This Person Was Yelled at for Wearing Scrubs While Not Being a Nurse, Internet Defends the Wearer

If you've ever worked at a place that made you wear a uniform (like a Starbucks apron or a Walmart shirt) and you ended up leaving the job, did you take the shirt with you? Did you ever find yourself in a position where no one said you had to give it back, so you decided to keep it? Even if you did bring it home to keep, would you even wear that highly specific garment out in public all that often?

It might not be something you have to deal with immediately, but it is an interesting concept. How often would you have to decide whether or not you keep your work clothes for personal use?

You might be interested to know, however, that this conundrum was brought up for real when it came to medical scrubs. In fact, one woman was yelled at for her personal use of scrubs even though she was not a nurse. Here's what the internet has to say about her unorthodox fashion choice.

The woman laid it all out in an "Am I the A------?" (AITA) thread on Reddit. As she tells it, they had worked as a kennel technician at a pet store while they were in high school. They were required to wear scrubs to work every day but mostly acted as an assistant to more professional vets as they cared for puppies.

After OP started college, they left their job at the pet store and tried to find a better-paying job to help pay her way through college. When she quit, however, she was apparently able to keep the pants portion of her scrubs and was more than happy to take them home.

"Nurses have been holding out on us, [because] scrubs are really comfortable," she expressed. "I treat them like sweatpants."

She went on to explain that she never goes out in public wearing them and only wears them around her house. Clearly, she was taking steps to avoid anyone confusing her for a nurse. While she most certainly should be able to wear anything she wants in her own home, a neighbor was, unfortunately, able to circumvent OP's steps to prevent any confusion.

When she went to check her mail while wearing her scrubs, her neighbor saw her clothing choice and excitedly mistook OP for a nursing student just like her daughter. OP corrected her, stating that she wasn't studying nursing while at college.

The neighbor reportedly got mad. As OP remembered it, the neighbor compared her wearing scrubs casually to "stolen valor." The neighbor believed that the right to wear scrubs had to be earned. She even vague-posted about it on Facebook.

OP decided to put her actions up for debate on her AITA thread. Interestingly enough, many declared her as "NTA" (or "not the a------").

While some folks seemed to share the neighbor's sentiment that they should only be worn by medical professionals, many believe that OP was entitled to wear whatever she wanted in her own home.

"Tons of people wear [scrubs] for work such as kitchen staff, admin staff in the medical field, [and] regular office workers," one person argued. "They are basically cotton PJ pants."

Another persons stated, "They had me wear scrubs for two months straight last time I was on a psych ward because I went in without a change of clothes. Glad I didn't offend the RNs."

Other people shared similar stories where folks who weren't medical professionals but had to wear scrubs at work still wore them while at home. Scrubs were still required attire, even though the professional workers weren't specifically medical professionals, meaning that earning the right to wear scrubs is practically moot.

Obviously, wearing scrubs and pretending that you are a doctor is a completely different issue. That's highly illegal and could get people hurt. But OP's situation was nowhere near that drastic. For all intents and purposes, she wore scrubs to be comfy in the safety of her own home. No one would be concerned with her scrubs qualifications while she was trying to get her mail.

If you're just vibing in your own home, you absolutely should not feel as if you need to earn the right to wear whatever you want, even if they are scrubs from your old high school job.