To be amazed that people still haven't bought their school uniform?

[llamajohn]

Kids go back on Tuesday. WhatsApp Group is alive with "argh, I can't find X item" or "where can I get the book bag"?

As if it's been a complete surprise that their child is joining reception and the uniform shops and supermarkets have been closed since June...

Why would you leave it to the last moment?

This

And because children grow and if you're one of those super organised people who buys it all at the start of the holidays your kid will just grow 10cm and 2 shoe sizes while you're not paying attention and you'll have to buy it again nearer the time anyway 🤷🏻‍♀️

We've been abroad most of the summer so went uniform and stationery shopping today. We got everything we needed.

Christmas shopping must be fun for you

I buy next size up uniform throughout the year so it’s there when it’s needed and I don’t have to buy everything at once. At my kids school the supplier ships the school logo stuff to school for free so I made sure I’d ordered that after the last half term to save myself the £6. Every little helps 🤣 3 more years of primary school left so I better start saving for secondary school uniform now 😬 I’ll miss the £4 polo shirts!

Good for you. Maybe others can’t afford (or don’t wish) to do things as you do. As it happens, our school’s second hand uniform isn’t sold until the very end of the holidays. Maybe some wait for that. So there are all sorts of circumstances at play and your tunnel vision is smug, judgemental and tone deaf. I’m embarrassed you could post again saying something so ridiculous. I’d ask for this to be taken down as if I said something to clearly stupid, I’d not want to see it again.

It's fine. I do it in December when it's actually approaching Christmas. DH does most if it, he's better at it but also has no interest starting till it is at least Advent.

It's not actually doing Christmas shopping myself that infuriates me; it's shops trying to tell me to do it in September when it's nowhere near Christmas.

We have a foot measuring device at home

I use to love going for school shoes at Clarkes with those machines you put your feet into. They don’t seem to do them anymore

If I'm honest I can tell when people do this, especially with things like Boots gifts, perfume/body lotion duos and Body Shop sets as I will have seen them in the sales myself! Doesn't bother me but it might bother some, especially those who measure "I spent X and you spent Y". Which is also joyless.

Everyone should be doing their Christmas shopping in the Black Friday sales. My in laws ask for a list for DS in October and then I see it all half price in November but they've already bought it all. Such a thing as being too organised.

I always preferred to go to someone who was trained and experienced. We went to the same lady every year. She was excellent.

It’s that boring old H and S gone mad malarkey again. Some jumped up little scientist with a PhD worked out that the machines gave off an unacceptable level of radiation, both to the innocent little children putting their feet into them and the staff in the shoe shops where they were situated.

I honestly think some people have nothing better to do that spoil other peoples innocent enjoyment of potentially dangerous substances, see also, “No children, you can’t play with the mercury in the laboratory no matter how fascinating it is, and sorry Trevor, you can’t have some phosphorus to take home to show your mum.”

🙂

Sorry, just to make it crystal clear, who is the poster who has said something “clearly stupid”? The one who is spreading the cost of expensive school uniform so she can afford it for her child or the one lambasting them for “tunnel vision”?

I think you’re talking about the x ray machines? After that they did a moving foot measuring machines.

Oh I must have missed those!

I think that I'll buy enough for the first week or 2 when mine are school age, as I've noticed that now schools have been back for a couple of weeks, all the uniforms, shoes and school equipment are now half price or less, in the supermarkets at least. Saw a pack of 3 polo shirts for £2 earlier in the week.

Well I tasked the housekeeper with dealing with it in July . I can't think why people don't organise their staff better .

“Have you considered taking in ironing?”

Hi, happy to make it crystal clear for you. I’d have thought it was pretty obvious if you read what was said. She’s of course not stupid in any way for spreading the cost of uniform and being so well prepared, that’s fantastic. But that’s what works for her. Her tunnel vision is in her amazement that others don’t operate as she does because she’s blind to the fact that people have all sorts of constraints and reasons.

You can order it online and have everything delivered to the door in a couple of days, it's hardly hard work and there's no need to have it all months in advance if you don't want to

As an aside, do people really buy and wrap all their Christmas presents by August/September? Do you just buy generic stuff rather than actually seeing what people want or need closer to the time? That seems like weirdly rigid and joyless behaviour to me. What if your kids or husband develop a new interest in October and you're like "nope, I bought and wrapped your gift in the summer" 🤣

@FeelingSoOverwhelmed I was thinking exactly this. There’s no chance my kids are gonna be into the same thing at Christmas, as they were August/September. It would be completely wasted. I take it the poster you were tagging, doesn’t ask family or friends if they’ve seen anything nice they want for Christmas? “Oh thanks nan, another Dove set” 😏

I don't wrap them but I do buy presents (mostly for my daughters) when I see things that I know they will like on offer during the summer, mostly jewellery/clothes/shoes. I haven't bought anything yet this year which is the first in many years.

When my children were small, I did buy fairly early but it's actually remarkably easy to convince them that what you've bought is what they want!

What a privileged post OP.
Smug married too?!

You are way too over invested in this for a GP,

It was literally JUST payday. Some people can’t afford all the uniform at once ( or maybe worry that their child will grow out of an item by Sep) and so will have waited until now. Astounding that you weren’t aware of this.

Also, some people may have just forgotten something - book bags/water bottles etc are easy to forget.

I’ve had to spread my uniform huting over the last 2 paydays because one of my kids had a gigantic growth spurt over the summer and has had to have all of her clothes and shoes replaced on top of uniform. In fact, she grew out of her school shoes (the same ones she had had since last September), 4 weeks before the end of last term. So, we bought new school shoes in June that obviously we hoped would fit in September but no! She has grown AGAIN 🫤 hence running around looking for another new pair this weekend.