School Uniform - Love it or hate it.

[GrumpyOldHorsewoman]

Personally loathe uniform, probably because I always had to wear one, even in sixth form. My reasons are this:

1. Strips you of every individuality. Remonds me of old images of communist China - everyone the same.

1. When you realise at 10pm on Sunday evening that DCs have not put their uniform in the washing basket on Friday and you have to stay up late to get it washed (they can't wear it in it's disgusting food-drenched state.

1. Paying £14 (I kid you not) for DD2's logoed school polo shirt (she is in NURSERY school) and £15 for a cardigan made of sweatshirt material.

1. It's always polyester, and girls' school trousers are fucking hideous.

I don't buy that crap about not being able to differentiate between the haves and have nots if they all have to wear the same. Social divide is just as easy to spot in school uniform, and wearing the right trainers/shoes/jacket/bag is an issue even when the rest of them is clad in black and white polyester, so what's the excuse? And what has happened to non-uniform schools - where have they gone? Even all the nursery schools around here have uniforms. Urgh. Hate it.

ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Hula
PE kit only washed at half term!!!

Ah yes, but she is only 4 and it is only indoor PE for 30 minutes or so a week. Same with ballet. TBH it still looks (and smells!) spotless when it comes home.

God... rugby kit... what a nightmare! Mine have started playing for a team and the parents take it in turns to wash the kit. 18 filthy shirts, shorts & smelly socks. And it all needs washing twice as it's so muddy!

Rugby is the worst. Plus he plays weekends. Although he has cricket whites for the first time this year. Im sure that will be fun. Honestly i have so much backed up laundry im going to make everyone wear bin bags for the week.

Well, excuse me for giving my almost-teenage daughter a degree of responsibility! Never mind getting organised. When you work 7 days a week in addition to looking after your family with no support at all, then you can cast aspersions on my organisational skills.

GrumpyOldHorsewoman - just had a quick look down the thread and can't see what you're referring to?

I agree GOH, they need to learn to do some themselves. My ds is 9, and I expect him to put his gear out to be washed and get the worst of the mud off. If he doesnt, well he goes with muggy boots. Def, by the time hes a preteen he will have to pack his stuff up etc. School encourages them to take responsibility too.

Gobbledigook has insinuated that, should I get more organised, I will no longer have to deal with the problem of realising that the uniform wasn't, in fact, included in one of the seven loads of washing I did at the weekend. It's all down to organisational skills, apparently. Regardless of the fact that my DD is 12 and a half and should, I think, be perfectly able to put her uniform in the washing basket, where it will be washed.

GrumpyOldHorsewoman - only 7 loads of washing? You're a lightweight, woman!
Mine are 11 & 13 and I've included putting the washing in the laundry basket on Saturday morning in the list of jobs that they have to do to earn their pocket money.
So if they forget, they're down by £5. It's helped a bit, but they're still not infallible!

I know what you mean 40+. I only introduced pocket money so I could use it as a negotiating tool

Doesn't seem to bother little miss Lazy Arse that she hardly ever gets any these days, though

In primary school .....Hate it!
Anti individual. Cruel. Ugly colours. Sends out message they are NOT to be treated as individuals. Nasty fabrics. Cheap, throw away clothes. I have no pleasure dressing my kids in this horrible stuff (teflon FFS!) and there is no way I'd wear anything like it myself.

How many of you wear uniform? What are we preparing them for? The army? Macdonalds?

In secondary .... I can see some sense in it because as MartianB has pointed out, they'll wear boob tubes and flash belly button piercings which is not the best learning environment.

Do you think they would still dress like that if clothing wasn't an issue, though?

GrumpyOldHorsewoman rofl
It's the same here... I sometimes think I'd be better off refusing to act as a taxi service if they don't do their jobs, but i suppose that would just be cutting off my nose to spite my face.

GOH, do I think that thay would dress like that if clothing wasn't an issue?

On ballance I think that there would be a sizable chunk who would.

Our sixth form has no uniform but a dress code. They are supposed to be in 'Office dress' , no jeans. This is ignored on a daily basis. We get boob tubes and belly buttons on show. Not good for concentration!

I know of plenty of people who wear uniforms for their jobs and it doesn't stifle their individuality, etc either.

I work in a prison so I am surrounded by officers in uniform. I don't have a uniform but I do have a dress code that I have to adhere too. I accept that as it is the environment I work in, as do those in uniform.

I think uniform is a good idea- certainly at secondary school, perhaps less so in primary.

From my own experience I found own clothes day to be horrible when I was at secondary school. Not because we couldn't afford the clothes that were fashionable, but rather because I didn't like them and wasn't "into" clothes at all. Can remember being wracked with indecision as had to choose clothes that were least likely to result in me being targeted.

At primary school we did have a uniform, but it was voluntary. So sometimes I wore my own clothes but more often than not I wore the uniform. Think my mother appreciated there being limited hassle in the morning.

When dd goes to primary she will have a uniform, but I wont have to buy specially branded clothes - just blue skirt/tunic, white shirt/polo neck/blue jumper. So will buy non-polyester and will avoid the uniform trousers like the plague!

I do work 7 days a week and have 3 children under 6 so I'm well aware of how hard it is!

However, I do apologise because I was assuming your children were little which was wrong of me. I agree that teenage children should bear some responsibility for such things. So I'm sorry.

That was to grumpyhorsewoman of course.

I am sorry too, Gobbledigook for appearing to jump on you for your comments. Perhaps I am just a bit touchy at shouldering all the burden for everything, and tend to jump down the throats of people who appear to question my capabilities. Add to that a very lazy DD who will do anything for anyone but me and I am a rampaging madwoman!

I was a bit 'on one' at the time as well as I'd just noticed a glaring error in a PTA letter that I'd just photocopied and distributed to 544 parents - I was a wee bit pissed off and kind of went a bit mad on mN!

Now you have distributed your newsletters, you just know how gleefully they will let you know of the error!

School uniforms rock!

Our Friends' Association has contracted out the embroidery to a firm which does it cheaply and we have 2nd hand uniform sales at least once a term. I've never spent more than 10 quid on DS's school clothes. (The shoes are a different matter.) However, I prefer the uniform from his old primary school with the wool blazer, wool shorts, wool jumper, tie and wee wool hat. The blazer wasn't compulsory in the summer but they looked so cute!