I often tell my children I wish they had school uniforms. As you can imagine, my children recoil in horror when I say such things. They threaten to disown me and adopt a new mom. Promises, promises.
“But Mom, then we’d all look the same”. Ah, excuse me kid, but have you looked at your friends lately? You’re all dressed the same anyway. I don’t see any of you really breaking out and going all Lady Gaga in the schoolyard. So why not look neat and tidy and save your parents a gazillion dollars in clothing. Right? I actually thought I had got through to my oldest yesterday. She was playing on the fashion app on her iThing when she turned to me and said, “Mom, if we had school uniforms this is totally what I would want to wear.”
Jeezus Murphy! *gripping heart* What kind of app is this? You’re NINE!!!! I pull myself together and comment that the skirt is a little short and that those aren’t knee-highs, but thigh-highs and that there is really no place for those at school. Unless of course it’s a school for Harajuku Girls. Plus, the sailor look is so passé. Sheesh.
This is actually more what I had in mind.
Although I’m sure this look would repulse her (as you can see from her ideal above), it’s actually what I daydream about when I think about my girls clothing budget in the years to come. Sigh, east is east, and west is west and never the twain shall meet I guess. All I can hope is that there is a sudden and long revival of the “Little House on the Prairie” look around 2015.
Alexandra says
January 31, 2012 at 8:58 pmSchool uniforms, especially for girls, is the way to go not only to save money and to ensure a proper and modest attire, but to save time for children to get dressed in the morning. And *time* is worth “a gazillion dollars” right there. With 4 daughters, I count my lucky stars that our neighbourhood school has uniforms!
Candace says
January 31, 2012 at 9:36 pmI am positively green with envy. Unfortunately, for me anyway, it seems there are just as many parents opposed to school uniforms in my area as for them. The debate is not just in my house. I had a uniform in high school and although I didn’t love it, it really did cut out a lot of the teen angst over wearing the right thing.
Alex says
February 1, 2012 at 8:55 amI had the unique experience of attending two high schools: one with and one without uniforms. The uniforms were incredibly expensive and cost my parents more than my typical wardrobe. They were pretty frumpy, but you know how resourceful teenagers are: we tarted them up fittingly by rolling hems. When I transferred to the mainstream school, clothing was less tweaking but came with other challenges.
I guess what I’m saying is you just can’t win. Unless you send them to Hogwarts.
Candace says
February 1, 2012 at 9:05 amThey won’t return my calls from Hogwarts. It’s the whole muggle thing I guess 😉 I wore a uniform too. At my first school, they were impossible to tart up. It was simply the uniform style that it just couldn’t be done. At the second school, kilts got shorter an inch every year you moved up. Lots of schools with uniforms are banning kilts because they’ve become a porn fantasy now rather than the picture of modesty they’re supposed to be. Pros and cons to both angles for sure.
Alex says
February 1, 2012 at 8:57 amWas less “revealing”, not “tweaking” (we weren’t tweakers, I swear)… DYAC! 😉
Candace says
February 1, 2012 at 9:06 amI LOVE auto-correct!! Life is waaaay more interesting since it came along LOL
Maranda says
February 3, 2012 at 9:18 amI wore a uniform to high school and absolutely loved it. There was no pressure and it was easy to get ready in the morning. It was a traditional kilt and blouse type uniform but many modern uniforms have comfortable, casual pieces like polo shirts and fleece pullovers.
Some public schools have started adopting a “uniform” dress code, where you don’t have to buy specific clothes but the kids wear something like navy on the bottom and white on the top. All the benefits of the uniform and still flexibility for style and budget. I love that idea!
Candace says
February 3, 2012 at 8:30 pmI love that too! I always see the navy and khaki in the stores in September and wished my kids would go for it:)
Tracy says
February 3, 2012 at 8:29 pmI went to a high school with a uniform, I remember going with my mom to pick mine up before I started grade 9, they were expensive, but we could save on some things. Part of the uniform was a white shirt and grey pants so we bought those elsewhere. I got some sweater hand-me-downs from my older brother as well. The kilts were a big issue. I’ll admit, I did some tarting lol, then the school implemented a kilt policy where you had to see 2 bands on the kilt, which worked for short girls like me, but my tall friend would show 2 bands and her skirt was still pretty short!
A better idea would be to implement a policy that the kilt must reach the knees, hard to find a way around that.