Fucking school jumpers

[Merryoldgoat]

I know this is boring but it’s driving me insane.

My son has just gone into year 1. All new uniform including 3 branded jumpers.

Everything is properly labelled with his full name.

All three have gone already and he’s instead come back with three other, older, unlabelled jumpers.

He’s only 5, has some SN so finds getting dressed tricky so I know it’s just as likely him picking up the wrong one.

However, wouldn’t you go find the other parent if your child cane back with their jumper so we could swap back?

I have two AIBUs:

AIBU to ask why you don’t label your child’s jumper? It’s piss easy and means you’ve got a chanc to get it back.

AIBU to label every unlabelled jumper that comes back with my son’s name until they’re basically all his?

Another idea-my DS's PE kit had to have large name label (they were about an inch high and very easy to spot) sewn on the outside so anyone could clearly see whose it was-either on breast under logo for tops and on leg of shorts.
You could also put on hem of jumper-still outside.
Plus sharpie the hell out of everything.
Perhaps mentioning to teacher-maybe a message could go out for people to check jumpers as it is early days...

We've lost trainers; fancy dress costume; PE kit, etc. Everything was labelled. It makes no difference to some people.

I have had 3 day old Clark shoes taken and three jumpers and numerous PE kit shoes and spare clothes taken. Sorry to say some Mum's really do have sticky fingers and no shame whatsoever!!!

I used to use really bright embroidery thread on the bottom right seen of everything with a long line loop of stitches. Quite subtle for someone checking but very easy to spot if you knew what you were looking.

Most stupid thing I did: I found this amazing Barbour jacket that was like new at the car boat and didn’t realise he then wore it to school. Guess how many days/ hours that lasted...

If the name is on the front of the jumper most parents wouldn't have the front to put their DC in it!

Last week Dnephew came home in a coat identical to his but old and worn out. The next day SIL went into class and only one other child had the same coat - which was obviously DN’s brand new coat because his gloves were still in the pocket. The name label had been cut out! Obviously the parent thought they’d lucked out by getting a brand new coat for free.

Teacher refused to swap coats as other child insisted it was theirs. Spoke to parent at home time and thieving parent also insisted it was theirs. In the end DN was instructed to run out quickly at home time the next day and “steal” the coat, which SIL promptly re-labelled with a marker pen on the lining in huge letters. Some parents are totally capable of stealing other DC’s new clothes so they don’t have to buy any!

There have been a lot of instances at my DS' school of children's jumpers and coats going missing. The school always side with the scumbag parents that nick the items!

Not just reception. DS has had two pairs but of brand new trainers nicked in year 8 and also "lost" two full kits and a bag

Rye day he came home with someone else's shirt I was freezing about getting it back to them ASAP.

This always pissed me off with school. Like others said it is not accidental and naice labels do not work. You have to deface it.

I knew someone who used to go round with a camera covered in stickers - he said you have to personalise things and if they look a bit damaged, so much the better.

At High School, DD's special small sweatshirt went missing on the first day and finally arrived back on towards the end of the summer term when it no longer fitted. Apparently, PE had its own lost property system that did not communicate with any of the other lost property systems (and not to the children either )

Don't get me started on the fecking football boots

On the other hand, at primary, the school secretary had a drawer jammed full of unclaimed lost sweatshirts, so we used to just go and get a free one when they grew out of them or lost one. She had run out of other ways of getting rid of them.

I knew a Mum who just took want she needed from lost property without even checking for name tags. I was amazed. For those of us who were short of money and honest it was a nightmare.

We had this a couple of years ago. Brand new jumper went missing - I'd written in biro on the label, which was cut out.

I found it in lost property after a month or so - I only knew it was his because of the grease stain he'd put up the front of it within 2 days of wearing it. I'd spent a long time staring at that stain as I tried to remove it.

Anyway, they've all got name written in sharpie on the waistband now in 2 inch high letters. I have to refresh every couple of months, but funnily enough they haven't gone missing since.

We've been pretty lucky so far although I've kitted out DS (starting nursery) with logo jumpers from the secondhand uniform sale. That way, if they disappear they weren't £12 new ones. Wondering if I might need to 'invest' in a new sewing machine with embroidery function before DD starts secondary school??

I do name tapes and then Sharpie under those as a "fuck you" to any attempted label unpickers. Also names inside coat sleeves and in Sharpie in different places as well as a name tape.

What sort of labels are you using? Can he tell (easily) which is his jumper? I bought brightly coloured ones with just DS1's first name on and a little picture and put them on the neck of jumpers/polos and waistband of trousers so he could tell easily if they were his trousers. He's never come home in the wrong clothes. Appreciate it's trickier if he has SN but I think the key to this battle is keeping child and clothes together in the first place!

DS came home from nursery a few years ago wearing a much newer, cleaner and jacket than the one I sent him off in.

Swapped them back the next day with an apology to the parents tucked into the pocket.

Now I sharpie the fcuk out of everything. Full name on the inside sleeve of all jumpers. Nothing has gone missing.

Some people are completely random. DD had a pair of trainers go missing in a sports bag in school.

Very distinctive so she would have spotted them if worn in school at all.

We searched every cloakroom in the school, lost property, classrooms and even got a few TA friends in on the search where they checked cupboards etc. Absolutely no sign of the trainers anywhere. (Only extra effort because they were her favourites and a birthday gift...she now never takes favourites into school).

We resigned ourselves to the fact they'd been stolen, along with the sports bag.

Then 6 months later the sports bag appears magically in the staff room. No one saw who placed it there. The trainers and sports bag were in exactly the same condition so someone basically hid them for 6 months and returned them.

It was utterly weird, even if a parent had spotted something jammed in the bottom of their child's wardrobe I'd have expected them handed into the main office rather than be left in the staff room.

It doesn’t get any better in secondary school so far DS has lost a rugby scrum cap which he’d left on the grass. It was the only one there so was obviously nicked as there’s no chance it was lifted by mistake. A £20 pair of swimming goggles and the latest yesterday was his pe top which none of the other boys had with them because it was swimming week. My DS had forgotten his towel and he’d used the pe top to dry himself. Going to get him to check lost property just in case.

We had a brand new scooter stolen, it never came back...

My son had a new pair of rugby boots go missing the first week at secondary school. When we went to replace them, the shop assistant said that after trying on shoes, she had overheard parents telling their kids to 'just take a pair out of the changing rooms' at the next PE lesson. She advised us to marker pen the inside and outside of the shoes, and also to get a pair of distinctive laces for them - preferably 2 different packs and swap the laces over so the shoes each had odd, distinctive laces, preferably in bright contrasting colours so they easily stood out. She said that distinctive shoes were more likely to be noticed and recognised and therefore less likely to be taken. They didn't sell distinctive laces so it wasn't a sales ploy, but we haven't had another pair go missing since we started doing this (and eldest is in sixth form now).

A huge number of parents are too lazy to label things.

We have a school of around 500 pupils. I am responsible for sorting out any lost property that may be labelled and returning to its owner.
On week one of term, we had almost 150 items in the lost property bins - SEVEN of which were labelled.

DS used to come home with extra fruit boxes. He'd recognise the picture on the lid and grab it, forgetting he'd already put his own (labelled) box back in his bag. I used to send them back the next day, washed, with a note of apology in, and sometimes refilled with fruit. He learnt eventually.

I used to help at DC school and know of at least 3-4 parents who would only buy one shirt and jumper to start the school year then at the end of the first week go into lost property, help themselves and kit their kid(s) out for the term/year.
They were well off so not a financial issue. Probably just one of the reasons they were well off - other parents were paying for their uniforms!
School said there was nothing they could do. If parent said coat/jumper etc was theirs, that was it, they could waltz out with a carrier bag full of stuff.
Pretty sure this happens in most schools.

the shop assistant said that after trying on shoes, she had overheard parents telling their kids to 'just take a pair out of the changing rooms' at the next PE lesson
Shocking

It's crap isn't it, DC1 had a brand new, name embroidered, and triple labelled jumper go missing on day one a few years ago and we never saw it again. Have lost masses of uniform & equipment over the years, and tried all sorts of stick on, iron on and sew on labels and used permanent marker too.

Can recommend these so far, bought them new for this year for DC2 who has SEN. They iron straight onto the fabric, come in loads of different colours and choice of little images. Seem to wash ok too and look hard to remove. Have added them to the necks of jumpers, cardigans, polo shorts and waist bands and visually they are more obvious than something attached to the washing label inside. So far have had a better return rate with both DC who have go back into school almost every day to find clothes they've left behind!

www.petit-fernand.co.uk