How important is the “dress up” part of summer swim?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've never heard of this trend, our pool doesn't do this.

Your kids have never swam against a pool that has dressed up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our team does this, but only about half the team participates. It isn’t a critical part of summer swim.

+1 I'd say all the HS coaches etc do it and about half the kids. So if you forget as the kid or parent it's not a huge deal. Ours have been simple - color, PJs, July 4th, leis/tropical etc.

We also have a big box of dress up stuff and reuse for various occasions.

They send out the list of themes at the start of season so it's not like a last minute thing coming up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My biggest issue with the whole concept is that kids only wear their outfits for ~5 minutes. It's so so short that kids don't even get to really check out each other's outfits. Our typical schedule:

7 AM - Team arrives
7:05 AM - Team photo in costumes
7:07 AM - Strip off outfits and put on caps
7:10 AM - Warm ups start

Is it always this rushed for other teams? It's feels like a whole lot of effort to sort Hawaiian wear for an 8 yo for a 6:15 AM departure (to arrive by 7 AM) with less than 5 minutes of payoff.

We dress up for the pep rallies, so kids are wearing their outfits for 2 plus hours the night before, and then again on meet morning. Themes are typically: tropical, neon, 4th of July, superheroes, pirates.

+1 same re pep rallies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do the boys participate? Seems like a girl thing or girl moms.

Huh?

[Anonymous]

I hate theme days for swim meets. We never have the appropriate attire. The theme is shared like 48 hours before the meet, which is not enough to be prepared. Plus- its expensive! It excludes so many kids who cannot partiicpate! I hate theme dress up days for swim meets! Unless the team is going to provide themed material for all the swimmers, please stop with the themes! We have had safari theme, hawaiian theme, minion theme, and more.

[Anonymous]

Our team does it. Now have to do it for relay carnival. Huge pita but my kids love it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our team does this but the sponsor provides a lot of the accessories on-deck. Silly hats, sunglasses, leis, neon t-shirts, etc.

Who are these sponsors?

[Anonymous]

My kids are in a team where maybe half the kids dress up, mine usually don’t dress up but it’s fun and harmless. Agree with PPs to keep it simple with things like red white and blue, tropical, 80s, crazy hair, etc, that require a handful of bucks spent at Party City or the dollar store at worst. Thrifting turns up some good options too. And just keep a bin of that stuff at home and reuse and refresh once in a while.

[Anonymous]

Our team does this, but the team provides the accessories (random cheap stuff from places like Oriental Trading I think). I really don't like the random cheap stuff coming back to my house, but the kids think it's fun and it's zero work for me.

Summer swim team is enough work at a tiny pool where you have to volunteer a bajillion times to get 3 timers per lane and all the rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our high-division team does this and it’s a big part of the fun of summer swim. Many of our kids are club swimmers who work hard all year. Let them have some fun with summer swim meets for God’s sake!

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've never heard of this trend, our pool doesn't do this.

really? from what i can tell all mcsl pools have themes. it's part of the culture. we only participate if we already have the theme accessories - not buying extra for this.

[Anonymous]

At our pool some people are into it and some people (me) are not.

I hate wasting money on disposable costumes, putting thought into them or running out last minute because they just announced the theme. So unless my kids do it we don't do much dress up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never heard of this trend, our pool doesn't do this.

Your kids have never swam against a pool that has dressed up?

PP probably doesn't have kids swimming A meets. All of the fun and pageantry of summer swim is A meets, b meets is just swimming

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never heard of this trend, our pool doesn't do this.

Your kids have never swam against a pool that has dressed up?

PP probably doesn't have kids swimming A meets. All of the fun and pageantry of summer swim is A meets, b meets is just swimming

many teams do dress up for B meets

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At our pool some people are into it and some people (me) are not.

I hate wasting money on disposable costumes, putting thought into them or running out last minute because they just announced the theme. So unless my kids do it we don't do much dress up.

Mine wore thrift store items the last 2 weeks.