To say it should just be dressing up day?

[Ulysees]

World book day where I live is really just dressing up day. Hardly any are from books. The odd Harry potter here and there.

To be fair I once forgot and dressed ds1 as Dracula. He loved it. But at least it was a book! 🤣

Agree. Seen Toy Story and Disney. As a parent I would be doing the same

Yes it's a lot of expense and hassle trying to find outfits of literary characters.

my issue is our school FB page has been full of people asking if they could "borrow a book for a day" so they don't even have the book which really makes a mockery of WBD.

But so what? Life is expensive enough, my boy has a Batman dress up he wants to wear, so I'm letting him. The school have said they can go in pyjamas instead if they like, appreciating that many people can't find the money just now.
It's meant to be a day of fun, I don't see what difference it makes what the children wear.

I think it's sad that children don't have enough exposure to books to be able to choose a character from a book. I don't believe all this it costs too much. Some of the best costumes my kids wore were cobbled together from what we had in dressing up or from a large skirt bought at the charity shop.

My sons primary just make it “bedtime stories day” and all staff and pupils come in, in pyjamas and bring their fav bedtime story to share throughout the day….no expense of having to buy / make a costume and the kids love it.

That's awful 😭

@Dotdashdottinghell did I say it was a bad thing? Wind your neck in.

What a fantastic idea.

Or…they’re strapped for cash AND time, trying to keep a roof over their heads and don’t have the bandwidth to also be lovingly fashioning homemade costumes?! Have some empathy!

How does that make a mockery of WBD? If anything it demonstrates the sad statistics about how many children don’t have books of their own, which is the reason for the £1 WBD vouchers.

I see posts like this every year, but the characters people moan about are in books too. My kids have plenty of Disney books, many superheroes started out in comic books. I’m not sure how dressing up as a book character helps a love of reading anyway 🤷‍♀️ it’s just a bit of fun and people are skint enough without worrying if another mum is bitching about their kid for not having the exact perfect costume.

Luckily at my kids school nobody cares. There were loads of Disney princesses, loads of superheroes and some in just normal clothes.

Same at DS2 school. There was an amusing but necessary reminder that because it was pj day for WBD to please not come in wearing last night’s pjs after some students assumed they could just wake up and come in as is.

My DD has always had outfits cobbled together from normal clothes. This year she has gone as Agatha Raisin as she saw me reading one of the books and she took to it herself. It all came from charity shop. One year she was princess smartypants and another Winnie the witch. The only year that was actual dress up was hermione granger. I can't take the credit- her dad always does it 😍

@35965a good point. Ds2 rarely reads a book but does read comics. Anything is good as long as it gets them reading.

@phoenixrosehere that's hilarious 😂

@teaandtoastwithmarmite what a lovely dad.

DD's nursery just asked us to send her in with a book to share for the day instead of going all out with a costume.

Your comment about "at least it was a book" seems a bit snobby about anyone who doesn't choose a "proper" book charscter.

What's wrong with Dracula? It's fine for world book day what with being a character from classic literature

World Book Day is really about the book tokens as many children don’t have any books and to encourage a love of reading.

What costumes people dress in is irrelevant, it just makes it more fun and engaging which means it keeps getting sponsorship which means they can keep providing book tokens - all costumes are good!

Yes you're right I'm a snob you got me. This was a while ago when people mainly did dress them up as book characters not roblox Minecraft etc.

Yanbu. Most of the boys just go as a footballer.

My son didn't like dressing up but did like reading so wore his normal clothes and went as Greg heffley

My daughter is embarrassed as her reading age isn't where she would like it to be due to dyslexia so she has refused to dress up at all.

Will happily own that no, I don't want to make too much effort for this day when all of my children hate dressing up and already love reading. I'll probably just channel my efforts into taking care of their emotional needs, spending time with them and going to work to feed and clothe them

Honestly this sort of bullshit is what gives Mumsnet a bad name.

A much better option