Why I love school uniforms

My oldest four children attend Catholic school. They wear uniforms every day, and I love it! They all attended public school before going to private school and I have had the opportunity to see both sides of this situation. Here are the pros and cons as I see them. See what you think.


1. cost -- Even if I were to buy two full uniforms per kid each year, it would still likely cost me less than a full wardrobe of public school wear. This is a very conservative estimate of what I will likely need to buy new, based on how much I am willing to spend on "new" items. Also, keep in mind that I can pass the same uniform down to younger children for several years before they wear out. The same cannot always be said of clothes that may fall out of fashion, or be worn out sooner because they are made of less "sturdy" fabric.

Uniforms (if purchased all new):
3 skirts around $90
8 polo shirts $60
2 pr. blue pants $30
4 pr. shoes $80
2 pr. shorts $30
4 new packs of socks $36 = $326 for four kids

Public school(assuming they can still fit into most of last year's wardrobe):
8 new prs jeans $160
16-32 new shirts (factoring in short and longsleeves) up to $300
4 pr. shoes $80
4 new packs socks $36 = $576 for four kids

2. envy -- With school uniforms, there is no reason for envy. Everyone has the same plaid skirt, the same yellow polo shirt, the same logo sweatshirt. Everyone has a level playing field. Not everyone has the same shoes, but that's not as much of an issue, in my experience.

3. "Play clothes" -- My children are very aware of which clothes are for going to "nice" places (out to eat, to grandma's house, church), as opposed to which clothes are play clothes. Any new clothes they get that are not for school, are automatically relegated to play clothes status. We have a lot less excess clothing this way.

4. laundry -- I only wash school uniforms about twice a week, with only one load washing it all. With regular clothes, I would be washing almost a full load daily. I do still have the play clothes to wash, but since they are only wearing them a couple hours a day, they can be worn more than once a week before laundering.


To me, uniforms just make more sense.