world book day is a pointless, costly pain in the arse for working parents?

[LumpenProletariat]

Does it make any difference to reading levels? As a solo working mum, I find it a total pain and costly too.

l totally agree, your kids either naturally love reading or they don't and dressing up like Peppa Pig won' t change that.

It can be costly, but I know my two really enjoy a chance to dress up (they've inherited my love for wearing costumes) and look forward to it. So personally I'd find it a shame if they stopped it.

@Sirzy

I think a chance to encourage children to enjoy books is great. Done well it should focus on the pleasure of reading rather than the academics of reading.

Part of the problem is too many parents see it as some sort of competition and make the costumes much more complicated than they need to be

Exactly this, some parents turn every thing into a competition and world book day is just another chance to peacock.

No child needs a new costume every year and certainly not expensive ones. I personally prefer the years they just take their favourite book in. this year my DDs class is dressing up, I've already had one parent bragging about how they've bought new costumes for their 2 DC- neither are from books 🙄

You dress up using things you already own, surely?
Exactly. You start with what you have and you say 'do you want to wear your onesie and be a dinosaur from Harry's bucket or your black and white t-shirt and go as Burglar Bill?'

Don't send them in then say they went as The Invisible Man / Woman.

plenty of us work and manage to get kids to school for world book day, use what you have and use Google if your imagination is lackinh

I hate it with a passion. A million of children with something painted on their forehead and glasses never got anyone reading anyway.

Or dressed up as Mrs Hinch.

Please Don’t turn This into an us vs them (working parents vs sahp). It’s costly for everyone. Not all sahp Do so through choice (my child is disabled, we can not afford for me to be a sahp, but have no choice due to the failing system we have found ourselves part of).

World book day is a ridiculous idea that ime does not nothing to encourage reading and it’s just another thing added to the list of things to stress The majority of parents out. (I accept that their are very creative parents out there who will revel in turning an old duvet cover in to some kind of Outstanding costume that every other child will covert.

*lacking

My DS used to just go as Horrid Henry or similar in his own clothes ... schools can't 'insist' on costly dressing up outfits. Any school suggesting children are sent home for not dressing 'appropriately' should be reported.

The faux-confusion is just embarrassing.

Shop bought costumes are expensive, therefore making the day costly.

Home made costumes are time consuming, therefore difficult for a single working mum.

I'm on maternity leave, with full pay and a working husband, and I still find it a pain in the arse!

l totally agree, your kids either naturally love reading or they don't and dressing up like Peppa Pig won' t change that.

This. I have one child that has never really enjoyed reading and one that loves it. Neither of them interested in dressing up as characters past the age of 7. It falls on the parents, I think the schools are doing it with good intentions but most b parents find it a pain, and for some it’s really difficult financially.

Our primary gives the option of coming in pyjamas or a onesie with a book and a teddy for a bedtime story.

Aww, I like it. Enjoyed it as a kid, enjoyed it as a teacher. We didn't get dressed up when I was a kid, but we got a book token and a mobile bookshop would come to school so we could spend it. Well worth it.

My DS won best costume the year I sent him in wearing his own clothes with a pokemon toy and his pokemon handbook. He was a pokemon trainer. . I think he won because he was the only kid who wasn't dressed in an Avengers costume from Asda.

The expensive I get but it's not difficult or time comsuming to order a costume off Amazon these days.

I absolutely hate world book day. Our kids have to dress up and I do not want to buy a costume that will be binned afterwards. Any ideas on what character they could be using normal clothes they already have?
We also have another dress up day after half term, where they need to wear aprons and bonnets, something to do with great fire of London. Neither of which I have so will more than likely have to buy. Really annoys me how much schools do dressing up. Before Christmas it was nearly every week 😠

My son loves it! It's his favourite school day of the year. I do appreciate that we are in a fortunate position that we can afford a costume for him. I do however wonder why people go to all the trouble of getting a costume that's not even from a book as I kind of think that misses the point somewhat.

When my eldest 2 were young everyone wore homemade costumes but by the time my younger ones went to school the dressing up clothes had appeared, but I would say the amount of dressing up clothes is as a result of lots of the children wearing Disney costumes and supermarkets then caught on to the idea and began doing costumes for popular book characters

plenty of us work and manage to get kids to school for world book day, use what you have and use Google if your imagination is lackinh

Some don’t have things to use....some don’t have easy access to the internet. But don’t let that stop you.

In my kids school they will be selecting a class book on the Monday, then have to dress as a character from that book on the Thursday.
My children hate dressing up, and this time we're not even going to have a chance to prepare anything.

If schools just used book day to encourage a love of reading I would be all behind it, but why the dressing up?

I work in a school and I love it. A whole day discussing books and seeing children excited about books is important

Agree, it’s been a real highlight at all the schools I’ve taught in - children and teaching staff genuinely enjoyed dressing up ans discussing their chosen stories.

With reading for pleasure and simply sharing and telling stories increasingly being pushed out of the curriculum in favour of phonics and functional reading skills I think it’s important to have one day that centres the enjoyable aspects of reading and storytelling. Find it quite depressing that so many of the comments so far focus on ‘reading levels’ and ‘reading ability’ - WBD should be about the magic of stories and that’s it.

I dont mind it, even the costumes.

What I can't stand is the snobbery around it. Adults sneering at a small child in a disney princess costume or whatever.

@PastMyBestBeforeDate

Our primary gives the option of coming in pyjamas or a onesie with a book and a teddy for a bedtime story.

My son would absolutely love this!

@Momicrone

plenty of us work and manage to get kids to school for world book day, use what you have and use Google if your imagination is lackinh

I do manage every year, thanks. But it is annoying and is going to cost money and I will need to bin the costume afterwards.

It’s great when they get to secondary...no dress up days. 🥳 They do Xmas jumper day but hardly any kids wear one.