I am mystified by the latest notice that came home from school with William. Today is Pajama Day, and I understand the first part of the instructions: “Remember pajamas need to be school-appropriate.” I am a LITTLE cranky that they are reminding me of something so obvious, but I am SURE (as in, “absolutely 100% sure, no need to convince me of it as if I were denying it, though feel free to give amusing examples”) that ALL school personnel have LONG SINCE stopped saying ANY sentence that begins “Surely any reasonable parent…,” and that the sentence about appropriateness is indeed warranted. Though it does seem as if a parent who would send a child to school in, say, just boxer shorts and socks, or in a satin cami and satin shorts with “SEXY” on the buns, would need more than a general sentence about appropriateness to point out to them that their choices were the ones being referred to as inappropriate.
Anyway, the next sentence is the one that mystifies me: it is italicized, and it reads “They may not be the ones you wear to bed.” Well, clearly! I mean, we all have at least ONE pair of pajamas we never wear to bed!
I don’t think the school is actually telling me that the children must wear pajamas to school that are not pajamas they’ve ever slept in. I think it’s a badly-phrased sentence, and that the school is trying to say one or two of the following things:
1. “It is okay to wear pajama-like clothing that is not in fact pajamas—such as sweat pants or yoga pants and a t-shirt.” They mean “might” instead of “may”—though even changing that word wouldn’t make the sentence clear enough.
2. “They should not be the pajamas you slept in the night before.” They might be trying to avoid children rolling out of bed and coming to school as-is.
Anyway, William is right now trying to decide if he’s going to wear sweatpants and a t-shirt, or if his popularity is stable enough to risk the feetie pajamas.
We have had three pajama days so far this year (The class gets to vote on what their reward is, and they always choose this.) I am so tired of pj days. In what grade do they end?
Nowheymama- Here it ends with elementary school. Thank goodness, because I don’t want to think about what middle-school girls would think was a good idea to wear.
I teach 7th grade and we always have a couple of PJ days a year. They’re okay with me, simply because you better believe I wear my pajamas to school that day too.
can I just say that I hate theme days???? Does that make me cranky? I usually don’t find out about it until the morning OF, though.
jen (melty) — I hate theme days, and I am cranky. But I’m not sure whether I hate theme days because I’m cranky, or whether theme days make me cranky, or whether correspondence is not causation.
The only theme day I don’t like is Hawaiian/Beach Day. I don’t feel like sending my kid to school in summer clothing in February! Call me crazy, but it is winter in Northern Illinois FTLOG.
For Ally’s pj day, they are not allowed to wear the footed or even slippers. And I have to tell you, when I was a senior back in hs, we had pj day as part of our senior week. Holy crap! Some of the girls were wearing lingerie!!!! So you never know….
This pajama day is an alien concept to me. Is it just a “fun” child-version of “casual Friday”?
(I put fun in quotes because I can’t imagine wearing pajamas to school as a child and thinking it was fun… However, I wear pajamas pretty much constantly as an adult, so who knows.)
And holy cats what a weirdly worded instruction. I suppose it is too much to ask that the folks who teach grammar to children should know how to write.
Oh feetie pajamas! They will always have a special place in my heart, as they symbolize little bitty feet!
I think they’re worried about bedbugs.
Ok. Someone tell me the point of pajama day that doesn’t involve rolling out of bed and skipping a part of the morning routine.
Seriously. That’s kind of the point, yes?
I’m kind of glad the public schools here wear uniforms and it is an act of congress to get a free dress day.
My kids have pajama day today too (just the younger two) – they were also allowed to bring a stuffed animal and a pillow(!) Maggie took a stuffie, but I drew a line with the pillow. It’s called “Snuggle up and read” day… I guess the jammies are more snuggly than their street clothes.
Here’s an amusing story about pajama day. A few years back I had a student clearly arrive wearing the same pajamas he slept in…also without underwear. The bottoms were worn so thin you could see right through them. Ugh. That was an uncomfortable conversation to be having with a fifth grade boy.
I think what they are saying (awkwardly) is that if you generally sleep just in a pair of boxer shorts, you should find something else pajama-like to wear. They probably should have said, “these may or may not be the the ones you usually wear to bed.”
Although I think its a lot funnier to think of it as a potential bed bug infestation problem….
I interpreted the memo to mean that the kids should wear clean pjs, not the ones they wore the night before.
Pj day at my son’s daycare was basically the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. And we let him wear the ones he wore the night before. =)
Our pajama days usually come when one of the older grades is collecting for some cause, and all the kids pay $.50 to wear theirs. the notes that have come home have said things like “you may bring your slippers but cannot wear them on the bus” and “no bath robes allowed.”
I had feetie pajamas for the longest time, and then I started getting waaay too warm while sleeping. In the winter, in PA, that’s hard to do, but I did it. So I had to get rid of them and just wear plain old clothes to bed.
I’m weirdly warm, I guess.
i don’t even have kids, yet it makes me extraordinarily cranky when SCHOOLS are unable to send home communications that are written well enough to be understood / clear / have appropriate grammar. COME ON NOW.
(that comment, btw? not an example of good grammar/clarity. ALSO NOT BEING SENT HOME TO ALL PARENTS IN MY SCHOOL.)
My kid had a pj day this year and you can bet your sweet bippy that I let him roll right out of bed and wear those pajamas to school.
I’m pretty sure there was something wrong with my family, but pajamas in my house were just your underwear and a big t-shirt, and often the t-shirts came off in bed. To this day I can’t sleep if I’m being choked and straight-jacketed by clothes.
So Pajama Day was a chance to bust out that matchy-matchy set from grandma with the buttons and the collar and the flannel. Pictures were taken and sent to grandma, so it was win-win.
I wore feetie pyjamas all the way through high school. It was a challenge to find them in my size, but I loved them. Only when I went to college did I deem it important to switch to nightshirts.
Thanks Misty for saying first exactly what I was thinking: what the heck is the point of pajama day if it doesn’t mean you can roll out of bed and into school? It’s not like my 8 YO showers in the morning before school – he takes a bath 2x per week (unless he needs more) and goes to school with insane post-bath, slept on hair half the time anyway. I’d be more than happy to shave the 10 minutes off of our morning routine that involves getting him out of his PJs and into regular clothing (complaining = 8 minutes, actual changing = 2 minutes).
Ha! I really laughed at the appropriate comment. My boys love pajama day. I find a little uncomfortable. I just can’t help myself. We’re not supposed to go out in jammies!
Feeties!
I used to go see a band that played in their pajamas. And if you wore pajamas, you drank half-price all night. My friend and I were regularly the only ones that did it, but come on! Half price! I think it sounds fun but my kids haven’t had to do it yet.
I sometimes think the pj days coincide with the public school’s need to avoid the religious holiday celebrations. My daughter has had pj days on Halloween and the day before winter (aka Christmas) break. I guess I can see the point then…still festive but doesn’t step on toes.
But, that doesn’t seem to be the case with this on for William. What a funny line about the pjs not being worn to bed!
I loathe Pajama Day almost as much as Crazy Hair Day. In fact, I guess I wish they would get rid of all these “days”. It’s just extra stress for the moms. And I consider the only benefit of Pajama Day is that they can roll right out of bed and on to the bus!
My second grader’s school has had several pajama days this year. She always comes home amused and even a little envious when someone wears feetie pajamas. These are her favorite actual sleepwear but she’s declared the feeties too hot for an entire day at school. Especially if pajama day happens to be on the same day they have gym class.
I think it’s a poorly worded option #2.
We had Spirit Week up through high school. Some years this included pajama days. I distinctly remember going to school in the 10th grade with a matching flannel set of PJ’s, my hair in pig tails, and toting a stuffed bear throughout the school day. Complete with fuzzy grinch slippers. I thought I was adorable and all the boys would connect the dots of me+bed and want me. Ahhh high school….
Actually pajama day is one of the theme days I normally don’t mind just because generally all the kids HAVE pajamas – where they might not all have the clothes for 50’s Day or something like that.
As for those notices that word things as though you are a complete idiot… I don’t know what to say about that. Coming from a teacher perspective, you’d be amazed at what parents think is appropriate/have to be reminded of. It is really too bad we there’s no system for sending those type of reminders ONLY to the families with no common sense – there are more of them than you’d think!
Sort of reminds me how I kept getting a note from Montessori preschool about how I’d failed to send my 3 year old to school with bike shorts under her dress…to ward off a view of her undies.
Like a 3 year old is concerned with her panties showing…this was bizarre to me & made me wonder what was up with the adults to be so interested in a glimpse of a preschooler’s undies…
You know, I sort of feel I should clarify my comment above, since we’re talking about wearing PJs to school. I wore feetie pyjamas AT NIGHT all the way through high school!
When I was a kid in my (various) British uniform-only schools, we did the “pay 50p and wear what you like” thing (for those unfamiliar with British money, that’s about 50 cents I guess). In my last 2 years of high school, we had a watered down version of the uniform (yeah!) so on these “special days”, we’d always choose a class theme (we were a small class, maybe 10 students at most). One time we did “national dress” – I went in clogs and pigtails and a wide skirt-blouse combo for the Dutch nation; another time we went as Robert Plant’s backing singers from “Addicted to Love” (which was a hit at the time because I AM A DINOSAUR), etc. I loved these “special days”! Here in France, there doesn’t seem to be any equivalent – except “carnaval” day (31 March this year), when all the kids in my daughters’ primary school dress up for the afternoon. Last year, my elder daughter went as a mermaid and my younger daughter went as Zorro (the love of her life – Guy Williams!), the only kindergarten girl NOT a princess/fairy type creature. I was sooo proud! This year, she’s going as a rabbit and my elder daughter is still dithering…
I love these things!