Katy Turner is aghast at the thought of kitting her son out with his first school uniform
HALF way through the summer and although the complaints about how long (and hot) the school holidays are, there is a new issue on the horizon: going back to school.
Us moms may harp on about the amount of weeks the kids are home for, but you don’t hear many complaints about the morning routine being a bit more relaxed, kids (and therefore parents) staying in bed late, trips to the pool and increased amounts of quality time spent with the offspring.
Although I am guilty of having complained about summer holidays, I am new at the ‘school’ bit. My elder son will be going into compulsory school in September and will, therefore, need a uniform, so there is a whole new raft of considerations to take into account. Where to go? In what quantities to buy? The school may have issued a uniform list but they don’t indicate how many days I can expect a five-year-old to wear the same pair of trousers/jumper for and keep them clean. Can I really trust him with a tie? Will he learn to button up a shirt in time for the start of the school term?
With so little knowledge I decided to consult an expert before heading into the ‘buying a school uniform’ arena. Although the only things we really complain about are the prices and the choice of fabric, in Europe the whole issue of school uniforms is taken rather more seriously. There are EU directives on what uniforms should and shouldn’t be. I suspect it won’t be long before these are considerations that will have to be taken into account in Cyprus too. There are also the style issues that our little darlings are only too aware of to take into consideration.
So what should we be looking for? Teflon coated trousers, skirts and pinafores are available, which means that the clothes will not stain (or at least not for the first 20 washes). You could also look for ‘non-iron’, ‘tumble dryable’ and ‘easy care’ written on the label. So far so good, I think I can cope with all of the above. If your child has eczema, there are also some brands that are 100 per cent cotton and have soft seams. Elsewhere, trousers etc are usually a poly/viscose mix so there are natural fibres in there.
Shirts too may come in an easy iron variety, while, if possible, a school jumper should not be acrylic as this is highly flammable.
When dealing with girls’ uniforms, there are some fashion extras to note (although some designers who obviously have boys have created cool cargo pants for school wear): who has the coolest gimmick? You can choose (or be forced to choose) from tasteful bits of embroidery or flowers that hang off the end of zips. It’s a minefield out there!
On a more serious note, it really is a minefield out there. According to the aforementioned EU directives, uniforms can no longer have thin straps and must be easy release in case any part gets stuck in a door or the wheel of a bike etc, while the fabrics themselves have to go through rigorous tests.
Assuming you’ve kitted them out in a style that is approved of by you, them and the school there is then that other bug bear of school life to deal with (especially if you have younger children): what to do with all the art work that they bring home? Although there is not a mother in the world who has not had a tear in her eye at the sight of a particularly well-executed piece, there is rather too much of it brought home for most people’s liking.
There are several theories about how to declutter your home. My own favoured approach when my kids first went to nursery was to hand them the artwork in the car on the way home. By the time we got there, they had invariably destroyed it. But once I realised my fridge, kitchen and bathroom walls did not have the same home touches as those of my peers, I realised I had better let some survive the journey.
But there are also the carrier bags full of the stuff that one has to deal with at the end of each term. Deciding it was time for a clearout one night I threw heaps of the creations in the bin. I had not counted on my son getting up the next morning and finding it there. I am now subjected to regular searches of the bin when even the tiniest scrap of paper goes awry. If you are going to employ this tactic, make sure everything you want to get rid of is tied in a black bag and left where only the bin men will find it.
I am now going for the ‘just let it take over the house’ approach. It will save us redecorating. Rather more organised parents have a grocery box/art folder that the child can fill with things they want to keep. When it gets full, the child himself has to supervise the cull. Not a bad idea but couldn’t I just use the spare room instead?
