To be annoyed at more school requests to buy things?

[Barbarama124]

When I collected my DD from school this afternoon she gave me a letter.

School have asked parents to provide white leggings and a white vest on Monday morning, no later. It's the costume for the class performance. They are angels.

We don't own white leggings or white vests.

It was something else last week and something else the month before.

The school are supposedly big on environmentalism and against over consumption etc, and to be honest
I'm wall to wall busy and can do without more added on to my list.

I wouldn't have minded as much if we had more notice but there was no mention of providing costume until just now.

AIBU to be annoyed?

I’m quite naive, but even I’m getting suspicious at the quantity of anti school threads today. (Not troll hunting, just questioning.)

As to your ‘problem’, pull her out of the nativity if it bothers you that much. There’ll be plenty of other angels.

It’s always the same. I’m the same with sustainability and so as cute as the shop bought nativity costumes may be, I sent my DS in with a brown tracksuit he already owned and a brown tea towel and elastic headband thing- both of which I can reuse.

I hate the random requests for money at this time of year, it gets too much.

Can you get thick white tights intead?

Never heard of white leggings.

Just ask the teacher or put a request on a parents group for someone to lend you white clothes/ outfit. There are loads of angel costumes around. It is the easiest thing to put together. Very last minute from the school I agree. We had ours in November

This is a very predictable time of year for schools to ask for children to bring costumes in. Usually there are WhatsApp groups or Facebook groups around the country where people can ask or offer various items for free or a minimal amount.

Withdraw your child from the class performance if you can’t or won’t sort out the costume.

I’m finding this hard to believe tbh. Even in the non COL times schools would say please don’t buy anything especially. They would suggest borrowing, buying at a charity at most or anything white at all, for the T-shirts they said to turn them inside out if you don’t have a plain one.

I mean it’s not unreasonable to be annoyed but they do it every year.

do you have a plain white t shirt?

I wouldn't buy anything - just do the closest you can - I'd find a way to put it on the parents WhatsApp (I haven't got white leggings - does anyone have spare?! - otherwise I have to send her in black ones!), so other people feel OK about not buying either.

It's absolutely bonkers that people have to buy things they don't otherwise need, it's such a waste and so bad for the planet. I would also write a polite note to the head about this and lack of notice in the NY

and, some sheep are black..

I have twins - I don’t adhere to the dress code whatsoever for nativity’s or wear it green day or something really as silly.
just send them in usual clothes with a note why

The aforementioned letter...

Few points to consider:

1. See if you can borrow from someone else.
2. Try a charity shop so as to not impact on sustainability.
3. To support sustainability further, please consider donating the items to the school afterwards, if you aren't going to use them. Then they can be reused yearly. There will always be angels and goodness knows the school won't be able to afford costumes.
4. The deadline is Monday so that those who forget still have another chance before the actual performance on Wednesday: they expect some parents to forget/struggle to find something.
5. If we want to have things like Nativities and the experiences they provide parents/children, things like this are sometimes needed.

Some sheep are black but angels typically are in white outfits (possibly silver).

Is there a chance your daughter was given this a while ago and forgot to bring it home, it’s been in her tray or something? I think it’s poor if not, and the school only gave it out today!

Do you not wear white t shirts for PE? If so use one of them. If not they are quite cheap to pick up and you could then use in the summer as a tie dye craft activity or using fabric pens to decorate (in fact you could use for any other random school dress up day when you don't have the right thing e.g drawing on a Pudsey bear).

It’s up to you not to participate but I don’t understand why having twins makes a difference.

Also to add, if buying white tights can you club together with other angels/people needing white as tights usually come in a multi pack of 3 so could easily split the cost

The letter was definitely handed out today as it has today's date on.

We have white tshirts in abundance just not leggings unfortunately. I can't think of one occasion in 7 years DD has worn white leggings.

Some good suggestions given thank you!

I suspect it's at least partly to stop parents going out to buy angel costumes. White vest and white leggings is the cheapest possible option. Send her in wearing the closest thing you have eg white shirt or tights.

If you don't, they'll just do the best they can.

I’m a teacher, and a parent, and I hate this too. We specifically avoid asking families to purchase costumes or costume elements for the Christmas concert, and just make do with what we can make at school. This year, we repurposed 16 brown paper shopping bags into Santa hats 😂

The only time we ask parents to make purchases is for the school musical, and only if the student has a main role. We also fundraise for this, so that it won’t cost too much for families.

While it’s ‘only a white shirt’ or ‘only a pair of tights’, or ‘only a black baseball cap’ etc. when you have more than one DC, things can get very stressful and add up quickly.

I actually think the mental load of school is getting a bit ridiculous, and I say this as a teacher at the school who has my finger on the pulse of everything going on.

This is a really good idea.

But seriously, I bet it’s the last thing you want to be worrying about in this busy season! Coordinating on the parents WhatsApp group about white tights, who is buying them, what size everyone needs…

Completely unrelated, but I love your nails OP!

Borrow some? Go to the charity shop?

They need to start sending out a yearly planner guide, perhaps split into 2 lists one at September and one in January so parents can plan better for these things.

Completely understand! Our school did this too. In the last month there has been pressure (obviously you can say no - but they hype the kids up and try to get the pester power working!) to:

Decorate a cup they hand out, fill it with sweets (at our own cost) for a Christmas school competition

Buy a gingerbread house kit and decorate it so they can pick a winner and display them

Bring a bottle of something to school for the tombola

Come to the Christmas fair, at your own cost of entry, to buy things the school kids make

Our Nativity we were told black t-shirt, black leggings. The Thursday before I got a letter - dated that day - saying sorry, now needs to be jeans and a blue t-shirt. By Monday. Despite the fact I'd already gone out and bought black leggings and a t-shirt - the ones we had didn't fit and my daughter is very girly and doesn't wear black. We also don't have jeans that fit her anymore because she stopped wearing them about a year ago as she finds them uncomfortable. Wish I was exaggerating, but we literally had nothing suitable. More purchasing.

For a background bit part! But the pressure is such that you don't want your child to feel the odd one out!

Yes you can say no to all of this. But it's hard on the kids to then feel left out and not able to contribute when it's hyped up to them!

Thank you very much! I'm loving polkadots at the moment 🙂