To HATE World Book Day (or rather kids dressing up for it)?

[Silverbook]

That's it really-
As a parent and a teacher I absolutely hate the yearly "dress up as your favourite character".

As a teacher it is such a visible divide of the haves/have nots.
As a parent I feel under pressure and it adds to the mental load.

I'm absolutely on board with promoting literacy and reading for enjoyment but think WBD has become very commercialised.

Thank you

My child's school are asking children to attend school as the reader and wear clothes they would feel comfortable in while reading their favourite book. A really nice idea and very inclusive imo.

@ZebraKid71 That's lovely

My DS' school took the whole class into the gym hall, encouraged them to choose one of the books on display, wrote down what they'd chosen and implied to the children that yes of course their Mum & Dad would be buying that book for them. I wasn't impressed with that

I hated it.

For me, it was down to it being in March, and it was always freezing, damp or on the verge of snow. DS has additional health issues and used to struggle with zips and buttons too, so the costumes had to be fine for him to undo without help for the loo, and warm enough to stop him getting ill.

We had one year where it literally snowed the night before and I dressed him in a chipmunk onesie and a red top over it. His bloody teacher moaned that Alvin and the Chipmunks wasn't a book, but I pointed out that Beckham wasn't either, and Spiderman was a bloody comic.

This nonsense starts at nursery now.
I’m going low effort next week, either:

Harry (with a bucket of dinosaurs we already have)

Highway Rat (already have a fabric sword; will fashion a highwayman mask with paper).

Any other low effort ideas?

I once dressed DS as the blue crayon from The Day The Crayons Quit. Blue trousers and top. A pointy hat made of blue paper and blue face paint.

I hate it too! Teacher and parent, so get the double whammy of having to also find myself a costume.

The problem is schools can't really win, because if you take it away I guarantee you would have uproar from the parents. Possibly even a 'sad face' newspaper article about how mean we are.

@bighair32 sensible approach. Wish all schools thought the same. It should be about the book not what you wear.

I hate it too, especially as our school say you have to come as a character out of a specific book which makes it harder.

I have two minds about it.
Dd1 and dd2 loved it. Although I'm not sure the school did dressing up when dd1 started.
Ds loathed all dress up days, including things like red for red nose day. Actually more than loathed. They triggered a reaction in him which led to him vomiting more often than not. And the school at that point did a lot. We had 3 in two weeks at one point.
I tried suggesting to the school after he'd done a full on vomit walking up the school path, right in front of the office, that maybe they could give an option of writing a report or dressing up or similar. Ds wasn't keen on school work, especially writing, but would have done that option straight off. Win-win situation I thought. No, apparently "the children love dressing up". Not sure if he didn't count as a child or they didn't believe me.

Our school and nursery don't dress up, instead they d
o "cosy for a story" so kids can wear any cosy comfy clothes from home, often onsies or jammies. Much better I think.

From a teachers POV in what way does it show the haves/have nots?

I'm not keen on the WBD dressing up, but I don't mind it and the dc seem to enjoy it.

I've always just gone with either a costume they already had, or normal clothes with a couple of props.

So over the years we've done Spiderman, football kits (footballer biography), Halloween costume (Funnybones), pyjamas (midnight gang), Charlie with the golden ticket.

Am I showing myself as a lazy parent?

My DC's never liked dressing up so treated it a normal mufti day. If asked they'f just pick a "normal" person from a book and say they'd gone as them.

I remember 35 years ago a friend had a dressing up party. All the other DMs were SAHM and made beautiful costumes for their DC. I (aged 9) made my own and I remember how very miserable I felt at that party (nobody gave me a hard time, it was completely me noticing). DM would, had she realised, have made me something, but it never occurred to either of us (until I got to the party) that I’d be the odd one out. I hate enforced dressing up.

It's called world book day.

However the part of the world where people have actually heard of it is the UK?

I admit I don't know many peopke from the US but I live abroad and have friends from many different countries abd none of them have heard of this thing where you go to school dressed as a book character

The only part of the world I mean sorry posted too soon

Yeah probably, I was just thinking cost wise

My child loved world book day and would spend ages thinking of a character and what to wear - a combination of something from the cupboard and maybe a badge made out of cardboard that theg would colour in or something. No cost, bit of effort, fun - for us. But of course the dressing up was stopped by the usual moaning, book-hating, participate-in-nothing apart from complaining people. How hard is it? Send them in their own clothes and give them a character name from a book they like. It’s not compulsory, don’t do it if you don’t want to, but why spoil it for those that love it.

I don’t want to buy anything that gets used so little

So regardless of how much it costs we usually try to fudge it without buying a costume

Haha we read that book the other week

Good one

Our school have banned dressing up, we have instead got to take a prop from home that pupils/teachers can guess what the book is, for example room on the broom - I small brush 😂

It would be interesting if each school actually asked the parents their thoughts on how to mark world book day. The idea being; moving away from dressing up.

I VERY much doubt there would be much push back at all against the idea of ditching the dressing up.

No it can’t. You get people on here saying, ‘oh you can cobble together an innovative outdit! The teachers love it’’

Yeah, I fell for this. Thing is, my son HATED it. He wants to look like all the other kids in their bought outfits from Amazon. You just have to fork out for the effing outfit. It does nothing for sodding literacy. He’s usually wearing an outfit that is in no way related to any book he has ever read just to fit in.

You are right OP, it’s pointless commercialism, costs money and time lots of families don’t have, causes stress for anxious / NT children.
And it’s bloody rubbish for the environment with all those pointless plastic outfits being bought.

Send them in their own clothes and give them a character name from a book they like.

What's the point in that? What are they getting out of a parent telling them 'you're dressed as X if anyone asks btw'

The schools should be putting effort into thinking of activities that everyone enjoys and can participate in.

Interestingly one of my colleagues was saying exactly the same yesterday. Apparently when her children were at state school it was unbearably competitive.

She attributed it to private schools having a higher proportion of working parents (to pay the bloody fees).