You know you've been slacking off as a mother when you tell your daughter to get dressed and she counters with, "Why?"
I was about to answer with something like "because I said so" or "because that's what people do...I think?" but my tongue got caught and instead I said, "I don't know. Just get dressed."
In fact, the only reason we were dressing in the a.m. was to go to an appointment. I do try to have all of us (myself included) dressed and breakfasted and ready to greet each day, but it usually ends up being lunchtime by the time this is accomplished. And some days it doesn't seem worth the effort to swap out their pajamas for day clothes when they're just going to go to bed again 12 hours later. I know--mom of the year committee should be ringing me any day now.
When I was single, it was typical to wear pajamas all day on a day off when I wasn't expected to go anywhere. When I was married without children, we'd look forward to those days of staying indoors and staying in our pajamas. Now that I have kids, there's suddenly all this societal pressure to teach my children by demonstration that living your entire life in your pajamas is probably not the best way to be a productive member of civilization.
If in twenty years you see two young adults walking around town in their pajamas and blinking confusedly at the sunlight, treat them kindly. Their mother was also a very confused person.
