Layered woes
Posted by: inbavalli on: October 27, 2009
The other day I noticed Kutty wearing a chemise beneath a thick school shirt beneath a pinafore and I bristled. Did she imagine she lived in Siberia, I asked. “History Miss says we should wear a slip beneath our shirt, Ma,” she explained to me. This history teacher surely lives in Victorian England.
“No more of this,” I said in my stubborn mule tone and the girl knew better than to argue with me. She’s terrified at the thought of me stomping down to her school and telling her teacher what I thought of her dress code.
I’ve actually hidden all her chemises so that she doesn’t wear them on the sly. The teacher will never know because in any case the uniform is as thick as a tree bark.
There’s worse.
Yesterday the husband noticed his dear daughter walking like a hippo in labor and demanded that I probe. Some investigation revealed that the girl has rashes on her thighs. I arrived at the cause in no time at all – she wears a pair of bloomers + tights + a thick uniform. All that sweat and lack of air is giving the poor thing rashes.
I was FURIOUS. Why is this pre-adolescent child made to wear tights considering it’s not part of her school uniform? That’s because her moronic PT teacher insists on it. “There are boys no, Ma? So Miss says we should wear tights,” Kutty reasoned with me.
So poor little virginal male minds uncorrupted by MTV, Sun Music and Maanaada Mayilaada will get corrupted by the sight of my baby’s modest polka-dot bloomers.
In that case, bloody PT teacher, make the boys wear blinkers or gorge their eyes out. I don’t care. Spare my child this quasi-purdah.
Today I put my foot down and insisted that Kutty will go without tights. “If your teacher scolds I will come over and talk to her,” I said firmly. The girl, smart IIM-A material that she is, wriggled out of the situation by taking the tights in her bag and promising to wear it only during PT.
29 Responses to "Layered woes"
jeezz.. are u sure of the pt teacher’s history.. i dont know how it is with ur daughter school..but the boys school i studied in chennai we were allowed to wear shorts in twelth too..free
Isn’t that wonderful
blog-hopped and landed here to find a nice ‘fellow-parent’:-) can’t agree less on your take to “make the boys wear blinkers or gorge their eyes out”..
TIGHTS? in Madras? What sort of cruel and unusual punishment is this!
And to think this is one of the more progressive and rational schools in the city. Actually the school has a decent set of policies. Some of the teachers have BS in the place of brains.
My PT master insisted I should not wear shorts to play at a district level junior badminton tournament! I had to wear shorts and a skirt above it supposedly….No wonder I did not progress beyond the first round 
I wish you had protested. Remember, at one point of time the Muslim clergy bimbos wanted Sania Mirza to wear something more modest while playing. She showed them their middle finger and they shut up.
One more thing stuck me…if boys should not be able to see girls’ bloomers and everything, why does the school insist that girls wear skirts for PT? Why can’t they wear decent length shorts like the boys do?
They do have divided skirts for sports in the higher classes. Obviously, the school thinks its ok for little girls to show some lace, the teacher thinks otherwise.
I thought the uniforms here in Bangalore were bad with white shirts that I have to iron every darn night, pinafore, bloomers, tie, blazer, etc.
The only nice thing I can say about the school my kids went to in Madras last year was the uniform – shorts and T-shirts. They were so comfortable that the kids now use them as pajamas.
Shorts and T-shirts are so eminently sensible.
May I suggest you ask someone to iron the uniform and use that time to blog? Please…..
i so dislike the whites…
white shoes and socks for Pt…bane of my life…why??…
It beats me as well. Let’s start a Non-White Revolution
1. i hate whites. stupid idea
2. bloomers are good
3. but tights on top of that is cruel
4. though, i am all for chemise… means chemise soaks in sweat, and uniform can run 2 days in a row
5. i HATE ties — that’s punishment. even for an adult.
Ties, socks and shoes are British legacy, Ummon. We may forget English but not these.
I agree with you on chemise being a sweat absorber but don’t you think three layers of clothing are too much?
Im getting a rash just thinking about the tights! Poor girl! Take it up to the school, Inba! Save the poor girls! idhukku salwar kameez e thevalaam pola irukke!!
Yes, Boo. I’m just waiting for a PTA meet to bring it up so that my daughter will never know 
Salwar kameez looks dowdy as a uniform but it does solve very many problems.
Ban the uniform itself!!! I would say give them the freedom to express.
God bless uniform! The wardrobe becomes a major source of domestic conflict otherwise. Been there, done that.
Yup! A no to uniform does good – Vidya Mandir for one practices that till class 5. The only annoying thing we (guys) had in school was to wear shorts for PT sessions in high school, and the only thing that annoyed my mom was washing my dirty brown white canvas thanks to all the red sand on the school ground.
Vidya Mandir has a uniform for all classes now, I think. God bless your mother
Uniforms are great though, it has saved me a lot of trouble and expense over the years. But why why all these restrictive clothing for the little girls. In my little town all the schools must have got together and come up with the evil plan, in every single one of them the girls skirts are to the toes, irrespective for how much these girls try by rolling the skirts up, they still can’t flash their legs. I think it is hilarious to see them trying. As to why the girls don’t wear trousers, which is permitted, is beyond me. In the meantime though the nuns would be proud of the regulation skirts in my town!
Why can’t they just wear bermudas (is it not for girls?) inside their skirts?? It lets some air circulation. Thats what was expected of us…wait a min…I am talking about 10yrs ago and it was a residential school in the hills…so to save ourselves from some embarassment during the windy days, we had to put them on. But in Chennai, koluthura veiyal, I don’t see the need for all this layering. I think you should take it up during the PTA With this said, PT teacher. And I hate white uniforms…luckily we wore them, only on sports day. Otherwise it was a nice red checkered skirt for Fridays. So no need for constant checking though the regular pale blue skirt, was a nightmare.
Inba,
In which school does your daughter attend?. Ridicolous , in the scorching heat , three layered clothing and tights and the white uniform is an embarrasement as if the city is spic and span as white swan and students can walk and board the buses in the crisp white uniform or go for a board walking by the ECR.
Aruna
May I hug you?
My daughter wondered if she should be wearing a chemise under her pinafore because all her girl friends do, but I strongly vetoed it. Thankfully, the school that mine goes to does not really dictate terms for underwear. Whew !
Also, I would prefer the kids wear uniform instead of colour dress until fifth as some schools in the neighbourhood have. I would much rather put up with the uncomfortable pinafore than my daughter’s choice of uncomfortable clothes, driven by peer pressure !
LoL! My amma used to make the same argument several years back… Thankfully, my school had divided skirts as the sports wear (but in white, though )… But the salwar kameez + dupatta uniform (thick cloth; so as not to be transparent) ended up baking us in the hot Madras sun.
Yay to sensible uniforms. No to irrational prudes.
1 | Blogeswari
October 27, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Worshtt are these WHITE compulsory uniforms on Mondays or PT days. So uncomfortable to wear on ‘those’ days and one would end up looking back every second .Bleddy embarrassing!
inbavalli
October 30, 2009 at 4:43 am
And such entertainment for the boys