Former PTA chair and at our school spirit week was definitely a pta thing. But we involved the students, vetoed anything difficult and provided a school t-shirt to everyone the first week of school.

Pajama day, school colors day, rainbow day (wear any color you like and we lined the kids up in the rainbow colors for a picture), dress like a character/real life person from a book, movie or sport that you like.

The school counselor also organized a few days — orange for opposition to gun violence, school t shirt days, Washington Nationals Day when they got into the World Series.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m on our school’s PTO board and I think that at our school we do a lot of good work to support the school. That said, we don’t get involved in “dress up” days at all. That’s the principal and other school org’s like the student council.

I do think that “Match your friends” day seems like a social nightmare and a huge mistake. I hope they get feedback to not do it again. Something like “crazy sock day” would be a lot more benign.

Agree – at our school, theme days are 100% the student council.

If only there were adults that could overrule a council full of children. Oh, wait. There ARE.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This one isn't on the PTA, the SGA (student government association) picks the spirit days, not the PTA. The kids love it, I am sorry it is causing you and your child so much anxiety.

That’s how it is at our school too - the student council does the spirit days.

Elementary schools have student councils? I’m a DCPS parent and have never heard of this.

On one of the "twin days" in my child's elementary school, a thoughtful mom contacted ALL the parents in the class, and suggested that the kids wear a red shirt (which was the school color, so most kids had something) and jeans/blue pants. It was a kind way of making sure everyone had a twin.

Our PTA doesn't organize the dress up days either. Maybe double check your info OP, if you're going to hate a whole group of people at least hate the right ones.

Anonymous wrote:I remember the PTA wear pajamas to take a stand against bullying day where the kids who wore pajamas got bullied. Sometimes, I don't think the PTA thinks things through all the way.

Yeah, that's the PTA's fault. No blame should be given to the parents who raised a bunch of little a**holes.

I remember the PTA wear pajamas to take a stand against bullying day where the kids who wore pajamas got bullied. Sometimes, I don't think the PTA thinks things through all the way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know you don't have to participate, right? It's not required. If your kid wants to do it, great. If not, that's fine too. No one cares. I have one who will pick his outfits out a week in advance and one who will maybe wear a special T-shirt.

And it's not usually the PTA, it's the SGA. But good for you for "hating" a bunch of 8-year-olds.

Clearly op’s kid is the one doing it. I have two kids. My oldest hates dress up days and never participates. On the other hand, my younger wouldn’t dream of not doing it. And op isn’t hating on the kids. Her point is that these days are a PITA (and I don’t disagree!) and others have also pointed out that “match your friends” day has huge potential to be a social nightmare for a lot of kids.

Ok, so how about "I hate Match a Friend Day" and not hating on an entire group of people who aren't even involved in spirit days?

Anonymous wrote:This one isn't on the PTA, the SGA (student government association) picks the spirit days, not the PTA. The kids love it, I am sorry it is causing you and your child so much anxiety.

That’s how it is at our school too - the student council does the spirit days.

Anonymous wrote:You know you don't have to participate, right? It's not required. If your kid wants to do it, great. If not, that's fine too. No one cares. I have one who will pick his outfits out a week in advance and one who will maybe wear a special T-shirt.

And it's not usually the PTA, it's the SGA. But good for you for "hating" a bunch of 8-year-olds.

Clearly op’s kid is the one doing it. I have two kids. My oldest hates dress up days and never participates. On the other hand, my younger wouldn’t dream of not doing it. And op isn’t hating on the kids. Her point is that these days are a PITA (and I don’t disagree!) and others have also pointed out that “match your friends” day has huge potential to be a social nightmare for a lot of kids.

You know you don't have to participate, right? It's not required. If your kid wants to do it, great. If not, that's fine too. No one cares. I have one who will pick his outfits out a week in advance and one who will maybe wear a special T-shirt.

And it's not usually the PTA, it's the SGA. But good for you for "hating" a bunch of 8-year-olds.

LOL, I just read the newsletter from our local public elementary principal and it's chock-full of crap like this. 16 days of spirit wear and not an item of importance or interest.

Anonymous wrote:I despise all of these dress up days. We don’t own school shirts, or shirts with polka dots, or purple shirts. I refuse to buy something just for one day, and many other families at our school cannot afford to buy shirts just to match someone or have a class theme. There inadvertently is always a kid or two left out.

We have a day every year where the kids are supposed to wear orange (it's anti-bullying, I think?) and it's so annoying. It's not even a color that everyone owns (I own no orange clothing at all, and haven't for about 30 years). So we always end up scrambling. If you're going to do it, pick colors or items that everyone has -- red or blue, or crazy hair, or mismatched socks, or hats.

I'm a PTA mom. The PTA does not pick spirit days. I hate them too. I have 3 kids and the oldest is in 7th. Over the past 8 years, we have probably actually done spirit day 3x total.

Just don't do it.

I do think matching day is awful. My middle child did it once and they literally wore the kindergarten shirt the school gave to them.

Our PTO does a ton of valuable stuff and I really appreciate them.

But I also dislike the spirit days, especially with really young kids because it's hard enough getting them out the door and having to remember and plan for something like wearing orange (when your kid doesn't have any orange clothes) or yeah, matching a friend at school (so awful when a kid doesn't have a friend to match with), etc. But in my experience that's less driven by the PTO than by the school itself. At least in our case. Our school has traditions and they do them and some of the administrators and teachers are really invested in it, but the PTO just helps raise money if necessary and then will boost it on the website and social media. I don't get the sense that the PTO officers are heavily invested in making the kids dress a certain way on certain days -- they don't really seem to care either way and I've had some of them tell me explicitly that their kid doesn't even participate if it's too much of a hassle.