What do you wear to drop off your kids at school in the morning? Is it the same outfit you wear to the supermarket, the pet store or the gas station?
I tend to dress in the same outfit to do all of the aforementioned tasks—-jeans or khakis with a plain button-down shirt or sweater. My wardrobe is simple, easy to clean, and yes, rather boring. However, at least it won’t get me banned from stores.
In England, a couple of grocery stores are cracking down on moms who shop in slumpy, dumpy outfits that resemble nightwear.
You know exactly the type of mommy uniforms I am referring to: Pajama bottoms that looking mildly similar to a traditional pair of pants, save for the fact that they are 100 percent flannel and look like they’ve been slept in… for days.
The new rule bans customers from showing up in pajamas or anything that resembles jammies. In addition, the grocery stores are also putting the kibosh on bedroom footwear. Which means no more strolling around the produce section in bunny slippers.
A store spokesman told local newspaper reporters: ‘We do not have a strict dress code but we don’t want people shopping in their nightwear in case it offends other customers. We simply request that customers do not shop in their PJs or nightgowns.”
Translation: Don’t come to our store looking like a slob in your pajamas.
Oh those Brits, they’re just so darn proper.
That’s sarcasm, because frankly, I wouldn’t be opposed to American grocers instituting a similar same dress code.
Hey, I’m all for freedom of dress and expression and all that good stuff, but how hard is it to throw on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt before heading out to the store?
As for moms being the target of this new dress code, grocery store owners say they instituted the ban because they noticed an increasing numbers of young women were shopping in their nightwear after dropping their children off at school in the morning.
Some critics of the grocery store dress code call the owners “Mommy haters,” but I don’t agree. After all, if can muster enough energy to find your car keys, get the kids loaded into the vehicle, and drive to a store, then what’s preventing you from changing out of your PJs?
It’s not like the store is requiring female customers to apply make-up and coif their hair before entering. They just want customers to leave their nightwear at home.
Not for nothing, but there is a mom at my daughter’s school that picks her child up from half-day classes wearing the same pair of leopard print bedroom slippers EVERY. DAY.
I have nothing against her choice of patterned footwear, but we live in Wisconsin and watching her slump across the snow covered parking lot in her fuzzy animal print scruffies, with an expression that screams, “I don’t want to be here!” kind of makes me wonder if school is the only public place she wears her favorite slip-ons. There is no way her feet are not wet and freezing by the time she makes it to and from the school lobby, but to each her own, I guess.
And no, the mom doesn’t have edema, a cast or a limp. According the woman’s pals, she just prefers wearing fuzzy bedroom slippers rather than sneakers. It’s part of her mommy uniform.
What do you think of the grocery store dress code? Would your mommy uniform need tweaking in order to make the grade?
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