Mom's Spandex School Drop-off Uniform: Yay or Nay?
Photo by Thinkstock
Before I did a one-year stint in Arizona several years back, I had never seen the mommy school drop-off uniform du jour — yoga pants, fluorescent tank top and ponytail — amped up quite as much as it was there. Sure, the state is super-hot many months of the year, but it was still surprising to see mothers wearing thigh-high spandex shorts over visible leopard thongs while walking their children into class. (Of course, no one seemed to notice besides me and my then 9-year-old son, whose eyes routinely popped out of his head while waiting with me in the car drop-off lane.)
When I returned to New York City, I noticed the similar outfits trending in front of schools here — except that there were far more yoga mats and far fewer (visible) thongs in the mix. It became clear to me then gymwear had become dailywear for moms no matter what part of the country they were in. And it turns out that moms’ opinions on the matter, as with most things, are a mixed bag.
“I’m not against moms working out and keeping fit,” says Andrea Cole, going by a pseudonym to avoid being perceived as a “hater.” She tells Yahoo Parenting, “I work out several times a week before my kids wake up, so it would be hypocritical to say otherwise. But most of the moms wear the clothes without working out. Wearing the outfit doesn’t make you an example of health — it just makes you look like you enjoy wearing super- tight clothing.”
Mona Shand, a Michigan-based journalist and mom of three kids ages 3, 5, and 7, believes that gym clothes should remain in the gym.
“I work out daily and run marathons, but you will never find me dropping off my kids in workout attire,” Shand tells Yahoo Parenting. “I liken it to this: I often work out in the pool, and it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to drop off my kids in my swimsuit. So why is it any better if I’m in running tights and a sports top? It isn’t real clothing and I think it sends a strange message to our kids.”
That message, Shand believes, is that exercise and fitness are all our lives are about. “If the goal is to show that exercise and fitness are part of a healthy life, wearing workout clothing all the time takes it too far,” she says.
And then there’s the contradictory behavior she’s seen at her son’s preschool. “There’s a huge parking lot about a two-minute walk from the building. But instead of using that lot, the spandex mafia (or as I like to call them, the ‘Lululemoms’) all pack into this tiny space right in front of the building, parking illegally on top of each other to save a few steps,” Shand says. “Why aren’t they showing their kids that fitness opportunities are all around us by parking as far away as possible to enjoy the walk together? Or is that fitness just for Crossfit and Zumba classes?”
Other moms think yoga pants are a popular go-to simply because they’re easy to throw on. “When I see moms wearing casual workout clothes, I don’t think about why or where they’re going or if they just finished up a spin class,” Stacie Krajchir-Tom, a Los Angeles mom of a 2-and-a-half-year-old son, tells Yahoo Parenting. “I think they’re just opting to be comfortable.”
Maybe wearing body-hugging spandex is just a fashion statement, and an opportunity to show off your buff body. Or could it be merely an aspirational status symbol, kind of like the ‘LA Law’ power suit of the ’80s was for women who longed to be lawyers?
“I think this look is right up there with wearing the six-carat diamond and Gucci purse,” says mom Anna Rodgers, who also asked Yahoo Parenting to change her name. “At the same time, I feel like if I complain about a mom who walks into my child’s class in skintight Lululemon pants, and her silicone friends sausaged into a tank top, that I look like I’m somehow jealous because I can’t pull that off — thighs too big, boobs too small.”
The getup may also be emblematic of the fact that moms are still under tremendous pressure to be über-everything: Put together, plus good at keeping everyone’s schedules in order, tidying the house, running a company, and having a hot dinner ready at the end of each day.
“I think this is just one more facet of the fact that women are supposed to be crossing all the t’s and dotting all the i’s,” says Andrea Bonior, a mom of three and a clinical psychologist in Washington, DC. “You have to be hitting the gym even if you have a high-powered job; the goal for moms today is to be super women.”
In the end, Cole finds it funny that she gets so much attention from kids, teachers and other moms when she shows up to school in a smart suit and high heels, her hair and makeup done.
“I think being dressed for work shows the kids, especially the little girls, that women can be successful executives as well as great moms,” she says. “My daughters love it when I come to school for lunch because their friends always ooh and ahh over my outfit and I think they love it all the more because they’re only used to seeing moms in yoga pants or sweats.”
