Rachel Griffin-Accurso, better known as Ms. Rachel, is a passionate educator who creates videos to help toddlers and their families learn and bond.
Rachel has two master's degrees in education, with one of them being in early childhood development and the other in music education, and her clips often infuse songs, games, and nursery rhymes with strategies from experts to help children reach important milestones in the crucial early years of learning.
Her dedicated work has earned Rachel millions of followers and billions of views across various social media platforms, but one of her recent uploads has caused a bit of a stir.
Parents have so many responsibilities that they often feel like there's not enough time in the day
Image credits: monkeybusiness (not the actual photo)
But after this mom revealed how she speeds up her little boy's morning school run, the internet was ablaze with differing opinions and heated discussions
Image credits: msrachelforlittles
The woman who is known online as Ms. Rachel revealed that she dresses her son at night, before bed
Image credits: msrachelforlittles
“We put on a nice new shirt, sweatpants - super comfy, great for jammies.”
Image credits: msrachelforlittles
“Someday I'll teach him to wake up for school and get dressed, and that will be a very good thing to teach, but I can't do that right now.”
Image credits: msrachelforlittles
“And that's okay, I'm doing my best and so are you and I love you.”
People generally agree that you should sleep with your clothes on
When Sleepopolis surveyed 300 Americans regarding their thoughts on the topic, a solid majority (64.7 percent of respondents) said they did have some opposition to wearing street or "outside" clothes to bed.
When asked how often they change out of street clothes before getting into bed, 43.3 percent said "always," followed by 30.3 percent who said "most of the time," while the lowest share of respondents said "never" — only 9 percent.
When asked how likely they are to change out of street clothes to lay down for a nap or to rest, 42.7 percent of respondents said "very likely" and 21.3 percent said "likely."
Finally, when asked how strongly respondents agreed with the statement "Clothes worn outside the house are too dirty to wear in my bed," 28 percent of respondents said they "strongly agree," while 21.3 percent said they "agree," and another 23 percent said they "somewhat agree," while 22 percent said they "disagree."
So even though there is some variation within the results, the overall trend suggests that many Americans tend to change out of their outside clothes before getting into bed, or at least believe that we should.
Image credits: Ron Lach (not the actual photo)
But there's nothing inherently wrong with it
A lot of those who objected to Ms. Rachel's practice cited hygiene as a concerning factor. But the truth is that while clothes can pick up and spread germs, in most cases, the risk they present is very low.
"The main reason not to sleep in outside clothes is discomfort," Robert Philip Lindeman, MD, Ph.D. said. "I know of no particular infectious risk of doing this."
According to him, there is not much concern about bacteria or viruses from clothes that have been outside.
Sean Marchese, MS, RN from The Mesothelioma Center, agrees.
"For highly contagious diseases, such as the flu or COVID-19, the infection occurs when someone carrying", Marchese added. "It can also transfer via droplets on surfaces you touch, but these droplets are likely to dry or evaporate from your clothes by the time you get home."
Additionally, most healthy people's immune systems are strong enough to ward off any potential harm from bacteria or pathogens that may have lodged onto their clothes while out of the house.
So if Ms. Rachel believes that, right now, putting her son to sleep with his clothes on is the best solution, we can disagree with her, but we certainly can't blame her for it. Sounds like it all boils down to parental preferences.
Image credits: Jaymantri (not the actual photo)
As her video went viral, Ms. Rachel added an explanation to answer the common questions
Many people thought this was a good idea
But a considerable amount disagreed with her approach
