World Book Day - heaven or hell?

[Wnikat]

Just wondered how the balance swings on World Book Day.

YABU - I love World Book Day and relish sourcing costumes for my children, which I do well in advance and actually relate to a book they like rather than whatever is lying around.

YANBU - Arghh how does it come round so often where did I put the sodding Harry Potter glasses

Love it, but don't want to do it in lockdown

I've always wondered:
How many reluctant readers suddenly become voracious readers because their parent has spent weeks sourcing a Ron Weasley outfit?
Has it replaced the old Easter bonnet thing where the SAHMs were planning for weeks while the working Mums stuck a hard-boiled egg on a sunhat the night before?
Etc etc.
How many children make the decisions?
How do the children feel whose parents haven't gone Mach speed Kirsty Allsop on it?

It's a nice dressing up day for some young kids. It's a competition to be the best for many of their parents.
Let's not pretend it's anything deeper.

@iceicesunsun

Hell. Hell for the parents who can't afford it, hell for the children who can't afford it, hell for those who dislike dressing up, hell for the staff who can't afford it and have to buy something to wear.

The best WBD event I have seen was when the children (and staff) at my DC's old primary school chose a favourite book from the school library/took a book to school and then did a range of activities with an hourly 'stop and read' where they shared their book with the person nearest to them. No dressing up required.

That sounds fabulous! Well done that school.

I suppose this year, I can get away with the top half as that's what's visible on the screen. I'll ask dd what she wants to do & do a fancy head dress of some sort.

@StepOutOfLine

I've always wondered: How many reluctant readers suddenly become voracious readers because their parent has spent weeks sourcing a Ron Weasley outfit? Has it replaced the old Easter bonnet thing where the SAHMs were planning for weeks while the working Mums stuck a hard-boiled egg on a sunhat the night before? Etc etc. How many children make the decisions? How do the children feel whose parents haven't gone Mach speed Kirsty Allsop on it?

It's a nice dressing up day for some young kids. It's a competition to be the best for many of their parents.
Let's not pretend it's anything deeper.

I kind of agree with this, although TBF I dont get too much of a competitive vibe from my kids school.

I hate dressing up, my eldest hates dressing up, I suspect my youngest will hate it too when he’s 'expected' to do it.

Last year DS went in his normal clothes and a couple of easy to acquire props and was one of the blokes from the treehouse books.

The only advantage of schools not going back til 8 March should be that we get out of the dressing up charade...

But oh no, my son’s school encourages us to dress up for a special zoom session (and will reschedule the dressing up day later in the term for another airing of the costumes). And because life is not fun enough at the moment, hone learning next week will be centred on special fun book related activities.

@Norwaydidnthappen

I’m surprised there are so many threads about it this year with it falling before schools officially reopen. It’s the first year I haven’t felt obliged to source a costume for years! We’re going to have a madhatters tea party for lunch and make a cosy book corner.

Our school have kindly postponed it until July, just when I thought we had escaped.

What I object to is the term "book" is interpreted so loosely. My DC is grown up now but half the kids at their school were dressed as power rangers or ninja turtles.

Yes, it seems to be 'pick your favourite supermarket costume and then find a book vaguely related to it; don't worry if you've never actually read a word'.

I had some great homemade costumes as a kid and am enthusiastic at the idea of making a costume for DC, but...It should be about celebrating reading and finding out books that others enjoy but are new to you. Some schools don't seem to do reading-related activities but just dress up.

Detest it.

Expensive, no need for it, competitive with those parents who are OTT, bad for the planet- making cheap, tatty costumes that won't be in fashion in the future, or just get thrown away afterwards. A total money spinner that has no actual point for books etc.

Doesn't help that my DS doesn't like dressing up either.

I remember having a book day when I was a kid, and we got to go the the book fair and choose a book after school, that was wonderful and I loved that.

I am all for a book day, and book related activities.. I think asking parents dress thier kids up is just stupid. We also live in a higher poverty area surrounding the school. I'm sure many (myself included, depending on what our financial situation is that month) cannot afford it too!

As a parent and teacher I have seen it done well when it’s focused on the books... sharing /swapping books at school, listening to stories, have a visiting author. The dressing up part is pointless, other than being a bit of fun for the children. Some parents enjoy it, for some it’s Alan extra pressure they can’t afford. I would much rather spend the price of a costume on 2 or 3 new books.

I pressed send before adding - the money spent on "dressing up" the child could be spent on buying a bloody book for then to actually ready!
It would be so much nicer if a child could just bring in however much money they could afford to donate, and then be able to choose a take home book, with thier friends.

How lovely would that be?!

I don’t hate World Book Day itself, I’m all for it but I HATE how it seems to have become interpreted in 99 percent of UK schools as a day for dressing up with not much focus on books actually at all. I was so happy when my child finished primary school purely due to bloody World Book Day.

I work as a GP and have bipolar disorder and have ongoing child custody court cases with my abusive ex to be dealing with. And always just found this day to be so stressful for no good reason, partly it falls at the end of winter every year and GP appraisal time for me too (if you’re not a GP you won’t inderstand this is literally hundreds of hours of work every year of preparation and hoop jumping for the privilege of being able to continue to work), so two reasons why my work stress is at maximum levels in March every year and the last thing I need to think about is a random dressing up my child for no good reason day.

I always felt I was letting my child down horribly, especially as I live in an area where many mums are stay at home mums and have time to do it all “properly”. I have one friend in particular who makes all the outfits by hand and they are completely amazing, I see her Facebook posts and feel an utter failure as a mother!

I think it’s partly because I’m a bit perfectionist and creative and would love to have time to do it all really well but just don’t and feel guilty about it. It’s not even just that I can’t handmake stuff, I’m also not organised enough to buy costumes in time and it’s so much harder for boys to think of ideas. I also really resent spending my hard earned money on cheap flammable tat. And even forgot it was WBD once or twice and forgot to send him in fancy dress at all, luckily he’s the sort of kid that is randomly super confident and couldn’t have cared less.

I’m also a huge reader and always have been and can’t inderstand why schools have chosen to focus on dressing up rather than getting the kids to do book reports/swap books/invite authors to the school/do creative writing and poetry workshops. I wouldn’t mind them doing a dress up event as well as that kind of stuff to raise money for charity or something once or twice in their time at primary school but I do think every year is a bit much.

The area I live in is relatively deprived as well and I am a local assistant Cub Scouts leader so I know many families are completely struggling financially, and I just hate to see people spend their money on fancy dress outfits from the supermarket when they could buy a couple of books for the same money (or you know, feed their families or buy new school shoes or a warm jumper etc) As other PPs are saying I do remember LOVING book day as a child, there was no dressing up but we did book focussed activities at school all day and got to choose new books to read from a catalogue at discounted prices that the school would order in (if you could persuade your parents to pay up that is!)

I loved it. My children are bookworms and got really excited about who they were dressing up as and putting together costumes (nothing fancy, stuff in the house, never bought anything for it). Sadly school cancelled this bit of fun and creativity because of the many moaners.

WBD makes me fucking stabby. And my DD and I both love books.

In theory its about encouraging reading but its's turned into a giant smugfest and an exercise in giving working parents another thing not to have time to get done and therefore another reason to feel really shit about themselves.

I particularly hate the puritanism about DIY and the way you are looked down on if you buy the stuff from Amazon as if this is somehow a sign of your being an inadequate and unimaginative parent. And the way that the schools collude in this by delivering these homilies about making it yourself makes me ragey.

We've been asked to do world book day in food and photo it. What fresh hell is this?!

TierFour photograph a cookbook.
Or just don't do it.

Parent and teacher - hate it. It’s too much to expect of parents to come up with or buy costumes especially if you have more than one child. Too much hassle. From a school point of view, if your kids school isn’t promoting enjoyment of books and a love of reading everyday rather than once a year they aren’t doing their job properly.

@3littlerabbits

I loved it. My children are bookworms and got really excited about who they were dressing up as and putting together costumes (nothing fancy, stuff in the house, never bought anything for it). Sadly school cancelled this bit of fun and creativity because of the many moaners.

My child was, and is, a bookworm and hated it. WBD has very little to do with books, or reading, unless done well, as pps have described.

@TierFourTears

We've been asked to do world book day in food and photo it. What fresh hell is this?!

A pot of a tea, some cakes and a hat. Mad Hatters tea party and you get to drink tea and eat cakes

Still waiting to hear what fresh hell my kids school will dream up for it this year

@TierFourTears

We've been asked to do world book day in food and photo it. What fresh hell is this?!

Big pot of porridge = the magic porridge pot Disney Princess doll and a pea = the Princess and a pea (might be stretching the food bit with that one though!)

Fine if your DC like dressing up and you therefore have stuff. Fine too if your DC (like DS1) are happy to go as George from George’s Marvellous Medicine. But don’t let’s pretend it makes DC love books.

The thing I hate about it is that for the tenner that a lot of parents spend on a supermarket Spider-Man costume, they could have (back in the day when DS was at primary school) bought a whole box set of books from The Book People!

I found a book where the main character had the same name as my child, they then went as themself