I wore sweatpants every day until the age of 13. Why?
- They were as easy to put on
- They meant I did not have to change for gym class
- They enabled me to play my favorite sport soccer any time of day (I always had holes or grass stains on my knees).
- I was not into impressing girls yet.
So, if I wore sweatpants until age 13, shouldn’t my son?
After my son was a few months old (and out of the always wearing a onesie stage), I enjoyed putting sweatpants on him. Dressing my now toddler son is not my favorite responsibility as an at-home dad, but putting him in sweatpants (as pictured above) was so easy to do because they look nice, come in all colors so they match well with his shirts, and are easy to slip on/off for his many diaper changes.
However, my wife and family like to see my son in pants, not sweatpants.
Feeling the family pressure, I have migrated (compromised?) to dressing my son in pants. However, I do have certain standards when it comes to buying his pants. They have to be extremely loose with an elastic waste band so they are pants by design, but as easy to take on/off as sweatpants.
I mentioned earlier that it is my responsibility to dress my son on a daily basis, and I think I do a pretty darn good job at it. But I guess that depends on who the judge is because I can never win.
Let me explain.
When I put my son’s clean laundry back in the dresser, I place all of the shirts stacked neatly into the drawer. The following day I take out a clean shirt from the top of the stack and match it with some “pants” and a pair of socks. Sounds simple.
However, my wife “feels” that my son has already worn that same shirt last week, and that I should select something from the bottom of the shirt stack. Or else, I get the comment, “You put him in that shirt so often it needs to be retired.” I understand her position, but I do not always agree on the topic of getting him dressed.
Don’t most adults wear the same or a similar outfit every few weeks because they like the way it looks? Can’t that same concept apply to your kids? So, even though I literally dress my son every morning, I am not sure I am actually the one dressing him!
Any other dads care (dare) to comment on this topic?
I’ll be honest, I dress our sons. I buy most of their clothes. I decide what they are going to wear every day. I do their laundry, and I definitely put clean laundry on the bottom so they wear the multitude of other clothes they have in the drawer.
I am lucky…. I don’t have to make the daily decision. If able, my wife dresses both babies before she heads to work. If not, I happily let her choose what the kids will start their day wearing. I do the laundry, but if she has time, my wife folds and puts it all away. If I put it away, I do not pay attention to what the kids wore most recently. I have joked that one day my wife will come home to both my son and daughter in dresses….Lance, if you think sweatpants are easy, a dress is even easier because you don’t even need a shirt!
In the spirit of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer and Frank make a man bra or “Bro” we should come up with the “kDro” or kid dress, unisex of course. Just a seed fellas! We share the dressing of our son but my wife usually puts him in a pair of cotton skivvies and t-shirt to romp in until we’re ready to go out. Choosing takes about 2 seconds and has nothing to do with the last time he wore the outfit but sometimes I do change up his socks to throw a little color in but otherwise no complaints yet. Update: Wife just asked why I used the red sox today.