Grandson's coat stolen/taken by mistake at school

[Onthecarpet2002]

We bought our 7 year old dgs a lovely coat for school, he's only had it a couple of weeks. Not too expensive as it was in the sale.
He's been in tears all evening as he went to his peg & it was gone. I bet the parents don't send it back. You want your children look nice for school & be warm, but it just seems these days you think what is the point. You may as well get stuff from a charity shop for school, even though your dc might be embarrassed about it.
If we buy him another one I'll be soo mad if that goes missing too. I never had these sort of problems 20 odd years ago when my own dc were at school 😡

Children are exceptionally good at this time of the year at dumping their coats all over the playground. It could be on a different peg, been confused for another child's aonin a differentclassroomor oeg area, in lost property, or left in any manner of places. Label things clearly and they usually find a way back. Check the peg areas, lost property and office. You'll probably find it.

It will probably turn up, but it’s a good idea to not send them in wearing something you can’t afford to replace. Charity shop is fine, no one will know.

What an overreaction! Overwhelmingly most likely outcome is that someone took it by mistake and will return it. A pain that it's missing over the weekend but not the end of the world. A plea on the class WhatsApp will probably get it back even before that.

I think it’s very easy to worry if the coat was desirable. DC do know it’s another child’s peg! Of course a named coat should not be taken and hopefully will be returned on Monday. The parent who sees the wrong coat could post on the class page too.

My DD2 went to a prep where they had cloaks. My DDs disappeared off her peg. Didn’t get returned and no DD needed two identical cloaks. Was not in lost property and even DDs teacher was mystified. Three weeks later it was discovered in a cupboard in a music practice room. A room DD had never been into, let alone put her cloak into a cupboard. So clearly someone’s idea of a joke. We returned a cloak we borrowed from the second hand shop but no one ever had any idea how DDs cloak got into that room and into a cupboard.

Just because it didn’t happen to your kids when they were at school, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen back then. My Mum had a pair of jeans stolen from the uni laundry in the 70s.

Yes because a uni laundry is exactly the same as a 7 year olds coat peg.

But it happened today
How do you know someone stole it? Has an adult gone into the cloakroom and checked all of the other pegs? Has an adult checked the playground (in case your DGS left it there the last time they were out rather than bringing it back to the cloakroom)? Have you sent a message to the class asking if anyone has taken it home by accident. Have you asked people in your class to message people in other year groups?
Even if you have done all of these things, you need to give it at least a week in my experience. If a child has accidentally taken it home, they may well not have noticed yet (on a play date; simply an unobservant parent). If it is lying somewhere around the school, it might have been picked up by someone who meant to take it to the right classroom or the office or lost property & got distracted. There are so many options!
In Reception, DS came home one Friday in two trainers and it wasn't until the Sunday that I realised they were entirely different sizes as he had one of his shoes and one of another child's. They were named and I messaged the other family who didn't have a clue. In Yr4, DD lost a cardigan in the second week of term. That was discovered at HT when a mum took her DD's PE kit home for a wash and discovered my DD's cardigan in her DD's PE kit. In Yr6, DD's school bag went missing when she left it in the playground. Another parent spotted it, picked it up and put it in our car to drop to our house and forgot. She was actually in her husband's car and didn't use that car for another week and he hadn't looked in the boot. Meanwhile, DD swore blind that she had left her school bag in the classroom so her teacher has checked there, I'd been asking at the office as well as looking in lost property.

What a weird reaction. Any number of things could have happened -,including your grandson leaving it on the wrong peg or in a heap on the playground.
It is so odd to assume that another parent would deliberately keep it. You really do think this coat is something special don’t you 🤣🤣.
I hope you don’t pass all these bonkers ideas on to your grandson.

I’d ask nicely on the parents WhatsApp if anyone has come home with the wrong coat, mention to the teacher on Monday and ask to look through lost property (DC can totally walk straight past something even if it’s illuminated with her name on the front).

However it’s also true that coats do get stolen at school. Ive had my eyes opened over the last few years about how naive and trusting I was about some appalling behaviour and parenting in primary school.

He's been in tears all evening as he went to his peg & it was gone. .

He's having this kind of reaction because of your reaction.

It's a coat. Seven year olds by and large don't give a shit about coats.

I picked up five coats off the junior playground at afternoon play where they'd been abandoned. None of them had names in

Have you ever been in a primary school cloakroom? They're carnage. Coats, jumpers, cardigans, PE kits, Pokémon cards, reading records, homework pages, musical instruments. And that's without winter accoutrements of hats, gloves and scarves.

Just have a look in the lost property box on Monday and get a grip.

I expect it will turn up, but this is how school is. Kids dont care about their clothes, so they get left about and misplaced. The lost property box at the end of term is always full to bursting.

In My DC’s class 15 yrs ago, one of the mums was also the TA, her son went in with new coat in the morning, no where to be seen at home time, and she had been with the class all day, so its not a new thing OP.

I’m guessing it wasn’t named as you’ve not answered the many people asking?
Go in on Monday, hopefully it will be brought back. I think stealing is less likely than taken by accident or mislaid.
my boys had a habit of leaving them in the playground as they took them off when playing football!

It will turn up. The other parent will read the name label and they will know who to return it to. This was very common 20 years ago when my son was starting school.

You should send a WhatsApp to the class group

He's been crying all evening? Play it down to him "oh someone must have made a mistake, sure we'll get it on Monday, don't worry etc" rather than assuming it's stolen and letting him be upset ALL EVENING!

I expect it was used as a goal post at break.
You yourself will need to rummage through lost property bins etc and keep looking.

It’ll turn up - it’s bound to have fallen on the floor and found its way to lost property.

I would ask the parents to post in the class whatsapp asking parents if anyone’s child had picked up the wrong coat by mistake? No one will keep anything that’s so obviously another child’s. Unnamed school uniform yes but coats no…

Yabu just for the charity shop comment.

Lots of children where 2nd/3rd hand clothes, mine included you utter snob.

Don't send your child to school in an expensive coat.
Name everything with a sewn in label and a laundry marker in at least two places.
My 7 year old Ds once came home in someone else's entire uniform. Including shoes. Which did not fit.
They had sat next to each other on the bench in the cloakroom after PE and were so busy nattering they put on the all wrong clothes. We swapped the clothes the next day.

My DS coat was taken several times by the parents of the same child at nursery. The coats were similar but ours was warmer. DS was devastated each time. The child didn't go every day and he'd have to wear it for two days or over the weekend.

I ended up getting a keychain with his name on it for the zip even though I didn't like the idea. The name written inside wasn't enough. Staff also sometimes set ours aside in the kitchen before pick up!

I used to say to DP i bet it's the dad. It's often a dad thing to do not noticing the little things. Well a year later we mums have a play date and I found out the father has a degenerative eye disease. So yes it was him- but for some sad reasons.

Point being, label it and assume good intent.

We've had items picked up by mistake. We label everything and its always been returned, usually within a day or two.

Also try labelling twice. One in neck/collar, the other on the side label.

Label, label, and then label again

Things regularly go missing at school, my daughter never got her cardigans back even with her name in, they wasn't even in lost property either. Unfortunately, parents do tend to keep clothing and rip name tags out! So annoying and costs money replacing it all.

My DIL picked a coat a child had and said I think that’s my child’s. The other Mum was saying it was hers. DIL pulled the sleeve instead out and showed their name written inside

Oh OP! I can see you r a bit sad about the coat, but you are massively over reacting!!

This is school. Children lose things ALL the TIME at school! My son lost his coat many times! And his pe kit, shoes, bag, etc... it all turned up if it was labelled .... eventually!

While they are little, I'd avoid expensive items and stick with affordable, replaceable school uniform and coat etc... and ensure you always label it with child's name.

More often than not, when items are named, they find their way back to the person they belong to!

Or you could just label your child’s coat like a normal person, rather than trying to start a fight over something that is more than likely a completely everyday child mistake.