Tie me kangaroo down sport

One of the things I like about our school is that it doesn't have a uniform.  I know some parents say a uniform is easier, but my kids are male and easygoing and we've never once had a clothing dispute, so this argument cuts no ice with me.  It would make my life harder, I reckon. I'd have to make sure a uniform was cleaned and possibly ironed, and it would cost  money, unlike the bulk of hand-me-down clothing my kids get around in.  And I'm a bit anti-uniform on ideological grounds too; uniforms seem to me repressive tools of corporate branding and homogenisation.  This is obviously because I am the sort of person who expresses myself via my clothing, and usually the message I'm expressing is: I really like purple.  Fortunately the high school we're looking at for Climber has just changed their uniform from navy blue to purple, thereby making it slightly more acceptable to me.

Anyway, at our non-uniform school, it was school photo day today. In terms of appearance, I had the kids wash their hair the night before and this morning asked them to pick out a nice t-shirt.   Climber came and consulted over his choice, but Cherub knew exactly what he wanted to wear: a tie or bow-tie, because and I quote ties and bow-ties are cool.



And actually, although I absolutely hated wearing a tie at his age to school, when I look at him in his get-out, I thought he looked very cool indeed.  Apparently quite a number of kids at school were rather impressed as well.



Also, for the class photo he and his best friend were consigned to the front row of seats (neither of them are tall) but Cherub got to sit dead centre because of his tie.  I was speaking to a friend who elected to wear a tie to school photo day many years ago, and he said he got beaten up for it.  Tie-ms have changed.