OK, I confess. I have been known to appear at school drop-off on particularly rushed mornings sporting a pair of pajama bottoms, or even a PJ top hidden under my coat (winter is handy that way). It’s happened only a few times, only in the mornings, and I’m not proud of it. But no one, even a harried stay-at-home mom, would ever actually go into a store or anywhere else in public like that, right?

Wrong.

So wrong, in fact, that Tesco, a giant grocery chain in the UK, has actually had to enact an official store policy banning patrons wearing slippers and/or nightwear.

Read Help! I’ve Got Mommy Brain

London’s Daily Mail reports a notice posted at the entrance to a Tesco superstore in Wales: “To avoid causing embarrassment to others we ask that our customers are appropriately dressed when visiting our store (footwear must be worn at all times and no nightwear is permitted).”

This woman pictured at the left, mother-of-two Elaine Carmody, 24, was one of the first pajama-wearing Tesco customers be marched out by a security guard.

She said: “I just don't understand it. I go in other shops in my pajamas and they don't say anything. … it is ridiculous and stupid. I've got lovely pairs of pajamas, with bears and penguins on them. I've worn my best ones today, just so I look tidy.”

Bears and penguins?

For heaven’s sakes, moms, have some pride! I don’t actually care so much about what the other shoppers are thinking: Is a mother in her flannels really a lot worse than Britney Spears prancing through Target half-naked, in an outfit consisting mainly of flip-flops, cut-offs and a Starbucks cup? The problem is a matter of self-respect. How can you take yourself, and what you do in life, seriously, if you don’t think you’re important enough to even bother getting dressed in the morning?