I love personalised stickers — not just for my kids, but for myself too! My favourite brands are Stuck On You and Mine4sure.
I learnt about these ingenious little things during my time as a pre-school educator at an international pre-school, where most of the children aren’t local, and they had all their items labelled, from their bags to their shoes to their stationery.
Naturally, when I had Joshua, I ordered up a batch for him before he started playgroup and he was able to identify his belongings easily, first by the sticker design, then by his name as he got older. When he went on to primary school, being the *kiasu mom, I decided to label whatever I was scared of him misplacing! I even went nuts and labelled each colour pencil, just because Stuck On You sold mini labels. For Joshua, it kind of helped as he encountered a kid in his class who picked on him and took his stationery and books when the teacher wasn’t looking. And for the most part, I always stuck the labels in not-so-obvious areas, like on the inside of his bag, inside his shoes, inside of his clothes etc.
When Kaitlyn came along, without fail, I ordered a batch for her too. However, this time I decided to do it differently. Why? Call it a mother’s experience, and the influence of social media, not to mention the growing danger of adults who prey on children.
There are 3 factors that I’d like to share:
1. Keep them safe
A child’s name is precious and unique to the child. Calling the child by name brings about familiarity. So by labelling your child’s items in clear sight, there is a danger that a stranger would use it to his/her advantage. Children often find it difficult to differentiate who’s a stranger, or if the person is good or bad. When a person calls the child by name, the child may think this person must an acquaintance or a friend of his/her parents. In gaining the child’s trust this way, the child’s safety is compromised.
So you can still label your child’s belongings but it’s better to keep it hidden, like inside the bag or under the water bottle, where it’s less obvious. Or come up with a safe word that is known only to you and your child (read more about this here).
2. Caring for belongings
Labelling your child’s items when they are younger is helpful, but as they get older, it would be good to teach them about looking after their belongings. When an item is labelled with your child’s name, he/she may treat it carelessly as if it’s lost, someone will return it since it is labelled. My son is a scatterbrain at times, and he has misplaced his fair share of items (even when labelled 😓). So I started telling him that if he loses his stuff, he had to use his own allowance to replace it. The ‘pain’ of using his own money, coupled with the worry that his teacher may reprimand him for not having the tool/book, worked like a charm!
3. Community spirit
One negative aspect about personalising your child’s belongings is that it may result in a sense of “It’s mine, not yours”, causing him/her to miss out on learning to share.
Pre-schoolers are adorable, but they can be selfish and possessive creatures too. Trust me, I’ve seen some kids being really mean because their friends ‘touched’ their stuff. Not to mention, not all kids come from wealthy families, so why not teach all kids to share and not compare?
So, one way to deal with this is to keep the items you don’t wish them to lose at home. Anything they bring to school will have the possibility of being shared.
Plus, in classrooms, most times the stationery is shared by all. This builds a sense of community spirit and children learn to look after and return the items so that others can use them too.
So will I label Kaitlyn’s stuff? I will for now, since she’s still young, but I won’t overdo it. That is why I controlled my shopping urges and only ordered a few sheets for labelling necessary items when she starts school, but I made them as pretty as possible 😊.
As for Joshua? He’s already at the age where there is no need for it.
I only wished I knew about this earlier…now what am I going to do with ALL his unused labels? 🤣
Do share and comment on whether you think labelling your child’s belongings is a good idea. And for parents who don’t wish to spend a bomb on name labels, I’ve shared a link below for a creative DIY hack!
Interesting reads:
How to Label Your Kids’ Items Without Compromising Their Safety
https://www.verywellfamily.com/use-caution-when-labeling-kid-items-617176
Creative alternative to name labels
You know my name. That’s it. You don’t know me.
Yours truly
*kiasu: scared to lose out
