With a few mouse clicks and a credit card, I just ordered the bulk of my boys’ clothes for the next nine months. It took me less than 10 minutes to stock up on the navy pants and chambray blue shirts that they are required to wear to school. What an ingenious concept: the uniform.

Many private schools in the city have long insisted on uniforms. The young ladies that attend the girls’ schools that dot the Upper East Side can be seen at Ciao Bella and Yura in their blue pinafores or plaid skirts, flirting with the St. David’s boys in their collared shirts and ties. Collegiate, Trinity, Brearley, Sacred Heart, Spence, Chapin, and many other private schools have strict uniform rules. Other established schools, such as Dalton, Riverdale, and Columbia Grammar do not. (More and more public schools are beginning to adopt strict dress codes, too.)

Children may not always like their school uniforms, but most parents love them. I talked with 25 mothers whose children attend a variety of schools in the city, and they were almost unanimously in favor of at least a dress code, if not a uniform.

“Before uniforms, my mornings used to be hell,” said a mother of two. “No matter what tricks I tried – pick out the outfit the night before, only give two choices – nothing worked. Even when I gave in to weather-inappropriate choices, there were always tears and fights and delays.”

Another mother said that her 7-year-old only loves one pair of underpants and three T-shirts. “With so few choices you would think that dressing in the morning would be a breeze. It takes at least half an hour for her to select her clothes in the morning. It’s a half an hour I would prefer to be sleeping. How much would it cost me in school donations to have a standard uniform policy enforced?” she asked.

One parent went so far as to choose a school for her son two years ago so that this year, through sibling privilege, her daughter would be admitted to a school that requires a uniform. “When she started nursery school, getting dressed became a daily nightmare. No matter what we tried, she would freak out and ruin our morning. I knew that the only hope for peace in our house before school would be to send my daughter to a uniform school.”

Parents love uniforms for more than their help in avoiding morning battles. They also instill a sense of order and discipline – not just in children but in the school environment as well. And uniforms are meant to be a great equalizer among children of different socioeconomic backgrounds. Children should focus on geometry, not Juicy, Shakespeare, not Seven jeans.

Not everyone feels that a uniform is necessary. “I really do think my children love the freedom of expression,” said a mother of three. “We’ve never made fashion a focus in our house, but the kids do dress in ways that reflect their personal style, and I’m happy that they have that outlet. I’m not a fan of $150 jeans or micro-minis, but we’re working on those compromises.”

While most parents of children who wear uniforms say they have never heard a complaint, there are several Web sites dedicated to debating the pros and cons of the issue. They are filled with children’s complaints, as well as those of adults who bristle at the idea of everyone being forced to wear the same clothes.

Yet most parents seem to feel that the positives of uniforms, especially in New York, outweigh the negatives. “It really does simplify their already very complex lives,” said a friend. “It is freeing for both parents and kids not to have to think about clothing when there are so many attendant issues in child-rearing and growing up in New York City with all its materialism and concentration of stores.”

But what about those cramped styles?

A close friend of mine, a teacher at a downtown private school, said that despite the school’s uniform, children still find a way to express their individuality. “Inevitably, the girls find a way to distinguish themselves. They wear Hermes neck scarves, Pucci snow boots, cashmere navy and grey sweaters,” she said. “This past spring, the eighth grade girls attended a used uniform sale at the school and purchased back their old uniforms from when they were in third and fourth grade. They are light blue seersucker pinafores. They proceeded to wear them until the year’s end, with the former belt now at the empire waist, and the length of the dress, needless to say, incredibly short.”

It’s reassuring to hear that children find creative ways to express themselves. The fact that they’re doing so by wearing miniskirts – well, that’s another story.