From the pool… back to school. Summer is rapidly coming to an end (sigh) and soon parents will be less worried about whether their daughter’s swimsuits are too tight and more concerned about whether their son’s pants are too baggy.
Right now many of us are smack in the middle of that dreaded annual ritual—back to school shopping. Besides gathering the right shopping lists for each child and calculating how our household budgets will accommodate new pens, pencils, backpacks, socks, shoes, pants, tops and haircuts most parents are faced with the additional role of acting as fashion police.
Who among us can’t think of a myriad of more relaxing end of the summer activities we would rather be partaking in than having to negotiate with a preteen daughter as to what is and isn’t appropriate school wear. There’s nothing like having to whip out your parental fashion police badge before you throw down your credit card.
My parents avoided the pain of back to school clothes shopping by sending all of us to parochial school. When I was a young girl the only choice I had to make in the morning was whether I would be wearing a navy blue jumper with my white shirt, knee high white socks and brown loafers or suit up in a navy blue pleated skirt that hit right below the knee—-at the exact point where the socks started. When the weather was especially cold girls were allowed to wear navy blue slacks–a rare treat.
Of course, this was back in the day when Catholic school nuns actually wore full habits and taught Baltimore Catechism. These days some Catholic schools don’t even require that students wear uniforms at all. Conversely, some inner city public schools in the United States have adopted a strict uniform policy to help kids focus on school instead of keeping up with the latest fashions.
Some public school administrators insist that uniforms also help a family’s budget. I tried researching this claim by visiting Educational Outfitters. Their website says their clothes wear like steel (boys pants come with reinforced knees and all their products are stain resistant) and are moderately priced. You can judge for yourself.
The point of this post is not to get into the debate of who has the better system in place–private schools or public ones–rather it’s to address a growing trend amongst parents who are sending their children to school (both public and private) in uniforms when their kids’ school doesn’t have a uniform policy in place. It may sound bizarre, but the parents that are exercising the option say it’s working for them.
In most cases one parent got the ball rolling and others jumped on the bandwagon. One of the moms who granted a news reporter an interview said that she was fed up with the chaos that took place in her home, as her three young daughters got ready for school. Sick of the tears and tantrums she simply created her own uniform policy. After notifying school administrators of her plan she went to Land’s End and bought her girls plaid skirts with matching solid colored shirts, a couple of khaki pants and coordinating sweaters and she was done. No debating, no negotiating and no frantic last-minute wardrobe changes. The girls are allowed to mix and match the pieces and they only have to wear the outfits to school (apparently they can wear what they want when they get home).
One of the woman’s daughters (I think she was 8 years old) told the reporter that she didn’t like the idea at first, but she has since learned to accept it, and in fact, appreciates that she doesn’t have to worry about what she is going to wear to school each day. As for getting teased by other students, the girl said she hasn’t had a problem with taunting (after all she noted, it’s not like she is wearing the exact same outfit to school everyday).
The news story ended with interviews with other parents who also adopted the self-“uniform” policy (I want to say there were about a dozen of them). All spoke of the positive impact it had on their household budget and the peace it had restored to their homes.
What do you think about this new “uniform” decision? Would you have your kids wear a “uniform” to school even if it was not mandatory?