School Uniforms - the Horror Show

Ok.  I'm seriously going to show my stripes here.  I loathe school uniforms.  I know; I know.  They make it easy to get dressed, they are supposedly cheaper, yada yada yada. {Insert sound effect - Thhbbtttt!}

I seriously miss seeing my munchkins in normal 'street' wear. I miss their blue jeans, and the carefully selected t-shirts.  I miss the color and variety of their shoes.  No more....sigh...  Now, I get to see kids schlepping around the school with their shoes held together with tape because the assistant headmaster made them remove their shoelaces for being white laces instead of black laces. 

Today, in a bold brave attempt to avoid the rush, we tried to buy their uniforms for next year.  The week before school, you can't even get into the uniform shop.  Babies screaming, mummies screaming, kids groaning in the heat and the horror, "I have to wear that tie? It's ghastly! It'll choke me to death!"  And, for these supposed 'inexpensive' school shirts, I have to shell out the equivalent of like $30 US per shirt.  Umm yeah....right.  I'd rather hit the sales rack at a Macy's or Bloomingdales thank you very much! (Assuming one can get to the States!).  We'd get better stuff, and cheaper!

We always buy the shirts at the uniform shop because they have the school logo on them - no other choice.  The trousers, however, we always buy in the home country since they are usually cheaper/better quality.  This next year, they are changing the girls skirts.  They will have a single pleat in the front.  To quote a kid I overheard in the shop, "They're ghastly! Do I have to wear THAT?"  Not only are they not pleasant to look at, but they are going to be utterly impossible to find a version that is cheaper/better in the home country.  Rats, they figured us mums out! And, these school skirts are being made so we have to have them tailored to the correct length.  The horror!  We'll have to make trips to the shop for fittings amidst the smell of sweaty children, dust from the neighborhood blowing in the doors, a parking lot where 4X4 is necessary and all for the bargain price of about $35 US per skirt!  The horror!  And......since they moved the uniform shop to the new more convenient location (it is a better drive, just on packed sand road), there's no more stopping on the first floor for an ice cream as a light at the end of the long uniform store tunnel. 

Give me blue jeans or give me death? Ok, maybe that's exaggerating.....

13 days and a wake-up, but who's counting?

Peace.