To dislike the waste of ££ on World Book Day

[Mimmi78]

Straight up, I love reading! I've always had a book on the go and feel a bit naked if I go out without having one handy. It's World Book Day this week, I love this idea too, creating a lifelong love of reading is a fundamental cornerstone of education. However, in my kids school there are 400 pupils, many of whom have parents who will spend anything from a few pounds to many pounds on a costume this week. Retailers are the big winners here I think. I've estimated that the money could represent around £2,000 at our school, it took the PTA 3 months to raise that to buy essentials for the school. AIBU to wish it was more about books and less about commercial dressing up! Prepared to be slated but interested in anyone else feeling conflicted whilst wondering how to dress a six yo as Tom Gates

YANBU I also think it's terrible for the environment if people are buying new costumes specially. My DCs are wearing costumes they already have.

Our school just asks kids to bring in a book they enjoy (or they can borrow from the school library if needed/wanted). Then permission is given to dress up if wanted, or to wear own clothes or school uniform if preferred.

OP - Tom Gates costume - can you get your DC to do some Tom Gates doodles on a plain T shirt with fabric pens? Do-it-yourself Dude 3 or Dog Zombies T shirt?

I agree it can be an absolute faff. Luckily DD (9) seems to have moved beyond this so we can cobble something together with what we have. Last year she was Minnie the Minx which just meant buying a Beano red and black T shirt which she got lots of wear out of and this year she's utilising homemade Hallowe'en stuff.

L

It has become something it isn't supposed to be, definitely. I hate the thought of cash-strapped parents stressing out about it.

But I'm torn because my kids love it, talk about their costumes all year and work with me to choose and make things. Sometimes we spend a bit, sometimes we don't. DD is at secondary now but when they were both at primary they used to do joint costumes - Harry and Hermione, Violet and Klaus Baudelaire - and they have wonderful memories (and pics!) from doing that. God I'd be gutted if someone thought I'd done it for competitive parenting.

So I'm no help whatsoever.

Mine will be going in a football strip with a Match annual and a Halloween costume with who knows what. Not the done thing but I don't care. They are both happy and I haven't paid Asda for some shiny shit that will never be worn again.

I know it’s not the point of the thread but I’m worried about my sons costume now, he’s going in his jeans, his stripy top and I bought an eye mask for 99p they are just his normal clothes, (burglar bill costume) will everybody else have big extravagant costumes? It does seem very wasteful and extremely stupid to spend ££ on an outfit worn for five hours. My sons in reception so I’ve not been through it before, will he be very underdressed??

I think it’s fun to have costume days. We love WBD and Halloween. I dislike cheap supermarket costumes though, as much for the waste as anything else. It would be good if the PTA collected donated costumes and re-sold them the following year. It would also mean they’d have a stash of costumes to loan to kids who came in without one.

My DC love fancy dress and reading so it's hard for me to get worked up about this one. I would be happy for the school to spend the day focusing on books instead though as mine in previous years has just done the fancy dress and nought else. I do like the idea of the kids idealising their favourite characters and taking something from the page into a 3 dimensional format.

I am rather worked up at the idea of spending £25 on a costume but that's really the parents issue not the schools, isn't it? That is by no means a requirement and more fool you to the parents who go that route.

Our school usually does the dressing up but seems to be listening to parents complaints and this year the theme is "bedtime" and the children are to come to school in their pyjamas lots of parents will no doubt buy new ones especially for the day.

Sounds about right @DailyMailFail101
One year my dd went in wearing a party dress she already had and her then favourite book about a princess. Didn’t even need to buy anything specifically

I've bought DS a pair of pyjamas to be Tom from the Midnight Gang so he can wear them afterwards so I think you can be a bit clever about it and buy something that's usable after (not that I'm usually that clever).

But yes in general it is a waste - I suppose you could probably get two years out of a costume but then they might not want to be that character again.

I’m a librarian and I bloody hate world book day! As a PP said, in itself it does nothing to encourage reading, and I also dislike giving out the £1 book tokens, as they mean another potentially expensive spending spree for parents. You can read books from your library for free!

I’m so glad my DCs are now at secondary school and don’t have to bother with the costume business any more. We got some amazing mileage out of a hooded cloak for various characters, but most kids came as princesses or superheroes (and I don’t blame them!).

I'm with you op. The 'event' does nothing to actually encourage reading and seems to be mostly an opportunity for parents to show off their dressmaking /artistic skills or how cute little Johnny looks in their new Mr Fox costume on FB for likes.I'd rather spend the money on a new book for my kids. That and perhaps donating the books they've outgrown to the school for other kids to read makes much more sense to me.

What annoys me is that their favourite characters are usually just normal kids. So wear normal clothes. My son hates dressing up but more to the point, genuinely can't see the point of dressing up as whoever you can find a decent / cheap costume of, when the idea is to dress as your favourite character.

DS's school does a book swap and it seems to work well - you bring in a book you enjoyed, and get to take home a book personally recommended by another kid in the school, and they're encouraged to read it and go and find the recommender and talk about it. Thank goodness as my costumes tend toward the "conceptual".

My DS, 10, hates dressing up, so he's wearing a Harry Potter t-shirt (which we already have) and jeans. 🤷‍♀️

At my daughters school they are going in their pyjamas and then a ‘guest teacher’ is going to read a story to each class . Much easier on the bank balance and still book related !

Agree, OP.

So glad mine are out of school, but dressing for WBD was one of my most hated things about school.

How does that encourage reading I'll never know.

Although my much more organised friend waited until they were all reduced to £1 and bought enough to sort her dds until they finish primary school wish I'd thought of that!

I've done that for Halloween in the past - and it's one reason we've got a well stocked dressing up box is that my mum snipes them in the sales for forthcoming years.

I agree. I can't for the life of me see what dressing up has to do with reading.

If parents were able to spend the money and time that they currently spend worrying about WBD on buying books and reading with their children, it would be way better!

Yep. I hate it.
I love books, I love reading, I hate WBD.
Parents spend a fortune on costumes, it's bad for the environment as most are polyester (plastic). and DC school doesn't actually do any book related activities, which is what makes me most cross.

Completely agree OP. It's a lot of pressure on cash-strapped parents, and many costumes will get worn once and then outgrown / never worn again. I'm also not convinced it encourages a real love of books. I know some will argue that you can make your own costume but not everyone is that good at creative stuff (I know I'm not) and to be honest in amongst working 45 hours a week and looking after 2 kids, I have better things to do with my free time.

At my DD's pre-school they go as far as to insist every room has a different book 'theme' (e.g, this years are 'The Tiger who Came to Tea' for DD2 and 'The Gruffalo' for DD1) rather than letting the kids choose a character from any book they want to dress up as. This makes it even harder as I can't even just re-use some existing dressing up costumes and pick a book to match, as obviously the outfits for those themes are quite specific, so I end up having to buy something.

The only people winning out of this are Amazon!

Reminds me of when eldest was in Y2 and wanted to be the saucepan man from Enchanted Wood.
I covered loads of plastic tubs with foil and hung them all over him with scarves so he could take them off to sit down. he was thrilled, until he realized that he was the only one in a home made costume.

It was Y2 FFS: you are not telling me that 22 out of a class of 30 were actually reading Harry Bloody Potter.
From that point on all of mine have gone in 'normal clothes' and a book to back it up: eg Lucy from Lion Witch and Wardrobe: all you need is a hairgrip. Anyone from Jacqueline Wilson.
Massive con and nothing to do with the books at all. Gah!

Well it's not obligatory to spend money on it - you can just send them in a homemade costume. My DS will be Schnitzel Von Krumm, and I am not crafty, so he will be looking like a Womble crossed with a poo.

it all builds character.