Bastarding World Book Day

[SinkGirl]

Sigh. My twins started at their specialist school in October but have barely been since Christmas due to COVID. They are 4 and autistic. They don’t have a favourite book or have any concept of dressing up. Just had the email of doom re: dressing up.

AIBU to say fuck world book day? I’m hanging on by the skin of my teeth and the thought of finding two sensory appropriate book related costumes without parts they will just rip off is tipping me over the edge.

Or if I don’t make the effort will I be marked as that parent who can’t be arsed?

@SinkGirl

((((Big Hugs))))

I think because you were such a book worm & pictures yourself making costumes fir your kids & really getting excited about it - it's just one of those times where it really hits hard that life isn't quite how you pictured it would be and that's shit! You can love your boys with every fibre of your body & still be sad sometimes that things aren't how you imagined they'd be.

That's amazing what DT1 did with the fridge magnets!!!

If it was me, I'd get the PJ's & put them over clothes they're comfortable in & be done with it. (Buy them a size bigger then they'll cover a few dress up occasions!)

Or if you think they'll hate that, just don't do it as it doesn't seem like they will care

I seriously doubt any staff or other parents will think anything at all if they're not dressed up and if they do (especially at a special needs school, then they're massive twats whose opinions don't count for anything, anyway!!)

@SinkGirl

Thank you everyone. Indeed, not even a pandemic is enough to rid us of this albatross. If there were a zombie apocalypse we’d be dressing our undead kids as Harry Potter, I’m sure.

The sad thing is that a) as a kid I never had my head out of a book and b) I am quite crafty and thought I’d be all over this shit as a parent. The concept of World Book Day is great, anything for more reading, but the dressing up is a lot for lots of parents for lots of reasons.

At the moment both boys want the same Hey Duggee book every night... I can’t figure out how to dress them as characters without things like hats / extra bits they would just pull off (and eat).

I thought the kids were supposed to share stories this year, not dress up?

That’s very possible in mainstream schools. Not so much in schools where lots of the children are non verbal / can’t read.

The irony is that (totally non verbal) DT1 seems to be learning to read and is definitely learning to spell (shocked me recently my spelling all the numbers 1 - 10 with magnetic letters, and spelling out mummy, daddy and Hey Duggee after looking at photos). So maybe next year he will have a favourite book. DT2 will still only want Duggee books I suspect. But I’ll start planning Duggee costumes now for next year!

If T1 likes numbers, what about a number theme tshirt related to a number book. And if T2 likes Hey Duggee why can't he wear a tshirt with that on. OK not quite dress up but relevant.

Old clothes made a bit ragged, slightly wet hair (wet look gel?), maybe a toy cutlass or gun if you have one. Jim Hawkins.

Nightdress or pyjamas. Sophie from The BFG (Wendy from Peter Pan, if she has a floaty, old fashioned nightdress), or I'm sure there's a boy protagonist who spends the story in his nightwear even though I can't think of one.

Or pirates are always easy.

We have loads of kids who don't participate, some intentionally and some because parents can't be arsed. Both is fine. We'd rather your child was happy and comfortable. The ones that annoy me are parents whose children aren't confident toileting ALWAYS sending them in one piece superhero costumes that are tied at the back.

We love books. We love recounting a good story, or sharing whst we've learnt, or drawing a picture of a character. We like discussing the history behind a book, such as the Hobbit or Animal Farm.

We hate the dressing up. Hate it. No need for it. It's expensive, stressful and pointless.

What a shame. World book day should be about books and reading (anything that you enjoy!). It's not about dressing up and there should not be any pressure on parents to organise this.

The approach I take to WBD is read books, talk about books, engage with whatever type of book you like (sensory books, colouring books, audio books, story books etc.)

I wouldn't bother with a costume at all. Do something that your kids would enjoy, you know them best.

I'm one of the few who do enjoy this, but when so many others don't, maybe it should be reconsidered. Perhaps just ask children to bring in a favourite book and tell the class a bit about it.

Or as people have said: normal clothes and be a Muggle, Charlie Bucket, member of the Famous Five or Secret Seven and so on. That's your opt out, I guess.

Well the live read is pretty crap.
Already a reference to The Exorcist. Wtf.

@JesusInTheCabbageVan

It does raise the interesting question of just how bad things have to get before they stop doing World Book Day.

My school sent out a message saying no dress up clothes for those in school for WBD. Something to do with covid but not sure why dress up loathes are much different to other clothes. Think school just didn't fancy dress up tomorrow ;) so sent out a message in Response to parents questions.

We are doing some activities via remote learning and Masked Reader videos instead - all optional, and the videos are from teaching staff who have volunteered. Some children have asked to send some in too so again, activities but all optional. I'm sure some will spend the day in fancy dress anyway.

I thought this year we would be spared the horror of WBD since we’re still homeschooling but they’re dressing up on zoom.

If you are feeling desperate, George from George's Marvellous medicine. Normal clothes, plus a bottle with coloured water and a spoon.

My smallest still prefers Disney dresses (to be fair, all the Disney stories did start off as books), but I am getting her into the "worst witch" stories for next year. All that requires is standard school uniform, plus a witches hat!

Yep, World Book Day is a great concept but has been ruined because of the emphasis placed on dressing up over the years.

The dress up part is intended to be "find a book you love and dress up as a character from it" but instead real life dictates that as so many of us have children with unfortunate choices of favourites and/or are time poor, it very often ends up as "what can we dress you up as quickly/easily? Now how can we make that work? Here's a book. Yes, I know you don't like it/haven't read it, pretend!" Also the reason Sainsbury's etc do WBD costumes- it's easier on parents and can work out just as cheap sometimes.

I think the originators of the idea were envisaging lots of lovely parent and child time together working on the costumes and talking about books...but we don't all have time for that, or children who are willing/able to engage.

And as a teacher I bloody hate the dressing up too - staff have to do it too where I work, with additional pressure of children voting for best staff costume

YANBU gets on my tits that we are expected to pay out for a costume every flipping year. All kids need to appreciate books is a free library ticket!

Well today is apparently world maths day.... our school said dress up as a number (wtf?!) or in clothes with numbers on..... honestly there is some kind of themed dressing up thing every couple of weeks... rainbow day, wear something yellow/red/neon/spotty/stripes etc you name it they dress up for it!

My older son used to hate dressing up too so would either go in normal clothes or a football kit and say he's from "Frankie's magic football" most of the other boys did the same! Younger son asked to go as hulk one year and I was hmmm but plenty of other kids were superheroes too! My daughter is going as Aurora from Sleeping Beauty tomo - she has the costume and I'm not buying or making another costume when that was a book before Disney film.... other girls all wear princess dresses or witches costumes lol!

Don't stress too much. A specialist school should be more understanding than mainstream about sensory issues etc.
Have you got any normal clothes with animals or something on? From Dear Zoo or That's Not My.... Series?

My son is 4 and diagnosed autistic. Tried last year costume on but the label was irritating too much so I'm going to find something with a motif on that can reference a book.