# Did you have play clothes as a kid? Do/does your kid(s)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 25, 2018, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-play-clothes-as-a-kid-do-does-your-kid-s/813129 "2018-04-25T22:43:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-play-clothes-as-a-kid-do-does-your-kid-s/813129/21 "2018-04-27T17:39:46Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > 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. > > 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. This is my experience except we were required to wear skirts or dresses up until 1971 when pantsuits were allowed. Girls could not wear jeans in my school district until sometime around 1974. I wear jeans to work most days, but I still change clothes when I get home. Sweats or pajamas in the chilly weather and a sundress in the summer. And the super scrubbies on the kitty litter/spray paint/deep clean the bathroom days. those are the very old sweats with paint stains cut off at the knees and a very stained (but clean) t-shirt. These are clothes that cannot be worn any further than the mailbox. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-play-clothes-as-a-kid-do-does-your-kid-s/813129/22 "2018-04-27T18:23:17Z")
I still wear play clothes. I play dirty. ---
**Author:** ![Pabitel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Pabitel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pabitel)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-play-clothes-as-a-kid-do-does-your-kid-s/813129/23 "2018-04-27T18:39:58Z")
Yes, and yes. Often this month’s “good clothes” became next month’s play clothes. It was a financial thing. Keep the good clothes good as long as possible and then, once they are stained/worn out, wear them doing things where you get dirty, like play or yard work. ---
**Author:** ![Driver8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Driver8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Driver8)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-play-clothes-as-a-kid-do-does-your-kid-s/813129/24 "2018-04-27T20:07:04Z")
I went to public school in South Africa, which meant school uniforms. So yes, I definitely changed. If I remember right I couldn’t wait to get out of those things. My kids don’t do that, and go to school and play in the same clothes. They tend to get hand me downs from our local social network, so we don’t spend very much money on this. Good thing, because they play hard and clothes do not last long. Yes, we’re the parents who send their kid to elementary school with pant holes in the knees 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-play-clothes-as-a-kid-do-does-your-kid-s/813129/25 "2018-04-27T22:05:25Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Not play clothes as a designation, just anything not school clothes or dress clothes. Same…and when my school stopped requiring uniforms, it was ‘anything other than dress clothes’. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-play-clothes-as-a-kid-do-does-your-kid-s/813129/26 "2018-04-28T03:58:58Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > I don’t think changing into “play clothes” was a thing even in the '80s. I wasn’t born until the late 70s, so yeah, in some places it was still a thing in the early-to-mid 80s. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-play-clothes-as-a-kid-do-does-your-kid-s/813129/27 "2018-04-28T04:04:23Z")
When I think of “play clothes”, the first thing that comes to mind is wearing jeans with blown out knees repaired with iron-on patches. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-play-clothes-as-a-kid-do-does-your-kid-s/813129/28 "2018-04-28T08:31:45Z")
Nope. Two pairs of Lee jeans (worn alternate weeks) and two shirts (a MTW and a TFSS). Took them off when I went to bed at night. There were probably a few more shirts, for variety, but they were worn 3 or 4 days. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-play-clothes-as-a-kid-do-does-your-kid-s/813129/29 "2018-04-28T12:07:18Z")
Here’s the short answer: No. Here’s the long answer: Nope. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-play-clothes-as-a-kid-do-does-your-kid-s/813129/30 "2018-04-28T12:11:00Z")
I was born in 1971 and have no recollection of such a concept, for me or anyone else. I went to Catholic schools, but in Ontario, Catholic schools are public schools; there’s two public school systems, one Catholic and the other not. Kids don’t wear uniforms until high school in the Catholic system. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-play-clothes-as-a-kid-do-does-your-kid-s/813129/31 "2018-04-28T14:23:14Z")
My mom used the term “play clothes” to talk about clothes that weren’t nice enough even for school–often because they were worn out or just super sloppy. Shorts were also inherently play clothes: I was born in 1976, and shorts-at-school was still a novelty when I was growing up: some allowed it, some didn’t. So like in the spring/summer, my mom would do an inventory of what we had, and take us shopping for “play clothes”–shorts and cheap tops, generally. We’d wear them on the weekends, and every day in summer. I don’t think we changed every day after school, but we certainly changed after church, and my mom might say something like “don’t wear play clothes” if we were going somewhere nice-ish. I knew what that meant. ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-play-clothes-as-a-kid-do-does-your-kid-s/813129/32 "2018-04-28T21:34:14Z")
Absolutely. Catholic grammar school with uniforms all the long eight years: Salt and Pepper corduroys, white short sleeved collared shirts, and black leather shoes. Who’d want to try and play in that outfit? ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-play-clothes-as-a-kid-do-does-your-kid-s/813129/33 "2018-04-28T23:14:21Z")
> [@Mars\_Horizon](#): > > 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. 🙂 I came in to post this same joke. But you probably did it better. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-play-clothes-as-a-kid-do-does-your-kid-s/813129.md?page=1)