I exposed one of my areas of motherhood ignorance yesterday.
Several of you caught it. Hey thanks…I have been feeling inadequate in this area since Ryan was born.
I was reminded of my cluelessness in this area recently when reading Manic Mommy’s job description. I read this list thinking, “I am doing OK in every area except for this one”.
I have read parenting books. I have researched. I have spent hours in thought. Still, no answer.
So I offer up to you, wise and dear readers, my burning question of motherhood:
Does it really matter what weight pajama you dress your child in if you keep your house at exactly the same temperature year around?
*gasp*
*ahem*
*avert your eyes*
Yes, I have just admitted that I have no idea whether the boys should be in footy fleece or shorts and t-shirts.
No book has addressed this. The only reference they make is something like…just dress your baby in one more layer then you are wearing.
FINE! But I sleep in shorts and a camisole and under two blankets.
Since babies can’t sleep with blankets, do my blanket layers count? So would that be 2 layers or 4?
What if I throw off one blanket during the night? Should I rush in and strip a layer off of him? So would that be 1 layer or 5?
What if I start the ceiling fan in the room during the night? Should I turn on his fan and add a layer (or not) or leave the fan off and subtract a layer? So would that be sleeping naked or packed so tightly into multiple pajama layers that the poor child can’t bend his arm to place thumb in mouth?
I live in Texas. During the summer it is hot. But we don’t like the house to be hot so we run the air conditioner. Texas winters are mild. But we have very thin blood and run the heater if needed. So really the temperature is the same every night.
To prove my schizophrenia on this issue I took the above picture tonight (see the Stars Hockey in the background?) where Ryan is warm and cozy from head to foot and Rhett is sporting shorty wife beaters. How did I get here?
Oh, did I mention that Ryan won’t wear anything else and Rhett will scream unmercifully if his “orange jammies” are dirty. That is my thought process. My parenting book will be in stores soon…
***
Please note that the title is from one of the greatest pajama resources of all time, Sandra Boynton’s Pajama Time. I can’t leave you hanging so let me finish so you can get on with your day:
Now all around the room in one big line,
wearing our pajamas and looking so fine.
It’s Pajama Time!
Hop in the bed. Turn out the light.
You can have a party in your dreams tonight.
IT’S PAJAMA TIME!
(Hush, Hush)
It’s Pajama Time!
(Hush, Hush)
it’s pajama time.
(shhhhhhhhhhhhh.)
I can’t imagine that it matters, if the kid is comfortable and happy.
Then again, year-round I sleep in pajama bottoms and an T-shirt, under two or three blankets, but with two fans on. Just don’t ask.
I do so love Sandra Boynton books–we had most of them memorized we read them so much when the kids were little…
I fact shhh….don’t tell my son, but I bought a Boynton graduation book for my son, who is GRADUATING FROM HIGH SCHOOL in two weeks!
Okay, some may need to close their eyes rather than read this. Sometimes, I let me kids sleep in regular clothes! Clean ones of course, but clothes all the same.
So, of course my answer is a big fat NOPE. It makes no difference what pajamas they wear. Besides, is there anything cuter than a kiddo in footy pajamas? I think not.
I generally try to steer mine away from footie PJs in the summer, but sometimes you’ve just got to pick you battles, and I don’t feel like fighting over PJs. Usually they sleep in just underwear, or one of Daddy’s old T-shirts (after I fattened him up a bit, we had to buy him new ones, and gave the old ones to the boys.) I’m always the coldest one in the house, so if they kick their covers off (and they will) that’s their problem – lol! I’m still gonna be warm!
Glad your little one liked the video – Thanks for the comment!!
Pajamas? Oh no I gotta get pajama’s now?
Sorry can’t help you, but I did want to add that I don’t know how to dress my kids during the day.
We live in OH and the weather is just crazy throughout the day. It can start at 45 degrees in the morning and be 81 by 2:00. We leave the house at 7:50 so I always feel bad. On the other hand, it can start at 75 in the morning and be 32 by the afternoon. How can I stop this madness?
I say whatever they want to wear to bed is fine. If your house is the same temp pretty much year round they will be ok. They will tell you if they are about to pass out from the heat they are putting off.
When my oldest was younger, and she would go to my sisters house, I would always send her with footy PJs, because she kept her house so cold, all the time.
You’re fine! I’ve actually tried to have summer and winter pajamas (because I’m unbelievably cheap in some areas, it is MUCH colder in our house in the winter than in the summer), but my kids don’t care. They (who are girls) wear silky little camisoles and shorts in the dead of winter when I’m wearing FOUR layers, and their fuzzy, footy pajamas in the dead of summer, when I’m wearing pretty much nothing.
They “get” how to survive a little bit on their own! I’m not going to call the pajama police on you!
In Texas it definitely does NOT matter what weight jammies they’re wearing. If they’re comfortable, that’s all that’s important. Because the more comfortable they are, the better chance they sleep all night, and the more zzz’s MOM gets!! (And it’s all about us anyway, right?)
BTW, love your blog name.
My girls wear what’s clean. Sometimes they wear their clothes to bed! will that be covered too? *G*