Pocket

Every mom has something she lets go in order to make time for her children’s needs. For some it’s time with friends, for others, it’s exercising. For me, it’s pants.

A few years ago, right about the time that everyone started school and mornings began to be the most hectic part of my day, I discovered sleep shorts. These allow me to go from night to day without having to add layers or change clothes. If I’m going to be honest about it, they are essentially underwear with a pocket. However, I have insisted for years that the pocket makes them perfectly acceptable day wear. After all, what does one need a pocket for while sleeping? I’ll give you a second to ponder that one. . . . .

Nothing? Exactly. So as I reasoned, the manufacturers of these shorts intended for people to wear them out and about and therefore, added a pocket for keys, a wallet, or a phone. (I say “or” because it’s highly unlikely that you can fit all of these items in this particular pocket.) So I did what the designer of these shorts intended me to do. I began wearing them out. A lot.

I have acquired enough pairs of sleep shorts to wear every single night, which means that on any given morning, prior to 10 am (or noon), you will find me in them. It’s not like I do my grocery shopping in these shorts, but I don’t hesitate to visit the Starbucks drive through or drop my kids off at school in my shorts. As the years have gone by, I’ve also been known to stop by friends’ homes in my shorts. I guess I thought if I styled them with a denim jacket, sunglasses, and Ugg boots, I would convince people that I was fully dressed. There is, however, one person I have not been successful in convincing.

After two and a half years being dropped off at school by a mother wearing “shorts”, #1 had enough. As we were sitting waiting for the carpool line to move this morning, he said, “Mom, don’t you ever worry someone is going to see you in that?”

I looked down trying to figure out what exactly he was referring to. “See me in what,” I responded.

“Those, um, shorts,” he answered.

“Would you like me to wear pants from now on?!” I jokingly said, assuming he was just teasing me.

“Please,” he answered seriously and then stared out his window.

I wanted to tell him about the pocket, and how that meant they were for people to see, but he’s right. Pocket or no pocket, my shorts aren’t made to wear out and about, and I’ll have to get up earlier now to put on pants. Who am I kidding? I don’t have time for that. From now on, I’m sleeping in my jeans.