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AIBU?

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Original poster

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

181 replies

malificent7 · 01/03/2018 16:32

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!

OP posts:
PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 02/03/2018 13:22

Most of the kids at my DC's school love it. They've had a Book Week, and they're having their dressing up day today. Mine have had their costumes planned for weeks. The costumes just get added to the dressing up basket, I know DD will wear hers until she moves on from her Luna Lovegood obsession.

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 02/03/2018 13:31

george my DD will not go in a homemade costume. The children in homemade costumes don't get in the photo. 😢

Passportto · 02/03/2018 13:35

We always did "what costume do I have/can I make?" now "what book has that character in it?".

So when little a toy fireman's helmet went with a Fireman Sam book and later a solider (modern but so what?) went with War Horse or there are lots of books featuring footballers.

george49 · 02/03/2018 13:42

Perfectly then your problem is the school, not WBD

blackberryfairy · 02/03/2018 13:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

theEagleIsLost · 02/03/2018 13:52

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

They do if their school has a very restrictive list of characters.

Actually at their first primary school it worked well - they had a week of activities and by the end my children were desperate to read the books series or books by author chosen. I ended up buying a fair few books because of the school’s hard work.

Current primary school is just a picture – that’s it of the children who dressed up. Last year took the piss as it was one character – where Wally himself Hmm.

CavoliRiscaldati · 02/03/2018 14:22

luckylavender
you are a dear aren't you Grin

Far better to spend the time engaging with those books than pouring over the internet looking for ideas well yes, but you were complaining that it's TOO HARD to think about a costume, so posters were giving you ideas to make you life easier when you are stuck

God forbids kids have fun and enjoy themselves hey

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 02/03/2018 14:26

I have no problem george, my DC went as the characters they wanted to go as, they'll use the costumes for months, DD will probably change into hers every day after school, no problem at all.

blackberryfairy, we're all quite happy with my DC's costumes, which is the point. They've inspired lots of jokes on the way to school about King's Cross being covered in snow, so no Hogwart's Express, we'll have to take the Ford Anglia, etc.

upsideup · 02/03/2018 14:34

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.

2 of my children chose characters from looking online that were from books they had never read before, I then went and bought them the books and we they/read the books, thats the 'fucking' point. I think deciding to dress up as a character from a book you havnt read fits perfectly with the idea of WBD, it encourages children to read a book they wouldnt normally go for and show an interest in that new book and the characters.

DoubleLottchen · 02/03/2018 14:51

My children love dressing up, it's fun!
And they had great fun devising their own costumes.

I asked DC1 what their favourite book was - answer Emil and the Detectives.

Me: ooh, good idea, what do you think Emil would wear then?
DC: A Sunday suit, and a coat with some money pinned inside the pocket, and a suitcase and a bunch of flowers.
Me: What will you wear for a Sunday suit?
DC: I can just wear smart trousers and a shirt and a tie.

We did actually find a smart jacket in the charity shop, so bought that, but the trousers and just shirt and tie would have been fine. We made a suitcase by sticking a handle onto a cardboard box. Point is, parents don't need to be trawling the internet and buying costumes - make your DC do it themselves! OK, maybe not if they are 4 - though they can probably do something - but older children should be able to problem-solve and come up with something, surely.
Mine are hardly geniuses, and they managed it with a few seconds thought.

blackberryfairy · 02/03/2018 15:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

spiney · 02/03/2018 15:36

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. ...................................Far better to spend the time engaging with those books than pouring over the internet looking for ideas.

Seen it all now.

Right, because we're all inflicting unheard of costumes on our kids. And obvs not doing the reading or anything.Not.

I repeat my question from earlier Lavender why do you spout this shit? Except this morning it was all about the costume makers "judging" everyone else. Yawn. Paranoid or something.

JassyRadlett · 02/03/2018 15:49

Far better to spend the time engaging with those books than pouring over the internet looking for ideas.

I’m still trying to figure out which part of ‘discussing books and characters and deciding which ones they like, and what they might wear’ isn’t ‘engaging with books’.

blackberryfairy · 02/03/2018 16:42

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheHungryDonkey · 02/03/2018 16:44

God that’s like when I was at a secondary school parents evening and a parent was slagging off the audio books. His daughter was excited about it. He pissed on her chips saying they were rubbish and children should be reading the actual books. He just looked like a wanker.

NotAgainYoda · 03/03/2018 08:51

Jassy/blackberry

Totally agree. So much snobbery about reading/books

NataliaOsipova · 03/03/2018 09:03

Why would you be cross about something that encourages making reading fun?

I wouldn't. But I honestly don't see how it makes reading fun. The author visits? Great - my kids were really enthused by those. The "get a token and choose a special book for free from your local bookshop" thing? Brilliant. But the dressing up thing has very little to do with it. Half the time they're dressed up like the film/Disney characters anyway. I really cannot see how any of it would actually encourage a child to read more.

Spikeyball · 03/03/2018 09:10

My son's book was one he had never read. I have to choose a costume that he will feel comfortable wearing that is similar to what he normally wears. The book comes second and he wouldn't get the connection even if it was one he had looked at. He likes looking at the other children's costumes but the book part is meaningless to him.

Belindabauer · 03/03/2018 09:16

It's suppose to be to foster an interest in reading
My kids were always given a voucher which they could exchange for a free book.
Some children never see adults reading for pleasure and it often has an adverse effect on their ability to read.
It's to try and make reading look fun and enjoyable.

x2boys · 03/03/2018 09:22

My son has autism and learning disabilities and goes to a special school he can't talk let alone read and has zero interest in books and I still have to dress him up Hmm

falsepriest · 03/03/2018 10:09

Bloody kids, going to school and having FUN. In my day we walked backwards in the snow uphill just to ask Sir to give us the cane.

CavoliRiscaldati · 03/03/2018 10:22

you are lucky, in my day kids were sent down the mines or up to the mill and it was lash and stale bread

NotAgainYoda · 03/03/2018 10:51

Natalia

The dressing up is part of creating a special/unusual day.

ApproachingATunnel · 03/03/2018 11:02

If kids like it then it’s fun for them. My child hates dressing up and always goes in uniform- if asked why the answer is ‘im dressed as myself from ‘The Story of my life’’. I think it’s greatGrin

ScrumpyBetty · 03/03/2018 11:03

Well my DS was hoing to go as George from George's Marvellous Medicine. Normal clothes and an empty medicine bottle with a label saying 'Marvellous Medicine ' on it. We were snowed in as it happens and rather disappointed. I still remember the magic of reading a Roald Dahl book for the first time when I was little, and I think anything to promote books and reading in this age of tablets, facebook, Netflix, etc is a good thing (she says looking guilty at pile of unread books on bedside table while she uses mumsnet on her phone😅)