Estimated read time: 2.02 minutes
Hey
It's a fairly quick one this week because the past week or so went something like this:
Monday: Monsoon. Car stuck in wet sand and flooded roads. Kids emergency evacuated from nursery (next door river burst its banks!). Some work accomplished.
Tuesday: More monsoon. Kids home. Nursery flooded. Little work done.
Thursday: Flu-ridden toddler—zero work for me.
Friday: Me, bed-bound with the flu AND a sick toddler. (Definitely no work).
Sunday: Poorly toddler admitted to hospital for three days.
Parenting and family schedules always go to plan, don't they? 😂 That’s EXACTLY why my family programmes are flexible and designed to fit around whatever life throws at parents.
Needless to say, loads of things went out the window this week... including being organised with World Book Day costumes.
So, let’s talk about ditching perfection this World Book Day!
It’s here. World Book Day.
Excited? Indifferent? Eye-rolling, shuddering, and just glad you've sent them on their merry way, so it’s over for you now?
As a teacher, I love it—kids coming in as their favorite characters, the whole school obsessed with books for the day... it’s so fun!
But I fully appreciate that it’s not always fun for parents. In my early teaching years, I used to encourage parents to make costumes instead of buying them. (Massive apologies to those parents—now that I have kids myself, I totally get that sometimes just throwing money at a problem is way easier than staying up into the early hours fashioning something after work. I hope they forgive my pre-kids lack of awareness!)
So, if you sent your child to school or nursery dressed up today,
How was that for you?Some parents LOVE this kind of thing. But for others, it’s stressful. There can be a real pressure to have the 'perfect' or 'right' outfit—especially as kids get older and feel more peer pressure.
One thing we always did in my classrooms to level the playing field was giving everyone the chance to make their outfit. Using things from the junk modelling box or old t-shirts, kids would have so much fun creating their character.
And the focus became the process of making their costume, rather than achieving the perfect image of that character. Sounds a bit Growth Mindset, right?
Obviously, as I touched on earlier, life doesn’t always go to plan. But next time you need a costume—even if it’s a last-minute dash—I’d really recommend putting the kids in charge of creating it. Give them some responsibility and let them decide what they want to be. In my experience, they get really into it, love the process, and end up feeling so proud of what they’ve made. The focus shifts from achieving 'perfection' to just having fun.
So my quick take-away for costume days?🚫 Bin the need for perfection. There are loads of ways for kids to get into the spirit of the day without having the 'perfect' costume. Work with whatever you have—that's good enough!
See you next week with the usual format, when things have (hopefully) calmed down a little.
Becca
I wrote another guest article for Happity last week! This time on 5 subtle things we can change to encourage more resilience in our kids. Check it out.
