More is DD BU? A flipping tote bag??? For School???

[thatcoldfeeling]

DD is starting year 9. She has just showed me the bag she wants for next year. A flipping leather look tote bag.

Apparently "everyone has them in year 9".

Seriously, what the actual fuck is this nonsense?

Her school does not have lockers and she walks to after school sports several days a week. She really wants to carry all her books and sports stuff in a tote bag!? AIBU to be entirely baffled, generally wtf, and completely reluctant to go along with this!?

*Note - Have just had a flashback to the fashion at school when I was a teen for wearing a rucksack on one shoulder only. That was shit. Maybe I am BU and carrying your stuff around with self induced difficulty is a feature of being a teen!?!?

Changingname we must be similar ages - ours was also those Jane Norman bags. Most impractical things ever!

Messenger bags with tight shredding Velcro were also popular!

Ms jingly

Rock cakes are my favourite cakes!

Could someone post a picture of the tote bags that are the in thing now?

I have no idea what they look like!

Y8 and still happy with her backpack. Long may it last. She’s worse than me for having a couple of reading books, other books she could leave in her locker etc so it’s a dead weight. She’s still at that age/stage of ‘Who cares, it’s only school, I need a back pack’ It’ll be interesting to see how long it lasts as the older girls mostly seem to have fashion bags of varying types.

Oh and I was of the ‘back pack but only one shoulder’ era (and definitely NO raincoat, even when it was peeing down). Life’s short, let them have whatever style bag they want (& you can afford).

This thread reminds me of my horrible manager at Jane Norman. Some girls, ages about 14 I imagine, all bought a set of cheapo earrings in the sale. I bagged up in the small jewellery bags we had and one of the girls said to me, "can I have one of the big bags please?" I was only 19 myself at the time (I'm 31 now) and remember the agony of wanting a Jane Norman bag for p.e. I went to swap for the big bags and my
Manager came over and said no, we can't give out the bigger bags for small sales like that. I still feel bad for them girls, 12 years on 😂

As the teenager who's Mum never let her fit in, just get them what they want if it's in your budget and have a cheap, suitable backup ready. Life is hard enough at school.

Yes mine had school bags that I thought were unsuitable, but were the same as their friends. They survived, I'd let her have one.

DD begged for a tote bag last year. She got her wish and ended up most days with a supplementary carrier bag as she couldn't get everything to fit (and was insistent on taking Game of Thrones every day as her personal reader).
This week she announced she would be using a backpack for college!

Jane Norman bags n my time too. Pe kit carries n the bag that the bag came in, until it fell apart, then no more pe until your birthday

At our school they mostly have backpacks, Adidas or Fjallravens Kanken though, rarely anything else.

I work in a secondary school. Year seven they all have rucksacks from hype. Then from around year 9/10 it’s tote bags

Choose your battles op, it's a bag.

The fashions changed with each year when I was at school.

Y7 - briefcase (thanks mum)
Y8 - Head bag
Y9 - Benetton duffle
Y10 - leather shoulder bag plus River Island carrier
Y11 - hippy chic fabric backpack with leather straps
Y12 and 13 - retro satchel

Luckily DS has had a total of two school bags throughout his secondary career - a Vans backpack that eventually died, then a Superdry duffle that is still going strong after 3 years and him leaving school!

Be glad that it took until Y9. In DD’s primary school they started at the end of Y5.

We had a huge fight about it as Dd starts Secondary next months. Not only does she need to walk for 30 minutes she also will have to carry quite a lot (we looked into our neighbour’s school bag). They have lockers but not necessarily near their form room.

After lots of discussions we settled on a laptop backpack. Still fashionable enough but better for her back. DH who ended in hospital ones due to badly worn shoulder bags (fear of a heart attack) is determined her handbags are never heavier than a phone, keys and purse.

Dd (15) got one when she went shopping with grandparent 🙄😤. I'm just waiting for the day it falls apart and she can go back to a practical rucksack 😆

It's when they also refuse to wear a coat... in the winter... when it's tipping it down. Or wear one... in the height of summer... and refuse to take if off

Just be grateful she doesn't want Burberry at an oh so reasonable @ £1,000 🤣

Wombatron when the sodding rope used to rip through the hole after trying too squeeze too many text books into it 😂. Ohhh to be back at school and that be my biggest problem again. I'm 31 btw.

So glad my dd is going to a school with strict no handbag style bag. Rucksacks with two straps only. The school next door they all have them. They match well with the fake tan, eyebrows and barely there skirts that are acceptable there. Quite amusing after school one side of the rd look like normal kids. Other side look like they are going out on the lash.

You have cotton remain bags?! Where from? I want one! 😂😂

We had cotton satchels in the 80's. Better than the bloody expensive Kenken rucksack my DD favours now.

No one used backpacks in my day (late 70's/early 80's) so tote bags were all we had apart from flight bags. I used a wide variety of handbags and carried textbooks in my arms. I remember macrame shopping bags too!

I was thinking of a Hype backpack (or Superdry) for my own DD, she actually has a tote pleather bag that she uses for her dance stuff so could press that into service if necessary!

I am just glad to move on from Smiggle.

@WorldCupnovice that's what I used at school. We bought them from the local army ex surplus store. We also wore donkey jackets like the bin men of the time wore #80schildhood

I remember when I was 14 I really wanted this bag from top shop my dad said it wouldn't last 5 minutes said bag is still going strong 11 years later 😂 although I thought backpacks were back in fashion now 😳 xx

If you didn't have your PE kit in one of these in my school your life was not worth living!

Get the tote OP!

Tote bags were the 'thing' when I was in 6th form (2001-2003!). Especially from Warehouse, Kookai or Morgan. Just a black tote with the logo on.