A CorporetteMoms Survey, a Week in the Life, and a few more admin questions…
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Hi guys! OK, I have been working on this survey for what seems like AGES and I keep making changes — I’m ready to release the Kraken! We haven’t taken an official survey of readers since we started CorporetteMoms almost three years ago. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take the survey so we can assess how we’re doing on current content, what to include in future content, and more. To sweeten the pot a bit, if you take the survey you can be entered to win a $200 gift card to Amazon because, HEY, what can’t you get at Amazon? The gift card sweepstakes will be open for one week; unfortunately it’s only open to U.S. residents age 18 or older. (4/13/17 UPDATE: THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. You can still take the survey here if you want!)
A Week in the Life of a Real Working Mom
Something I noticed while going through the 2014 survey was that a lot of people wanted a “day in the life” of regular working moms, so I’m going to be sending a form around to a few of my working mom friends. (I’ve expanded it to a “week in the life” since so often, for me at least, a day in the life looks like “dropped kids off at 8. picked kids up at 5. worked nonstop between.”) so I thought we’d expand to a full week. If you’d like to be featured (anonymously or otherwise) for a “week in the life” feature, please fill out this form here!
A big question for your discussion in the comments, though: the morning editorial schedule for posts.
I’ve been contemplating changes to the format of this site, at least in our morning open thread posts — the current structure, as it is, feels a bit constrained to me and too heavy on maternity clothes (which everyone has been saying), and I’d love your feedback on what else you’d like to see — and what you’d like to keep). (Pictured.) These are the current rough themes we try to follow:
- Maternity Monday: Featuring one piece of wear-it-to work maternitywear. The problem I’m finding is that there really is a limited collection of truly great, recommendable workwear for pregnant ladies. I’d almost rather do an ebook or free download or something to help pregnant moms.
- Nursing/Feeding Tuesday: Originally this was going to be a nursing-friendly top for the postpartum mom. We quickly added a pumping-friendly top category to alternate with the nursing tops, and then we also added a general feeding category to include baby spoons, pouches, etc. But as I’ve noted in the past, I think you can pump in almost anything except for sheath dresses, and these days it seems like there is more and more overlap between nursing clothes and maternity clothes. As for feeding, for my family we have a few “hits” that work for us (the Zoli, the Take n Toss, etc), and writing about something new all the time (just because it’s new) seems unhelpful. We’ve recently expanded this to include random categories like “Things You Can Buy While Shopping For Your Kids Tuesday.”
- Washable Wednesday: This one was a hit right away and I’m not seriously thinking of changing this one — like you guys, I definitely prefer to wear clothes that are easy to care for.
- Everyone Thursday: The original idea here was that everyone could wear it, whether you were pregnant, nursing, or beyond. We feature a lot of blazers and necklaces, but is sometimes a shoe or bag. This just seems like a weird category to me.
- Finally Friday: This one tends to be a shoe or bag, but sometimes is a weekend rec, sometimes not.
So those are the current categories. What else would you like to see to head off the morning post open threads? More shoes or bags? More budget items? Maybe “Casual Office” Friday? More kid gear? Organizing tools for your home and office? To be honest (based on my own post-kid wardrobe), I try to keep everything here on the frugal side, but we could include splurgey choices or have an explicit day for bargains.
A few notes, if you’re curious:
- The original idea for CorporetteMoms was to have a heavy content component of multiple moms blogging about their work/life balance. I immediately got overwhelmed with the idea of the work we’d have to do as editors — harassing people to turn in posts so we could have a consistent editorial schedule, editing their posts, doing SEO research, doing all the social media promotion and graphics, and more — so for the moment that’s on the back burner.
- GOD, YES, I KNOW WE NEED A NEW LOGO. The holdup is that we also need a new logo at Corporette as well as a redesign and I’ve been going back and forth with various designers for two years now.
I took the survey but couldn’t figure out a way to express this thought, so here goes again. I enjoy seeing the professional clothes on the other site. I could use some help with non-work dressing (or dressing for a more business casual type environment, like academia) for a busy active mom. What is in fashion? Did the trendy jean silhouette change again? Should I be shopping at Athleta? (love the fair trade emphasis I saw in the catalog) What will make me look frumpy?
I find myself with the end of my pregnancy/nursing/pumping days in sight and looking forward to updating my wardrobe, since I only bought it in the last four years if accommodated a belly and/or nursing. The main site’s recommendations are great but what about a “mom splurge” category? Something beautiful (earrings, a statement necklace, a wrap, a bag, a dress, a jacket), not cheap but within a reasonable range for someone paying two mortgages worth of daycare, not a basic but not frivolous, something the purchase of which would make me feel like I’m engaging in a little retail self-care without being irresponsible?
I too would love more work-life commentary from exactly the types of people in this community. Doesn’t have to be a constant feature – even occasional posts would be great.
Survery, Primary child care – more than one catagory can exist for this:
For me- private dayhome and school K-12
I think this may have been done already, but I’m always looking for ideas for kids lunches / meals at daycare. I spend a lot of time buying this little person’s food and cutting it up and I feel like she is eating the same thing everyday. Maybe by age group – young toddler, older toddler/preschool, grade school
I wish the search feature was better – sometimes I read something (usually a product recommendation in the comments) but then can’t find it again when I need it months later.
Agree with the comments asking for posts on kids clothes and gift guides.
Don’t get rid of the maternity/nursing categories altogether! I realize this is a stage of life with a short timeframe and won’t apply to everybody, but these posts are really helpful for those of us who happen to be in that stage now. Also agree I’d be interested in seeing some kids’ clothing items occasionally.
I have some questions about how affiliate links work.
1. if I visit the site by clicking a link from this website,but I buy something different than kat featured, does she still get compensated?
2. Is this true for larger sites as well (like if I go to amazon from here but then just order the stuff I was going to order from amazon anyway…)
3. How long is she eligible to receive compensation from a link? if i visit Boden, for example, from a link she posted a few months ago and buy a few things, is she compensated?
I’d like to keep supporting Kat, even though I don’t always buy exactly what she suggests I’ve discovered other brands from here and would like her to get credit if possible.
I may be in the minority, but I still appreciate the occasional feeding gear post. My toddler will get to a point where he just won’t eat, and seeing a feeding gear post can help give us ideas for new things to try.
I think it would be useful to keep one day for pregnancy/maternity/nursing/feeding/infant items, because I do find those useful while pregnant and in the early parenting stages. But as far as other fashion-related items, I still follow the main site for that.
Like others have said, I’d be interested in topics more related to day care/education, work-life balance and other career issues, kid clothes/gear, and organization tips (which could range from meal-planning to schedules to bags, etc.).
On the topic of maternity/nursing clothes, I would love to see whatever is available in the realm of *dresses* that work for nursing but AREN’T maternity clothes. But there are probably three, total, in the universe, soo…
I put in the survey comments that despite the tagline, the posts here are oriented much more to the “fashion” (or, really, acquiring stuff of all kinds) than lifestyle and especially career advice.* I would love to hear more from the perspective of a 9-5, 8-6, 7-10 working mom. Because most of us, I think, aren’t professional bloggers (Getting paid to blog is a unicorn job, Kat— one you hustled your ass off for, of course). We are working office/hospital/academic jobs. “Professions” as they used to say. Someone who is currently in the trenches with us would be a welcome addition.
Also, some of us have older kids. Some of us are older people. Being a working mom (who needs clothes!) in these contexts is different and not often addressed here. Caring for parents and kids at the same time. Tuition. Retirement. Etc.
*Yes, I understand that Kat makes bank by posting about clothing & products.
I still hate the logo. I hated the logo the last time I did the survey, and I still hate it now. I can’t even explain my almost visceral reaction to the infantile crayon drawing of Moms.
I’d love to see some things on education and other parenting issues that might be of particular interest to this subset of moms. That’s one of the things that really draws me to this s!te – that most of us are more highly educated and career-driven than average. As someone who didn’t really grow up in that sort of household (first to go to college and professional school), I’m still trying to understand how that translates to how I want to raise my kids.
I’m not interested in the maternity, nursing, or baby feeding stuff NOW, but there was a time when I really needed the information, and this s*te was helpful. I also bought more (sometimes using the affiliate links) at that time because I needed it, whereas now my budget it too tight (ah, daycare) to buy much for myself. So I hesitate to suggest removing it.
Don’t care about the logo – I actually think it’s fine.
Thursdays – can we do one item of kids clothes? Like rainsuits/onesies etc. Lots of talk in the comments about Princess Awesome/svanha/hanna anderson but we never see suggestions for kids clothes. I eat a lot of time trying to find great clothes for my kids or gifts. No suggestions for a pithy name for the day though.
I’d really like to see more posts on items for kids (other than feeding items). I’d much rather see recommendations for these items than clothes or accessories for me. These days I’m more focused on my kids, and if I need a work clothes rec, I’ll pop over to the main s*te.
I’d love more posts on:
1) Children’s toys, broken down by ages
2) Clothes for babies and older children. I feel like I spend way too much time looking for the best clothing for my girls. Would love recs broken down into categories like pajamas, leggings, outerwear, etc.
3) Bedding–would love to get more places to buy good quality sleep sacks