To ask if boys can wear coloured gingham school shorts?

[Makingitupaswegoalong]

DS starting school in September. I’ve never liked the grey boys’ school shorts. I think they’re horrible.

Could a boy wear the shorts version of the summer dresses in the warmer months? The ones like this:
https://direct.asda.com/george/school/shorts/light-blue-girls-gingham-longer-length-school-shorts/G008057152,default,pd.html?redirectFromInt=1&cmpid=ppc--geor-------_-dskwid-_dm&utm_campaign=pla:Fashion-School-_Performance_Max&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=17501196607&gbraid=0AAAAADt8Wcm1oMWVYoBrMZRAaJmY4OxHM&gclid=Cj0KCQjwgIXCBhDBARIsAELC9ZgYG9pdeZibdgD76_xniRBLDqnyyvZArL9DdLA7VsYiWE5zGC1CWE0aAkIFEALw_wcB

The little boys round here wear a lot of brightly coloured patterned leggings.

Why couldn’t they were these shorts? Are they obviously girly? Would people bully him or think we were weird? I just think they’re nicer.

It never stopped my daughter…. Loose Skirts are actually far less restrictive than shorts. My daughter just wore gymnastics pants underneath and she could climb a tree like the rest of them. She loved the gingham dresses. Missed them when she got older and had to wear boring grey skirts all year round.

yeah I think the girls maybe have it figured out now. My little nieces wear nice cool gingham dresses, cardy if it's cool and cycling shorts underneath. they never stop climbing and flipping and are literally cartwheeling out of school sometimes when I pick them up.

Grey shorts and a coloured polo shirt also seems popular for both sexes and that's not so bad?

Kids will pick on anything though. I was bullied because I was too short, too speccy, too many friends who were boys, too goth, etc. Just yesterday I told two teen girls snickering on the bus at me because I've lost my hair. I'm glad my mum made sure I knew the bullies were the problem, not me. Not easy though. And we can certainly see here how children get the message that it's okay to laugh at or be mean to people who dare to be different. Plenty of posters on here laughing at the thought of a boy in a pair of light blue shorts.

I've done that with summer dresses. September 2023 was 30 degrees the day before reception started. There was me doing a click and collect from 15 miles away so she wouldn't melt on her first day of school. Lesson learned DS has shorts ready to go for reception in September already.

I'm afraid you’re incorrect. I don’t know how common it is, but my children go to a state primary school in London with no uniform. (I wish there was a uniform, but other than that I like the school so have to put up with the clothes issue.)

This has to be a piss take post- if you are seriously contemplating this then be prepared to support your child through the bullying.
No boys I have ever seen wear these.

But most Scouts do wear a uniform in Germany. They have several scouting associations so there are several uniforms but they all generally wear a shirt with badges, which is what we do here too. Associating uniforms with fascism is a bit weird.

I am going back many many years now, but I was bullied/ridiculed every summer at primary school because my mum made me a gingham dress rather than buying the traditional round collared with smocking detail dress that every other girl in school wore, I hated it and even brought second hand dresses at a jumble sale when 8 years old and she refused to let me wear them as second hand clothes so donated them back to the school, she old me being different and standing out was a good thing, let me tell you it is not, going under the radar and blending in the best thing for school kids, she still laughs at me today for how twisted my knickers are still over this 40 years later, so please please let your son wear the grey shorts

You do not want to send your DS to school on his first day dressed differently from the other boys.

You certainly do not want to send your DS to school on his first day dressed in girls shorts.

Oh god no, you can’t put him in those. Although kids are generally quite accepting and anytjing goes when they’re in reception, give it another year and he will be singled out for this. I remember my son coming home upset in Y1 because he had a pinky/purple coloured water bottle and had the piss taken out of him for that.

don’t make your son a target!

Can I ask how you reacted to that? Did you tell him that the other kids were the problem, not him? Tell the teacher so they could address the whole class and let them know that pink isn't a girls colour? No judgement if not and you just gave in and got him another bottle. It's hard. As a teacher I'd want to know so I could knock that on the head.

Are you sure scouts don’t wear a uniform in Germany? You’re spreading fake news here methinks

also, the Gingham material is something I’d dress an infant in (boy or girl) but not a school boy

This is true. my kids were (minorly) bullied about me not wearing colours! They used to take the piss saying is your Mum a witch because she always wears black. You cant' win. There will always be some kid who hasn't been taught to be nice that will find something to single out another kid they are jealous of, or whatever. Don't make it too easy with these shorts,

You're forgetting about Asia and the parts of Africa that weren't British colonies. Or are you just lumping them in with "totalitarian states"?

For example Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia and China all have school uniforms (that's leaving out the ex-British colonies like Singapore and Malaysia etc).

You also mentioned the USA. Although the US itself doesn't have a history of school uniforms, various US overseas territories do have school uniforms. For example Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa etc

From their parents OP. I made the mistake of telling one school mum that I was divorced after she asked what my xh did. The next day her son and a couple of his friends chanted at my son that he had no dad. It stopped sometime later when his very absent father did turn up one day. So, yes. I imagine your son will be bullied for being 'different'. It just takes one comment from a spiteful parent to their child.

People who disagree with you and think you are crazy for wanting to stick your child in a pair of horrible shorts (which not even the girls wear) because YOU don't like grey and its the same material as the girls, are not bullies.

They are just telling you, you are barking mad. You are determined to make a big deal out of this because you want to push your political views through your child. Thats not cool.

This is why there is a uniform. So all the kids are the same. So no one is treated differently because their parents are loons, unable to afford the 'correct' brands or otherwise decide to dress their child in a way thats likely to single their child out. The idea is to stop the dramas before they start. Its not an opportunity to try and make your kid the one whose different despite the uniform.

You are DESPARATE to make a point here. Its all about YOU and not your child.

I'd judge YOU far more than the poor kid who really isn't old enough to be making his own decisions on what he wears. At 4 most of the kids can't dress themselves without having their clothes given to them. Focus on that and teaching them to tie shoe laces rather than trying to create arguments where there shouldn't be any.

You clearly are enjoying the attention here over this. I just think poor kid.

Why do you want to be that parent? 🙄🙄🥱🥱

he can but he would stick out like a sore thumb

I can see we're sort of on the same page but I disagree that giving in to the bullies is the right way to go. If my mum had taught me that I'd have shaved my legs, wore contacts, tried to fit in with the girls and dumped my guy friends. I'm so pleased I pushed through it and now am very secure in myself. Even losing my hair wasn't as traumatic as it could have been as I know that it doesn't define me, and I feel confident despite getting stared at.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scouting_and_Guiding_in_Germany
The Scout movement in Germany consists of a multitude of associations and federations with about 260,000 Scouts and Guides.

Here's a just the first two links, I looked at from the above wiki page.

https://www.pfadfinden-in-deutschland.de/
https://dpvonline.de/

If you look on these websites, there are photos of scouts.

In uniform.

Scouts wear uniform in Germany.

This is a really strong reaction. Why do you feel so threatened by something relatively innocuous?

@Makingitupaswegoalong I would be totally in favour of tracksuits for all school children - something that encourages everybody to move and keep moving as they get older/ fewer concerns about modesty etc.

I don't feel threatened. Far from it.

You are saying more about yourself there...

I totally agree with you in principle, and I was a teenage goth who lived through school adhering to those non-conformist principles. Yes, made me strong and resilient but it wasn't much fun and, when it came to it, I wanted my kids to have an easier ride. Lived experience sometimes trumps principles.

Don't get me wrong though, there has been plenty of standing up to bullies and giving my kids the upper hand along the way. There are cleverer way to do it though than the very obvious 'make them look comepletely different to everyone else' route.

In all honesty, I think they are a bit girly for school. And your son won't want to wear them if the other boys are wearing grey. Grey are more practical, boys play football etc. at break times.