To say that World Book Day should be about BOOK characters?!

[mrsbn1988]

This is lighthearted .

But AIBU for getting an irrational rage that there are kids dressed up as Elsa or Moana or Marvel someone every WBD?

This stems from the fact that I've just been looking for a WBD costume from a well-known supermarket and spotted a Bluey costume. Now don't get me wrong - I LOVE Bluey, but Bluey was created for TV. Same as Peppa Pig.

I KNOW there are story books around that feature these characters, but they were originally created for TV or film, so they don't count.

And yes, characters like Harry Potter do, because they were originally book characters before the film adaptions.

I'm interested to hear other's opinions. Is World Book Day just becoming an excuse for kids to dress up in their favourite fancy dress outfit without actually thinking about the book element?!

This.
Charity shops have racks of outgrown character costumes, fancy dress stuff.
Same at car boot sales.
Please don’t buy more new tat from China.

A lot of kids wear badges on their birthday.

I haven't seen a badge with a pin for years now. And this would be multiple pins.

And to add - my default costume for world book day or any other viking, egyptian, roman thing was a cheap coloured pillow case from Asda. Hole in the top for head. Arm holes. You have a tunic. Perfect as the base for being a knight, Egyptian, Roman soldier, Viking, any of the other things school used to ask us to create.

More idea for non- fiction costumes....(which does involve pinning bits of paper/card to child....)
Cook Book - a paper chef's hat plus apron with the accessories of a spatula or something. Couple of recipes written out and attached to the apron.
Atlas - various pictures of different countries attached to a t-shirt.
A-Z Road Map - a head band with a giant cardboard A on and a giant Z attached to trousers. Wear a ribbon sash over the body with some Hot Wheels glued to it.

Also all this "landfill and waste", do none of you use charity shops or vinted? My little ones will be PJ Masks, brought the books. It was a book before a TV show altho we have the books of the TV show. All from Vinted. The t-shirt for eldest will be charity shop, and was the hat I'm cutting up. His body part Halloween costume will go to a younger sibling hopefully. His last Halloween costume was also a different Halloween costume the year before and Max the Cat he year before that for WBD (black tight onsie).

Who buys a new costume then throws it in the bin by Easter?

As long as they engage with the day's activities which are centred around reading, I really don't think it matters what a primary school kid is wearing.

@TheKeatingFive all the birthday badges I come across have safety pins except those aimed at under 3s.
You could use fabric glue I suppose.
Or the old style nappy pins which have the extra hard to open safety feature.

@SleepingStandingUp charity shops are indeed amazing and I am a massive fan. But you can't guarantee they have what you're looking for - fine if you are just looking for a costume, any costume, but if your child specifically wants to be Harry Potter or something and they don't currently have any wands, cloaks or hats....

This

I bloody hate world book day.

We moved to a really deprived area a few years ago. When dd first started at the school, I had a conversation with the teachers about it and they said they had never done WBD dressing up there as the demographic of the area is very poor and they didn’t want to put pressure on parents.

Fast forward to now, new head brought in by an academy to “save” the failing school (that’s no fault of the staff, it’s failing due to the shithole where it is, and when the parents are selling drugs and scrapping in the playground, and don’t sent their children in and encourage them to abuse staff, it’s never, ever going to get to good or outstanding no matter what they do), and world book day is go.

So all children are expected to dress as a book character. They have stipulated no fancy dress or film characters, which is all a lot of children will have if they are lucky.

A lot of parents here just won’t bother and it’s the children who will be made to feel bad.

But hey. It makes the school sound good doesn’t it and the children with parents who can be arsed will be photographed to make it all look wonderful, just like with all their other ideas recently (science fair, art competition- it’s only ever the same few parents who bother and it’s awful for the children who would probably love to join in, but they can’t).

When DS was Dogman I wanted to do facepaint. He completely refused as he complained that facepaint was horrible and itchy to wear all day at school. Which I do think is a reasonable thing to say, so I had to come up with an alternative as it "just wasn't Dogman without a dog head" according to him. He is fussy enough about dressing up and that year it HAD to be dog man and the shops weren't doing Dogman costumes (I bet they are this year). DS wanted it to be a good costume because of peer pressure even in infants. The saving grace is that it taught him how much effort went into making a costume and he appreciated his friends who did that as a result. The irony here is that doing something for a book he genuinely cares about was way more difficult and stressful - he's probably not the type of kid who benefits most from the concept of WBD.

I ultimately probably could have convinced him to wear something else - but not without big arguments at home - another reason I'm fine with Marvel and Elsa, as not all kids have the emotional maturity to go with something else that's not familiar to them.

For me, that year rammed home just how screwed up WBD costumes are even though I wasn't it's biggest fan.

I am so relieved it's PJs instead this year although I had been already planning this year's costume (fortunately I'd not started it when the school confirmed it wasn't costume this year)

Tbf I didn't complain about mental load of Dog Man, just laughing at the "one hour throwing something half hearted together and you're done". Some kids actually care about WBD and that's as ok as the kids who go in their jeans and t-shirt then find a character to for or the kid who's worn Elsa for five years in a row and now has to put leggings underneath.

Sorry, that comment wasn't aimed at you at all, it was just an example of how things can be simplified and doesn't have to mean mental load for parents.

I'm always up for the costumes and my DD really enjoys getting to dress up as characters from her favourite books; others aren't and don't and that's fine! I was just pointing out it can take as much or as little effort as is wanted and I find singe of the vitriol again WBD unwarranted.

Completely separately, my daughter's school also spend the day talking about their book and character and discussing why they like it. It's not just slap on any old costume.

But that's just my take. I don't feel the need to start getting irate or being unpleasant to those who have different views. I put in the amount of effort I'm willing to expend on this on any given year and I'm happy with that!

@RedToothBrush they're not ,😭

Vinted. But more, my point was about buying it and then binning it, rather than buying new because there's no alt. All this "it's just landfill worn once!", none of our costumes get binned unless they're worn to breaking.

@Arthurflecksfacepaint so do you think the school should stop all those things for everyone because some parents are disengaged?

Even a cheap pillow case from Asda will set you back a few quid though. And by juniors the average kid will have outgrown a pillowcase. Multiple even that couple of quid by four or five kids which is the case for a number of families and it's expensive. Parents having to make costumes for an only child is manageable to a point. But not for bigger families. This certainly doesn't seem to be registering with a lot of people on this thread determined to say 'costumes are easy and cheap to make / buy'.

No it's just shit across the board.

I'm wanting DD (age 4) to go as Katie Morag. Think she'll probably end up Rapunzel though as a) she's a pita pretty headstrong and b) I'll feel a bit mean if she's in wellies and a woolly jumper and all the other girls are princesses.

4 year olds are not so much about the principles.

Exactly.

Not something I’d get worked up about. It’s another hassle for a lot of parents and I don’t blame them

A potato?? WTAF?

(Vaguely remember hearing something about potatoes from DDs school before she started... Slightly panicked.)

YABU!! Some parents have limited funds and this adds unnecessary stress to try and buy one. Why not wear something the child already has?! Some schools in my area specifically do not allow dressing up for this reason, as some areas are classed as poverty stricken and the school don't want kids who have no costume to wear to feel out of place. But it looks like even kids that do dress up in possibly what they have as the parents have no money for other costumes, are not dressing correctly as deemed by you. Incase you haven't realised we are also in a cost of living crisis, putting further pressure on the most deprived households. HTH!

If schools want homemade costumes why don't they have a devoted art and craft day ahead of WBD for the children to make costumes. Parents that can could donate old costumes, clothes, material, crafty things etc.
Parents that can could also volunteer to help with the day if they are particularly crafty (I did that for their Christmas display crafts. Turns out pom poms are too complicated for 7/8 years olds.... I essentially made 60 pom poms 😂).
Schools have a day for books (WBD) plus a day for sports (sports day - a day most kids seem to hate more than anything), STEM days etc.
Why not Crafty Day?

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

I bloody hated World Book Day. It wasn’t about books. It was about dressing up.

When it first started ds was at school. They got a book token. That was much better.

That’s a great idea @Needmorelego .

We used to have Greek day and roman day at DC primary - always in winter. The school always gave out a breezy "don't worry about expensive costumes, you can easily make something from an old sheet"
Wearing a sheet in winter is nor the most appealing prospect!

To begin with you need an old sheet - if I had a sheet that was no longer in use, I'd have recycled it. Secondly you need some sewing/creative skills to do this. I don't have a sewing machine but I did make something...that then had to be worn with leggings etc to prevent freezing. It looked OK as they left. It wasn't sturdy enough to last a full day! By the time DC2 had Greek day I bought a generic polyester costume from another parent on fb.

This year mine has to dress up as a character from a "myth or legend" FFS. Also prizes for the best homemade outfit.

Luckily MIL is an ex teacher and has been reading Persephone to her and has made a costume. So she's going as the Queen of the underworld 😂