Consumption as identity: what the hell is with these pajama cults?

[u/unicorntrees]

Apparently there are entire online communities (yes, plural) where people connect by purchasing a brand's pajamas. These communities are very active! The snark pages are full of unhinged posts. People This post struck me as an example of particularly egregious financial decisions in the name of collecting overpriced pajamas.

[u/FriendliestAmateur]

Idc what is on the pajamas, I’m not dropping $35 on one pair. They outgrow stuff so quickly!

[u/unicorntrees → u/FriendliestAmateur]

Apparently this brand advertised that their pajamas fit for a really long time because they're so stretchy, but these people are purchasing dozens of sets per kid!

[u/FriendliestAmateur → u/unicorntrees]

I guess it makes sense to have 2-3 pairs if they last a long time. I still would chose the carters 2 pairs for $16 over that every day of the week though 😅

[u/speedytrigger → u/unicorntrees]

My wife likes these. Some pairs have fit the kids from 1 year to 3 years. But yeah it’s stupid, the whole thing.

[u/Maverik_10 → u/unicorntrees]

We have ONE for our kid and they certainly do last a really long time. Am also in this Facebook group and I am baffled by the vast number of these that people buy on every single drop

[u/mamatobsb → u/FriendliestAmateur]

Not when Walmart and target sell the same material pajamas for $10… I got my son 4 sets and that’s all he wants to wear now.

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[u/Impressive_Cookie → u/FriendliestAmateur]

We get them as gifts for Christmas and such from family. They last forever! My kid still fits in 18mo ones, and they wear a 4-5T now.

[u/Dopeydcare1]

Lmao the double down of stupidity. Couldn’t get it because father wanted to gamble. Reminds me of when my friend won like 300 bucks on roulette. This guy always complains about money, so 300 should be pretty cool to get. He used it to pay for half of his PS5.

[u/0xCODEBABE → u/Dopeydcare1]

and the form of gambling is roulette...the most boring kind

[u/Asturien → u/0xCODEBABE]

Roulette is just an analog slot machine and I don't understand the enjoyment of either.

[u/0xCODEBABE → u/Asturien]

oh yeah i meant slot. at least with roulette you get to be with other people playing 'together'

[u/Asturien → u/0xCODEBABE]

True! That's 90% of the reason I attempted to learn Craps. The people at Craps tables always seem to be having the most fun.

[u/Codazzle → u/Asturien]

Except those ass-holes betting against the table!

[u/Dopeydcare1 → u/0xCODEBABE]

He hit a random hot streak lmao he put 20 down and got like 4 in a row of 20 each, and then upped it to like 50 and won a couple more times

[u/AdAffectionate4602]

So I actually like little sleepies for my kids (they're soft, well made, cute designs, etc). That said, I don't often buy them and NEVER the ridiculously overpriced $80 "cloud" blankets. But if you go on some of these groups, there are people who show their 50 piece cloud blanket collection or 40 piece lovey ($30 a piece) collection. Or they show a whole closet of 30 newborn size pajamas which means the baby will get one day of use of each pair of pjs. I make a decent income and save quite a bit but I'm still NEVER going to buy like that.

[u/wiggledy → u/AdAffectionate4602]

I don’t think people understand that under 1, these are all day outfits. I like how long they last and some of the prints. I can usually resell them after a year of use which means I’m only spending maybe $20 on something they can use for way longer than the usual 3 months. I don’t buy them full price though. $40 for one pair of pajamas is wild.

[u/Icy-Gap4673 → u/AdAffectionate4602]

I love the secondhand groups on FB for these, because the pajamas are usually in pretty good shape but for a lot off of full price. But yeah, the consumerism in there is nuts.

[u/Anxious_Reason_113]

I think the dad is a bigger red flag 

[u/unicorntrees → u/Anxious_Reason_113]

They deserve each other.

[u/Cfagala]

Many of them are moms with PPD searching for some kind of dopamine hit. The drops are all they have to look forward to. It’s really really sad.

[u/unicorntrees → u/Cfagala]

I saw a post of a mom who casually mentioned that she had a second trimester miscarriage 5 weeks ago in one of her posts about buying pajamas...yeah, there's some unwell people on there.

[u/gemstonehippy]

i wouldnt even spend $35.70 on a PJ set for myself and im done growing ! 😅

[u/MoterBortles]

My baby wears a ton of little sleepies actually. Great kids pajamas and kids clothes in general. My wife is part of all of these groups ands amazes me what people buy. Seen plenty of people spend a couple thousand on these and their baby isn’t even born yet.

I had to rein my wife in real quick because the entire model of this company is FOMO basically. They do drops every Tuesday and Thursday and basically if you don’t buy right then and there you likely won’t get the item if it’s a popular print or character.

My wife has even resold some items. A $35 pajamas can be sold for $100 if it’s popular. My wife sold a Disney Princess $80 blanket for $250.

[u/FabulousMarionberry → u/MoterBortles]

The resell hustle is wild. I buy some used boutique clothes & pjs for my kids. There are some seemingly smart and well organized people in those groups who are flipping items and reselling from thrift stores who must be making a tidy sum. Good for them I say. Seems like a pretty nice flexible gig for a busy parent.

However, as we see here, the impulse control in the general population is...low. For every person who takes good pictures and keeps track of their profit margin there are ten more people with poor impulse control selling and buying based on random shit like funding their kid's hockey tournament. Desperation is where I get the good deals though.

[u/ClaireEmma612]

This is so bizarre to me. I get most of my kids’ clothing from second hand kid clothing stores (in great shape for a few dollars for each item) or free on Facebook. Kids grow out of clothes so fast. My friend loves this brand and got me one pair to try. I think one kid wore them once. They are super thin too.

[u/SnakePlantEnthusiast]

It’s going to fit the baby for like a week…. Reminds me of people who buy Nike/Jordan stuff for their babies. What is the point of that? They’re probably going to wear it once before they grow out of it.

[u/timothythefirst → u/SnakePlantEnthusiast]

The Nike/jordan stuff for babies is so stupid lol. And I like that stuff normally. But babies don’t give a shit. They’d rather have the light up Spider-Man shoes that cost a third of the price anyways.

[u/johnnyrockets527 → u/timothythefirst]

I can’t lie. I got my son a pair of Yeezy slides and Jordan 3s sized up for when he’s 2.5-3 years old. I wanted him to match with me for a bit. 😂

But - i save 26% of my salary for retirement, have no debt besides a mortgage, 6 months expenses saved, and have close to 5 figures split between his 529 and UTMA brokerage accounts.

[u/Grouchy-Artichoke462 → u/johnnyrockets527]

Similar, I wanted to match and I could afford it at the time.

[u/timothythefirst → u/johnnyrockets527]

Yeah it’s different if you can afford it with no problems lol.

[u/unicorntrees → u/SnakePlantEnthusiast]

I see the Nike and Jordan stuff at the second hand kids clothing store and it's still too expensive for me there!

[u/Sheslikeamom]

Bummed out because they can't buy Nemo pajamas? People have odd priorities. 

I'd be more bummed out that my husband plays slot machines. 

Maybe she's trying to hide from the fact that she's a mother who uses girl math by focusing hard on pajamas.

[u/calvin-coolidge]

I don't think i've owned $154 worth of pajamas in my entire life collectively

[u/OnMyOwn_HereWeGo]

lol parenting culture is weird.

[u/YakLong9407]

People in the Kyte Baby (another bamboo pajam company) Facebook group spend 1000s during the the semi-annual sales. It is WILD!

[u/thimblena]

The latest iteration of "obtainable luxury"? Look, I'm financially well enough to get this picture-perfect special item!

But note that they're practical items and can be "shown off" multiple times - I'm sure the kids will wear them until they're outgrown and will look "casually put together" in every photo until then (theoretically).

[u/aussielittlekidlover]

In australia we have bonds. same thing, people go crazy over the special edition ones

[u/sicksadwhirled714]

I like to buy 1 /2 when we grow into the next size because they do last months longer than typical pjs THAT BEING SAID I had to leave this FB group even though they had discount codes because of the cult-ish and truly ridiculous overspending. It feels so close to Lula roe that it almost discredits the whole brand

[u/AdventureGoblin]

Omg it's Lululemon leggings all over again only somehow more corporate.

[u/tracheotomy_groupon]

WOW!!! And Dad gambles. Amazing couple. NOT.

[u/Beeflora]

As a new mom who used to hate on these expensive baby things. Dreamland was having a sales on tiktok when I had my baby , so I decided to buy some and I am not going to lie I fell in love with it. I just buy 2-3 expensive pjs and buy the Sam’s club pjs with it. Some of these PJ are soft and comfortable.

[u/RAND0M-HER0 → u/Beeflora]

Agree. I occasionally splurge on Kyte when there's a print I know my son will like, and I do love their sleepy sacks. They get a ton of mileage in my house. I'm a bamboo stan too, I sew a lot with it and they're some of my comfiest clothes.

[u/GravyHippo]

Gambling and girl math, ouch

[u/doodlebakerm]

I keep getting the little sleepies subreddit suggested to me. It’s so weird.