To ask what IS the point of dressing up on world book day?

[malificent7]

Stressful and expensive for parents. Do they actually learn more by dressing up?
Do it make them think about books more or something?
Id much rather they did some book related activities on the day and perhaos a tiny bit of non expensive homework.

After all that stress and expense many schools were shut anyway. At 9 dd just wants to go in jeans and t shirt anyway.pah!

I've never bought an outfit for world book day. I'm still not a fan of it but I do try.

This year dd was going to go as the mouse in if you give a mouse a cookie. We already had a mouse pyjama one sie. I was going to give her a plastic beaker and some milk she can pour into it for a snack and a cookie that she was going to eat as part of her lunch and then draw some whiskers etc on her. Also take the book in.

Dd1 was going as the snow queen/elsa. She's got a blue dress, she has blonde hair anyway which I was going to plait and I've got some gloves that I had left over from Halloween and a tiara as well.

Schools shut anyway so won't be doing it.

Lavender you sound so bitter and super up tight about it all . Massive cliches about competitive parents posting on FB.

Does your bile apply to everyone who enjoys WBD and makes a costume? Or just the ones you know?

And of course you don't get a 'rosy glow' if your son does well at sports. Because the way you write it there's something quite nasty about even feeling it.

You sound like the most judgemental parent on here. Are you the one being super competitive on WBD then?

What are you like on sports day ? We all know you don't get competitive parenting around that.....😂

Yes what a load of crap.

Evidently not a reader lucky. Peter Pan is a book :)

Thank you George - the point I was making is that some children may never have read it. I've certainly stirred up the hornet's nest! Ah well.

I started quite a debate...i love the idea of World book day as a concept but the dressing up bit gas become a right pita now dd is in year 5. I think dressing up in reception/ infants ....fine...In juniours....no!

It's another faff . My friends school wanted fancy dress and THEMED CAKES for a year 4 chikd. ( parents make the cakes obs)

Why not do fav book show and tell, themed baking AT SCHOOL , quizes etc....

I guess my point us...World book day is a stress for ME...and yes that makes me a selfish, appauling mum! ( i teach English btw if that's at all relevant and i lice books!)

love books...blame the phone for spelling!

the point I was making is that some children may never have read it.

Don't think it's necessary to have read the book. Because it's about engaging with books generally.Some may not have many books.

You teach English?

My son used to love it at Primary. He went as Willy Wonka one year, Harry Potter another....and also as Snotlout from The How To Train Your Dragon books. He loved all of the books too. He was not a reader due to his autism but he loved the audiobooks. The PrimRy school made a huge deal of it all, book sellers came in, a writer and poet used to come in and the school used to do bacon sandwiches, cakes and tea/coffee for parents. The children helped with serving. They learned loads beyond the formal curriculum.

Obviously not all schools do things the same way but it was great at our school.

She hasn't read the book. She's 5. Peter Pan is a bit beyond her.

If you don't know right from left or are colour blind then I wouldn't mock you or keep saying, it's easy just do this. . I don't have the natural ability to translate all those ideas to a child.

You are being utterly and (very strangely) ridiculous. I can not believe you are insisting you couldn’t look at some books and find something vaguely resembling a character’s outfit in your house. That’s bullshit. You just didn’t want to. There is no “natural ability” required. Just inclination. Which you clearly never had. But don’t dress that up as if you have a fucking disability!

or are colour blind then I wouldn't mock you or keep saying, it's easy just do this.

Because being colour blinded is an actual medical diagnosis. Having an absent fancy dress gene isnt.

Evidently not a reader lucky. Peter Pan is a book

Actually it was originally written as a stage play.

It's just another pain in the neck activity for busy parents who have quite enough to do. If schools want kids to dress up they should provide the costumes themselves. Send them in as a plain clothes detective.

Wow raw nerves! And unpleasant swearing. All because I can't do Fancy Dress! And you call me uptight...

You can do fancy dress. You just don’t want to. Which is fine. But own it.

😂 @ unpleasant swearing. Are you 7?

No I can't!!!!! Argh!!!!!! That is a very unpleasant word especially to use to a stranger on the internet. Oh well.

Lucky,

I think there is a difference between 'finding something quite difficult, and not wanting to put in the - relatively considerable - effort it therefore requires' and 'genuinely being completely unable to do something'.

To give a personal example, I find creating fancy hairstyles, and doing make-up, very difficult indeed. I am allergic to makeup myself, and therefore have never used it. However, DD is a very able dancer who has performed from the age of 7. Thus, although it took me 3x as long to produce a result even 50% as good as that of more accomplished dance mums, I had to do it, and have learned. i still have no ability as a hairdresser or make-up artist, but i have painfully learned to do what i had to do, because i had no choice.

It sounds like your 'dressing up' thing is the same - you find it difficult, it would take you longer than it would take someone else, and you don't want to have to put in this extra effort. As WBD isn't compulsory, that's fine - you don't HAVE to do it, and therefore the effort of learning basic competence isn't worth it for you.

That isn't the same as being COMPLETELY UNABLE to do even a very basic costume however hard you try..

You can always do as I saw yesterday - a group of children wearing basic jeans and sweatshirt clothes, + toy dog, advertising themselves as 'The Famous 5'. Absolutely no skill required.

Of course you can. You absolutely can. Are you seriously expecting everyone to believe you can’t open your child’s wardrobe and select a top and a skirt or pair of trousers and dress your child? Really? Who normally dresses your child?

luckylavender

Do you manage to dress yourself and your children on a normal day in normal clothes? Do you manage to put them in sports clothes, smart clothes, school uniform, party clothes etc? If yes then of course you can get them dressed for WBD.
If you all have to hide in the house naked or pay someone to come everyday and dress you then maybe you have a point.

Ok I'm bowing out. You all know far more about me than I do about myself clearly. I've been clear that my offspring are past school age. I've also been clear that I always joined in. I believe that WBD is for children, so a parent choosing clothes out of the wardrobe for a child or from the internet, for a book the child has never heard of, let alone read is not the 'fucking' point. None of you get that. Yes of course the idea is to engage with books and reading, so the poster whose child saw another child dressed as Pippi Longstocking and then wanted to read the books has exactly the right idea. But if I chose a colourful dirndl skirt for my imaginary DD and put her hair in plaits and she asked why, it would be stupid of me to reply 'because you're going to school as Heidi, one of my favourite childhood books'. Far better to spend the time engaging with those books than pouring over the internet looking for ideas.

Oh yawn. You seem intent on presenting yourself as stupid and possessing zero imagination. I have no idea why but if that’s what pleases you fire away. Why anyone would want to appear so useless is beyond me.

lucky you're missing the point.

Nobody creates an outfit and makes their child wear it even if their child has never read the book, that's just stupid.

But I do know parents that have "steered" their child towards the simpler costume of their favourite characters ... so if a child likes Charlie and the Chocolate Factory then they have steered them towards dressing as Charlie rather than an Oompa Loompa or Willy Wonka or if they love Harry Potter they have steered them towards being Harry rather than Dumbledore as the costumes are easier to produce.

When it comes to WBD I ask DD for a few ideas of who she wants to be so I can get an idea of costume needs ... sometimes it's easy and we have the costume, sometimes I have most of the props/bits we need for the costume so I just have to buy/modify a few bits and other times it just isn't practical/possible at all. If it isn't possible then I won't say she can't dress up or force her to wear something I choose but I will try to steer her to another idea she likes but is less work.