Uniforms

Today is free dress day at Amber’s school. They are raising money for cancer research, take a gold coin, wear whatever you like (within reason). So this morning she pops out of her room and asks me “skirt or pants?” I checked the weather, it’s going to be 31, so maybe skirt would be better. She pops out a few minutes later in a lovely skirt “which shirt should I wear?” She tried on three different ones and held up a couple more before deciding. It is so much quicker when she just gets her uniform out and wears it. This is one of the reasons I love uniforms, no need to think in the morning, just get dressed, eat and out the door. Another reason I love them is that they are comfortable (at least my kids are, mine was a bit lacking in the comfort department), tend to look quite good, and no one is showing off how rich their parents are because they have different outfits every day of the month. I have always preferred to have a uniform, I am never that fussed about what I wear, so not having to think about it is so much easier. Also uniforms tend to come at a discount, subsidised by work or school, so I don’t have to waste excess money on clothes I don’t really want anyway.

However, we are riding for conflict about uniforms in our small town. The three schools are amalgamating, so the two primaries and the high school will combine. Sounds great, except there is already conflict about what to call the place, and what the kids will wear. One school has green and white, looks great, the other primary is royal blue and light blue, also looks great. The High School wears navy and royal blue, actually doesn’t look that good, so change is going to happen. Trouble is the parents at the two primary schools are very attached to their uniforms and also there is a degree of antagonism from one school to the other, so the green parents will not want their kids weaning the same colour as the blue school. I don’t think the blue parents care that much, but the high school is blue too, so chances are we’ll all be blue in a couple of years. Maybe we should go for a completely new colour you say, maybe brown, trouble is we have a Catholic primary school in town and they already have that. I hope people see sense, because we need a good looking comfortable uniform and in a few years no one will remember where they came from and no one will care.

Yes, I love uniforms, but I really don’t like the hassle that comes with deciding what it should look like.