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.

The fact is if kids stand out as different they will be bullied. In the early years maybe not so much by his classmates but it only takes one older one to mention it and that will be his card marked. Uniform at least prevents children using differences in the way they are dressed as a reason to bully.
Grey shorts are also far more practical.

The shorts proposed aren't awful, but they are different from what the other boys will be wearing, so personally I wouldn't make him different in this way.

I understand how hard it is seeing the really little ones move from nursery age to school. One of mine had his first primary school test days when he was only 3 and still having naps. It felt like a huge step. But he started full time a few weeks later having just turned 4 and he did fine.

The children conformed to uniform for years, but at home and now as adults they wear a variety of colours and don't live in a grey drab world 😊

It'll be a big step for you, but just wait until you see him running around the playground with friends, it's all going to be fine 😊

He absolutely would be picked on for this. He would be the only child ever to wear them. Kids can be merciless, even age 4

Because they are ‘girls’ shorts … they also don’t seem to be allowed for girls at your school, only gingham dresses.

You’d be painting a target on his back. You don’t get to opt out of uniform, or anything in life, just because ‘you don’t like it’. It’s a lesson your son needs to learn and, apparently, so do you.

Your son will have a lifetime to make his own choices around clothes. This is about your preference and if you work with primary aged children, you will understand that most kids do not want to stand out and be looked at at school, especially if it nothing to do with what they want but rather because grey shorts make a parent "feel a bit sad".

This thread is eye-opening to me with the level of shock and outrage about a simple thought a parent had about a small uniform variation. Shorts along these lines these would be fine at my local school for reception. The uniform policy there is loose. I’m baffled that conformity is so revered in these responses. I don’t see why small children can’t express themselves a bit in what they wear or why girls get more uniform options than boys, and more colourful ones too. I do think that rather than just protecting your own children from bullying, there’s a risk that by encouraging children to see non-conformity as such an issue you could also be reinforcing a culture where difference is expected to be targeted and where victims are seen as the problem rather than bullies. What if more efforts were put into encouraging children to tolerate or even celebrate a bit of difference?

They won't conform to the uniform rules. You may as well send him in Hawaiian shorts and a cowboy hat.

There's nothing wrong with grey shorts. They are no less attractive than the ones you like. But there's no point just trying from the very start to be different just for the sake of it.

The poor kid doesn't want attention drawn to him in a negative way, surely?

Totally agree with this OP. They are shorts, on a very small boy. Nothing inappropriate or odd about them, as you say they are very similar to the stripy ones you posted a pic of. The sort of thing boys wear on holiday or at the beach all the time, and good for hot days at school. Those grey shorts are usually polyester with toxic stain repellent coatings. School uniform generally is way behind everything else in terms of environmental impact.
I was a 1960s baby and we had no uniform at primary school, much better.

So you want to risk your kid being bullied because YOU don't like grey shorts. WTF am I reading.

It is really sad, but nothing has changed. People are vicious. They just pretend not to be on social media.

Absolutely this. I won’t buy them, as I’ve already said, but the strength of the reaction is incredible!

Being accused of being ‘barking mad’ for having a thought that I haven’t even acted on?! Are we really accusing people of mental health problems for a slightly non conformist thought in 2025? Have some of the posters on here never had an unusual thought in their lives?!

Going to bow out here because poor DS needs a Mum a bit less glued to her phone, albeit one who is ‘loony’ and a ‘weirdo’.

I would question the reason for your desire to go against the school uniform for boys. Your son is too young to question your motives. If he starts school blatantly going against what his peers are wearing,therefore making him stand out as 'different' you are setting him up for an extremely difficult time throughout his school career. Your son may well turn out to be 'different' but why impose this upon him before he decides himself.

Just wanted to say- as someone who sews a lot of clothes- these gingham shorts aren’t practical for boys OR girls really-they’re not made of hard wearing enough material. the difference between gingham shorts and a skirt / dress is that the skirts have more freedom to move around the body when the kids are moving around, shuffling along the ground etc. shorts are restricted by the fact they go between the legs so movement is not as full. The seams are under a lot more stress and they don’t last. Shorts need to be fairly sturdy material (in the textile industry they call it bottom-weight!). One of my boys loved his leggings but he also loved playing outside and sliding on the floor and he went through them so fast. He’d go through the knees or bum on a new pair in a month whereas they would last his sister a whole season of wear. I felt awful but I had to stop buying them for him when he got to about 6/7. He still wears the base layer type for sports and occasionally if I find the right fabric I’ll sew him a thicker pair and reinforce the knees so they last a bit longer .

How horrible. We need to call out and complain to schools when there is sexist behavior like this. It does come from school, particularly from other boys, who try to monitor what other children wear or do. They get it from hearing such limiting things at home and also from seeing parents follow what they think are women's or men's rolss.
The shit "this is gor girls" and "that is for boys" definitely starts at school - in cases where it didn't start at home.

Because sadly kids get bullied at school for being different. Please don’t make things more difficult for him.

But it's not the child 'expressing' himself - it's his mother imposing her preferences on him. Give him a day in school then ask him what he'd prefer to wear.

It depends on the schools uniform policy.
I personally wouldn’t send my child in to school in an item of clothing no one else would be wearing, whether it fitted with the policy or not. Gingham dresses on girls are cute and smart for the spring/summer.
I don’t think these short are. I think they look babyish and something you’d put on a baby or toddler.

There are many reasons why society sucks and one of them is because a certain type of parent thinks that their little precious shouldn't be bound by rules, that they're different, special and should be allowed to express themselves freely.

Maybe not by other 4 years old (possibly though) but I’m thinking more the older kids at the school, which will be up to 11. They would definitely have some comments to made sadly.

Do not buy these for your son, that don't last 2 minutes! Seriously I've stopped buying them for my daughter as well

"Children and their parents should not be allowed to express themselves freely."

What a message. What a boring world if everyone thought that way.

I’m not sure he’d actually be bullied but at that age kids are very straightforward and to the point and I think he would get a lot of “why are you wearing girls clothes” type comments.

He would be bullied. Do you not know children at all?

You’ve got to be realistic about these things. With all the good will in the world, a little boy would still get laughed at for wearing these (girls) shorts.

In September it's very unlikely to be shorts weather anyway, it's going to be trousers weather.
I would go with basics for winter, in the more traditional school colours and then let him choose if he wants to wear them in summer- gingham dresses came out here after the Easter holidays. The fabric of most school trousers is horrible, I agree- the M&S jersey trousers are the nicest we found.

In my DDs school, I don't think a little boy would get bullied in Foundation year for wearing those, but the chances obviously increase as the kids get older. Whether we like it or not, as they stand out from the norm, there is more chance.
Lots of boys here wear rainbow coloured coats though, which is a nice way to add colour and personality in the winter months.

I don't think they are anything like the stripe shorts you showed, and I also think it's perfectly clear that they are aimed at girls in the traditional gender stereotypes. I'm very much kids wear what they like, and my daughter has been dressed from whichever section has the brightest colours for the last 5 years- until school. She very much has an opinion now on whether something is for girls or boys, and would not happily wear a 'boys' item.