Wednesday, 5 March 2008

'Essentials' 31.08.07

There is not much time left before the school term starts, Sam and Laura go back on Wednesday next week so we need to get organised. I bought Sam's new school trousers, shirts and other essentials online when M&S had a 3 for 2 offer. Now I have the ominous task of sewing all the name tags into the new garments, it is an essential task as Sam is even worse than Robbie at losing his belongings! I bought the stain resistant, allegedly easy care garments but by day two I guarantee that he will look as if his style consultant was a graduate of St Trinians!

Today we are going to tackle a very sensitive issue - Sam's hair! Several months ago he gave up on the excessively gelled look, something I had been longing for but I didn't bargain for what came next. He now aspires to an Emo look (whatever that is). From what I can tell it is an uncut, unwashed, uninspiring style that due to his very thick hair makes him look like a lego man. On his last couple of trips to the hairdressers he has resisted having anything meaningful cut off his hair, so today he is going to my hairdressers to have something 'more significant' done to his hair. Hopefully we can reach a compromise and we will both be satisfied with the outcome, but I am determined that it will look as if it has been cut.

In theory Laura shouldn't need school clothes as they wear whatever they like in sixth form, but Laura is a shrewd operator and she has convinced me that despite having more clothes than the queen and more shoes than Imelda Marcos, she needs different clothes, a new coat and believe it or not, more shoes. When we were at Milton Keynes I bought both girls a new winter coat, after considerable debate and visiting ever shop known to man we settled on, warm coats that are versatile enough to wear with smart clothes or with jeans. I also bought Laura some shoes and a top last week so I think we will leave it at that and see what she really needs when she has done a few weeks at school. In the meantime we have to get a new schoolbag for Sam and a handbag for Laura, it seems that Robbie's passion for bags is contagious!

Earlier this week we bought all the 'essential' stationary and sundry items for school. I can't understand how they appeared to have everything they needed in the last few weeks of term, but suddenly they absolutely have to have a whole mass of essential items in order to succeed at school. Am I the only parent who feels I am being mugged by slick marketing regarding the return to school? Anyway, when the school stuff is sorted out I need to focus my attention on all the things Emily will need for university. She is taking the catered option for the first year, but she will still need lots of things and it is difficult to come up with a sensible list. Any suggestions?

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