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?

DD (then year 5!) came home with her friend's PE t-shirt in the last week of last term. We returned it, and it doesn't really matter that she hasn't got hers back, as she needs the next size up anyway. I would have been more pissed off if it had been brand new.

WindDoesNot our school parents' FB group has tumbleweed blowing through it. I've just joined on the back of your post.

This used to drive me batshit. Last year I purchased a full new winter uniform, including branded jumpers - 3 of them. Within a month they were all missing. Nothing in lost property. People obviously nick them and don't give a shit. I took a few out of lost property as I was so pissed off, however they were all old and not nice looking. Really annoyed me.
Doesn't happen (touch wood) at his current school as they put their blazers in lockers in their classroom.

This must be cheeky parents.

My boys are yr2 and 5 now, we only had one jumper go missing. The teacher saw the label and swapped it at PE time when she saw after about a week - the parent accused US of pinching the jumper! FWIW, I had ironed in a label, she’d written her kid’s name on the label. Without removing ours . This was a class of ten I wouldn’t expect a normal class of thirty for a teacher to notice. But it hasn’t happened since.

Fucking jinxed myself didn’t I.

DS 3 came home with someone else’s jumper, washed a handed it into lost property who said the mum had been in to check for it but not brought the jumper her kid was clearly wearing 🙄

Bane of my life. We have compulsory logoed sweatshirts. Expensive to replace. Started reception last year with 3 and ended with 1. All labelled with stitched in name tag.

In my experience at my kids naice middle class school some parents think it is beneath them to waste time checking their kids belongings are actually theirs. If they see they have someone else’s stuff they simply can’t be arsed to do the sorting out. That and the thinking that ‘well I have one so I’m not giving it back as then my kid will be short so I’ll turn a blind eye’. This type of parent will often make out you are being a bit precious too, or a school rookie,at being exasperated as ‘it’s inevitable’.

For those people who say they launder and nicely present the errant item, I’d prefer just sending the damn thing back ASAP.

I think I am going to sharpie the bottom inside hem on my kids sweaters. If I’m really driven crazy this year I will start marking on the outside!

Top tip from my sis who is a TA. At her school when they change for PE they ‘dress’ their chair with their uniform - skirt, trousers etc over the back, top seater pulled over the back like a torso. This is then reversed when changing back.

@lozster we don’t even have this problem - starting from this year, they’ve relaxed the uniform a lot - now logo jumpers are not required, and they wear tracksuits all day when they have PE. They were provided by the school as well which was amazing.

I totally sharpie'd DC1's new logo'd school fleece today off the back of this thread. This one is not getting lost / stolen!!! Third time lucky...

I don't understand all of this strict uniform business.

When I was at high school our uniform was 'grey' so grey trousers or skirts, grey jumpers or cardigans, white shirt or polo shirt (short sleeved in summer if we wanted) and that was it. We could wear trainers, makeup, have our hair like we wanted etc. I didn't distract anyone or affect learning. I don't get it.

Welcome to primary school. Yes, some parents do indeed blatantly steal, and then deface (cut out labels, etc) other children's clothing. I think I'm most upset for the children who, I think, are sometimes being told to 'choose' a decent coat/trainers/jumper from what's left lying about in changing rooms.

When DS1 started Foundation he had some M&S trousers and some cheapy supermarket ones. One pair of M&S trousers vanished after PE in the first week. Everything had been name-tagged AND biro'd, a note was put into book bags asking who had DS1's trousers, etc. Nothing. We'd returned the unnnamed pair he came home in that day, and he was a vague little 4 yo, he had no idea who he'd swapped clothes with while changing.

A week before the end of the summer term, the trousers miraculously reappeared, stuffed into his tray (not by a teacher). They had both knees torn out and had evidently been washed and worn all year, as they were bobbled, had wads of tissue in the pockets, etc.

They still had his name tag sewn into the waistband. What sort of DIM parent steals someone's trousers, uses them for a year, and doesn't even take the tag out? Maybe s/he kidded themselves they were just 'borrowing' them. The nasty thing was, by then I had a fairly good idea which parents it was. So that wasn't pleasant.

I got around the whole Foundation-child-not-knowing-arse-from-elbow thing by sewing bright ribbon or rickrack braid onto hemlines, etc, alongside name tags. That way, even my supremely unbothered child would spot if it was his, or someone else's, trousers.