The swishy blonde ponytail mums and others

[Doeshethinkhesinpeakyblinders]

Just started school run for the first time with my dc, interesting to observe the different mums.
The type of mum I want to be the most is one of the bouncy, swishy blonde ponytails ones wearing gym gear. I also saw the well put together, professional ones in the suits…perfect make up and jewellery..reeking of class and top organisational skills.
Then we have the mums with more than one, usually juggling the bags with the tiny baby or errant toddler, slightly stressy looking or just gone-completely dead tired.
As it happens I’m the fairly inconspicuous one who shuffles past-jeans and converse, never really late but almost always just about to be…one dc but still fairly stressy, not bouncy, not well polished…but off home to clean up dog poo.

Which are you?

Clothing brands, the more waterproof the better. I'd love to look chic and fashionable but it's always bloody raining (apart from so far this term) and so I always look like an advert for Go Outdoors instead. My blond hair is more haystack than bouncy ponytail as well.

I'm the one who's never there because I'm also a teacher and am in school 7-5 most days...

I’m you!

Bloody hell. Some truly miserable moos on this thread.

If you're this easily triggered by somebody introducing a lighthearted topic of conversation then you need to step away from the internet. And probably real life too 😂

Another wfh-mum here! Probably look a right sight as I wear a smartish top (eg nice jumper), tracksuit bottoms, and whichever shoes were nearest!

Annoyingly on the day I go into the office, DH does the nursery run, so the staff/other parents never see me looking smart with makeup and coordinating shoes!

I'm the grossly overweight, ugly mum who makes everyones kids laugh and because I'm a decade older than most of small persons class the other mums see me as agony aunt mum..... I'm not a gossip (although I've enough dirt on everyone to cause carnage)....and I quite like my niche..... 😄

I was the mum who everyone assumed was a SAHM (no judgement) so gets a lot of ‘it’s ok for you’ comments.

In reality I was freelance so flexible but spent a lot of time at computer before the kids got up and after they went to bed.

Now I’m mum who rejoices in saying ‘have a good day!’ As I lock the door behind them when they leave an hour earlier than the school run used to be and make their own way 🤣🤣🤣

I'm the fucking knackered single Mum of two teens, plus a nine year old, who works full time.

I doubt you're ugly, that's harsh on yourself.

I think I am more like a dad in this respect. Not giving the tiniest rats arse about looking the part on the school run.

I'd be the so boring, average-looking one, you wouldn't notice me at all. I used to care about this stuff when my oldest first went to school and I felt that you needed to fit in some way. 14 years later, I have a few mums I will speak to in each of my childrens classes (generally parents of their friends who we reciprocate parties and play dates with), and I will smile at anyone.

As my youngest has started reception I try extra hard to be friendly to the nervous looking parents dropping off their eldest. People are just people, be yourself.

I look like an absolute tramp (and not in a stylish way) but if you look closely you’d see I’m wearing 100k worth of jewellery. Hard to put people in boxes isn’t it

I really could not pick out £100 metal amd stones from £100,000 metal and stones. Doubt many would

I don't have to do it now but I'm the one with brightly coloured hair (often unbrushed), band t-shirt, jeans and trainers.

Me neither. What does 100k of jewellery look like? I'm imagining someone like Madge off Benidorm, dripping in gaudy necklaces with medallion rings on every finger.

I’m the mum with messy hair and a food stained top and jogging pants. I only have one child and I’m rich and unfit.

Why stereotype those around you, it makes you sound insecure. Instead of “observing” why don’t you go talk to some mums and help your child make friends?!

I'm the one you never see as my childminder does the school runs

But On the rare occasion I do a school run I'm always in smart work clothes enroute to work

No swishy ponytail
No gym clothes
No pyjamas

Just big standard smart casual stuff for an office

Same. Often you'll find me in joggers and hoodie or a top with toothpaste/lunch dripped on it. Other days its a Hobbs suit and heels. I'm not someone who fits in a category as easily as the OP suggests and so its best not to judge a book by the cover it has on that day/during that activity.

I don't think anyone is intentionally trying to make OP feel like a bad person or give her a hard time. However, many realise how unhelpful these school-run stereotypes are even in jest. Frankly I have enough to juggle to keep my dd happy and healthy without also having to feel like I have to bloody dress up or act a certain way on the days when I drop her off just to fit in with the other mums (or worse for my dd to fit in with the other kids?!) If you talk to me and aren't a dick to me I'll grant you the same favour whatever you look like and whatever your financial/social status. I think lots of parents in reality think like this which is why things like the OP are quite toxic IMHO. That's not a personal attack on the OP. I'm sure she's lovely. X

No make, up havent brushed my hair in a week and can barely see straight because ive had 4hrs sleep. Wrangling a toddler thats usually screaming at me in an ungodly high pitch and ear shattering volumes, trying to find my school aged child thats buggered off at the time. also fall into the ten years younger than everyone else and heavily tattooed with coloured hair so i stick out. Oh and i constantly asking about school events because i forget everything.

Why would you care about what anyone thinks of your appearance though?
This is half of the problem, people giving headspace to what others think about their appearance.

Yes, this still boggles my mind, even though I did spend four years feeling very isolated and disliked at a village school in the Midlands —it was just a poor match between person and environment (I was foreign and transient in a place where pretty much everyone had grown up together and had gone to that same local school, and a working mother where that was rare). It didn’t occur to me to turn it into some set of Machiavellian machinations involving ‘cliques’ and ‘Queen Bees’.

The school DS (10) attends now is an inner-city, socially mixed affair, and drop-off and pick-up (whether breakfast/after school clubs or school ‘proper’) has medics, nurses, and cleaners from the nearby hospital, academics from the nearby university, newly-arrived Ukrainians, people from the direct provision centre, builders, architects, and lots of creatives of various types. The scruffiest people I talk to are a conservation architect and a forensic archaeologist. I love this school.

I don't care but this thread is literally trying tp force me to believe that I should... That's kindof my point...

Who cares?

It's over 20 years since I last did a school run and I can tell you honestly that I never once gave any thought about what other parents were wearing or what I was wearing.

When did dressing for the school run become a thing?