Alien/space creature day at school

[VGY3]

We were informed a few weeks ago that school is doing it today. The memo was to 'be creative' and 'make' something to come to school in.. as an alien or space creature.

Me and DS worked together to make his. He was proud as punch and excited to show his friends.. until we got to school and saw that most of the other children in the class were in shop bought (proper) costumes. He then felt "silly" about his costume not being a "real one" and didn't want to wear it anymore.

I know people can be pushed for time, I am too, 3 kids and work ft, but we've had weeks. How hard is it to stick some googly eyes on a piece of card?

There was some hand made ones available in the class for children who's parents didn't participate, so nobody would feel left out. There was no need to go out and splurge on pricy costumes.

AIBU to feel a bit peeved?

Before buying things I always raid the house but we rarely have anything that we could use for the random specific thing they want this week. I cut up one of my maternity dresses to give him an elf costume for Christmas when I was pregnant with his sister as we had no Christmas jumper for nursery. I look forward to when we can finally buy a house and set up an area where we can leave things to dry/set/not get destroyed by a toddler. Or even put our table up!

We've never had aliens though. I must admit I wouldn't have tried a plastic bag (bin or otherwise) as DS is a very young 4 and knowing him he'd get stuck in it unable to breathe, but when the kids are older I think it's easier. I saw on here that there used to be 5 packs of T-shirts from H+M that were great for costumes but when I went to buy a set the colours were naff and the set was quite expensive.

Having said that, our costumes never end up in landfill. We reuse them as many times as we can. Everything gets passed down to DD and the kids love dressing up at home. People often mistake DD for a boy as she's usually in boys' clothes. 🤣

This thread has been really thought provoking as we've been debating smaller house with lower mortgage or bigger house with more mortgage, and I think we need a bit more space to do things like this after being crammed into this tiny rental since we came to this country.

I just can't imagine getting worked up about a fancy dress day at school. If DD had an idea she wanted to do, then I'd do my best with what time I had and what materials we had in the house (i.e. it would be shit). If she wasn't bothered or didn't like arts and crafts then I'd be ordering something.

Parents are busy enough these days as it is, a fancy dress day will be way down the list of priorities.

You said it better than me, this is what I meant.

I mean space creature is easy - just wrap some tin foil around the kid.
If children aren't learning how to be creative at school - then how are they going to make costumes for their future children?
Campaign for more art and crafts at school!

Peeved in general, It's just shit for the children who do go wearing homemade as, like PP said, they feel bad because 'proper' costumes are perceived as much cooler and better despite their own effort.

I'm certainly not annoyed with the children themselves. We're talking about reception age children.

I think making the costumes/masks as an art class in school and using those is a really good idea so everybody is on an even keel. The environmental points made are also spot on.

I finally learned after days and days making a where the wild things are fake fur costume from scratch: parents will look at a homemade and think that’s great. Kids: that’s rubbish, I want to be shop bought Mike from Monsters inc. like my friend 😁

I’m another one who thinks wtf was this alien dress up day all about? What was the learning? Why do schools keep coming up with more and more dress up days? Surely it’s a pita for the staff as well? Kids end up
un totally impractical clothes that aren’t fit for the playground/weather/going to the toilet. Inevitably during the day they lose bits and get uncomfortable.

It was ever thus. Whatever the theme was for dressing up, the parents who weren't creative/worked full time/cba would just buy costumes. A handful of people made things.
We explained to DC that some people don't have time to make things, or don't feel confident about it, so they buy them.

In our case it's because the theme for the term is outer space. They've been to the science museum, learning about planets etc. This is tied into it.

@MissyB1 well we need the next generation of clothes and costume designers to learn these skills don't we?
It's all education - if actually done at school!

Yeah but a dress up day doesn't hugely add to that. Loads more interesting and easily accessible ways to get parents and children working together. In P1 we did a lot of A4 posters which are great because most houses will have some paper and markers so it's early to access and the ones who love crafty stuff can go all out if they want.

Dress up is just a pain.

They could read, "Whatever Next" and re-enact that. All you need is a cardboard box, a colander or sieve and some wellies! We've played having a picnic on the moon many times here.

Or read/watch the Button Moon stories and make wooden spoon creatures / aliens

Or use bottles to make rockets, thinking about what features would help them fly

There's so many ways to actually benefit the learning around the topic, and I produce creativity, without the stress and upset dressing up causes.

The point is sometimes just to have fun. Shocking I know for primary aged children. I'm sure the teacher knows the class and would know if any would struggle with this sort of thing.

without the stress and upset dressing up causes

🙄

If its anything like my kids school they will hand out a prize for the best costume in each class and it will go to the one with the handmade costume even if it’s rubbish (not saying yours is!),this has happened to my dd before and she was very pleased with herself and her rubbish homemade costume by the end of the day!

OP was judging characters too. Implying people just couldn't be bothered because 'how hard is it..?'

You get what you put out there.

If you can't be arsed to do an activity with your child then just say that 🙄🍪

I think it’s weird you’re so bothered about what other parents chose to do with their child. Stop being so judgey not everyone is artistic or has the time or resources to hand make a kids costume. You do you and stop concerning yourself with how others live their life 🙄🙄

The OPs child was left feeling sad and left out.

Many children will be too hot/too cold/itchy/struggle with toileting in their costumes.

Parents are being judged and found wanting.

Precious bits will be lost and teachers expected to find stuff that hasn't been named etc etc

It's not v fun in the main and there's plenty of other ways!

Alas I cannot be bothered to make costumes. I really don't feel the need to justify myself when I can bung £20 at Amazon and get it sorted.
Op, Sorry your ds was disappointed but it's so much quicker and easier to buy something

TBF, I wouldn't have done this with my kids and I home educate them so it's not a question of not being arsed. But mine don't like dressing up, aren't massively into creativity on anyone else's terms, amd get massively stressed if their output doesn't match their creative vision so every aspect of an activity like this would be a miserable nightmare in our house!

When there's a prize, home made always winds over shop brought. All you can do is encourage him to be proud of his hard work

Do you really need me to explain it to you?

It's about how DS feels as a result of it, as though his contribution is shit in comparison.

Roll away.

Well try a bit harder next time or buy a proper costume so your child’s not disappointed. Poor kid being the odd one out in his mums crappy creation!

No idea what ‘roll away’ means, so your attempt at being witty has gone down as well as your alien costume..

Agree with @Yesnosorryplease on this.

Whether you're a make it parent or not, there's no point in buying costumes at all. A bought costume enhances no one's creativity or learning, costs money and has a terrible environmental impact, for no good reason. And how does being itchy/cold enhance anyone's learning?

The school should read the room, and go with the majority- if most parents are buying costumes, the dressing up days should be stopped. Any costumes/masks should just be made in school so that everyone has home made, and busy/uncreative parents are forced to spend money.

OP, I love a homemade costume myself, and it is sad that your son was made to feel embarrassed by something he'd put so much effort into, but he will have got a lot out of making it. It's not just kids though, this happened to me at a work fancy dress party - I made my costume, literally everyone else was in Amazon purchased outfits.