World book day!

[ps1991]

All these children dressed up on tv and fb for world book day look lovely and happy, but AIBU to think shop bought costumes, especially standard princess costumes are a lazy choice?

*'How can encouraging learning by different means be a negative? Shame some parents moan because they have to be involved in it for once.'

Enforced dressing up is difficult for some families for all kinds of reasons. Try and use a little bit of imagination.*

Definitely agree. DS was utterly terrified on his first World Book Day and spent half an hour sobbing that "Everyone needs to look the same". He was in y5 before he could bear to dress up, and y3 before he could even set foot in the classroom (in his uniform and with his TA wearing ordinary clothes).

Bold fail ^

YABU OP. Parents have enough to do besides spending hours creating costumes. Time would be better spent actually reading with kids. Nothing lazy about this or using a costume they already own anyway like a princess or superhero costume especially if that's what the child wants to wear. We had a box full of dressing up stuff collected over the years and usually cobbled stuff together from this, regardless of whether it was a character from their favourite book or not.

My son is dressed up as a dinosaur in a store bought outfit. Cause he loves dinosaurs and 50% (may be a slight over exaggeration) of his bookshelf is dinosaur related.

I laid it all his dinosaur books and asked him which one was his favourite. Job done.

Remember not all mums have the time or ability to make outfits. It's easy enough telling your kids to pick anything, but having to hunt down things to match the character, modify them, and pay for everything to do so, it's not easy for everyone.

I personally am shit at sewing/making things. In my head I have cracking ideas but the end result looks like a 2 year old has made it.

nice goady post there, @ps1991 i make costumes for my DC because i like doing it, i am crafty and get a buzz out of it

i dont care what your DC wear, so long as you make some kind of effort or thought

My daughters wonderful school declared that all children must come in home made outfits as dalmations.

Seriously, do teachers actually get a kick out of this stuff.

A parent could spend 5 hours hand crafting a costume, or 5 minutes buying one and the rest of that time interacting with the child, or maybe even reading with them

Some times I make, sometimes I buy and sometimes I use what we have/the child wants to be a character that wears "normal" clothes. If I make I do so while the kids are at school or asleep so it has zero impact on how much reading gets done.

My daughters wonderful school declared that all children must come in home made outfits as dalmations. Marvellous. Except I have two sodding kids. And about as much enthusiasm to spend 12 hours colouring spots in with sharpies as I do watching paint dry. In between the wine, tshirts and 9000000 sharpies I went through it would have been fucking easier to buy one.

Oh Jesus what? That would be the bonkers sort of thing that would push me over the edge.

Dear School

Thank you for your note about World Book Day. As you know, I support my child’s education and the school as a whole. However, I have other work and family commitments, and as such the time I have to devote to school activities is unfortunately finite.

I’d be grateful for your guidance on prioritising the following:
* Reading with my children daily
* Volunteering at the summer fete and Christmas fair
* Baking for fundraisers
* Arts and craft homework requiring parental input
* Creating two Dalmatian costumes from scratch

^If you feel reading is a lower priority, could you let me know which child I should listen to if I’m able to squeeze one in while colouring in a white t-shirt that will afterwards be unusable?’

best wishes, etc

Oh seriously, I was so close to getting the formatting right!

I am with you OP , I would guess that world book day is to encourage children to read , by actively thinking who their favourite character ? book is .I suspect many children are dressing up as someone they havent heard of . I am not being judgey because its obviously the easiest option to buy an outfit ( and Tbh if this had happened when my children were young I may just have done the same thing ! )

But as parents we aren't doing our kids any favours by doing this , its teaching them there is always an easy option if you have money , its a form of cheating if you think about it ...i.e you dont have to put the work in by reading a book , you can BUY the required recognition
It also turns into the one upmanship game that happens at primary schools ( again measured by the amount of money you spend )

And also it puts parents with limited means under a great deal of pressure , these outfits arent cheap

Further to my post above , I am not suggesting you all spend hours and again money in making an outfit either

I refused to make my primary school children do homework after one occasion my daughter's home work was to make a treasure chest and decorate , with for example jewells , i decided this was proof they had finally lost the plot .......you knew it was the parents making all these projects anyway

Yep I am one of the lazy ones OP I happily handed over £16 to Asda for my daughters costume....and why did I do this? Cos I have a life I am not creative and I can't be arsed on what is in effect a bloody ridiculous day..but if that s what it takes to keep the school and daughter happy then so be it. She has gone off cheerful ,,school will be happy..I dont give a monkeys either way but its done.

Our (state) school is in an affluent area and school events and PTA type stuff are heavily supported by parents. So I was expecting a bit of a show of outlandish costumes today for world book day. But it was all standard shop bought costumes, mostly Harry Potter and Disney Princess type stuff. Don’t think I saw anything homemade. DD didn’t go for something obvious but did choose a book character from a series she loves. She said her teacher didn’t ask what she had come as or what book it was from, she was a little bit disappointed. They didn’t do any reading either. I agree it’s a fun day to wear something generic from your dressing up box, if you want to, but it all seems a bit pointless to me and not really related to books!

And to further add to my post its now 3.55 pm school was done at 3.20pm costume now in bin as it will never be worn again....end of another school day and everyones happy shop bought or not I will count today as a success!

My eldest son wanted to go as Fantastic Mr Fox. No way could I knock up a half decent costume, especially as he only decided on Sunday. So I bought one. Call Childline immediately

But as parents we aren't doing our kids any favours by doing this , its teaching them there is always an easy option if you have money , its a form of cheating if you think about it ...i.e you dont have to put the work in by reading a book , you can BUY the required recognition

This is nonense. You can read as much as you like (goodness knows my two do) but it’s not going to magic up a Fantastic Mr Fox tail or a Stick Man costume.

@pelirocco123 you seem to be the only one who sees where I’m coming from. I don’t necessarily mean that parents are lazy for buying an outfit rather than making one, it just seems that for parents who won’t try and make one their children’s favourite book or favourite characters have to be on that is available in the shops, which seems to stifle creativity and individuality. I would rather see 30 children in normal clothes representing everyday characters in books, rather than children wearing costumes of characters they barely know because it was available off the rack.

And to further add to my post its now 3.55 pm school was done at 3.20pm costume now in bin as it will never be worn again....end of another school day and everyones happy shop bought or not I will count today as a success!

why would you put in the bin?

rather than children wearing costumes of characters they barely know because it was available off the rack.

The thing with the things available on the racks, OP, is that they tend to reflect what’s popular in popular culture.

So it’s kind of unsurprising that you see more Gruffalos than Tiddlers, because the Gruffalo is a lot more popular.

And kids will often want to wear something they know will be popular or interesting to their friends - so the books they all read (eg HP) are likely to get more of a look in.

My eldest’s crowd today: Asterix, a Chelsea football player clutching his Chelsea annual, Fantastic Mr Fox, Where’s Wally (purchased in the sale after last WBD but he still loves the books), Stick Man (lots of boxes, kudos to the dad), Ron Weasley (BUT FROM THE SIXTH BOOK SO NO I’M NOT TAKING THE RAT MUMMY).

I’m guessing you don’t approve of Asterix or Wally?

Not only is my kid wearing a shop bought costume.... he's wearing the same one he wore last year

Because she won;t wear it again and probably/definately will want something else next year...I would rather instead of all this though give the school the money to put towards new books I suggested it but it was poo pooed! It would save alot of hassle all ways round I think and everyone could enjoy them...but no they wont have it! I think its just a farce basically...We love to read in our house we all do its a passion I am glad the kids are on board with ...you dont need to dress up at all if the love of books is there.

I have done both! It depends on what their favourite book is at the time surely? If I can buy one fab if not I do my best to make/accessorise what ever I have at home. My favourite was when my son asked to be George from George's marvellous medicine, so simple to do red top, jeans, wooden spoon and a pop bottle filled with pop and washing up liquid with a glued on lid, my daughter wanted to be the very hungry caterpillar this year, I bought a costume 🤷🏻‍♀️

Dd1&2 reused costumes they already had but tweaked and dd3 wore her blue dress and I shoved a red ribbon in her hair for Matilda - hardly taxing either way. Dd1, despite wearing her shop bought witches dress, also was painted green

Most dc have dressing up clothes so what's the issue.

Finally, i think there are times when being lazy is absolutely perfect. Maybe if less people were judgy there would be less mental health issues.

Because she won;t wear it again and probably/definately will want something else next year..

so why not donate it to someone, or give to charity?

it just seems that for parents who won’t try and make one their children’s favourite book or favourite characters have to be on that is available in the shops

My starting point every year is who do you want to go as. Some times I make what is wanted, sometimes I buy. But either way it is always chosen by the child. This year I was going to make but needed a particular accessory that would have to bought and discovered I could buy a full costume for about a pound more than buying just the accessory so buy the time I'd picked up any other bits to make with it was actually cheaper to buy.