Isn’t there the old saying that women love a man in uniform? According to my wife, as a stay at home dad, I have created some new uniforms. Unfortunately she is not a fan of them. Over the years in my past jobs, I have had a pretty lax dress code. For example before I stayed home with my kids, my last job was at a radio station. I would typically wear an Air Jordan shirt, a comic book shirt, or a Bo Jackson throwback jersey, cargo shorts, and Air Jordans that would match my outfit. If it was snowing out I would wear jeans.
Now times have changed and I am at home with the girls. I used to try and dress nice. I would wear nice pair of shorts, iconic polo shirts from Fred Perry, and of course Air Jordans that would match the outfit. If you’re looking for custom polos, then you may consider checking out these custom embroidered polos.
Then something happened. It seemed that every time I would do a craft with my daughters, I would get glue, paint, or marker on my shirt or pants. For those who have seen the film Dogma, I was like Alan Rickman’s character, The Metatron, I would always get some stain on my shirt.
One day I said, “To hell with this.” I started wearing gym shorts and a comic book t-shirt. I could care less if I got chocolate milk stains, bedazzle buttons glued to the back of my shirt, or if my clothes were covered in strawberry shortcake stickers. My wardrobe could look like a wall of graffiti done by kids and I would be cool with it. They were clothes built to take that sort of punishment.
Then one day it happened. I was getting ready to take my oldest to pre-school and then my youngest with me to go to the grocery store. The girls and I were leaving the same time my wife was going off to work. As I said, “Let’s go kids. We are gonna get in the car,” my wife looked at me. She said, “You are going out in that?” I paused to look to see if I was wearing a shirt and I was. I said “Yea, what’s wrong with my outfit?” She smiled and said nothing more….that day.
Later in the week when she came home from work, she gave me the same glance. I knew something was up. After we put the kids to bed, my wife and I were starting up some conversation. As we were talking she gave me the glance again. I asked her what was up. She asked if I wanted to dress up sometimes because she liked to see me “put together.” She told me she missed the days where I would wear something other than a Wolverine t-shirt and gym shorts. Then she would wear Spell Dress at Roar to dress up. All of a sudden it hit me. We were having the opposite conversation that a stay at home mom had with the husband who came home from work.
We laughed about it and I told her my reasoning. I said that without fail I would get my “good” clothes dirty. She understood but said sometimes it would be nice for me to look “put together.” To this day she still refers to my t-shirt and gym shorts as “the uniform.” On occasion I do dress up nice for her, but it seems those are the days that after we put the kids to bed she puts on her comfy clothes…go figure.