Uniforms for the Stylish

The fashionista 6 year old

My first grader takes great pride in her sense of style, and it is definitely a style all her own. Whether it’s a dress, a skort, a Halloween costume in the middle of July or sobbing uncontrollably in January because we wouldn’t let her wear a sleeveless sundress to kindergarten in the snow, she likes to have control of what she wears. If left on her own to pick her clothes she would likely never wear pants, rarely wear shorts and would choose “spinny skirts” over the more form fitting type. The “prettier” the better.

Her preference for girly clothes does not in any way mean that she is a fan of what my Mother would call “Lady like behavior”. Dainty she is not, she insisted on wearing a pink plaid skort (short/skirt combo for the uninitiated) for T-Ball (her team colors green and gold) and she attracts dirt and grime like she’s part of one of those swiffer duster things you see advertised on TV. She runs, plays, jumps, swings, plays in the dirt and sand like a kid is supposed to – after all part of her job description as “kid” is to get dirty on a regular basis. Because of this I am constantly asking her to put some shorts on under her skirts/dresses or wear a skort. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to say “nobody wants to see your panties”. I don't care if its not her style - sometimes you have to take the practical approach.

With all of this need to dress up in skirts and dresses you would think she would be uneasy about or possibly rejecting of uniforms all together. Oddly enough she is very excited about the uniforms – jumpers do have skirts after all - and while she can only wear specific blouses with the uniform, and she cannot wear nail polish at all she does like the fact that the skirts are kind of “spinny” (probably have to wear those shorts under the school skirt as well) she’s already picked out which blue blouse to wear with her jumper on the first day of school.

She’s also picked out her outfit for her first Dress Down day. For those not familiar with the concept, in many schools with uniforms kids can often earn dress down days. Our school has it set up so the kids can earn dress downs for Friday’s in various ways. If your parents order from Market Day you can get a dress down, if your family brings in 50 box tops you can earn a dress down, if you earn so many points in accelerated reader you can earn a dress down etc. Most kids wear jeans and t-shirts or shorts if the weather is warm enough. She has a purple dress and pink sparkly shoes all picked out for that first big dress down day – I mean just because she’s dressing down doesn’t mean she’ll be dressing casual.

I’m interested to find out her take on the uniforms after about a month of wearing the same thing daily. Will she still like them, will she decide to fight against them or will she try to find a way to liven hers up to make it more her “style”. Time will tell.