And this is why school uniforms are a wonderful thing

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I was one of those kids in middle school that couldn’t even think of being with the “cool” kids. I learned how to make “something from nothing” for dinner to feed my younger siblings while my mother worked the late shift.  I owned 2 pairs of Sears jeans and I had to wash them out every other day so I could at least have jeans to wear. I had K-Mart sneakers. Keds? Too much money.  And then when they got holes in the bottoms I waited as long as I could to tell my mom as I knew there was sometimes no money to replace them. Cool clothes? Please. I remember learning to sew just so I could make some tops to go with the jeans and fix tears in seams.

My kids wear uniforms. I love it. It levels the playing field to some degree. Could my husband and I afford the “so-called” designer clothes now? Yeah, we can.  We have a nice home, nice cars. The kids do activities that cost $$ along with their education. Do I buy my daughter and son “designer” clothes for their off times? No. If they would like to use birthday money and such to do it, they do.  But they don’t.  We walk into the mall with a $50 gift card and my 6th grader realizes that she can only afford one shirt with that money. She doesn’t like that. She is lucky though as she is smaller than her friends and when they grow out of the Hollister shirts in 2 months, my daughter ends up with them. My son? He is into comfort.  He has to wear a shirt and tie to school so when he comes home, sweats are it for him.

Your children will emulate the values you set for them.  If you put the importance on how you look to the outside world and not work on being happy with what is on the inside and what is truly valuable to function as a member of society (compassion, generosity, faith), you will end up with another generation strung out on anti-anxiety medication.