Susie O’Brien: Parents don’t need Book Week stress from ‘pious’ schools

For most kids Book Week is about dressing up and getting out of lessons, but some pious schools are ramping up the pressure on costumes, even banning superhero outfits because of their stereotypical gender portrayals.

For most kids, Book Week is not about books.

It’s about dressing up, showing off and getting out of lessons.

But this doesn’t stop pious schools from “expecting” and “encouraging” kids to come dressed up in character from an actual book.

Some schools are even going so far as to make the kids bring the book with them.

Can you believe it?

Parents don’t need this sort of stress.

First, this means they have to conjure up a costume representing a real character rather than grabbing a cast-off from their child’s last superhero themed birthday party.

Then they need to find a book to match. How mean is that?

Some schools are going even further and banning superhero costumes because of their stereotypical gender portrayals.

That’s right, people, we have a common enemy, and it is a six-year-old with undies over his pants and a batarang in his hand.

Goldie, Harley, Poppy, Sonny, and Xander ready for Book Week. Picture: Jason Edwards

At one school in Terang, parents have been told to “encourage their children to be creative and to use costumes or make costumes from things that they have at home”.

Sheesh. Never has there been so many chances for parents and their offspring to be judged for their lack of crafting skills.

Give me a store-bought inflatable dinosaur costume bought online for $12.99 over a Lord of the Rings costume that took 37 hours of hot-glue gunning, 15 visits to Spotlight and a trip to the hospital for three-degree glue burns.

Look, I get that there needs to be some guidelines about what kids should dress up as.

No one wants their kids looking like they have just finished at a Logies after-party or the poo jogger, for instance.

All this pressure takes the event away from the books it’s meant to be celebrating.

I am yet to see any tips for parents of kids who don’t want to dress up, don’t like reading and only remembered about Book Week at 8am.

Luckily, most parents are happy for their kids to go in any costume lying around the house. Popular characters this year include Emmet, Barbie, Minions and – I know! – Rachel “Raygun” Gunn.

Grab a green trackie and a baseball hat and get your kids to practise some kanga breaking moves.

You’re welcome.

Enjoy Book Week and enjoy it even more once it’s over.

Susie O’Brien is a Herald Sun columnist