Oh! Oh! My firstborn starts secondary school in September. Surely that warrants a support thread?

[Cadelaide]

Am I a bit too early for this?

I mean it's months away yet, isn't it?

Mine came home last week after dh took him to the barbers looking like a Millwall fan....I have had time to get used to it now, but it was short. However it emphasises his big eyes and long eyelashes, so hopefully his teachers won't earmark him as a thug

Don't get me started on haircuts....

Ex-dh thinks that DS1 needs to start secondary school with some sort of crew cut. He has a shaggy sunbleached skater-dude look going on at the moment. He's happy to have a trim but doesn't want it all cut off. I'm not going to make him either. Might suggest that ex-dh goes and waits outside school on the first day to see that about 75% of boys at the school have the same style as DS1 is currently sporting

Oh, and pixie, have not forgotten you! Am waiting for DS1 to get home from his dad's tomorrow so can I can ask him if there is anything he's worried about :)

The boys both need haircuts.

Mostly all sorted but I can't find 2 boot bags, 1 pr of football boots and 2 pairs of shin pads! Where can they be?!

DS1 needs to have his off the collar and out of his eyes. He aims to have it as long as possible within those parameters!

The boot bag etc are either in the garage, up in the loft or, if it's like my house, still mouldering in the car/hall/bedroom from last season.

Gaaah!! Haircut - I need to sort that out too!!! Where has the summer gone?

I can't face this stupid sewing - I'm going to have a drink!!!!!!

Do NOT sew the labels on after drinking. your son will not only be ridiculed for wearing a rugby shirt like a dress but also for having wonky and upside down name tape on it.

Rugby socks are utterly ridiculous. Will look FAB with the oversized shirt and little legs.

Dh kindly volunteered to do the labels on ds2's rugby socks... (They weren't in stock when we picked up the uniform and came a week or so later.)

I was sorting out PE bags and stuff with ds2 yesterday and realised the sewing on the socks is a bag of hammers! It's just tacking and goes right through to the other side of the sock. It looks ridiculous.

at wonky upside down labels, I had to redo the first two I did because my sewing skills, which are minimal at the best of times, had become worse since the last time I had the pleasure of sewing labels. This year I also had to sew the school badge onto the blazer. Urgh, to think I'll have to do it again one day.
Only have two more name tags to do, and buy a PE bag big enough but not too big. Oh, and pencils and pens. And another stash of tights in case I can never find her size again.
And finally, I have had my first nightmare about starting secondary school last night: we managed to get her to school late, in the wrong uniform, and she had to join a PE class (she's not keen on it) in which everyone seemed to be in home clothes, and she had to wait at the back with the naughty boys, one of whom gave her a huge grin when she arrived. I'm not telling her that dream!

Oh, and now I feel guilty with all your talk of sewing labels onto socks as I chickened out this time and just wrote her initials in big black indelible pen at the bottom of her hockey socks. Will that do miss?

FrogPrincess - yes, that will absolutely do. But it doesn't work on black football socks! Argh!

Thank goodness for marker pens - most of the kit has write-on-able labels.

I gave up on sewing name labels when DD was still in infants - except for the games socks for which really there's no alternative. I've not done those yet because I thought that as DD takes a size 3 in some footwear, the size starting at 3 1/2 would be fine... of course they are enormous. Fortunately they are just generic football socks and I dare say they'll fit her in about year 10 but its so annoying to have everything except the socks.
Oh, and the tracksuit which despite being ordered in July is likely not to show up till October - hopefully won't be too cold before then. Oh, and the gumshield - DH started fussing about it and wanted to order the expensive kit with plaster trays etc till DD pointed out that as she's still shedding and growing teeth it was far more sensible to get the cheap remouldable sort like the one she lost in yr 6.

I have also resorted to the black marker pen for naming sports socks but have been advised that after the first energetic sports session Ds1's initials will have transferred from bottom of socks to bottom of feet.....whoops!

Oh lord, if only black marker pen was an option. Even normal name tapes (as in the Cash's type) are not permitted on the sports kit. You have to buy special woven nametape which then must be sewn on kit as per the bldy diagram provided.

And I still haven't started - oh god, where's the wine again?

And the special name tapes have to be on the outside so everyone can see what sewing skills your mother (or other relative/paid help) has.

Hello, can I join? She's not my PFB but I am almost stressing more about DD2 heading for secondary than I did about DD1 two years ago!

We live in France where cohort rules are different so although DD2 is only 10 she must move upis far too chaotic and dopey to go to secondary school. She won't be at the same school as her sister either so must manage the bus etc on her own.

Today we sorted out her bus pass, bought more jeans and tops (oh how I wish they had uniform), trendy pencil case as dictated by DD1, and marker pen, though I can almost guarantee that bus pass and numerous other items will have gone missing within a fortnight

Of course you can join, castille. It must be stressful if your dd2 is heading to a different school!!

Oh yes, SoupDragon, thanks for that reminder - indeed my ds (and yours ) will be displaying their parent's sewing skills to the whole school...............

dinosaur, you are not alone, DS can't tie his either. We've managed to find everyday shoes with velcro straps (after watching him grapple with laces for half of the last school year, then slip his shoes on for the rest), but god only knows how long it'll take him to get his football boots on.

Poor boy, he really does try, he's a good lad.

He's terrified of the rugby too.

Oooh, and Citrus too I see

My sewing skills will be tested to their limit tonight - I have to sew ribbons and elastic onto DD's first pair of pointe shoes for ballet. DD is nervous

"You have to buy special woven nametape which then must be sewn on kit as per the bl**dy diagram provided.

And the special name tapes have to be on the outside so everyone can see what sewing skills your mother (or other relative/paid help) has."

PMSL at this! Ha ha ha!

ds1 (13 now) was terrified of rugby too. After his first real match at school I asked how it had gone and commented on how clean his kit was. He said "it was OK actually. I managed to stay out of the way of the ball the whole time!"

:) I'm hoping DS gets covered in mud so that no one can see his name tapes. particularly the ones I have to sew visibly on his sodding socks as I fear they aren't going to go well.

My PFB is starting secondary school in 8 days. I haven't even got all of her uniform yet let alone started labelling anything.

She is meant to be practising the route to and from school during the holiday so she is confident with it. But so far, we haven't done it at all. God, what am I going to do when she has to go all be herself
I'll be at work so can't really take her. Could drop her at someones house that lives closer, or drop her near the school so she is early but not too early. My way of dealing with it was not to think about it. But time is running out and now I will have to think about it and actually arrange something.

Her first day is sorted, DH has the day off and will take her and collect her.

Does she have a very long way to go kid?
dh took ds2 on the bus for his first induction day, but for the second he went on his own and was fine.

There are always other children heading in the same direction in the same uniform, so it's not like they'll get lost.

And anyway finding a parent's car in the melee at the end of school can be far harder than finding the bus stop or finding the route home!