A Dress Code For Stay-at-Home Partners?

Dressing Well Promotes Well-being

Homebody Chic

If there was one lesson learned during the pandemic, it was the realization that if you work from home, lounge wear is professional attire — at least halfway (the bottom half of a Zoom call).

However, for people who have continued to telework, or are staying home to raise children, is there a downside of dressing down?

That amswer is dependent on whether or not you live with a partner?

The answer is: it depends. Researchers and real people share some interesting stories.

Dressing Up to Stay Home: Channeling June Cleaver

Some of you might remember June Cleaver’s classic family home chic dresses worn with heels and pearls, as she portrayed the consummate homemaker in the late 1950s "Leave it to Beaver."

Over the years, real mothers have shared their stories about the benefits of dressing up to stay home.

Megan Madden, a stay-at-home mother of five, shared her home-maker style with the Epoch Times in June 2023, in a piece aptly entitled: '"My Mom-Uniform": Mom of Five Wears Dresses Every Day, Celebrating Femininity, Modesty, and Motherhood."

Instead of staying in her pajamas, Megan dons beautiful dresses every single day, explaining that her wardrobe reflects her basic values of modesty, femininity, and "worth as a wife and mother."

As a bonus benefit: Megan insists the dresses are comfortable.

Researchers have long been examining the factors that impact women’s choice of apparel, both in and out of the home.

Dress for Success — Personally and Professionally

Clothing choice depends on where and when they will be worn, involving a balance of fashion and function. This has apparently been true for many years.

Decades ago, Nancy Cassill examined the impact of employment orientation on women’s clothing choice. Polling 383 female consumers between the ages of 25 to 44, using mail questionnaires, she found that employment orientation had a significant impact on apparel decisions, as well as the evaluation of imported clothing.

She also found that women in the workforce were more concerned with brand names, while their nonemployed counterparts were more concerned with apparel care.

And when evaluating imported attire, Cassill noted that women who were unemployed considered it more acceptable to buy imported clothing if it was cheaper than domestic, as compared with women in the workforce.

Women today no doubt feel the same way regarding the balance of comfort and style. Megan Madden describes the value of dresses as her "mom-uniform," that make her "feel put together, ready for my day, and dressed in a way that shows the dignity of my work as a stay-at-home mom."

Yet whether staying in or going out, our well-being is also impacted by the way others respond to us.

Dressing Well Impacts Wellness

Megan Madden recalls an interaction she had while running errands with three of her children. An older man working a cash register remarked, "You look so nice, what are you so dressed up for?" Megan thanked the man, and explained that she was "just dressing for [her] day as a mom," an explanation the man described as beautiful, wishing more women would do the same.

This interaction illustrates the reality that while self-esteem stems from a variety of sources, one of them is the way others treat us — which changes based on how we are dressed.

There is a quiet confidence and calmness created through intentionally dressing well, whether staying home or going out. The opposite is also true, as many people describe catching a glimpse of themselves in the mirror at home and being unpleasantly surprised.

The bottom line appears to be that there is value in being both comfortable and presentable, both to ourselves as well as others.

This article was originally published in Psychology Today and is used with the permission of its author.

(A related article may be found here.)

Wendy L. Patrick, JD, MDiv, Ph.D., is an award-winning career trial attorney and media commentator. She is host of "Live with Dr. Wendy" on KCBQ, and a daily guest on other media outlets, delivering a lively mix of flash, substance, and style. Read Dr. Wendy L. Patrick's Reports — More Here.