P. J.'s in the Schools

First, I want to say, I like pajamas.
I have wore pajamas all my life.
AT home. At night time. And even
on a lazy, rainy day, I have been
known to be still in my pajamas up
to 11am. Too lazy to change. But if
anyone comes to the house, I shoot
into the bedroom and throw on jeans
or what ever.

But now we hear in the news that children
are wearing them in SCHOOL.

In Ogden, Utah they are letting them
wear pj's to school. One of the kids was
quoted as saying "Some days you don't
want to get dressed up for school, like
when it is raining and cold. And the
school's administrators feels because
the pj have been modest, it isn't a problem.
Remarks like a kid could wear worse
things to school. Or we learn to pick our
battles. Luckily, a lot of the kids don't think
it is so great and I hope they win out.

There are parents who think nothing of
letting their kids stay home from school.
Any excuse works, from I don't want to go
today because I don't feel well. We use
to refer to it as school bus sickness...
as soon as the school bus went by, the kid
was feeling better. Go hunting, was up late,
Mom wants the older kid to baby sit the
younger ones... What does this teach the
kids. And I understand that company do
look at the attendance records of future
employees.

This doesn't mean that I lump all the
kids in one group. 95% or more of the
kids in school, try their best to do their
school work, to attend school each day,
and dress properly. I know there are fads,
my kids had fads. And the less you pay
attention to the fad, the faster it disappeared.
But in our household, those fads did not go
to school if it was something that was
disruptive. And my kids will tell you to this
day, no one got out of going to school. You
had to pass a ridged test to get to stay home.
Fever, was the first one. One of my children
jokes about how I would have sent them to
school with intravenous feeding tube, if I
had to. It wasn't that bad, but they did have
to stay in bed all day. No books, no tv...
if you are sick... you are sick. And because
of this all my kids have great attendance
records at their jobs. And I lead by example.
I went 5 years straight without calling in. And
5 in 17+years of work. Two of them because
of snow.

I am beginning to feel like the old lady.
Am I becoming my parents? my
grandparents?

And when did the children become in
charge? Surely a parent didn't send
off their child to school in p.j.'s . In my
kids day's (my own school days would
never have allowed this) if there was a
child who came to school in such a matter,
it was a signal that there was something
wrong at home. Drug, or alcohol was
involved. The child dress themselves.
And a teen would not have wore such
clothes. Teens in my kids day, were clothes
horses, the best of brands and etc.

No, I hope this another fad that goes
back home... I want all the kids to learn
that there is work ethnic, and only if you
work in a pj factory and it is a pj day to
break the winter cabin fever... then MAYBE.

I am sure there are people who will fight
for the rights of the children to wear their
pj's to school. And if they do, and they
succeed, I will be sad. Not for me, but for
the child and the world. What work ethnic
will they be learning? And what other
traditions for work will go down?