AIBU to think first day of primary school celebrations are excessive?

[EineyMiney]

Hi, we live in Scotland so today was DSs first day of school, starting primary 1. I’m just home from dropping him off and I can’t help but think what a circus!
We didn’t do anything special, just a normal school morning, no balloons, DH didn’t take the morning off, no grandparents came over. I was really trying to make sure DS wasn’t overwhelmed.
However, when I dropped DS off, there were multiple families with both parents, younger siblings, grandparents at the gate getting pictures. The school did say only 2 parents in the classroom but even this felt like too many and I’m not sure why it couldn’t be one parent per child.
In addition to that I noticed almost all the children had the bloody expensive optional blazers! Why? They are only 4 or 5!
Then I got home opened instagram and now I’m seeing plenty of children with balloons saying first day of school!

AIBU to think this is totally excessive and not necessary and probably not even good for the children who are just going to be overwhelmed.

Children have new experiences all the time and they then expect every day to be the exactly the same. 4 & 5 year olds are stupid.

I remember taking my youngest sister to her class on her first day. We walked to school. Mum has already enrolled her so nothing else to do. 1970s.

Your child sounds easily overwhelmed, maybe some of the other children needed to be hyped up? I wouldn't do it personally, but neither could I get annoyed by other parents doing things their way.

Both parents taking them on their first day is lovely. Anything low key to mark the occasion is nice too - special meal that evening/Friday, little gift etc.

Hrft but I hope it's not like that here when DC starts in 3w. Low key is defo my aim.
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People like to celebrate a milestone. It's a big day, for the children but also for the parents.

If things were according to mumsnet there would be no weddings, no holidays abroad, no celebrations ever. Thank god I live in the real world.

It is concerning that the people buying the balloons are actually mature enough to be parents. Don't that realise that SM is not really real?

Do be so daft. Its verging on normal to have a birthday balloon, and a starting school balloon for kids. And balloons are pretty normal for big adult birthdyas too.

Some kind person shared on FB a way to get a Happy First Day message on the TV the other day.

Its really not much different to any other first, Happy New Job, Happy Retirement, etc etc

Bonkers
Apparently on my first day I legged off through the school gates leaving my mother crying

A starting school balloon? Any connection beween this garbage and global warming?

It never occurred to us that husband and grandparents should be at the school for the first day. Husband said good luck etc then went to work! No one else I knew had a whole family outing for it either.

The blazer is probably only "optional" due to recent school uniform changes. If its been a required part of the uniform in the past, families will be used to it/will already have it from older siblings. Lots of parents like a smart uniform and will choose to support it.

Different people do different things. I have a few friends who do this and some who don’t. I love to see it, but wouldn’t go to all that bother myself.

Both my husband and I went in our daughter on the first day, we both wanted to be there. We took photos and it was a lovely event. We’re happy to show my daughter we are both there for her, but that stems from my own mother who not only didn’t bother coming with me to school on my first day (I was sent with my siblings) but who also sent me in the middle of a school term to a new school, by myself. That level of nonchalance affected me for a long time.

That depends where you are. My great niece starts today and will do half days for the first week.

Parents don’t have to do staggered starts - legally children can go full time from day one. We did this.

Same. They usually have an ex-pupil do it, and they walk all round the school. As I had to pick up my girl in the reception area every day, for 6 years on the last day I got to witness all the P7s lining up, waiting to go out, seeing how excited they all were. Watching them, and their teachers, school management etc, who had often known these kids since they started school, interacting with them, telling them how proud they were of them, it was absolutely fabulous. One year my mum was visiting and we went to pick up my daughter. In leavers class was the older sister of my daughter’s best mate. I had known her for about 5 years and she was a lovely girl. She was all teary, and it got me all teary, and even my heart of stone mum got teary too. The sense of occasion was brilliant for them. Nobody forces any parent to go, but for those who want to it’s a lovely way to mark the milestone.

Not sure how that would work, but I don’t recall there being an option when my girl started. If there is some legal reason parents can insist on it, I’m not sure what good it would do a child to be one of a few left in a class for the sake of a couple of hours for a few days.

I think this is only England, not UK wide. You definitely can’t decline the staggered start here, there is no full day provision.

Definitely applies in England. DT’s went full time from day one. Was best for them as they had in full time nursery from six months old and left nursery on the Friday and started school the following week. Routines worked well for them and they also went to breakfast and after school clubs.
As two working parents we didn’t have endless amounts of annual leave to waste on staggered school start - ended up that more than half of the other parents took the same approach

The school uniform changes don’t apply in Scotland. The Act introduced in 2026, and update on uniform applies to England and Wales.

There is no legal requirement or Scottish Government guidance that schools should have uniforms, individual councils can set their own policy and most allow schools to have their own rules. There tends not to be a strict adherence to uniform rules in most state schools, certainly never in primary schools, although all will have suggested uniform, it ranges from a full “smart” uniform to simply a school coloured polo shirt/jumper. Blazers in primary have always been deemed optional, they tend to be required more in high schools.

It’s a few half days. Not weeks and weeks. Two working full time parents can’t spare a few half days between them?

Everything is a bloody photo op!
I know somone who is 26 and her 9 month old baby has had 3 photo shoots already. Goodness knows what her first day at school will be like!

My own daughter wont get a fanfare for her first day at school next month!

“Obviously?”

We had a P1 photoshoot done with our daughter. Not because of instagram, but because we got some excellent photos and gave them to grandparents and aunties. If we relied just on school photos we wouldn’t have had any decent school photos of our girl.

It wasn’t just the annual leave but what was best for our DT’s. A staggered start would have been confusing for them when they were excited about starting big school.
And no we didn’t have spare annual leave - any days in excess of our annual leave, DT’s went to holiday clubs.

Not in the area of Scotland where I grew up nor the area I live now - although I have seen it becoming more if a thing in the last few years,