11 World Book Day fails that every parent has known and loved

Finally, it has dawned: World Book Day, where your child will likely either look the part but be unable to function due to being obstructed by a giant papier maché costume, or be so half-hearted as to consign them to the teacher's Must Try Harder list for next year.

Here are the 11 fails every parent has experienced:

1. The first time you got involved and very quickly realised yes, World Book Day costumes do actually have to be based on a book and no, it is not acceptable to dress your child up as her (almost namesake) 80s rock icon just because she has a Hello Kitty bandana and a toy guitar

2. The one where you drove off with part of the costume on the car roof. The identifiable bit

3. The one where no one was quite sure which book you were channelling: is it Mr Bump, or indeed Violet Beauregard? 

4. When you remembered at 9pm at night, rushed to Tesco to find only toddler sized costumes were left, and returned home with a plastic bag and some string to tie over some school shoes to recreate Mr Stink

5. When you remembered on the school run, parked up around the corner to check a. how many children were in costume and b. make sure it was indeed World Book Day and scoot home to dig out last year’s costume

6. That time the Amazon parcel was delivered to your neighbour - who didn’t remember until the day after book day 

7. When a saggy old fleece nicknamed Bagpuss saved the day only for - quel horreur - Amazon to run out of Bagpuss books and a smartphone, meaning a YouTube clip had to pass muster

8. When your child wanted to go as Mr Twit, lost the beard on the way to school and no one could actually tell the difference between the costume and his normal clothes

9. When your child proposed their favourite butterfly dress (yes, the one she has worn repeatedly for two years at every possible occasion: parties, after school, weekend, church, non uniform day, the day she had to dress up as a farmer that became a butterfly farmer, the list goes on) is in fact not two sizes too small and is in fact very  similar to Maisie Mouse’s costume in the book and so will be perfect for this occasion, too

10. The first year your child proposed their own outfit and despite its, brilliance you had to gently explain that this may lead to teasing and worse

11. The year school announced that there was no World Book Day. Then introduced fancy dress day to introduce the half term project on Ancient Egypt...