World Book Day - How Sad is It That Supermarkets Are Flogging Costumes ?
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And worse ! How sad is it that lazy parents are buying them !
I love watching the kids going to school on World Books day and their obvious joy in being part of an event to promote literature .
You know who are the happiest kids ? Those who are maybe wearing a couple of tea towels and various oddments sewn together by obviously involved parents .
The miserable ones ? Yes you have guessed it - those who are put into an unrecyclable Supermarket "costume " because modern parents would rather pay £4.99 and send their kids off to school in it rather than talk to their kids , explore the character and construct a costume together .
Parents - the characters from literature are endless - from the Bible to Harry Potter. From Ben Hur to Toy Story . From Agatha Christie to Enid Blyton etc ,etc .
Use this opportunity to interact with your kids . They will certainly enjoy it - and you never know you may also !
Sometimes it cost more to make a costume than to buy one if I’m honest. so maybe parents can’t afford to make one.
It is a shame. When we were young (oh my god, I sound old now) we made costumes and making the costume is half the fun of it and then wearing it with pride because you had a hand in it. A lack of imagination means you buy a ready made piece of tat and then all the children look the same! But it'll be another even sadder day when our children don't even want to read so I can't rule these costumes out completely. 
I agree.i always buy a book every christmas, (birthdays too if i can) as well a toy or gift for my grandkids& my own sons/ daughters.ive always held reading in good stead and taught my kids to read by when they started school.
Yes it makes the child happy if they help,and the fact youve taken a bit of time to help them do it.my daughters always do try to make a costume for my grandchildren if they can.but they're much better at crafts than i am.im very good with a needle& thread though.you can get old clothes from charity shops and 'remake' or re-adapt them into a costume,it neednt cost the earth.But the problem is the schools give parents a newsletter saying they require the costume next week,or some such time limit..if they gave more warning maybe they would yield better results?
I buy mine a year in advance a knocked down price so saves me time and money families today sadly don't have time and money to spend £s on a costume for 1 day at school.
You could also pass it on to make it more use than 1day? Either hand it down if youve a younger child or pass it to the school to use,or re-adapt it into a different outfit for next time.
Hi Golfforall, met you earlier on another post! Yes (years ago) i once made my son an outfit for book day out of a big cardboard box,half an hour before schooltime& he won best costume 
definitely worth the effort,didnt cost anything and tbf probably the thing about 'recycling' and it said "don't stare at my bottom" on back of box helped him win
.(it was meant to show which way was up and was pre-printed!) and cause at least we'd put a little bit of effort in..I hope.
The same son (now almost 17) still likes to read sometimes.and he & I interacted quite a bit in run up to english GCSE as i helped(made him.lol) go through the booklets& works for the for the textbooks/plays.Yes,he smashed it!
I can't help but feel this post amplifies recent events where judgement is given without knowledge of the situation. I put my hands up and admit that when I was first married I could barely boil a kettle. (true story) I have always been creative so when it came to making fancy dress and book day outfits I thoroughly enjoyed it. BUT it's not for everyone and I have many friends who have tried and ended up in tears because the end result wasn't what they saw in their imagination of the job and they see it as failing. No allowance is made for the parent that is in full time employment to make ends meet and they are just too whacked to tackle a project that is beyond them. It's about time we give a shout out to peoples' strengths instead of skill shaming.
Maybe the parents don't have time or money to build a costume? I'm not a parent but can't imagine having the time to do that.
Think its called -"Interaction" with your children . If you haven't got an hour or so to do that its not good for either parent or child ?
Golfforall I don't think it's going to just take an hour to make a costume though.
Thats why schools should give parents more notice,maybe at least a month,so you could spend an hour a week doing the costume,over 4wks,or half an hour a couple of times a week.
It is the 5th March (World Books Day ) so I presume parents are aware ? (the Supermarkets certainly are as costumes have been in the shops for the last 2 or 3 weeks ) . Or maybe buying a plastic costume is far less hassle for some ?
Golfforall not every school allow you to do your own book our school gives us a few days they base it on a book then we have to get kids costumes that’s junior department not infants they can wear what they won’t not every one has time and money or some have few kids in the school which again is costly but by buying in advance or sharing is the way forward sadly
I guess there's something to be said for some of the ones in the shops,if they're not too expensive, and you really have had not enough notice,then its no harm,but maybe shops could give some of the cost to charity or something?Not all the outfits are just plastic.yes world book day is a 'certain' day,but schools demand outfits for all sorts of things now too,not just christmas & book day.
Just making a small point about our throwaway society when I noticed these costumes in the Supermarket a few days ago .
Thanks for all the responses - And don't get me started on Halloween ! - but we have a few months to go before that outlandish Americanism !
Can still remember (many years ago when I was 11 or 12 ) spending hours making a "Guy" - no Supermarket costumes in those days ! - to beg "A penny for the guy " , then hurrying down the Offy to buy Cigs and cans of lager with the proceeds (only joking - Honest !).
I can't lie - this topic really offended me with sweeping criticisms like 'lazy' and 'miserable' parents. It's whole new day and I'd really like to know what you would make as a Book Day costume. What would the character be? What materials would you use and how long do you think it would take to make an outfit that will last for a school day? (the 2 x tea towel option intrigues me) Points to remember - not everyone has a sewing machine and no safety pins allowed.
I agree with you on this, calling parents lazy for not making a costume, just because some cant or haven't got time to make a costume then they are lazy, wrong!
Surely that is precisely the point ? The child/children supply the imagination , the parent/s take care of the practicalities and have fun doing it ?
And if it turns out to be a disaster pop down the Supermarket a few days before and then buy a costume (they'll probably be discounted then !).
At least you will have had fun with your kids trying , and that's the whole point of the exercise in my humble opinion ?
Failure is one of the most valuable lessons we learn from as we journey through life . Not even trying is not a trait we would wish to encourage in our Kids ?
And worse ! How sad is it that lazy parents are buying them ! How do you know they haven't tried to make one before they buy one?
Golfforall So what about if they cant make one for some reason? What if they literally have no skills in making them? make a crap one and send the child into school to be bullied?
This post is sadly shaming parents do you have children have you see how nasty some kids are your parents cant afford a costume look at your costume thats crap etc
I read the title of this post and winced. People have different strengths and skills. I cannot see a problem with a parent buying an outfit from a shop.
I phrased the title to , hopefully, stimulate thought amongst parents with over 2 weeks to go till the Day .
Why not interact with children , have fun , stimulate learning together ?- Give it a go !
Sadly the interaction I hoped to encourage has been eclipsed (with a couple of exceptions ) by the "excuses not to" brigade . The main reason seems to be "not enough time in my life" .
Fair enough , World Books day has been going now since 1995 , probably the dressing up for school thing since about 2000 . We are getting near to the time when new parents will remember the happiness they had making costumes with their parents (No costumes for sale in those days !) and maybe the attitudes will change ?
Golfforall Hi, I hope that lots of interaction and fun occurs when discussing a child's favourite character. My sister is creative and makes World Book Day costumes for herself, her daughters and thankfully my son. Without her help I would have bought from a shop. I would not want to take the risk of my son being mocked because I am not adept in this area. I am not making excuses just offering my opinion as to why it is acceptable to buy a costume. World Book Day is a wonderful day to celebrate a child's favourite character and I hope a love of books 
Golfforall I am not part of the 'excuses not to' brigade but I have worked with classes of 30+ children and I can assure you that there are parents who couldn't possibly afford the materials to make an outfit. You are sadly out of touch if you don't realise that a cheaply bought outfit gets more use and ongoing enjoyment than a badly cobbled together outfit. As for the 'the children get involved in the project' idea, it really doesn't work that way. The child has to be measured up and then the adult puts together a cut-out rough pattern and machines an offering that they hope will hold for a school day. The maker flies solo, in isolation, robbing them of that 'together' time. I honestly don't want to stop you participating in lively debate but hold back with the contentious heading. PS you never did answer my question about your idea for an outfit........
Didn't I ? I said the inspiration should come from the child ( not an anonymous from a web site !) the practicalities from the parent . That's the answer .
We aren't talking about made to measure wedding dresses here ! Its a fun thing , no need to be a seamstress or spend hours on the perfect fitting garment . Maybe its where you or I live ? around here I don't hear of kids getting bullied if their outfit isn't top notch and certainly the teachers I know far prefer their pupils to use imagination in their outfits rather than just appear in off the peg supermarket offerings .
Maybe we are all trying to be "Too Posh" using our kids (who just want to have fun and learn) as a refection on ourselves ?
Me I love to see the kids walking to school with painted faces ,tea towels and painted cardboard , eye patches etc ,etc - but then again it is quite a few years since I was a "modern parent " and I accept life has changed since then (for the worse ?)
"World Book Day - How Sad is It That Supermarkets Are Flogging Costumes ?"
I must get my eyes checked, that had me really worried, when I first read it I thought it said Customers. 
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