Peer Pressure Starts Young

My son is five and a half months old. And while it seems old to us (as each month we're amazed by what he can do and by how much he's changed), really, we know in the grand scheme of things baby, our baby Doodlebug is just a wee thing. He doesn't crawl. He doesn't even roll over. Heck, when he's tired, he tries to suck on my chin (I'm pretty sure that these are kisses and I love them; I just wish his kisses weren't causing this rash on my chin). He can sit passably well, but he still needs lots of help. His favorite toy these days is his foot, and he expends great energy trying to get it into his mouth. The point is, this isn't a kid who needs rough and tumble play clothes. Oh, he will. I will be scrubbing mud and grass and, yuck, blood out of his clothes. But right now, all that's on there is spit-up and maybe a little pee. His playmates in mom's group and in day care--well, let's just say that calling them "playmates" is a stretch. The kids look at each other and will occasionally try to grab a toy out of each other's hands, but really, they have no clue that there are other living beings there with them.

The point of this? The point is, what the hell does it matter what these babies are wearing? The key things are that they are 1) warm enough and 2) have freedom of movement so they can easily grab their feet (and your hair, nose, lips, chin...). What's more comfy than a pair of pajamas? Baby pajamas with those little feetsies are so darn cute and they satisfy these needs. And who--among the grown-ups, I mean--wouldn't want to be able to hang out in their pajamas all day?

So why is it that I, a clear-thinking grown-up of 35, have given in to the baby peer pressure and started dressing my child in clothing? You know, shirts, pants, socks. The occasional overall or sweater. I held out for a while, taking him to play group in pjs, sending him to daycare in his nighties. I mean, what difference doesn't make! Yet, after a few days of seeing all those other kids in their cute little outfits I caved. Now, whether we go out or not, the Doodlebug wears clothes during the day and we save the pajamas for night. He was sick this week (bad cold, running a fever--turned out to be an ear infection), so I put him in clothes to take him to the doctor and then when we got home, put him back in his pjs because everyone knows you get to wear pajamas all day when you're sick. But now that's he's better, it's back to street clothes. The clothing stores grin every time I walk in because they see the big "sucker" written on my forehead.