When I was from about the ages of 3 and maybe 8, I wasn’t allowed to go out and play in the clothes I wore to preschool and then elementary school. Instead I had a few changes of other clothes I was to change into. You know, like jeans and a sweatshirt or tee shirts and shorts instead of a dress or slacks. Mom called them “play clothes” and so did my friends’ parents. It was pretty typical in my neighborhood to have to change before going out to play, even for those of us who when to public school (my friends who went to Catholic school definitely, definitely had to change out of their school uniforms!).
Did you have to change before playing to preserve your good clothes too?
And what about your kids? I feel like even if this was a once common thing, it probably isn’t anymore, because kids don’t spend nearly as much time playing outside as we did in the 80s and earlier. Or do they?
We did change into play clothes for after church or parties. The phrase is familiar. We played pretty hard at school, so there wasn’t much point in changing later.
I went to a Jewish Day School from age three through the second grade. We didn’t have uniforms, but we had a pretty strict dress code-- girls had to wear dresses, and boys had to wear black slacks, and we all had to wear leather shoes, no sneakers. We kept an outfit at school we changed into for gym class.
So yeah, I had to change when I got home from school. When I started at public school, I still mostly wore dresses to school, except on gym class days, when I wore jeans and sneakers, but even on gym days, I still had to change, because I had on my “good” jeans. It kind of started to fall away by the fifth grade, but it really ended in the 6th grade, when I biked to a school that was farther away, and so I wore jeans and sneakers every day, and was no longer required to come straight home from school (later, I got a paper route, and had to go straight home again), but I was allowed to go to friends’ houses after school, or to go out until supper time, as long as I called, and told my parents where I would be. “Going out” usually meant going to buy a candy bar, then playing a couple of games of pinball at an arcade once a week-- nothing big. I also biked straight to my once-a-week clarinet lesson. By the time I got home, it was pointless to change.
We didn’t when I was younger; our father wouldn’t permit it. He was pretty strict.
When I was a bit older our new governess (who was later my Mom, don’t ask… long story) made us some play clothes. We’d romp through the town, singing…what fun we had! We climbed every mountain we could find in those clothes. Ah, memories.
If we were dressed up for a special occasion, we had to change when we got home. And we had designated clothes for painting in. Other than that, though, no, we played in whatever we were wearing that day.
This for me, too. And, you had only a couple of changes of those clothes that were supposed to take you through the school year, so one’s mother indoctrinated into you the thought that you changed out of them once you got home from school, to cut down on the wear and the dirt.
During the '60s, we had school clothes and play clothes, because there was a dress code for school–leather shoes, dresses/skirts for girls, non-jeans for boys. After school, we used to do this thing called “playing outside,” which would mess up your school clothes and shoes, so you had to change.
Never had this happen since:
–We went to a public school in the 80s. No strict dress codes, no uniforms.
–We were poor and wore mostly hand me downs. Getting one set of clothes was sometimes a challenge, where were we going to get a second set?
I was going through some old photos of my grandmother and siblings a few months ago, from about the 1920s. One in particular had the three kids out in the country on a weekend trip with their parents. All of them are in school uniform. Why? Well, same reason - they were the only decent clothes they had.
It’s practically all uniform schools round here, and I do remember “play clothes” as a kid, but honestly don’t recall if my parents enforced the concept or I was just wild to get out of uncomfortable pleated skirts and ties and crap.
I do know parents in my generation who still do “get out of your school clothes” but it always seemed like too much work to me. Yes, uniforms are more expensive than regular clothes, but they’re also better made - even with handing down from older to younger sibs I’m expecting my kids to grow out of their clothes before wearing them out
I don’t think changing into “play clothes” was a thing even in the '80s. By the mid-70s my public school friends weren’t changing clothes after school - it makes no sense to come home and change into jeans and a T shirt to play when you wore jeans and a T shirt to school.It was different when I was a little younger ( say 69-73) when hey were sent to school dressed as if every day was picture day ( dresses , and white anklets with lace at the top.)
Now, I changed my clothes after school in grade school and my kids did in grade school and high school- but that’s because we wore uniforms.
Our play clothes were the clothes we’d worn to school; for the girls in my school, the uniform. We started feeling the urge to go home and change at about the same time we started giving an actual shit if someone saw our panties, thereabouts of 6th grade.
We changed into play clothes when we got home from school. I think it was mostly the elementry school years (1966-73). Up until about 5th grade girls wore dresses almost every day, not that it was required, it was just what we wore. If it was really cold out we’d wear pants under our dresses and take them off when we got to school. We also had school shoes and play shoes. We didn’t wear tennies to school, we had “dress” shoes. We had to keep a pair of “gym” shoes at school. No street shoes were allowed on the gym floor. Our gym shoes were kept in shoe bags that our moms sewed and were hung on the hooks in the cloak room. I love that term…cloak room.
Unless my kids had to dress up for an event, they went to school and played in the same clothes.
I change into “play” clothes when I get home from work! I immediately put on sweats, comfy shorts or capris and t-shirt, tank or sweatshirt.
Catholic school in the 60s meant wool jumpers for us girls with white blouses and little ties–and matching beanies to wear during Mass. (If you forgot yours, you wore a Kleenex bobby-pinned to your hair.) I loathed them, but I’ll say this: I had no idea who in the class was poor–a bunch of kids got free or reduced tuition–and who was not. Dry cleaning was expensive, so we didn’t dare wear our uniforms for play. They would’ve looked pretty stupid anyway.
In our house, it was “clean play clothes.” I don’t know why the “clean” was always in there. I guess Mom was covering her bases.
I grew up in a small Southern town in the 70s and 80s. Our schools had no uniforms, and the dress code was mostly ignored, except for the length of skirts. As far as I know, no one had designated “play clothes”. Most kids I knew had one or two sets of “nice clothes” that were reserved for church or special occasions, and otherwise wore the same clothes to school that they wore to play and/or work in after school. (Most of my friends lived on farms or were otherwise involved in family businesses, so they often had a lot to do in the afternoons.)
