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Original poster

School book bag rage

157 replies

pieceofpasta · 15/11/2019 19:57

Does anyone else really hate school book bags? I realise we're probably in the minority walking to school but it drives me mad every day having to carry every item separately (no bag other than the book bag allowed) while juggling water bottles, school shoes (because it's so wet he needs wellies) etc and a 3 year old. I'm sure if you're only walking to a car is doesn't matter but these bloody book bags don't even have a cross body strap and the velcro constantly opens spilling the paper contents into the massive puddles everywhere. Because of a lack of a proper bag lb has left his wellies at school which means on Monday he'll get wet feet on the way to school. I really think in bad weather only rucksacks are sensible. We have tried giving him a plastic bag with the other things; the bag doesn't come back (because they don't want multiple bags) and I only have a handful of plastic bags now. Why do they make walking to school so hard! (I'm mainly pissed off about the leaving the wellies at school which is mainly my husbands fault). Lol 😨

OP posts:
LemonPrism · 15/11/2019 21:36

@MoltoAgitato you don't wash their pe kit for an entire half term?? That's vile

BeatriceTheBeast · 15/11/2019 21:37

I would say the vast, vast majority of people walk every day to my dd's school and the rest have to park so far away they may as well have walked. Other than those who get parking on school property obviously.

I also have a toddler so the book bag goes in the pushchair. But when the toddler starts school, I don't think it will be a massive problem. Weird they don't let you take a separate lunch bag.

Hippee · 15/11/2019 21:40

I have three kids - while they were at primary I bought a shopping trolley to cart bookbags, PE bags etc. I wanted to get the vintage tartan one, like my grandma used to have, but didn't feel the trendy mums at school would get my sense of humour, so I went with an Orla Keilly style one - they still thought I was eccentric though.

CollyWobbleMe · 15/11/2019 21:41

This thread has made me realise that although DC's school will not allow us to take their (school issued) water bottles home, I have no idea if they wash them. Ever. Shock

SoupDragon · 15/11/2019 21:44

you don't wash their pe kit for an entire half term?? That's vile

It isn't. It's not the same as teenage rugby kit, it doesn't get stinky. At least my children's primary kit didn't.

stucknoue · 15/11/2019 21:48

I just sent backpacks. State schools cannot insist you use a book bag

TuckMyWin · 15/11/2019 21:49

I agree they're not the most practical, but my 5 year old manages his book bag every day on the bus (school bus, not public bus!) on his own, and a water bottle on Monday morning and Friday afternoon. And PE kit on first and last day of term. Plus random school art work and 'creations'. Just stick it all in a ruck sack if walking, and decant either end.

angelikacpickles · 15/11/2019 21:50

Baffled at the idea that backpacks would take up too much room in a classroom. I think every primary school child in every school in Ireland brings a backpack to school and it doesn’t seem to cause an issue. Seems unlikely our classrooms are that much bigger? In my kids’ school, they put the straps over the back of their chair so that the bags hang off the chairs and don’t get kicked around the floor.

Seeingadistance · 15/11/2019 21:51

I’m another one who doesn’t understand the need for water bottles. Bring back drinking fountains, or just use taps!

Ribbityrib · 15/11/2019 21:51

Elbeagle good for you. Some kids do have packed lunch though and the free fruit snack at my kids school is usually half a mushy apple which won't be every kids cup of tea. And presumably nobody keeps a swimming kit at school all term Grin Bags just seem such a basic item of equipment to me!

mulky · 15/11/2019 21:54

@angelikacpickles I'm in Ireland too. I'm regularly baffled by what goes on in UK schools, like being fined if you keep your child out of school for a day or how it's such a big deal to send in a packed lunch. Surely most school classrooms are the same size more or less as the ones we were in as kids unless the school building is new.

Seeingadistance · 15/11/2019 21:56

And although taking a water bottle to school is a relatively new thing, the concept of school bags, whether satchels or rucksacks, is well established. Why would schools not have space for school bags?

Cookit · 15/11/2019 21:58

I put all the bits and pieces I need in my small backpack. Just take it all in a bag you carry, no? A large-ish tote would carry it all.

TooStressyTooMessy · 15/11/2019 22:00

For years and years our school apparently had space for the rucksacks. Now apparently they don’t. Except the teachers all admit they do and many have said that they too hate book bags.

Conveniently the obsession with book bags started at around the time the school was taken over by a soulless corporate MAT Hmm.

JemimaCuddleMuck · 15/11/2019 22:01

Book bags are light enough for a child to carry 🙄. I don't understand the number of parents happy to be a packhorse for their children. My 5yo manages to carry her own bag, I don't have at hands free as I'm already holding hers and her brothers hands 🤷‍♀️.

Italiandreams · 15/11/2019 22:07

Have some of you seen the size of the smiggle bags! They are bigger than the children! They really don’t fit on a peg along side a PE bag and a big winter coat. In infants book bags that fit it drawers make it easier for staff to make sure all 30 children have letters/ reading books etc

Lolacat1234 · 15/11/2019 22:08

My sons school have implemented a no backpack rule and seem to think they can fit everything in one of those book bags. On a Thursday my son has a packed lunch, guitar lesson and football after school so I'm addition to carrying this book bag he also has to contend with separately carrying a PE kit, guitar, lunchbox and now the weather is cold a big winter coat.

I have refused to allow this as I'm concerned with the development of his spine as he grows. I have awful pain from thoracic scoliosis which may or may not have a genetic component so I am adamant what is best for his is a back pack with wide double straps and where the weight is carried evenly. I spent much of my primary and secondary school years carrying heavy record bags and handbags to and from school.

I've complained and have bought him a plain rucksack in the same dark green colour as the book bags and have not heard anything from the school since.

It really got my back up that they seemed to care more about how their cloakrooms looked (their reasoning was that there was not enough room in the cloakrooms for rucksacks) than their pupils wellbeing.

BeatriceTheBeast · 15/11/2019 22:11

Ah @Lolacat1234, I was your ds! Cello on mondays, trumpet on Thursdays. It sucked.

HeinzBlondeHate · 15/11/2019 22:12

i've got a huge rucksack and i put everything in the rucksack which i carry on my back and then when we get to the school i take the stuff that they need out of the bag for them to carry in and then i change them into their shoes and take their wellies back home with me in the rucksack because they aren't allowed to leave the wellies in school then i carry them back with me at pick up....wellies on and all the other lunchbags and book bags into the rucksack to carry home again....i feel like a donkey at times !

TooStressyTooMessy · 15/11/2019 22:14

I have indeed seen the Smiggle bags. The school used to just ban the big ones which was absolutely fair enough as they are huge. Small backpacks (including Smiggle sized as long as not huge ones) were fine. Now though it is all backpacks.

SavoyCabbage · 15/11/2019 22:21

Smiggle is Australian and they love a huge school bag over there. My dd went to primary there and I actually bought her a smiggle bag instead of the school one as it was significantly smaller. Now I’m back here they seem giant!

Vulpine · 15/11/2019 22:38

I can think of alot more 'vile' things than not washing a young kids pe kit for a few weeks unless of course you have particularly smelly kids

JusticeForSandra · 15/11/2019 22:39

although DC's school will not allow us to take their (school issued) water bottles home, I have no idea if they wash them. Ever.

THAT I would question! Sounds horrendous if they are not.

JusticeForSandra · 15/11/2019 22:41

Have some of you seen the size of the smiggle bags! They are bigger than the children!

depends which ones, my 2 youngest have one each, they are very small. Their sports bag are much bigger. I wouldn't let young children carry too much, it's a disaster for their back. They are not heavy enough to be a problem for an adult though!

FreeStar · 15/11/2019 22:49

30 book bags can be stacked flat in a tote box for the TA to flip through to find the right one, add letters to them, take reading books out etc. 30 backpacks can't! That's why!

I don't see why you can't use a bag on the school walk- surely the rule is no bags in school, not no bags on the way to school!