Labelling uniform for high school - quick poll on how to do it

[FuckedOffWithTheLotOfThem]

DC is off to Big School in September and I've just spent a small fortune kitting him out. It all needs labelling. DH insists that the name labels that have seen us all the way through primary school will cause social death at high school, and we should just biro his name into everything.

YABU - DH is right and we risk DC becoming a laughing stock if he's spotted with a name label

YANBU - we should get the labels and have done with it

Cash's sew-in name tapes here, and I think my three DC have only lost one item (a winter coat) between the three of them.

I do make sure that the cartoon characters they chose so proudly at the age of four, are folded over and out of sight when they go to secondary school though!

Cash's name labels. I would unpick them from outgrown uniform and reuse them on the new stuff, including for residential trips and Duke of Edinburgh expedition.

DM was more resourceful. She ordered them as "A. Smith J." where A was my initial and J was DSIS. She would fold the label as she sewed them on to our uniforms.

My youngest two went to a high school in a "desirable " market town. I ended up Sharpie ING all the clothes on the actual clothes (not labels) as items were taken for example in PE changing room, I expect when others had forgotten or lost theirs and they were worried about getting into trouble. After doing that my kids stuff was never lost or taken.

Social death without a doubt. Why would you waste that time and money when a sharpie works just as well?

By the age of 11/12 they shouldn’t really be losing things and I never labelled my senior school kids clothes.

You are overthinking this. Your kid is old enough now. There is practically no lost and found at senior school. Sharpie the blazer. Everything else doesnt need doing.

Ugh I was Smith Jane for 7 years. Resourceful is not the word I would choose.

Stikins.

If theft is a concern I wouldn’t go with Sharpie. They can be deliberately smudged and written over in fresh Sharpie. Blue often seems a popular colour for this!

Have seen this strategy used a lot, occasionally to claim an item that belongs to someone else, more often to pass down clothing to a younger sibling.

I sharpie onto the actual items too! It’s the only way to stop theft of uniform imo.

Stickins labels here after painstakingly sewing everything onto those thick black labels in primary...then people just cut the labels out if they nick them anyway. Now she is a boarder at secondary and so labelling everything including socks, bras, pants, home clothes, duvets, pillowcases etc with sewn labels would actually probably take me all of the summer holiday! They do come off after about a term of washing, but by then she's usually outgrown half of it anyway and I send her in with a pack so she can replace any she sees that need it or new books/equipment, etc.

Same here

Yup, sharpie or pen on the label! Horrendously I do think iron on full name tags might cause some slagging

Sew on labels, especially for sweaters and blazers. I never had any complaints about them being embarrassing. Nobody sees them anyway because they are on the inside.

I sometimes used Sharpies but the writing does fade with washing.