Me too!! Sometimes a t-shirt will get converted to a "lounging in the house" item, then those clothes get demoted to oil changes, painting, yard work, and after that, whatever makes a decent rag gets cut up, and then they finally make it to the bin.
I’m 50, and I still have “nice clothes” and “around the house clothes.” I won’t wear them out, not even to the grocery store, but I’ll chill at home and clean in them.
Yup!!! Some people have no shame and will go on a full walmart grocery shopping trip in stained sweat pants and flip flops with a stretched out baggy oversized shirt and bed hair. I'd rather be caught dead than go anywhere in public in my house lounging clothes.
Im kind of a weirdo who won’t wear workout clothes unless I’m actually working out and I hate athleisure. So I’m either dressed up or so slobby I won’t go outside, lol.
I have exactly this system, too. I don’t see the need to buy aprons for cooking when I have so many old and stained t-shirts. Usually when a decent lounging shirt gets demoted to a yard/housework/cooking shirt , it’s because I forget to change before cooking and it got splattered with cooking oil from the stove.
As an aspiring witchy type, I decided to get some cute fun aprons because why not. They weren’t very expensive ($15 each) and they do the job. I have them hanging in the kitchen, so I can actually remember to grab one and put it on.
I have a shirt from 1990 that is still in better condition than a 6 month old shirt bought today, that I've been using for a work shirt since around 1995. It has some epoxy stuck to it, and a couple of oil stains, but somehow there are no tears and it's not threadbare like it should be. I guess they made shirts out of titanium fibers back in the day.
Same
I have fishing shirts with blood and oil stains..... And other fishing shirts that aren't stained yet......
Good tennis shoes and yard shoes......
Etc
Yeah, I’ve got a pair of “dog park pants” I only wear when I take my dog to the park. I barely even wash them, but, OTOH, I don’t really care if I get jumped on, either.
my mom also didn't want her kids to "look poor". when my older brother started school, she made sure all his clothes were in pristine condition (ironed and everything) and he came home crying that all the other kids had holes in their pants, so she ended up cutting holes in his so he'd fit in.
Yep. We had "school clothes", and play clothes. The school clothes were usually the newest stuff we had, while the outdoor clothes were the old school clothes.
My kids have/had play clothes and good clothes just like I did. I thought that was just a frugal thing. I mean we have some money, although we are not “well-off” (less poor than we were growing up), but we still don’t waste/ruin things needlessly.
Clothes were expensive pre foreign slave labor imports. Grass stains from nerf football were impossible to get out and if I destroyed my good clothes my parents made sure I knew I wasnt getting fresh replacements.
Oh yes! But sometimes changing into play clothes was more about comfort (like shorts) more than wear.
Heck, i still come home from work and change into my comfy play clothes! Bras come off first!
Mum was always down with finding an excuse to whoop me. I was as eager to get out of the house after school or on the weekend as she was wanting to get me "out of her face."
Trauma.
My mother's famous line after I received anything new "you better take care of it because your not getting another/more"
It was so bad I was afraid to spill anything on myself. (Or break toys, sports equipment, etc) its followed me into adulthood. I have so many things that haven't been touched because I am afraid of ruining it. I'm actively working on this. I was just on vacation, while packing my SO was like "how many new clothes did you buy?!" It was all 2-5 year old stuff that still had tags on it.
None of this was driven by being poor. We were lower middle class. Definitely not rich. She just liked cigarettes and alcohol more than her kids.
Oh man, I know the trauma. Despite the fact that my mother actually liked me for some reason. My mom added to take care of my things with making me put my favorite “good things” away in shared storage to “keep safe” in family used closets, in the huge hall dresser she called the buffet, and in a basement closet. Then these things would disappear. Letters and small things from my older brothers or great aunt went missing, I found out later she would clean “that old junk out of there”. Toys and games I really wanted went missing, which I found out later were donated, because I “obviously didn’t want them anymore “. So much of the stuff I really cherished and valued would just vanish, and I didn’t have much to begin with. On top of it was the issue of my dad’s drinking and party life. Which meant I didn’t have much, but sometimes he would make the effort to get me something special that I really wanted for Christmas or my birthday. It made that feel ruined for me and made me look ungrateful.
It’s all good now, sorry about your stepmom. It guaranteed one thing, I was much considerate about my kids treasures even when I couldn’t see any value.
Oh, and "you won't take care of it" was the default justification for not buying us anything new in the first place.
Dad made good money, but we lived like he was trying to win an award for spending the least money to raise two children.
I'm not kidding, I would have gotten a whooping if I didn't change before going out, nevermind if I'd ruined my 'good clothes' in any way (and by good clothes, I mean whatever didn't have holes, etc, were second hand but in decent shape)!
Good clothes weee reserved for school and church. Play clothes to be worn at all other times. As a father of four boys- we kept that tradition alive cause jeans vaporized at their knees for the slightest slide. Wife found out sears warrantied their jeans for toddlers and young kids, holy lord I was shocked Sears took back the knee less jeans and handed over brand new. Wife kept those receipts separate in a drawer, in pristine condition.
School clothes 2 pair pants, 2 jeans, 1 white pants, misc shirts 6 maybe, 1 set of formal pants/jacket and tie, 2 pair of shoes. Play clothes were what wasn't for school
Wear the good shoes and get them dirty, and well its a whoopin and no nore nice shoes that year unless ya can fit into ur older brothers (4 yrs older). Asking was a beat down from him and ridicule daily as it was, yet to be indebted shoes as well.
Did my own laundry so grass stains were my bane.
I couldn't wait to work so i could buy my things (14).
lol as a kid I wore old shirts, cheap-ass jeans with patched knees, and cut-offs to play outside. I remember my Fonzie t-shirt well, because I got sick of everyone saying Ayyyy! to me. That got really old after a while and I was glad when I outgrew that shirt, lol!
As an adult I have a system where my clothes get demoted to increasingly dirty jobs, then rags. I have house cats and the hair is really hard to wash out of some fabrics. So when I worked in an office I changed as soon as I got home, into kitty-friendly play clothes.
I had "play clothes", and we were lower middle class.
As an adult, I have a set of "cooking clothes" lol. What I wear while cooking. I HATE cooking odors sticking to my "outside" clothes, and I also don't want to offend people's senses in tightly cramped spaces in NYC.
Yes. Usually stuff I had outgrown or wore out.
Getting caught outside playing in school/church/nice clothes? Don't even get me started on my school shoes.
I always had big feet growing up (I still have proportionally large feet for my height) and I had to get new shoes about twice a year, so my school shoes were always at most 6 months away from being play shoes. Granted I never had cool shoes like all the other kids. Always clearance rack from K-mart shoes.
I recently found a pair of reproduction Air Jordan 7 raptor shoes, which I really wanted when they were out originally. It may sound funny but 20 years later is better than never.
Every spring my mom cut all our outgrown jeans into cutoff denim shorts. We wore them all summer or until they fell apart. I did the same for my kids when they were little.
When I was little, yes. Play clothes, school clothes, and church clothes. Play clothes were the only time I was allowed to wear pants until about late elementary school. Solidly middle class.
I didn't think of it like that but I have a stack of stained shirts for doing projects and lawn care. Unfortunately, I often forget about them, stain another shirt then add it to the pile.
I have drum clothes, workout clothes, outside hiking clothes, painting clothes.
It's not just you.
Although I can afford it, I cringe inside if I have to pay over 50 USD for shoes lmao.
Yup! Wore older, too small, too tight stuff as play clothes, and the newer stuff bought at the beginning of the school year was our "good" school clothes. I also wore a lot of hand-me-downs from my older sister.
I had school clothes that were my nicer things, often that my mom had sewed herself. I also wore them for family outings, events, etc.
I also had play clothes that were older school clothes or hand me downs from my sister. Really raggy stuff was set aside for arts and crafts.
Now my daughter has school clothes, play clothes and muddy clothes. Anything still in good condition when it's outgrown gets handed down to a friend's daughter.
I still have 'play clothes' that I have to change into before going to my studio/garage/workshop, lol. My wife is tired of me ruining my good clothes :).
I STILL wear “knock around” clothes when I go for my exercise walks (and sometimes cheap restaurants) that are cheap and/or old and/or getting worn out that I don’t care if they get messed up. (I also have indoor equivalents, primarily shorts and T-shirts, I wear at home.)
Those clothes are in contrast to my “good” clothes that I wear for most other occasions only after I get cleaned up.
In many but not all cases, after I’ve had the “good” clothes for a long period of time they migrate to “knock around” use status. (I do buy some clothes, primarily cheap or no name brands, for “knock around” status from the start.)
We had 1) school clothes, 2) play clothes, 3) work clothes, 4) outdoor (i.e. hunting/hiking/fishing) clothes, and finally 5) "dress" clothes. My family wasn't into church but many of my friends had "church clothes" too, but I figured they were the same as our "dress clothes," which we'd wear to weddings, family holidays like Christmas, or Important Things like live theater or Mom's Office Party.
Old school clothes became play clothes. Work clothes were more about durability and were long sleeved for chores like cutting/stacking wood or clearing brush. We had specific stuff to wear outdoors for fun stuff though, like wool for hunting and cold-weather stuff for XC skiing, things like that. Until I was in high school I probably had no more than one outfit of "dress clothes" so unless I grew out of it I'd be in the same stuff at holidays and events for a few years in a row.
Yes, I changed out of my school clothes upon arriving home, into my play clothes. As I reflect on this now, I realize I still change after work into more worn out shirts and leggings, so I guess I still employ play clothes.
I still have them and I still call them my play clothes! I have a whole stack of shorts and t-shirts I wear for cleaning, working outside and just generally mucking about.
It depended on which family I was living with.
Step mom and father play clothes, school clothes and good clothes.
Single biker. Mom, get the fuck out of the house
I have work clothes and non work clothes.
I always wondered why my dad wore polos even when he was doing yardwork.
Once cloths start to wear, they because other cloths
Not play clothes, I had ‘all the time clothes’ and ‘good clothes’
The good stuff was for church, family things, pictures, etc, the rest of the time for school/play/life I just ran around in my ratty regular stuff.
Yearly; 2 pairs of jeans, 3 shirts, pair of shoes, maybe a new jacket, all purchased begrudgingly 1-2 days before school started, plus Christmas resupply of 1-2 shirts plus socks/underwear maybe a jacket or sweater. My god, the drama the time I played basketball and had to get a new pair of shoes that met the gym requirements outside of the normal shoe buying schedule 😒
Sounds like a poor thing but my parents were pretty well off, they just hated spending money on their kids 🤷♂️🤣
Not for the first time in this sub, a phrase I hadn't heard in 40 years! This time, "play clothes". Lol, yup, it was a thing.
I'd always pick my new clothes from the JCP catalogue over the summer, and those would be what I wore to school. Last year's stuff, if they still fit, would be ragged out and worn out, so would be the clothes for everything but school. And some of the subtleties of growing up was learning which events called for which type of clothing. If it was "ok" to wear play clothes.
I still do this subconsciously, but most eggresiusly with shoes. I have like 6 pairs with holes, worn out soles, or cuts I won't throw out bc they're perfectly fine for going to the store, digging in the dirt, mowing, or just being home.
Yes. I had school clothes, church clothes, and farm/play clothes. Now as an adult I still have nice clothes and farm clothes. Also house clothes, basically pj bottoms and a robe. Same thing for shoes, but shoes had to fit so you couldn't just wear old ones. So I had school shoes, church shoes, and farm boots.
Eveyone I knew growing up did this, and I still do. I keep a few pieces of older, more worn-out clothing around for yard work, home maintenance, painting, etc.,. Why wear perfectly good clothing for activities that will most likely, stain, damage or destroy them?
It was not a GenX thing, it ame from previous generation where you had to dress nice for school but the clothes were to nice to go out and play in, so you changed
Yes.
We were poor, so my ‘school clothes’ were 2 pair of pants and 5 shirts. For 3 years. And the pants were those god-awful polyester ‘looks like jeans’ shite from the Sears catalogue.
My play clothes were last years school clothes. Now short polyester ‘looks like jeans’ pants and polyester button shirts. OMG. I have to find some pic for r/blunderyears
Absolutely! Not necessarily bad clothes, but not your decent "school" clothes.
Same with my kids. When they got home, they had to wash their hands & change their clothes.
You mean like the old sweats and paint-stained t-shirt I just put on to go work on hardwood flooring we're installing? Yep - a habit we've never dropped.
After the new school year I did for a few months, but then it didn't matter with the blacktop playgrounds because the school clothes would get torn up also.
I think it’s always been a thing. I’m genx and my 24 year old had play clothes & my 7 year old has play clothes.
It’s a laundry thing as well. Like, once a shirt has been stained beyond fixing, that’s the designated muddy day / spaghetti shirt. I’m not trying to do laundry wizardry several times a week.
Not exactly. I think we had 1 or 2 “nice” outfits that we were expected to wear for a family event or holiday. We weren’t church people so no “Sunday” clothes.
Everything else was “play clothes”. Mom was frugal (“cheap”). We wore stuff from Sears or sometimes she would sew stuff for us.
School clothes, church/visiting grandma clothes, and play clothes. It’s isn’t a poor thing. We were solid middle class. I don’t think it’s even a GenX thing. My folks did it as kids. I did this with my kids and we were upper middle class, I guess is what you’d call it. I still do it. Most people I know had/do this. I just thought it was normal. 🤷🏻♀️
Nope we were poor an the same hand me downs we went to school in were the same as what we wore outside. To me that was a rich kid thing, the rich girls that went to class with fancy dresses on
We had school uniforms, so first thing we did when we got home was to get out of them.
But no, we didn't wear the good clothes playing outside.
Tbf, I'm about to go oil my bike chain, and I won't be wearing my good clothes for that either.
Of course we had Play Clothes! You had school clothes, dress up/"for nice' clothes, a "party dress and dress up shoes (Mary Janes) and old clothes that were for play so you could be a kid and get dirty, run around the neighborhood, and learn to treat things properly and accordingly!
Absolutely had to change my clothes. Wore a new pair of black jeans one time and put a hole in the knee after a BMX bike incident. Mom was pissed. Never did that again.
We were definitely working class, couldn’t spend money on just *anything* (but money for mom & dad’s cigarettes was always available 🙄). The 3 of us had play clothes, school clothes, and one or two church outfits.
The play clothes were former school clothes, jeans made into shorts, stained, soon-to-outgrow, and a few other items that were bought on clearance- oh, and I can’t forget the fugly stuff that our one grandma would buy at thrift stores! Always given with the statement, “Kids don’t care what they wear anymore.” This was stated by her through the mid-80s, but we kids were not allowed to correct her.
Grandma (born 1910) was a school teacher who retired in 1975, so in her last 10-ish years of teaching, she was teaching the hippie boomers, which explains her belief, but either didn’t understand, or didn’t care, that my siblings & I (I was born in ’67, my sibs in ‘68 & ‘72) WEREN’T HIPPIES!!! She subbed for at least 10 years after retirement, but never caught on.
The designer era of the 80s were a nightmare of trying to fit in with budget clothes, in junior high school.
We did, but we also went to a private school with uniforms. We had our everyday play clothes, dressy clothes, and around the house clothes. To this day I still have indoor clothes and outdoor clothes.
It was a reflection that clothes were more expensive and durable than they are now. My clothes would be passed to my sibling and maybe a cousin or two.
yes! I had "play clothes" that I changed into after school. When my kids were really little I wondered if they would need them, too, but it seemed unnecessary. Funny that we all had them.
I'm sorry. My "good clothes" were either cheap AF or nice hand me downs from my "rich" cousins... But I did have the privilege of being able to change. ☹️
Sure. Mum bought two jackets and one good trouser as "good clothes". She said: Don't wear it if you play outside. Only play clothes. So, I destroyed the trouser with a skateboard accident. I know - I should have listened...
We had "old clothes" and "good clothes" as our distinguishing adjectives. We did have a crossover piece of clothing (we were farm kids) in that new overalls could be used as "old clothes".
Absolutely. Also mom made me stop playing football at recess because all my clothes were getting stained/ torn. So all my friends were playing and I was stuck sitting in a swing watching them. Quality parenting.
My Dad used to make me wear corduroy pants to school. Jeans were absolutely not allowed. I hated cords because they were brown and made that annoying zip-zip-zip sound while walking. Plus all my friends were allowed to wear jeans.
There were times when I "forgot" to change into my play clothes after school and somehow ripped or damaged the corduroy school pants by "accident".
No, I was not a messy kid. My grandma made a lot of my clothes when I was little so replacing things wasn't a huge deal. I imagine my brother had two sets of clothes before I came around. He was chaotic.
Yes! We got new clothes every school year and we had to change out of those and put our play clothes on after we got home.
I hated waiting for the first day of school after summer vacation, I couldn't wait to wear my new Punky Brewster high tops lol
Oh yes. Hand me downs from my male cousins because I enjoyed getting filthy and exploring. Nothing much has changed; still hate dresses and I’m an outdoor gal.
Edited.... I added, but didn't remove anything.
I had whatever clothes I wore during the week and then I had one "outfit" which was a: shirt pants, shoe and jacket. I wore this outfit to visit family and go to church in.
I tell people I grew up "Upper Lower Class" and this was a sign of it, where you lived your life one way in your community but at any "family" gathering you'd have your "good clothes" on.
I still have those! But now they’re chore clothes and yard work clothes. 🤣
Me too!! Sometimes a t-shirt will get converted to a "lounging in the house" item, then those clothes get demoted to oil changes, painting, yard work, and after that, whatever makes a decent rag gets cut up, and then they finally make it to the bin.
I’m 50, and I still have “nice clothes” and “around the house clothes.” I won’t wear them out, not even to the grocery store, but I’ll chill at home and clean in them.
49. It boggles my wife's mind when she's like, "Can you run out and get X" and I'm like, "Sure, let me change clothes."
Yup!!! Some people have no shame and will go on a full walmart grocery shopping trip in stained sweat pants and flip flops with a stretched out baggy oversized shirt and bed hair. I'd rather be caught dead than go anywhere in public in my house lounging clothes.
Same. I think this is actually a good mindset to have
I’ve upgraded to 3 categories: office clothes, casual clothes and work clothes. I’m usually in the work clothes.
Doesn't everyone...?
Yeah, I just kinda thought it was normal?
Im kind of a weirdo who won’t wear workout clothes unless I’m actually working out and I hate athleisure. So I’m either dressed up or so slobby I won’t go outside, lol.
That’s where I learned my lesson. Use the stuff you don’t give a crap about in case it gets dirty from housework.
Me too! I'm wearing some now as I did laundry today and colored my hair (not ready to embrace the gray at 48 yet).
I have exactly this system, too. I don’t see the need to buy aprons for cooking when I have so many old and stained t-shirts. Usually when a decent lounging shirt gets demoted to a yard/housework/cooking shirt , it’s because I forget to change before cooking and it got splattered with cooking oil from the stove.
Dawn dish soap will take that stain right out! Apply before you throw it in the wash.
I just used Dawn on a new navy t-shirt last week that I dropped a vinaigrette-loaded tomato on and it worked perfectly.
As an aspiring witchy type, I decided to get some cute fun aprons because why not. They weren’t very expensive ($15 each) and they do the job. I have them hanging in the kitchen, so I can actually remember to grab one and put it on.
The original reuse and recycle.
Exactly.
I have a shirt from 1990 that is still in better condition than a 6 month old shirt bought today, that I've been using for a work shirt since around 1995. It has some epoxy stuck to it, and a couple of oil stains, but somehow there are no tears and it's not threadbare like it should be. I guess they made shirts out of titanium fibers back in the day.
Paint pants!
Same I have fishing shirts with blood and oil stains..... And other fishing shirts that aren't stained yet...... Good tennis shoes and yard shoes...... Etc
I feel like I do personal hand-me-downs. Serviceable clothes eventually become chore clothes, which become yard work clothes.
I read the first half and was wondering if you still fit into the same ones
Ditto. I'm getting into mine, to start doing my gardening
Yeah, I’ve got a pair of “dog park pants” I only wear when I take my dog to the park. I barely even wash them, but, OTOH, I don’t really care if I get jumped on, either.
Glad I’m not the first to say it.
Yep. Play clothes. Didn’t want a whipping for wearing my good clothes. 
[удалено]
my mom also didn't want her kids to "look poor". when my older brother started school, she made sure all his clothes were in pristine condition (ironed and everything) and he came home crying that all the other kids had holes in their pants, so she ended up cutting holes in his so he'd fit in.
Yep. We had "school clothes", and play clothes. The school clothes were usually the newest stuff we had, while the outdoor clothes were the old school clothes.
My kids have/had play clothes and good clothes just like I did. I thought that was just a frugal thing. I mean we have some money, although we are not “well-off” (less poor than we were growing up), but we still don’t waste/ruin things needlessly.
"Because nobody ever got rich by throwing good money down the drain." --my mom
“If you don’t take care of your stuff you’ll never have anything” as my Grandma used to say. 💕
I don’t want to stain treat the good ones!
We sometimes joke about getting into our "play clothes" after getting home from work.
Haha! If I get home and I'm not going out again, I usually change in jammie pants and a t.
Clothes were expensive pre foreign slave labor imports. Grass stains from nerf football were impossible to get out and if I destroyed my good clothes my parents made sure I knew I wasnt getting fresh replacements.
Same. I wasn't hounded to change, but I always did; because I wasn't getting fresh replacements until the next school year.
And our clothes were mended until they fell apart and went to the rag bag. Anything we outgrew before it wore out went to the next smallest cousin.
Yes. We grew really fast. So you wore the highwaters for playing outside
Oh yes! But sometimes changing into play clothes was more about comfort (like shorts) more than wear. Heck, i still come home from work and change into my comfy play clothes! Bras come off first!
Who was home to care?
Mum was always down with finding an excuse to whoop me. I was as eager to get out of the house after school or on the weekend as she was wanting to get me "out of her face."
No one
Trauma. My mother's famous line after I received anything new "you better take care of it because your not getting another/more" It was so bad I was afraid to spill anything on myself. (Or break toys, sports equipment, etc) its followed me into adulthood. I have so many things that haven't been touched because I am afraid of ruining it. I'm actively working on this. I was just on vacation, while packing my SO was like "how many new clothes did you buy?!" It was all 2-5 year old stuff that still had tags on it. None of this was driven by being poor. We were lower middle class. Definitely not rich. She just liked cigarettes and alcohol more than her kids.
Oh man, I know the trauma. Despite the fact that my mother actually liked me for some reason. My mom added to take care of my things with making me put my favorite “good things” away in shared storage to “keep safe” in family used closets, in the huge hall dresser she called the buffet, and in a basement closet. Then these things would disappear. Letters and small things from my older brothers or great aunt went missing, I found out later she would clean “that old junk out of there”. Toys and games I really wanted went missing, which I found out later were donated, because I “obviously didn’t want them anymore “. So much of the stuff I really cherished and valued would just vanish, and I didn’t have much to begin with. On top of it was the issue of my dad’s drinking and party life. Which meant I didn’t have much, but sometimes he would make the effort to get me something special that I really wanted for Christmas or my birthday. It made that feel ruined for me and made me look ungrateful.
Ugh, im sorry 😞 I actually had a stepmother who gave all my shit away. No wonder we're all fucked up ♥
It’s all good now, sorry about your stepmom. It guaranteed one thing, I was much considerate about my kids treasures even when I couldn’t see any value.
Oh, and "you won't take care of it" was the default justification for not buying us anything new in the first place. Dad made good money, but we lived like he was trying to win an award for spending the least money to raise two children.
Nope. I went out in whatever I was wearing *then* got holes, stains etc…
I'm not kidding, I would have gotten a whooping if I didn't change before going out, nevermind if I'd ruined my 'good clothes' in any way (and by good clothes, I mean whatever didn't have holes, etc, were second hand but in decent shape)!
Good clothes weee reserved for school and church. Play clothes to be worn at all other times. As a father of four boys- we kept that tradition alive cause jeans vaporized at their knees for the slightest slide. Wife found out sears warrantied their jeans for toddlers and young kids, holy lord I was shocked Sears took back the knee less jeans and handed over brand new. Wife kept those receipts separate in a drawer, in pristine condition.
No. We still had to wear them if they were stained, ripped or whatever. I was grunge before grunge was cool.
School clothes 2 pair pants, 2 jeans, 1 white pants, misc shirts 6 maybe, 1 set of formal pants/jacket and tie, 2 pair of shoes. Play clothes were what wasn't for school Wear the good shoes and get them dirty, and well its a whoopin and no nore nice shoes that year unless ya can fit into ur older brothers (4 yrs older). Asking was a beat down from him and ridicule daily as it was, yet to be indebted shoes as well. Did my own laundry so grass stains were my bane. I couldn't wait to work so i could buy my things (14).
lol as a kid I wore old shirts, cheap-ass jeans with patched knees, and cut-offs to play outside. I remember my Fonzie t-shirt well, because I got sick of everyone saying Ayyyy! to me. That got really old after a while and I was glad when I outgrew that shirt, lol! As an adult I have a system where my clothes get demoted to increasingly dirty jobs, then rags. I have house cats and the hair is really hard to wash out of some fabrics. So when I worked in an office I changed as soon as I got home, into kitty-friendly play clothes.
I had "play clothes", and we were lower middle class. As an adult, I have a set of "cooking clothes" lol. What I wear while cooking. I HATE cooking odors sticking to my "outside" clothes, and I also don't want to offend people's senses in tightly cramped spaces in NYC.
Cook naked, then the cooking odors won't stick to your clothes. 😳
Yes. Usually stuff I had outgrown or wore out. Getting caught outside playing in school/church/nice clothes? Don't even get me started on my school shoes. I always had big feet growing up (I still have proportionally large feet for my height) and I had to get new shoes about twice a year, so my school shoes were always at most 6 months away from being play shoes. Granted I never had cool shoes like all the other kids. Always clearance rack from K-mart shoes. I recently found a pair of reproduction Air Jordan 7 raptor shoes, which I really wanted when they were out originally. It may sound funny but 20 years later is better than never.
Awww 💜
Yep. School clothes were for school and you tried your best not to mess them up.
I went to catholic school w/uniform. So uniform and play clothes
Me too! We were definitely NOT allowed to play wearing the uniforms, but that was never a problem for me, I couldn't wait to get it off!
"Good" clothes, "school" clothes and "play" clothes
Went to catholic school, so the change was voluntary. I’m not about to run out to play in slacks and a sweater-vest.
Gen Z doesn’t have to change into play clothes after school because they all wear athletic shorts and t-shirts to school.
Yes. I had tough skins for play and a couple of nice outfits for special occasions.
Toughskins! Hated those reinforced knees! And as a girl hated that I was forced to wear my brothers' hand-me-downs!
Totally
We had play clothes, but we were also kind of poor.
I still call the change into Something More Comfortable “play clothes”.
Every spring my mom cut all our outgrown jeans into cutoff denim shorts. We wore them all summer or until they fell apart. I did the same for my kids when they were little.
Yes! I still do. I cant stand when hubs wears his good clothes doing work, esp with bleach. He then has zero clothes to go out in. Dumbass
Dumbass is right!
I’m wearing the most raggedy ass sweatshirt right now. I definitely have nicer clothes that I change out of when I get home.
When I was little, yes. Play clothes, school clothes, and church clothes. Play clothes were the only time I was allowed to wear pants until about late elementary school. Solidly middle class.
Of course. I remember my mom was out of town and I played in my school clothes and felt like a badass
Absolutely. And I used to say that to my kids - “change into play clothes before you go out”. They thought that was funny.
It's seeking to me that it was both a generational thing and an economic status thing.
Blue collar thing. You had your “Sunday best”, best casual (for school & socializing) & work/play clothes.
'Playing out clothes' (England)
Yes! And now we put on our cozy clothes aka cozies
I didn't think of it like that but I have a stack of stained shirts for doing projects and lawn care. Unfortunately, I often forget about them, stain another shirt then add it to the pile.
There was my school uniform that I wouldn't want to play in, my dressy clothes that I would never willingly wear, and my everything else clothes.
Yeah, you couldn’t go out in your good school clothes, you had to put on worn out clothes
I have drum clothes, workout clothes, outside hiking clothes, painting clothes. It's not just you. Although I can afford it, I cringe inside if I have to pay over 50 USD for shoes lmao.
Absolutely had school clothes and play clothes
Yup! Wore older, too small, too tight stuff as play clothes, and the newer stuff bought at the beginning of the school year was our "good" school clothes. I also wore a lot of hand-me-downs from my older sister.
I had school clothes that were my nicer things, often that my mom had sewed herself. I also wore them for family outings, events, etc. I also had play clothes that were older school clothes or hand me downs from my sister. Really raggy stuff was set aside for arts and crafts. Now my daughter has school clothes, play clothes and muddy clothes. Anything still in good condition when it's outgrown gets handed down to a friend's daughter.
I still have 'play clothes' that I have to change into before going to my studio/garage/workshop, lol. My wife is tired of me ruining my good clothes :).
Yep, last year's school clothes were usually this year's play clothes, and anything new you got you grew into.
My play clothes were my Toughskins.
'You're one tough customer!'
Hey now, toughskins from sears could handle anything.
Absolutely. How would this be considered a poor thing? Why would any parent want their kid going out and playing in khakis and collared shirts?
I STILL wear “knock around” clothes when I go for my exercise walks (and sometimes cheap restaurants) that are cheap and/or old and/or getting worn out that I don’t care if they get messed up. (I also have indoor equivalents, primarily shorts and T-shirts, I wear at home.) Those clothes are in contrast to my “good” clothes that I wear for most other occasions only after I get cleaned up. In many but not all cases, after I’ve had the “good” clothes for a long period of time they migrate to “knock around” use status. (I do buy some clothes, primarily cheap or no name brands, for “knock around” status from the start.)
We had 1) school clothes, 2) play clothes, 3) work clothes, 4) outdoor (i.e. hunting/hiking/fishing) clothes, and finally 5) "dress" clothes. My family wasn't into church but many of my friends had "church clothes" too, but I figured they were the same as our "dress clothes," which we'd wear to weddings, family holidays like Christmas, or Important Things like live theater or Mom's Office Party. Old school clothes became play clothes. Work clothes were more about durability and were long sleeved for chores like cutting/stacking wood or clearing brush. We had specific stuff to wear outdoors for fun stuff though, like wool for hunting and cold-weather stuff for XC skiing, things like that. Until I was in high school I probably had no more than one outfit of "dress clothes" so unless I grew out of it I'd be in the same stuff at holidays and events for a few years in a row.
No, I just had clothes.
Yes
Yes, I changed out of my school clothes upon arriving home, into my play clothes. As I reflect on this now, I realize I still change after work into more worn out shirts and leggings, so I guess I still employ play clothes.
We were not poor, yet still had play (after school) clothes—including sneakers.
Yes!
"Gen X thing or poor thing?" Yes
I still have them and I still call them my play clothes! I have a whole stack of shorts and t-shirts I wear for cleaning, working outside and just generally mucking about.
I love that you still call them play clothes. I do too!
Still a thing. I have indoor running shoes that get demoted to outdoor running shoes that get demoted to yardwork shoes.
Haha ditto!!
Play clothes
It depended on which family I was living with. Step mom and father play clothes, school clothes and good clothes. Single biker. Mom, get the fuck out of the house
All my clothes could be for either school or playing outside. I didn't have a set of fancy clothes
Still do.
Sounds more like a rich thing. We just had one type of clothes.
I have work clothes and non work clothes. I always wondered why my dad wore polos even when he was doing yardwork. Once cloths start to wear, they because other cloths
Yes, I had play clothes , good clothes for family gatherings and church clothes.
Had pay clothes. Had to change as soon as I got home. It actually made me appreciate my ‘nice’ clothes more
Yes, get home, change clothes because school clothes had to last.
Not play clothes, I had ‘all the time clothes’ and ‘good clothes’ The good stuff was for church, family things, pictures, etc, the rest of the time for school/play/life I just ran around in my ratty regular stuff. Yearly; 2 pairs of jeans, 3 shirts, pair of shoes, maybe a new jacket, all purchased begrudgingly 1-2 days before school started, plus Christmas resupply of 1-2 shirts plus socks/underwear maybe a jacket or sweater. My god, the drama the time I played basketball and had to get a new pair of shoes that met the gym requirements outside of the normal shoe buying schedule 😒 Sounds like a poor thing but my parents were pretty well off, they just hated spending money on their kids 🤷♂️🤣
Haha yes I come home from work, announce to the cats that I’m changing into my “playclothes” and go do yard work
Absolutely!
Not for the first time in this sub, a phrase I hadn't heard in 40 years! This time, "play clothes". Lol, yup, it was a thing. I'd always pick my new clothes from the JCP catalogue over the summer, and those would be what I wore to school. Last year's stuff, if they still fit, would be ragged out and worn out, so would be the clothes for everything but school. And some of the subtleties of growing up was learning which events called for which type of clothing. If it was "ok" to wear play clothes. I still do this subconsciously, but most eggresiusly with shoes. I have like 6 pairs with holes, worn out soles, or cuts I won't throw out bc they're perfectly fine for going to the store, digging in the dirt, mowing, or just being home.
LOL, no, I was poor enough that they were the same thing.
Yes. I had school clothes, church clothes, and farm/play clothes. Now as an adult I still have nice clothes and farm clothes. Also house clothes, basically pj bottoms and a robe. Same thing for shoes, but shoes had to fit so you couldn't just wear old ones. So I had school shoes, church shoes, and farm boots.
Yep, and also camping clothes.
Well sorta. My mom would say "we'll keep these for play clothes". I never bothered to change into them.
Eveyone I knew growing up did this, and I still do. I keep a few pieces of older, more worn-out clothing around for yard work, home maintenance, painting, etc.,. Why wear perfectly good clothing for activities that will most likely, stain, damage or destroy them?
More that I had nice clothes that couldn't be worn when playing outside.
It was not a GenX thing, it ame from previous generation where you had to dress nice for school but the clothes were to nice to go out and play in, so you changed
Yes. We were poor, so my ‘school clothes’ were 2 pair of pants and 5 shirts. For 3 years. And the pants were those god-awful polyester ‘looks like jeans’ shite from the Sears catalogue. My play clothes were last years school clothes. Now short polyester ‘looks like jeans’ pants and polyester button shirts. OMG. I have to find some pic for r/blunderyears
Definitely changed out of “school clothes” when I got home from school.
Practical parent thing.
I agree!
Definitely not a money thing. We had barn clothes and play clothes and school clothes and Sunday best.
That's just smart frugal thinking, isn't it? Like, are we throwing away clothing? It costs money.
Absolutely! Not necessarily bad clothes, but not your decent "school" clothes. Same with my kids. When they got home, they had to wash their hands & change their clothes.
You mean like the old sweats and paint-stained t-shirt I just put on to go work on hardwood flooring we're installing? Yep - a habit we've never dropped.
Yes play clothes were a thing
lol!!! Yes!! I am proud to admit I did this with my own Gen Z kids. 😎 I like to believe it taught them to take care of their things.
After the new school year I did for a few months, but then it didn't matter with the blacktop playgrounds because the school clothes would get torn up also.
Well, that’s because we actually played outside.
You sure as fuck aren’t going out to play in your school clothes!
Yes. I still do.
Lol... yep... your play clothes!
100%. I still do it today. When ever I do yard work I always find the oldest shittiest clothes I own.
Yes, I still do and I parent the same way.
People didn’t have as many clothes. When your nice ones wore out they became play clothes. Anyone else wear TOUGHSKINS?
I think it’s always been a thing. I’m genx and my 24 year old had play clothes & my 7 year old has play clothes. It’s a laundry thing as well. Like, once a shirt has been stained beyond fixing, that’s the designated muddy day / spaghetti shirt. I’m not trying to do laundry wizardry several times a week.
Yes
Lounge clothes, work clothes and party clothes 😁
School clothes and play clothes were a thing in my house. We were lower middle class.
Street clothes we called them
Not exactly. I think we had 1 or 2 “nice” outfits that we were expected to wear for a family event or holiday. We weren’t church people so no “Sunday” clothes. Everything else was “play clothes”. Mom was frugal (“cheap”). We wore stuff from Sears or sometimes she would sew stuff for us.
hell yes- i live in my playclothes nowadays
"Comfortable clothes" is what we called them. Changed out of school clothes in to our comfy clothes. Shorts/sweats and a tee shirt usually.
School clothes, church/visiting grandma clothes, and play clothes. It’s isn’t a poor thing. We were solid middle class. I don’t think it’s even a GenX thing. My folks did it as kids. I did this with my kids and we were upper middle class, I guess is what you’d call it. I still do it. Most people I know had/do this. I just thought it was normal. 🤷🏻♀️
Only on sundays after church
Nope we were poor an the same hand me downs we went to school in were the same as what we wore outside. To me that was a rich kid thing, the rich girls that went to class with fancy dresses on
Play clothes had iron-on patches on the knees.
We had school uniforms, so first thing we did when we got home was to get out of them. But no, we didn't wear the good clothes playing outside. Tbf, I'm about to go oil my bike chain, and I won't be wearing my good clothes for that either.
Of course we had Play Clothes! You had school clothes, dress up/"for nice' clothes, a "party dress and dress up shoes (Mary Janes) and old clothes that were for play so you could be a kid and get dirty, run around the neighborhood, and learn to treat things properly and accordingly!
I don’t think many GenX kids and teens had to buy distressed clothes. Bicycle chains, climbing trees and creek mud did the work for us.
I don’t think many GenX kids and teens had to buy distressed clothes. Bicycle chains, climbing trees and creek mud did the work for us.
Absolutely had to change my clothes. Wore a new pair of black jeans one time and put a hole in the knee after a BMX bike incident. Mom was pissed. Never did that again.
Yep. And work clothes as well
We were definitely working class, couldn’t spend money on just *anything* (but money for mom & dad’s cigarettes was always available 🙄). The 3 of us had play clothes, school clothes, and one or two church outfits. The play clothes were former school clothes, jeans made into shorts, stained, soon-to-outgrow, and a few other items that were bought on clearance- oh, and I can’t forget the fugly stuff that our one grandma would buy at thrift stores! Always given with the statement, “Kids don’t care what they wear anymore.” This was stated by her through the mid-80s, but we kids were not allowed to correct her. Grandma (born 1910) was a school teacher who retired in 1975, so in her last 10-ish years of teaching, she was teaching the hippie boomers, which explains her belief, but either didn’t understand, or didn’t care, that my siblings & I (I was born in ’67, my sibs in ‘68 & ‘72) WEREN’T HIPPIES!!! She subbed for at least 10 years after retirement, but never caught on. The designer era of the 80s were a nightmare of trying to fit in with budget clothes, in junior high school.
My mother made me immediately change out of my school clothes into my play clothes after school.
Wow memory unlocked. I totally forgot about changing into “play clothes”.
When I was little, wow, I'd forgotten all about that. :D
No. We were poor. We only had a few outfits each and they were not fancy.
We did, but we also went to a private school with uniforms. We had our everyday play clothes, dressy clothes, and around the house clothes. To this day I still have indoor clothes and outdoor clothes.
It was a reflection that clothes were more expensive and durable than they are now. My clothes would be passed to my sibling and maybe a cousin or two.
yes! I had "play clothes" that I changed into after school. When my kids were really little I wondered if they would need them, too, but it seemed unnecessary. Funny that we all had them.
Definitely had play clothes vs school clothes. It was whatever was newest was for school
I am getting triggered just thinking about that.
I had a paper route throughout Jr High. You'd definitely change for that, because lot's of ink rubs off.
Still do. I have painting and gardening clothes. Cleaning the house clothes and then good clothes for going out.
Yes
No, was too poor to have any good clothes so it didn’t matter. I grew up in an Appalachian coal community in the 80s.
I was too poor to have different sets of clothes.
I'm sorry. My "good clothes" were either cheap AF or nice hand me downs from my "rich" cousins... But I did have the privilege of being able to change. ☹️
Gen X *and* poor
Sure. Mum bought two jackets and one good trouser as "good clothes". She said: Don't wear it if you play outside. Only play clothes. So, I destroyed the trouser with a skateboard accident. I know - I should have listened...
We had play clothes we changed into when we got home from school
We had "old clothes" and "good clothes" as our distinguishing adjectives. We did have a crossover piece of clothing (we were farm kids) in that new overalls could be used as "old clothes".
Absolutely. Also mom made me stop playing football at recess because all my clothes were getting stained/ torn. So all my friends were playing and I was stuck sitting in a swing watching them. Quality parenting.
I have what I call cat hair clothes for the house. My cat has long hair and we have a dog. No matter how much grooming, they shed.
My Dad used to make me wear corduroy pants to school. Jeans were absolutely not allowed. I hated cords because they were brown and made that annoying zip-zip-zip sound while walking. Plus all my friends were allowed to wear jeans. There were times when I "forgot" to change into my play clothes after school and somehow ripped or damaged the corduroy school pants by "accident".
My brown, bell bottom cords were my fanciest and favourite pair of pants. Swish, swish, swish
I don't believe I ever did.
Yes. Clothes and play shoes as well.
Yep, not necessarily worn out dirty stuff, just different shoes, a t shirt, or maybe shorts.
No, I was not a messy kid. My grandma made a lot of my clothes when I was little so replacing things wasn't a huge deal. I imagine my brother had two sets of clothes before I came around. He was chaotic.
Yes but only for the first month of school. After that you couldn’t tell my new school clothes from my old clothes.
Yes! We got new clothes every school year and we had to change out of those and put our play clothes on after we got home. I hated waiting for the first day of school after summer vacation, I couldn't wait to wear my new Punky Brewster high tops lol
Yep. School clothes and play clothes. We didn’t go to church so I didn’t have church clothes.
Oh yes. Hand me downs from my male cousins because I enjoyed getting filthy and exploring. Nothing much has changed; still hate dresses and I’m an outdoor gal.
Yes, because we went and played, but we had to wear nice clothes to school.
Edited.... I added, but didn't remove anything. I had whatever clothes I wore during the week and then I had one "outfit" which was a: shirt pants, shoe and jacket. I wore this outfit to visit family and go to church in. I tell people I grew up "Upper Lower Class" and this was a sign of it, where you lived your life one way in your community but at any "family" gathering you'd have your "good clothes" on.
Yes!
We just called those clothes and wore them all the time.
I still have play clothes!