If you have small children at nursery and school, you have probably nailed down your preferred method of name taping clothes.
If you haven’t and don’t know about them, have a look at Easy2Name, which sell woven nametapes that you can stick on to clothes with a very hot iron.
I have resisted iron-on name tapes so far because I think they look shabby and crap but these are really very smart. I have also so far, I must confess, very much enjoyed the martyrish glow that comes with sewing on bloody name tapes. But I’ve done enough now, and the glow has worn off.
The same company sells ID wristbands. You write your child’s name on the back of the band and then wrap and stick it round your child’s fragile little arm. Then when you go to a large, crowded place where you are pretty much 95% likely to lose one or all children at some point, a kindly stranger can call your mobile and hand your child back.
I know it sounds neurotic but one loses one’s kids all the time. You know it’s true. I’ve lost Kitty many times – the worst most stressful time at a very crowded safari park – and the feeling is truly awful, like your bum is going to fall out. Not a nice sensation at the best of times.
A reader has alerted me to another excellent company Stuck on You, which does similar things but with “better designs” she says. I’ll let you be the judge.
Step up from iron on are the melt on labels from ‘stuckonyou’ they don’t come off ANYTHING even after a million washes. Better designs too.
The stick on labels from Easy2Name are ace too. Use them on all my boys’ school uniform. They do occasionally come off in the wash, but the vast majority stay on for a whole school year. I also use them on water bottles, pencil cases and plimsolls.
Your description of the feeling when you’ve lost one of them is totally spot on!
I am even lazier, and use Stamptastic. works on anything (uniform, scooters, wellies..) and no iron required!
Yes! It’s just like your bum falling out. Or like your bum going really cold. I have a morbid fear of losing my children and would chip them if I could.
Giles and I discuss chipping our kids all the time. Is it legal?? Is it a thing?
We chip the cat, and he doesn’t get much choice in it. Why not the kids I say (on the understanding that they can deactivate it and go awol on the strike of midnight on their 16th birthday).
I agree