# Do many people in your area go out and about in their pajamas? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 29, 2010, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884 "2010-01-29T14:23:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/41 "2010-01-29T20:12:23Z")
I’ve only seen this on college campuses – I got the odd student showing up to class in pj’s at all three of the campuses where I’ve taught (in three different states). I can’t imagine anyone over 25 doing it. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/42 "2010-01-29T20:31:54Z")
Middle Tennessee here. I’ll wear PJ pants and a tee or sweat shirt downstairs to the laundry room or to take out the trash. Once in a blue moon, I might wear them to hop in the truck and make a drive-thru run, but nothing that I’m getting out of my vehicle for. What’s odd is that I differentiate between pajamas and nightgowns. I don’t go out my front door in even my heaviest flannel nightgown, but jammie bottoms are under a different set of rules. When I still lived in the city, it wasn’t uncommon to see women in slippers with regular clothes anytime day or night grocery shopping. I still see this and women in PJs late nights in Kroger or WalMart on occasion since moving outside of Nashville. Very seldom do I see men attired in this manner, but since a lot of guys lounge around in gym clothes, it’s harder to tell the difference. ---
**Author:** ![maplekiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@maplekiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maplekiwi)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/43 "2010-01-29T20:34:56Z")
Small town in NEw Zealand here - & I work in a supermarket. It seems to be a winter thing more than summer. & last winter it was less common than the winter before. I don’t like it except when its people taking small children shopping at night. If you have to do that, then having them in pjs is just sensible so they can go straight to bed when you get home. ---
**Author:** ![Sonnenstrahl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Sonnenstrahl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonnenstrahl)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/44 "2010-01-29T20:42:49Z")
I went to a commuter college so I never experienced the homeless look - the girls there were known rather for being ridiculously overdressed, like full club-wear for a 9:30 psych 101 lecture. I guess when you usually spend an hour on the bus and subway to get to class, an extra five minutes to put on clothes isn’t that much? I now live in a much more casual city but it more often means outdoors wear, like Gore-tex jackets rather than wool coats. I find it really funny that just a few decades ago, jeans were considered so comfortable that it was inappropriate to go to school in them, and now we consider it torturous pain to have to put them on. Especially since these are young girls who are most likely not \*all \*suffering from chronic pain conditions. Girls, if your jeans are that uncomfortable, buy a bigger pair that actually covers your ass. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/45 "2010-01-29T21:04:03Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > I’ve only seen this on college campuses – I got the odd student showing up to class in pj’s at all three of the campuses where I’ve taught (in three different states). I can’t imagine anyone over 25 doing it. The pot smoking jammie wearer I mentioned above was at least 35, and I regularly see women in their 40s out like that as well. ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/46 "2010-01-29T22:51:04Z")
Twin Cities here, and yup, I see it. Mostly with teens, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen adults do it too. The look that bothers me the most is the full sweatsuit with Ugg boots and hair pulled back like [this](http://img.timeinc.net/people/i/2006/stylechannel/blog/061106/sarah_gellar_300x400.jpg) (only sloppier). I just don’t GET going out in your PJ’s. When I’m wearing mine, that means they are going to be worn to bed, NOT outdoors. The outdoors is dirty and wet and gross; why would I want to ruin my PJ pants by dragging them through the mud like that? When they’re worn outside, they cease to be pajamas. The only time I can see wearing pajamas out somewhere is if I was running a fever and in desperate need of chicken noodle soup or something. But even then I’d probably put a pair of loose-fitting jeans on. ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/47 "2010-01-30T00:56:43Z")
I did it a few times when I was in college. I think that everyone did it in college once or twice, though. Now, I’d almost rather die. I don’t go beyond the house or the car. Period. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/48 "2010-01-30T02:26:57Z")
Irrelevant to this discussion, but I haven’t even owned any pyjamas since I was 11. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/49 "2010-01-30T03:08:55Z")
My disadvantage is that I used to live in Taos and now I live in Santa Cruz. I used to think it was tacky, now it’s just comfortable. > [@PookahMacPhellimey](#): > > No, I think people would rather die. > > Looks matter in Italy. And yet you and your presumably nattily attired co-Itailian, PookahMacPhellimey, don’t appear in the Doper photo gallery to show the rest of us how it’s done (wink). ---
**Author:** ![Magicicada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c67d28/32.png) [@Magicicada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magicicada)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/50 "2010-01-30T03:13:11Z")
Lower midwestern US. I work at a motel, and on my first day of supervising a much-too-small staff, I watched as an older lady pulled into the parking lot, stopped her car randomly in an area that was definitely not a parking place, and stepped out wearing a flowered pajama top (the long sleeve kind that buttons up the front), unmatching pajama bottoms, and a pair of well-worn house slippers. She approached me, and asked, “Are you hiring?” I smiled pleasantly, and lied, “No, ma’am, I’m sorry, we’re not.” ---
**Author:** ![MitzeKatze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@MitzeKatze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MitzeKatze)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/51 "2010-01-30T03:23:55Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Irrelevant to this discussion, but I haven’t even owned any pyjamas since I was 11. My kids, including my 20 year old son still get pajamas every Christmas. That is the present they get to open on Christmas Eve (so that they will look cute in pictures taken Christmas morning). My son complains about it every year and this year took me to his bedroom to show me the drawers full of pajamas, some with tags still attached that he has accumulated since he quit wearing pajamas years ago. His Christmas Eve present this time was a shaving kit, a toothbrush, and a book. But I couldn’t resist tucking a pair of novelty pajama bottoms into his stocking just the same. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/52 "2010-01-30T03:27:03Z")
I see it all the time. I don’t get it and it makes me crazy. (I generally won’t wear sweats in public either, although wool pants and button shirts are “dressy” for me. I’m weird.) I will wear mine outside the house for brief forays (paper, smoke, mail), but I don’t leave the property. Next to no one ever sees me. I don’t think I’ve seen slippers in a while and when I used to, they tended to be on elderly ladies wearing housedresses or muumuus and curlers. ---
**Author:** ![Rack-a-Bones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rack-a-Bones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rack-a-Bones)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/53 "2010-01-30T03:34:19Z")
Seattle, WA – and I don’t think I have ever seen this once. Unless… do [pyjamas](http://www.amazon.com/Xhilaration-Juniors-Flannel-3Pc-Pajamas/dp/B002GOI6IG/) = [sweatpants](http://www.amazon.com/Soffe-Classic-Sweatpants-Pockets-Black/dp/B000U076LG/) ? Because if I’m just running to the store, quick errand, laundry mat, etc I’ll routinely throw on my sweats and head out. Never would to eat or go to work. Men and women do this quite a bit. Also the yoga style pants I see a lot on the women. But I’ve never seen anyone out in jammy pants. ---
**Author:** ![kapri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kapri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kapri)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/54 "2010-01-30T03:53:15Z")
I live in oh-so-casual Florida, and I haven’t seen it much. And I teach in a university, where you’d expect to see it. Most of my students are male, though, and I can’t imagine them in pajama bottoms. No, I’d rather not even consider that. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/55 "2010-01-30T04:29:43Z")
I do sometimes. I live around the corner from a convenience store, and if I need to run out late at night for, say, a quart of milk, I won’t bother changing. ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/56 "2010-01-30T04:40:58Z")
I don’t, largely because I don’t own any (I’m more of a bathrobe kinda guy), but plenty of people around here do. I endorse the practice, if only for the amusement factor of watching the people who get riled up about such things getting riled up about it. “NOOOOOO, the cloth covering his/her body be shaped and colored differently than I personally would prefer! Clearly this person can now be judged to lack many positive character traits! This is unacceptable!” Real-life trolling by proxy, I suppose you’d call it. I probably shouldn’t get a kick out of it, but I do…I guess because if the “troll-ees” were minding their own damn business in the first place, it wouldn’t have affected them in the least. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/57 "2010-01-30T04:42:45Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > I do sometimes. I live around the corner from a convenience store, and if I need to run out late at night for, say, a quart of milk, I won’t bother changing. Same here. It’s funny, because, before I lived downtown St. Louis, I would dress quite stylishly, all made up and such, to come to the city. Now that I live downtown, I’ll wear sweats or jammy bottoms to the cstore in my building or to the grocery 3 blocks away. Not sure what the difference is, aside from not getting any dates! ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_From\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/58 "2010-01-30T06:10:35Z")
Never seen it in Australia or NZ - but people would regularly be seen out in ‘trackie dacks’ (track suit bottoms), which is standard around the house wear here, unless you’re in your [Peter Alexanders](http://www.peteralexander.com.au/). ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/59 "2010-01-30T09:18:00Z")
> [@Rack-a-Bones](#): > > do [pyjamas](http://www.amazon.com/Xhilaration-Juniors-Flannel-3Pc-Pajamas/dp/B002GOI6IG/) = [sweatpants](http://www.amazon.com/Soffe-Classic-Sweatpants-Pockets-Black/dp/B000U076LG/) ? Not the phenomenon that the Irish OP is talking about. The sightings I have made in Ireland and the UK have been specifically sleepwear, sometimes with slippers too. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884/60 "2010-01-30T13:47:33Z")
There are expensive senior citizen apartment complexes here that I’ve heard forbid the tenants from wearing pajama bottoms or sweatpants outside their apartments. This rule must account for all those polyester pull-on slacks for sale in department stores. I’ve occasionally driven my kid to school in t-shirts/pajama bottoms, with boots and coat in winter or flipflops and raincoat in summer, in case I have to stop to get gas. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-many-people-in-your-area-go-out-and-about-in-their-pajamas/526884.md?page=4)