Pajama
party
Years ago,
when my daughter was maybe 7, there came a night when I was
terribly bored. Terribly. The rest of the house was sleeping when
sometime around midnight I crept into her room and watched her all
snuggled under her
blankets, sleeping so peacefully.
So I woke her, telling her it was time
to get up and go to school. I helped her change from her pajamas
into her little school uniform, brushed her hair, and then took
her downstairs for some breakfast.
Halfway through her bowl
of cereal I asked if she was tired and when she responded "yes"
(the only word she had muttered that 'morning'), I told her she
could go back to bed; it was really only midnight.
She put her spoon down mid-bowl, went back upstairs (still
saying nothing-she was really tired, go figure), changed back into
her pajamas and returned to bed, remembering nothing of the
incident the next day.
In the annals of practical jokes, that has to rank way up
there in the list of top three sucky ones.
Flash forward seven years: The Girl, now in high school, comes
down for breakfast in her flannel pajama bottoms, eats breakfast,
gets her backpack and heads out the door for school, still in her pajamas. Maybe she was
still tired from the stunt seven years before and forgot to
finish dressing, but I called her back so she can change.
"I'm wearing my pajamas to school," she says. "Everybody does."
Now I didn't come down with yesterday's rain, I came down a few
storms earlier, and there's no way I'm believing any normal
teenager would be seen in
public wearing his or her pajamas. But as most parents know, there
are no normal teenagers.
Pajamas In Public are in...the teenagers say so.
If you don't believe me, go to the mall. Or to the grocery
store.
Or just import a couple of teens and wait until their friends
show up at your house-in their pajama bottoms. And unless these
kids' parents are hog-tied in a closet somewhere, I'm guessing
they are aware of how their teens are dressed when they leave the
house.
The trend is huge. Across the United States, teens and pre-teens
everywhere have made flannel pajamas bottoms, either in plaid or
cute print, their choice of go-out wear. I've seen kids in
restaurants, at sporting events
and just strolling down the street in their nightwear. The
baggier, the better, as long as it's topped with a sweatshirt.
I'm split on the concept. The look could be neater, but it's a
huge improvement over the still-continuing trend of wearing jeans
three times too big and sagging halfway down the butt. I thought
the pajama trend would be more of a
girl-thing, but scores of boys everywhere are donning their plaids
(preferably blue or gray) with pride.
I asked a couple of my kids' friends about the look. "It's
comfortable," they say, marking a first time in history comfort
has played a role in fashion.
The response actually makes sense. Wear comfortable
clothing. The trend has been popular in China for the past decade,
where pajamas are mainstream not
just among that country's youth, but the entire adult class as
well. It's not unusual for nightwear in China to be the choice of
clothing to shop-and even go to work in.
I checked with The Press' employee handbook to see if pajamas
were permitted. No jeans, beachwear or sweats are permitted, but
not a word about pajamas. High heels, stockings, restricting
skirts, ties and other painful
clothing items are preferable, so my guess is that any garment
that invites comfort is probably a no-no.
The concept of pajamas at work is inviting, but I wonder if
wearing something too comfortable might, well...put to me to sleep
at my desk. (Note to management: I never doze at my desk; I'm
merely feigning sleep to keep the editor from talking to me.)
My guess is like most fads, this too will pass. Eventually someone at
the schools will write "no pajamas" into the dress code (who'd a
thought?) and we'll be left once again with kids in sloppy sweats
and droopy-drawer jeans.
Copyright
2001-2003 Lori E. Switaj
