Fie on the Footie Fetish

I don’t share Lynne Kiesling’s nostalgia for footie pajamas. As a child, I detested them for two reasons. First, the foot-bottoms were made of vinyl, which meant they couldn’t absorb even the slightest bit of foot-sweat. Hence the persistent slippery-sticky feeling on the soles of my tootsies. Second, children’s legs have a tendency to grow quickly – or at least mine did. Open-leg PJs can accommodate the fast growth by showing more and more ankle (and who really cares if PJs are high-waters?). Footie PJs, by contrast, can only accommodate the growth by pulling the waistline down, until eventually the elastic is just barely above your crotch. I remember many times trying in vain to pull my pajama pants up, thereby slowly ripping the vinyl soles from the feet.

The new adult footie pajamas, which inspired Lynne’s post, may avoid these problems. I can’t tell whether the soles are vinyl. But at least your leg growth is finished by the time you’re an adult, so the pajamas should last a while longer. I won’t be buying any, though. When I sleep, I use my feet as temperature moderators – poking one out from under the covers if I’m too hot, pulling it back in if I’m too cold. Having my feet covered at all times would stymie my long-standing temperature-control strategy.