over the dreary leggings.

I wouldn't buy anything new. Borrow something, buy from a charity shop, or adapt something you have. Could you tie dye some white leggings?

Even worse when they make a competition out of it. Our school ( primary) awards a prize to the child in each class with the best costume on World book day. Or rather to the child whose parents have made the most effort / spent the most on dressing their child...

I'm old, and very out of touch. But I have to ask: Why on earth do schools do this? I can't think of any good reason. I wouldn't consider that it would add to a child's understanding of .

I live in a supposedly wealthy town, but I know that there are families where both parents have to work full-time to afford the mortgage (often one commuting to London), families where there is a single parent working full-time, families that are in HA/Council accommodation doing their best with the assistance of tax credits and so on.

Surely, in this day and age, it's not too difficult for schools to realise that not all parents have the time or the money. Especially as they should have some idea of their pupils' home circumstances?

Don't buy something just for the day, I ignore days like this, luckily my DC never cared and I know there are always people who forget or chose to go in uniform.

The school is being massively unreasonable if they expect people to spend money for nothing

I'm glad my children are older now! I always gave them the choice when they were smaller. If they didn't want to wear yellow, purple, orange/silly hats/decorated wellies...then they didn't! Simple as. I really don't see the point in it!

Just send her in whatever coloured clothes she does have! Talk about a storm in a teacup.

I very much doubt many of the boys have brightly coloured or patterned leggings so they will not all be wearing that.

The best thing I ever did was buy £20 worth of assorted large stickers on Amazon. I have thousands of stickers and can do all sorts of stuff like this.

Gilly how could non uniform cost you a fortune? What do your kids wear in the long holidays? If they have enough clothes to get them through the summer and Christmas holidays they have enough to wear all term.

Your poor children have No bright clothes?
Bright just means not grey, navy or brown.

Do they have brightly coloured trainers by any chance?

YANBU, it’s ridiculous, thankfully our school are getting better and more sensible with these kind of requests, but at one point we couldn’t even just have the end of term disco without a stupid theme, ‘glow’ ‘big hair’ ‘harry potter’ etc... it just got more and more stupid, add that to ‘wear red for this’ day and ‘wear spots for that’, plus a billion different bloody charity sponsored crap.

I repeat OP, YADNBU!!

Looks like stickers is the way to go.

They do have bright clothes, but mainly tops and the dress code for the day states no plain jeans and they must wear their usual school tops.

Although I'm thinking about getting my little pony leggings from asda - at least they have the benefit that the kids love MLP and can wear them again. they will also clash horribly with their school tops and everyone around them will get a headache, but at least they'll be abiding by the dress code :)

The OP is not being unreasonable. Never mind any cost, the idea that January need be dreary is not the right message to give out. There can be many positive things to engage children in during winter. Even some of the negatives can be turned to something good, for example helping older people who can struggle in the winter.

And as for bright leggings- no school should be encouraging leggings at any time of year, any colour or style. They are clothing that no self-respecting person should ever wear.

Just to clarify:

• the dress code is bright and preferably bright patterned leggings
• it states no plain leggings or jeans
• it states bright colours and/or bright patterns
• they are not neglected and have plenty of bright clothes just not leggings as i prefer to buy them plain leggings and go for bright patterned tops so it's easier to mix and match

Evelyn

It's two if not three changes of clothes a day, wednesday she wears a onesie.
clothes worn for school are not what she wants to wear during the holidays as to her they are still school uniform.
I spent a fortune at Christmas on new boots, shoes, clothes, slippers, pj's, then all the tops, jeans, hoodies, t shirts.
it's just so much more of everything.

The uniform used to be so cheap and you could bu it from anywhere, Primark, Tesco, George etc.
Some of her friends have treble the amount she does and lots of designer labels. Luckily these don't bother her too much, she sets her own fashions.

I haven't rtft, sorry.

Do the DC wear their school uniform with the leggings underneath, or is it an own clothes day?

If the latter, just send them in something bright, it doesn't have to be leggings.

its school uniform apart from leggings, so school tops but home bottoms.