Mother in Law: Lessons from World Book Day

In one of my first blogs, in March 2019, I discussed in some detail the pain of World Book Day. Reader, I have just experienced my last. What have I learned? 

1. Amazon has taken the soul out of costume days, but also a lot of the stress. My gran and my mum were actually taught how to sew properly at school, I was not. In place of sewing lessons, Amazon Prime steps in with next day delivery of any costume you can think of. Most kids (in my experience) want the Amazon version and not the homemade one, anyway.
2. I started this parenting lark amazed at the number of parents who bought these costumes which are invariably a fire risk. Then Deceptively Angelic Child no. 1 got invited to a Princess Party and I found her trying to fashion an outfit out of her existing clothes, which broke my heart, so I bought her the light up Elsa costume. I turned on a sixpence from worrying about fire risk to buying the flammable costume, but specifically the one with in built electricals. You should have seen the smile on her face, though.
3. Whilst I would still approach princess costumes, toys, Lego, furniture etc with caution for reasons relating to feminism, I can confirm that allowing my daughters to wear a light up Elsa dress has certainly not turned them into little princesses. I’m still struggling to stop them eating with their hands and biting their muddy toenails.
4. The hill I will die on, though, is that Frozen is a film not a book. Wicked is a musical. It’s World Book Day, not World Film Day or World Football Day.
5. About 5% of children would rather die than dress up, and that is OK. Whilst, of course, we all have twenteen (as DALC2 used to say) thousand things to remember everyday, what is not OK is to forget a costume day. I’m sorry if this sounds judgy but I’ve seen the look on kids’ faces when they get to school and see everyone else dressed up. We all make mistakes, but if this is happening I think you (and by 'you' I mean mums, dads, other adults in the mix) need to be looking seriously at your work-life balance.
6. I don’t walk DALC2 to school anymore, but on Thursday she wanted me to come to hold her stuff so it didn’t spoil her entrance. I’ve long since accepted that this is my position in life. But what I realised, as I walked past a four year old dressed in a full-on Neil Armstrong costume (that well known book character) is that this has all gone by in the blink of an eye. I am fully aware that this is a really annoying thing to say because parenting young children is hard work. Being told they have to dress as a 'word' instead of a book character every other year is hard work. All of it is exhausting. But my kids will now never be as committed to an outfit and character as that little boy was. The only reason DALC2 wanted to show off her outfit was because she had sneaked on some jewellery. She’s no longer the girl that would only eat out of a bowl on the floor because 'she was a cat'. She will never be that girl again (I hope).

A current struggle of ours is that both girls want to lie in our bed with me at bedtime before they get tucked in. I feel bad for my husband because I inevitably don’t want to get out of bed again and we will probably never get through Only Murders. But how long will this last? DALC1 will be fourteen this year. In another seven years I expect I won’t have to worry about her being in my bed, instead - sorry to change the tone and I can hardly bear to say it but - I’m going to be worrying about who is in hers. They won’t even want me trailing behind holding their stuff, will they?

Two children, fourteen book day costumes (oh, plus the year the preschool decided they would have a World Book Week and they had to dress up every day), and I can confirm it has gone by in a flash. If you are not too exhausted, try to embrace the cuteness while it lasts.

Some facts and identities have been altered in the above article