If your kids have to wear uniforms to school.....

[MrsPete]

I have 4 pairs of ripped pants I'm thinking about returning. Do you think Land's End would honor Sear's clothing guarantee?

If they were purchased in the Sears store and you have the receipts, yes.

 

[MrsPete]

I am not fully one way or the other, but it seems to me that buying 3 uniforms for each child that they can wear for at least a full year is much cheaper in the long run.

As a mom who's had kids in uniform schools and non-uniform schools, I can assure you I spent MUCH LESS on uniforms! The kids' closets were much less full back then -- they wore the same few outfits over and over. The also had jeans and other things for playtime and weekends, but they didn't have nearly the quantity that they need now.

From a financial point of view, uniforms are totally the way to go. When you're making your initial purchase and the bill is so high, it might not seem true . . . but when you literally don't have to buy any more school clothes for the whole school year, you see big savings.

Just for the record, I'm a teacher, and I would LOVE IT if we could wear uniforms too. Give me the option of a pair of pants, a skirt, and a jumper in school colors plus coordinating shirts -- you'd never hear a complaint from me!

 

[DawnM]

I have seen teachers wear the school uniforms. In CA there was a whole school that decided that even though it was optional, they would wear uniforms with the kids. Most of the teachers loved it.

Dawn

As a mom who's had kids in uniform schools and non-uniform schools, I can assure you I spent MUCH LESS on uniforms! The kids' closets were much less full back then -- they wore the same few outfits over and over. The also had jeans and other things for playtime and weekends, but they didn't have nearly the quantity that they need now.

From a financial point of view, uniforms are totally the way to go. When you're making your initial purchase and the bill is so high, it might not seem true . . . but when you literally don't have to buy any more school clothes for the whole school year, you see big savings.

Just for the record, I'm a teacher, and I would LOVE IT if we could wear uniforms too. Give me the option of a pair of pants, a skirt, and a jumper in school colors plus coordinating shirts -- you'd never hear a complaint from me!

 

[DawnM]

I agree! All a matter of priorities.

I will say that at the inner-city school where I worked for years, we had extra uniforms that we would give out if the family really couldn't afford it, but if that same kid showed up with a new CD player or $100 tennis shoes we would have the talk with the parents!

We don't go to Disney every year and when we do we stay off-site and eat mostly our own food. If we can't afford our basics.....clothing, food and shelter, we don't do the extras.....period!

Right now we are doing Dave Ramsey and waiting to get some more paid off before we go on a vacation.

Dawn

We all have our priorities. You've been to Disney EVERY year -- if that's more important than your kids having enough pants for school, that's fine -- that's your choice.

I disagree that uniforms cause problems. My daughters NEVER had a problem with uniforms (they whined a little, but were never in trouble at school because of them), and I'm not aware of any of her classmates having problems either. I teach in public schools, and we do have LOTS of issues with kids wearing inappropriate items to school: too-short skirts, low-cut blouses, etc.; those issues waste teachers' time and wear on their last nerve, which isn't good for students either. Uniforms eliminate those issues.

 

[alikat99]

Thanks for all this discussion on school uniforms. My oldest DD will be going to Kindergarten next year and they have uniforms. We can only buy ours from Lands End, but it sounds like they are a good brand anyway. I figure that my initial investment will be high, but I'm hoping that they may last for her little sister too. Plus, we live in Florida, so skorts work for most of the year, so they'll only need a couple of pairs of pants for the year.

 

[lts862]

My son attends a Catholic school and his uniform is navy slacks (shorts in summer) and long sleeve white polo (short sleeve in the summer). He is really rough on clothes. We have gotten by with 4 pairs of pants, 4 shirts and 2 sweaters this winter (he also wears a gym uniform/school sweatsuit one day/week). We have 5 short sleeve shirts as without the sweater over it, they are more likely to get stained.

Our shirts have to be from a local uniform store but the pants and shorts I get at JCPenney. They are Izod, hold up pretty well (even the knees) and do not require ironing . I stock up on the next size when they have their 30% off sale.

What/where is the Kid Advantage club? Is that Land's End?

 

[DawnM]

No, it is at Sears. You have to buy FROM Sears to qualify.

Dawn

My son attends a Catholic school and his uniform is navy slacks (shorts in summer) and long sleeve white polo (short sleeve in the summer). He is really rough on clothes. We have gotten by with 4 pairs of pants, 4 shirts and 2 sweaters this winter (he also wears a gym uniform/school sweatsuit one day/week). We have 5 short sleeve shirts as without the sweater over it, they are more likely to get stained.

Our shirts have to be from a local uniform store but the pants and shorts I get at JCPenney. They are Izod, hold up pretty well (even the knees) and do not require ironing . I stock up on the next size when they have their 30% off sale.

What/where is the Kid Advantage club? Is that Land's End?

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

As to how many to buy, I would buy enough for how ever many days you want to do with out doing laundry. I try to have five complete sets to start each year with (we have different winter/spring uniforms, so I have five of each). But I only want to do uniforms once a week for laundy...much easier.

Lynn

I agree. I read the other posts about 3-4 sets of uniforms for school and I was like WHAT? How do y'all do that- then I read this post:

He has three pairs of pants, two long sleeved blue shirts, two long sleeved white shirts, two short sleeved white shirts and two short sleeved blue shirts. I do a load of laundry every day. At least once during the school week the load is his clothes -- so three pairs is enough for me to be covered.

um, no thank you on the load of laundry every day. I don't even want to do that with ALL my family's clothing combined, let alone have to wash school uniform clothes every couple of days. Plus the more it's worn, over and over... the faster it wears out! So there really is no point in buying less- they just wear out quicker leading you to buying more.

Only my oldest (middle school) has to wear a 'uniform' of sorts (ie: very specific the way they fit/etc. solid color pants, solid ONE color polo shirt tucked in with belt, etc.) and I purchased her like 10 pairs of pants and tons of polo shirts. If it was all one color like a real uniform (ie: she couldn't wear a different color/brand polo every day and such) I'd probably atleast go with 6. So I wouldn't have to wash her clothes but once a week- with an extra day in case I didn't happen to get them all washed and dried on that Sunday.

Okay so maybe I'm lazy. But so far she's only outgrown a couple pair of pants this school year and I'd purchased some the next size up too ahead of time to ward off this problem- and NONE of the pants or shirts are even near "worn out". They are being worn less, washed less. Just my opinion on it.

 

[gaelic grace]

We have to use Parker uniforms at our school and while they are pricey they hold up well. We are in the south and as such have only two pair of pants. Most of the time she wears shorts or skorts. My BF's boys go to a different school and she can buy from anywhere. She would echo the French Toast comments made by many. She bought a different brand from Target this year and has paid for it all year. When they were little she had good luck with Oshkosh at the outlet sales.