Why does my daughter have to have butterfly or heart zipper pulls on her school uniform?

[MsMotherOfDragons]

Just that, really.

Why do the school uniform options for girls not have things like rocket or dinosaur charms? And why don't they have pockets?!! It drives me wild.

I've looked at several of the main supermarkets and they all seem to have the same problem. Eventually I went for the Sainsbury's ones on the basis of price and quality, so we're stuck with butterflies on everything.

Can I replace them with something else... does anyone know where to get rocket charms or similar? Can anyone recommend a better supplier? I'm kind of appalled that all the gender nonsense starts so early. It's so unnecessary.

*Why on earth did you send “falling apart clothing” for other children to wear? Not good enough for your own kids but fine for a child in a developing country?g

The falling apart clothing is why they are sending the uniform to replace it.

My DD used to like the hearts and butterflies. Now she's more into Pokemon t-shirts and joggers, but she can't get worked up about heart buttons on her school trousers. I don't think she notices them. She can't wear boys' uniform as she's nearly 11 and becoming the wrong shape.

Really? But the post said they sent “old uniform”.

So are you saying they replaced falling apart uniform with old uniform that wasn’t wanted any more but at least wasn’t falling apart?

I suppose that’s slightly better.

Polo shirts with scalloped collar edges can fuck off too.

Asda has lots of good girls shoes.

Incy at our first choice secondary school, the passes are on lanyards. Much more sensible.

Just take the bloody things off if your dd doesn’t like them.
I suspect she probably does...

gamer I would say from year 4 onwards there's a need for primary uniform to be gendered. DD no longer fits properly into boys' shirts or trousers.

Dd is year 4 she fits into unisex trousers and shirts. She also has shoes from the boys section.
I haven’t led her in this at all just her preference ( I liked it best when she wore pinafores).

I do see your point though that some girls who have hit puberty earlier might struggle.

Some girls are already developing in year 4. I can't remember when DD didn't have wide hips.

Sorry, xpost.

DD wears the "teen girl" shirts and trousers, which interestingly start from age 10.

Thank you for all the suggestions.

I don't think that rockets and dinosaurs are preferable to flowers and butterflies particularly, I just found it noteworthy that her choice is so totally restricted. If there were lots of different options then it wouldn't have bothered me at all.

I also don't see why she should have forgo skirts and dresses and shop in the boys' section in order to have pockets and rockets

I will try John Lewis or M&S next time to see if the pocket situation is better there! Plain stuff is fine although the zipper pull probably does help to some extent to make these dresses with a zipper down the front easier for kids to do up themselves.

And YY to those saying that it's important that we don't devalue certain choices. I just find the lack of choice and gender stereotyping (both ways round) very shocking.

Have to say my dd was thrilled with the star charms on her new skirts!

Good point OP and bravo for trying to do something about it for your dd.

Bravo for ripping the butterfly off her dd's zipper?! Give me strength...

I'd be thrilled with star charms too!

I've just bought these planet charms on Etsy and am really pleased with them: www.etsy.com/uk/listing/568148527/10-x-zinc-alloy-silver-planet-charms-for?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=charm&ref=sr_gallery-1-28&organic_search_click=1

The pocket thing is a real issue though. Dd likes wearing skirts and dresses so we can't really shop in the boy's section for alternatives to those (and to be honest don't see why any girl should have to just to get pockets, which are fundamentally a user-friendly thing). M&S / JL next time...

My dd3 is 8 and obsessed with dinosaurs. She has 2 dinosaur jackets, 1 dinosaur swimsuit, about 9 dinosaurs t-shirts. She has 2 dinosaur pencil cases and about a million dinosaurs stationery items.

She doesn’t wear school dresses with a zip right up the front which seems to be the main style for the zip adornments.

She wears skirts and pinafores from Tesco’s, Asda and Matalan.

I really don't think it's irrelevant.

This is the sort of stuff that makes small children say that certain interests and activities are "not for girls" or "not for boys" without having been given a chance to develop their own interests! I think the lack of choice is really poisonous, as is the poor quality and restrictive nature of clothing for women/girls. Give me pink or purple any day, I'm not knocking it, but for god's sake give it to me with the pockets and reinforced knees too.

Why is the message to girls that their clothes should be decorative rather than wearable?

Why is the message to boys that their clothes should be utilitarian and lacking in any kind of colour or expression?

Pretty poisonous both ways round, if you ask me.

My ten year old often says she is a Tomboy and wears a lot of clothes from the 'boys' section of Pep and Co. She has been mistaken for a boy about 3 times in the last week. She also loves unicorns and butterflies and flowers and kittens and cute things with big eyes especially Japanese ' kawaii' stuff .
I don't believes that she thinks for a minute that having a butterfly on an item of clothing means she can only act and do 'feminine' stuff. It is all nonsense. The idea would only enter her head if she read something like this thread. If adults stopped going on about these 'issues' then children wouldn't pick up these silly concepts.
If you want to moan about something - moan about how pointless, unflattering, uncomfortable, impractical and often expensive (name branded specific) school uniform items are.

Why the need for pockets out of interest? It’s bad enough fishing bits of crap out of their coat pockets and bags without having to go through trousers /dresses etc.

My ds starts school on the same day that my dd starts preschool.
He has to have white socks for PE. I can only find dark or white with frills, sold as 'girls' socks'.
She doesn't need uniform but asked for a hairclip for her first day. I said yes.
DS then asked for a hairclip. I said no as he'd had lots of new uniform, but also I knew no other boys would have hairclips. But if he wants to wear hers I won't stop him.

Pockets for: pencils, Pokémon cards, fiddly toys you don't want teacher to see, hair slides for when they fall out, notes your friend wrote you, an interesting stone you found during playtime... Bits of string and sealing wax and other fancy stuff.

my dd uses her socks for things like that count!

They might, blinkingheckmum. There was a boy in ds's class in Year 5 with shoulder length hair that used to have all sorts of hair accessories to comply with the "long hair to be kept off the face" rule.
The weirdest was a velvet Alice band