New school bag and lunchbox every September?

[AvocadoHo]

Light hearted debate with OH.

Making a list of school uniform needed for daughter (8) going back to school.

He rolled his eyes snd asked "why does she need a new bag? What's wrong with the one she has?"

Nothing is wrong with it, it's just a bit grubby and battered. But when I was growing up we had a new bag and lunch box every year. He feels this is excessive.

Is it really that uncommon?

Very wasteful and it is time that people started to cut back on this sort of thing where it isn't necessary.

Think of the planet!!!!!! Jesus. Red warning for humanity?

No, a new school bag is not needed every year.

Ok I’m bored I’ll rise to the whinging. I’m guessing you’re bored too.

Which kid wants the same one? None I’ve ever met...

I’m presuming you live with one pair of trousers, one bra, one handbag, one plate, one mug per person as you don’t see the point in having more than one of anything.

Anyway you’re deliberately missing my point which is that this entire thread is a pile on for people to go on about how worthy they are, and how much better than those profligate two bag owners they are. It happens, asi pointed out, repeatedly and on many topics and has no relationship to real life for most people.

Although I do love the homeopathic chicken threads.

No. New things when old things are worn out/outgrown. Oh, the number of times mine needed new shoes on about 25th June because they had a growth spurt or the soles parted company with the uppers. Usually they did service until at least October half term - sometimes much longer.

My dd is going into year 11, she doesn’t need shoes, bag, pencil case or lunch bag this year, last years is fine, probably because she wasn’t at school as much due to lockdown. We only replace things that need replacing, it’s not good for the environment to replace everything each year when it doesn’t need replacing? All I have bought dd this year is school shirts and one pair of school trousers.

It’s not just carbon emissions but the sheer number of bags going into landfill each year. If every family does the same I doubt many families would want your second hand bags either.

I think it's a shame that so many people conflate "getting a new bag" with "happy child".

There are so many other things you can do to make your child happy that don't involve materialism. Are there really that many children that find a new bag exciting for more than about 10 minutes?

I would not be surprised if your DHs view was a minority, because far too many people are beholden to fast fashion and a throwaway culture. I hope he has not singled out lunchboxes though, for example if he drives a Chelsea tractor he is being inconsistent.

@RJnomore1

Ok I’m bored I’ll rise to the whinging. I’m guessing you’re bored too.

Which kid wants the same one? None I’ve ever met...

I’m presuming you live with one pair of trousers, one bra, one handbag, one plate, one mug per person as you don’t see the point in having more than one of anything.

Anyway you’re deliberately missing my point which is that this entire thread is a pile on for people to go on about how worthy they are, and how much better than those profligate two bag owners they are. It happens, asi pointed out, repeatedly and on many topics and has no relationship to real life for most people.

Although I do love the homeopathic chicken threads.

Sure they may want a new one, but that doesn't mean you have to buy what they want. The OP is also about buying new just because it's September, so wnting a new one doesn't even come into it. They're bought a new one just because it's the start of a new school year.

I don't think your comments about clothes are comparable to a new lunchbox. Yes I own multiple items of clothing as I wear them in different environments. However, I take my lunch in the same container each day.

We always got a new bag in September and kept the old one for sleepovers/spare.

A bag that’s been used five days a week for a full year has got some mileage!

Which kid wants the same one? None I’ve ever met...
My teen. Wants the same school bag if his six year old one breaks, won't find the same one but wants one similar.

I’m presuming you live with one pair of trousers, one bra, one handbag, one plate, one mug per person as you don’t see the point in having more than one of anything. All but one of these things require frequent washing so it is convenient to have more than one. Bags can be washed over the summer holidays, or at the weekend if dropped in the mud.

I look on it as getting them excited to go back to school. It’s like birthday party prep you buy a present, wrapping paper and card and it’s all very wasteful but the kids want to buy and wrap something for their friends. Older bags get used for something else swim/ rugby/ ballet kit. Nothing is wasted.old lunch bags are used to replace the inevitable lost lunch bag until I make it into school for a rummage in the lost and found pile.

@whinge. ...No sadly not my 2 boys are the same size in clothes, which the younger one doesn't like as one of his fav things ever was when his BB clothes moved over to his drawers,,, just last week he tried to Squeeze in to a small top, declaring it fit....fit my arse he looked like the marshmallow man from Ghostbusters ...

However when younger I always did, the youngest actually got use out of some of eldest baby things and eldest is 25, youngest 11... And sadly there is no siblings or cousins of school age beneath them in the family..

My daughter in other hand lives for when her big cousin brings her hand me down bags .

@DingDongThongs

A spiderman lunchbox in Yr 6 is cruel.

DS2 is going into year 6 and is taking his Spiderman lunch box to summer school simply because I refuse to buy a new lunch box with will be used for 2 weeks.

We don’t. My eldest has had his for 3 years and it’s still going strong. Middle child has a new one as has more to carry this year so needed a bigger one. Youngest has same as last year, just sponged it off to give it a clean

Excessive and wasteful. And not teaching good habits to the kids.

I always buy a new school bag in September along with new stationary etc. Always been a thing for my daughter and she loves that shopping trip!

I had the same growing up x

@RJnomore1

Which kid wants the same one? None I’ve ever met...

When my dd picked out her school bag it was explained to her that she would be having it for as long as it lasts. I spent €50 on it and it's now entering its 4th year of use. Of course she had made noises of wanting a new one. BUT that's when I cease the opportunity to explain the difference between a NEED and a WANT. It's a great life lesson to learn. She gets it now...last week we were in town and she saw a nice pair of earrings. She said "they are lovely, but that's half my money and I want them but I don't need them. I have 5 pairs already". That's a success in my eyes!

Oh, this is so, so wasteful - and think of the effect on climate change.

DD1 is on her second school bag, first one was used for 8 years at school, now used for dance class etc as it is too small for school, second bag is bigger and has been in continuous use for 5 years.

DD2 is on her second bag, it is in continuous use for 10 years. Her first bag was a gift, a nice novelty bag that lasted for 1 whole year.

I can recommend Jansport and Sporthouse bags. Long lasting and get used in the holidays as carry-on for air travel, day trips, sleepovers etc. They survive being machine washed.

I would recommend a bag in a deeper or patterned colourway, avoiding novelty characters that your child will grow out of.

Save the characters for lunchbags that will need replacing more often.

My DC go to a state school where most of the students will be from families with a middle/high earning background. I would say most students would have the same bag for several years. And, the uniforms will be mended where possible. We are all saving with aspirations for our DC to go to 3rd level education, if that's what they want.

Really bad modelling. I am amazed people are blindly going along with this!

Agree with everyone saying how wasteful it is. DS isn't getting a new bag even though he's starting secondary in September - he got a generic sports brand rucksack in Year 5 which has hardly been used (they weren't allowed bags in school during Covid), so it's still in perfectly good nick and perfectly appropriate for secondary. I did actually ask him if he wanted a new bag for secondary and his response was a pretty baffled 'no, what's wrong with this one?'. I'm not claiming he's some model non-consumerist angel child (he's pretty keen on getting a PS5, I can tell you), but I do think that the supposedly universal desire among kids to have new stuff all the time is at least partly modelled by parents.

@user1471539385

DD is at a ‘big name’ private school (ie one that people have heard of nationally) and had the same school bag and overcoat for years 7-9. She has just had a new bag, because the other one was thinning and she didn’t want to risk everything dropping out of it, but will continue in the coat. Her classmates are the same. There’s nothing cool about not caring about the planet, and today’s kids know better than to replace things ‘just because’.

I can see this probably being a class thing too. My nana was dirt poor growing up and scrimped and scraped to make sure her children had the very best she could provide. That is ingrained in my family, no matter what your children are fed, clean and impeccably turned out.

If you get decent quality bags and lunch bags they’ll last. I got my girls Cath Kidston backpacks and Paperchase lunch bags in Reception and they’ll be using them again going into year 4 this September. I wash the lunch bag on a quick cold wash every Friday and they look perfectly clean. No way would I buy new if they are perfectly useable. They did cost me £90 new for all 4 so it was money well spent.

My 6 year old is going to his third year in school mad still has the same school bag. It cost me almost €50 in 2019 so no changing it if it isn't broken 😂
My 8 year olds school bag is on its second year. He was the finicky child that wanted fortnite bag and it didn't last so. Bought a good non toy one last year and it is still in good condition just need to be washed.

I would never put the environment above making my child happy.
But our children’s happiness is contingent on the environment. The climate emergency means millions of displaced people, wars, famines, droughts, poor air quality, food and water shortages, infertile soil, increase in violent crime, decrease in cognitive function, increasing costs of everything – from your child’s new pencil case to the roof over their head to the non-existent food they can’t put on the table because it’s all burned or flooded or unable to grow. All of which will affect your kid even if the UK escapes the worst of the direct effects. And all of which has already begun; it’s not the future, it’s here. We’re living in it.

Honestly it’s not about worthiness – I used to work in the bloody fashion industry, I’ve done as many climate crimes as anybody, I’m still unpicking my own practices – it’s about realising we’ve left it far too bloody late and we need to radically rethink our way of living and consuming. We have all fundamentally misunderstood reduce, reuse, recycle and think that so long as we recycle the cardboard sleeve our new junk came in, we’re OK. We’re not.

So what if you all have happy memories of new stationery every September? So do I. I’d like my daughter to have happy memories of “the Gulf Stream not stopping” and “might be able to have a child of her own without worrying about the ocean rising” and “everything not being dead”. It’s a bloody pencil case/lunch box/bag; ideally you can give them a happy childhood without it and if you can’t, why on earth not?

(And fuck the “haha it’s the MN chicken” crowd, too, while I’m here.)