September 6th, 2010 by We’re really proud to welcome Anita Naik to the Mindbubble editorial team. Today, she will delight us with Back to School stories: if morning rush and mum competition rings a bell to you, then read on and let us know your best story on the way to drop the kids to school!
Ah it’s September again, which aside from turning on the heating and being confused about whether the clocks go backwards or forwards, marks the return of the school run. In our house this translates as weekday mornings laced with threats such as, “I will take you to school naked/or with your pants on your head” – if you don’t get a move on.” I know I am not alone as I hear variations on the same theme coming from the neighbours who have five kids to get out the door by 8.15 am.
Of course, nothing works in our house besides LOUD SHOUTING, which means for the first half of the walk to school I have a sore throat and child A has a major strop on. It could be worse, of course because at least we can walk to school. Last term’s school run took three weeks to descend into car parking chaos, when two uber mummies decided that parking their cars at the entrance to the school was the safest way to get their babies from bedroom to classroom.
Safe for them, but not so safe for the rest of us who had to practically climb over their cars to get into the gates! Of course, words were exchanged, egos were bruised and a competitive daily name calling session ensued that lasted until the kids started playing ‘angry driver mums’ in the playground.
If your school gate is equally competitive, I’m here to warn you of a new school run anxiety coming your way. According to the tabloids school-gate fashion is the new mum angst. This entails (depending on where you live) mums turning up to drop their kids off looking effortlessly stylish with £500 totes on their arms, all in a bid to gain status amongst the other mums. Sadly, it even exists in less leafier suburbs, with one mum telling me the style competition at her gates is fought over waterproof Boden macs rather than expensive bags, (I kid you not).
Of course much of this is fuelled by pictures of celebrity mums Stella McCartney, Sarah Jessica Parker and/or Elle MacPherson splashed across the papers looking gorgeous on their respective schools runs. The result being an intense debate on Mumsnet with the yummy-mummy side advocating mothers should make a style effort on the school run, and the slummy-mummy side insisting it’s fine to dress down and even wear pyjamas when dropping off.
I don’t know how you feel but while I would love to look effortlessly chic, my morning fashion time is taken up sweet-talking children out of bed, finding cereal and pouring as much caffeine as I can down my throat. Meaning I am only capable of doing two looks before 9 am; the going-to-Sainsbury’s look or the going-to-the-gym look (usually one in the same) and sadly neither allow for a £500 tote.
Perhaps I need a school run stylist to help me mend my ways? What’s your experience? Let me know…
Anita for Mindbubble
A mum this morning parked her car right where all the kids cross a road near to my sons’ school. When I commented, rather too loudly, that this was silly place to park she replied saying that it was her daughters first day at school today. Ah then it’s fine obviously to kill all the other kids attempting to get to school as long as yours has a good first day!
Being a mummy means giving up ‘me time’ doesn’t it? Clean and neat is enough effort for that unsociable hour of the morning. If you’re old enough to have children, you’re old enough to know peer pressure is futile.
If you ask me, the school run ‘what to wear that wont show the breakfast cereal stains’ is the real reason why Sweaty Betty was invented (nothing at all do with yoga or urban jogging!).
What other way, realistically, is there to get your kids to school on time without shouting? I’d be very interested to know.
To be honest I don’t give what I look like much thought (no, really, I don’t) but I’d draw the line at arriving in my PJs. Luckily my experience of ’school gate chic’ at my kids’ current school is virtually non-existant – certainly there are very few yummy mummies, or 4×4s and certainly not many fisticuffs over Boden macs. But I’d still love a £500 tote…
I must sorely disappoint the Mums at my son’s school gate – I barely notice what *anyone* is wearing!
Ha ha makes me even happier that I don’t have kids!! At the private schools round here in the depths of the countryside the competitive mum thing is for real and you don’t want to meet them driving at breakneck speed down narrow country lanes. Whether they’re in an economical hatch-back or a 4×4 tank with fur and feather plastered to the front bumper they’re equally scary!!!
Best example of school gate fervour is bumping into a fellow mum friend this morning and noting she had not only had her hair done for her son’s first day of private school (her words not mine) but she’d bought a NEW CAR TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Last year when my daughter was at pre-school, one mum turned up every morning (rain, shine or snow) in a crop top, VERY short gym skirt, dark brown spray tan and red lippy. I never knew whether to laugh or cry (as I shuffled in wearing boyfriend jeans and yoghurt stained t-shirt).
Louis Vuitton bags were also very popular. So were bouncy blow-drys at the pick-up.
At my daughter’s school (a private girls’ school in New York), drop-off is a relatively laid-back affair, sartorially speaking. I’ve seen moms in sweats one day and Prada the next, and both looks are equally accepted and acceptable. I’m a jeans and T-shirt gal myself, so I’m glad not to have the pressure to look chic and pulled together in the morning. I don’t think my nerves – or my wardrobe – could handle it!
Anita, I really enjoyed your piece on the school run. It’s definitely hard work and I’m still doing it and then going off to a school to be a Learning Support Assistant. I always make a point of looking good in the playground (or at least I thought I did and mums told me so). My answer was just because I am a mum I have not stopped breathing. I will never and I repeat never wear a plastic jacket with a hood just because I am a busy mum. There is still, I believe, nothing wrong with looking tidy in the playground. If you notice the picture of Sarah Jessica Parker, she is only wearing jeans and a cardigan with pumps, but note ladies she has washed her face, combed her hair which is what every woman should automatically do. Good luck ladies. x
Sandra I couldn’t agree with you more. A washed face, and brushed hair are a must for me too on the school run. And of course the otherside of the overdressed coin are those mums who turn up modeling their nightwear and slippers!
Oh dear Ceri I have done the bouncy blow-dry at pick ups – but it’s more a sign of indulgent no kids-time than trying to outdo the uber mums.
PS: Bouncy blow-drys are also a way to divert from my supermarket inspired wardrobe. I’m hoping they draw the eye upwards or is that wishful thinking????
I always wear ‘natural’ make up on the school run and then ruin my demeanour by jostling children through the crowd and throwing out a hello to everyone (my eyesight is crap without my glasses) who looks my way. I’m going for arty and interesting but I think my dress sense is more batty and middle aged. Ah well, Bring out the sunglasses and head down. x
Fiona – I know what you mean. What I think I look like and what I truly look like on the school run are probably miles apart. Who cares – ignorance is bliss. In my mind and without my glasses – I look exactly like SJP!
Give it a couple of years, and it won’t be your clothes you’ll be worried about. It will be what the former apple of your eye is wearing. This morning I caught my 11 year old, not even a week in at her new school, rolling up her skirt waistband, re-doing hair in a Cheryl Cole-wooshed-over-the-side look, and this was the girl who would have happily lived in the same baggy leggings the whole summer holiday. Meanwhile 13 year old is still in the shower, and to hell with piano practice, there’s the hair straightener practice, the eyeshadow, and ‘where’s my luminous bra?’. 17 year old Boy sprays eau d’ pulling (what girl is attracted to toilet cleaner) for a full 20 minutes until the whole house is choking and the coffee tastes of blu loo. And the dog is in a sulk because I haven’t made him a waxing appointment. I think this season’s sheerling jacket will look great with a nightie, but real life is standing in the rain, making friends with the mannequins at New Look.