To agree with this headteacher regarding wearing pyjamas as outdoor wear?

[MaisyMooMoo]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-35413153

The school near me regularly has parents dropping their kids off in pgs plus hair in rollers. I just wouldn't, it doesn't take less than a minute to put on a pair of jeans & a coat. The pajama top can stay covered up with a coat but bottoms must be changed.

I'd feel weird if my dc teacher saw me in my nightwear but that's just me.

How do we all know this is the same pajamas people sleep in?

When I go grocery shopping on Saturdays I always encounter women with their hair in wraps and the occasional roller or foam hair curler visible, presumably getting their hair ready for church on Sunday though I may be completely wrong on this score. The visible grooming process is not something that hurts or bothers me in the slightest.

Some people have hair that requires a lot of work.

Other groups in society have their own perfectly fine cultures.

Can we assume that a pair of jeans has been washed recently or would we be shocked if we learned they hadn't been washed for a month, or that a dress with a cardigan artfully slung over it isn't covered in spit up? How do we know that the clothes people wear to the school gates haven't been slept in?

"Other groups in society have their own perfectly fine cultures."
My daughter used to have a poster on her bedroom wall that said "Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you." I think some people struggle with this idea, and that it also applies to sub-cultures.

mathanxiety - "How do we all know this is the same pyjamas people sleep in?" Given the fact the headteacher concerned has specifically asked that parents wash themselves before they get dressed, she may be able to see or smell something that you can't. She will certainly know the parents and area concerned better than anyone posting on here does.

Or she could just be making the same assumptions as posters on this thread, that pjs = unwashed.

Or like the woman on radio 4 - pyjamas = smelling of last night's supper

Well, she hasn't had lots of angry parents blasting her out for commenting on their fashion sense and cleanliness... Apparently, the result is most parents now turning up dressed in daytime clothes. It's amazing, how total strangers feel qualified to lambast a headteacher they have never met over her comments about examples set by parents she actually has met. If she has made a mistake in her interpretation, I am quite sure her local community will make her aware of it...

I think total strangers feel they have a right to comment on the head teacher's actions because the HT feels that she has a right to comment on those of the parents.

This isn't really about whether it is skanky to wear pjs to school - that really is a matter of opinion. It is about whether a HT has the right to tell other adults what they should be wearing. Imo, the HT does not. The parents are not breaking any laws and there is no question here about how these parents are caring for their dc, who are attending school on time and appropriately dressed. That is as far as the HT's right to interfere extends. Anything else is social judgement and not her remit.

Totally agree NN. I'm not defending the choice of pjs but the ht has no authority to "raise it" as a concern. You or I can disapprove too but our opinion on the matter is equally irrelevant. If any of us are genuinely offended we could seek to raise it politely with the individual in question about how it makes us feel they don't value the interaction and would they consider wearing something else. But I expect most of us wouldn't.

The head teacher should mind their own business.

Modern obsessions with washing are aggravating lots of skin conditions and all these sprays arent good for people.

I dare say this HT has made a fair few of this parents feel judged and alienated too. Parents from a deprived area who previously were encouraging their children t have a 'positive attitude to learning' may now feel that education is an elitist institution and 'not for the likes of us'. The HT should be focusing on the things that matter - the actually parents showing up to a consultation evening; not what their jeffing wearing to it.

Mathanxiety , fairly sure electric shock treatment is still used today in mental health , or it was 14 years ago .

Bollocks to all my typos! Ruddy phone/autocorrect.

"The head teacher should mind their own business."

Well when people are rocking up to formal school meetings, parents evenings and school plays in their PJs they are making it the head teachers business.

Sorry, when I see people down the shops or outside the school gates in their PJs it just smacks of slob like laziness. People turning up to official school meetings, parents evenings or children’s plays in their PJ’s just demonstrates a complete lack of respect for the teaching staff. Would you turn up at a job interview in your night clothes? A meeting with the bank? Are teachers not professionals who deserve the same amount of respect? Would you be happy if your child was being taught by a member of staff who could not be arsed to get dressed in the morning?

Some of the mental acrobats on here are astonishing. I have no doubt that a small minority of people with health issues find getting washed and dressed in the morning very difficult , but let’s not extrapolate these rare examples out as an excuse for the terminally lazy to hide behind.

Bad enough that DC are inclined to judge each other according to dress without their HT giving them licence to judge the parents of their peers.

Tbh, I don't care what my dc's teachers wear to work. I care that they are kind to my children and good at teaching - if they wanted to do that in pjs I honestly wouldn't be bothered about it. I don't really equate clothing with respect. I think it would be antisocial to wear dirty clothes or to not wash and if parents turned up to meetings at school like that, then I would agree it is disrespectful. However, wearing clean pjs is just about comfort/fashion.

Couldn't resist... could the rise in pyjamas at the school gate be linked to Marks and Spencer???
www.marksandspencer.com/floral-blouse/p/p60079917?OmnitureRedirect=pyjama+style+blouse

I feel a conspiracy theory coming on...

I agree with pp what does it demonstrate a lack of regard to the teaching community and society! To attend parents evening, school plays dressed like that is beyond disgraceful. I would be utterly embrassed if my parents took me to school in their nightwear. Yes its difficult to get up and get sorted but the working community manage and take their kids to school then work.

These people are rolling out of bed they are not going to get fresh pjs they could grab a pair or jeans and a top if thats the case. You wouldn't attend a job interview in your PJs or a job, so why do these parents think its acceptable to do it for the school run. Its this horrible chav culture, why would you set yourself up to be judged and your children to be judged and bullied by other children.

Councils have banned people wearing pjs in town centres and certain supermarkets have. People should take pride in themselves and instill some self respect for their children. I'm amazed how people can defend and think this behaviour is approiate.

There is also a BBC article from 2012 in which a Dublin welfare office banned interviewees from wearing pyjamas.

It is not really a high expectation, or even an unreasonable expectation, to expect parents to wear something other than pyjamas for a meeting with a teacher, or even for a school assembly. It isn't as if they are expecting parents to wear suits and ties. The comments by the headteacher were not aroused by school drop off attire, but by parent evening and school assembly attire. It is not poverty that causes people to go to meetings in pyjamas. It's just inappropriate behaviour. You don't advertise that you would rather be asleep in bed when you are talking about your child's progress with their teacher.

It is school drop off attire which is specifically referred to in the letter.

If I turned up for a meeting at work in my pyjamas I'd be sacked - quite rightly. It's lazy and hugely disrespectful. I'm truly that there are people on this thread who think it's OK to do this! I expect the reason the HT sent this message out is to remind parents that they are their kids' role models. the kind of people that think this is OK are no doubt the same ones who think that school rules generally shouldn't apply to them - or any rules in fact. What kind of example does this set to your kids?

Good on the HT.

Okay, NN, you, personally, do not equate clothing choices with respect.

However, you are in a very small minority. in virtually every culture I can think of, people use clothing choices to signal respect.

Schools are there to equip children with the skills they need to function successfully in society.

Do you really not see that?

It's lazy, sets a bad example to the kids and the HT is completely right to do this. And as for the anti judginess - I think it's bollocks. I had to go through chemo a few years back and was really, really ill with it. I made sure I got up and got dressed every day even the days after I'd been awake all night due to steroids / horrible side effects. PJ wearers - get of your lazy arses and get dressed. It's not that hard.

What SkipTo said.