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It’s always nice to see a classic piece go on sale, and this 4-way cardigan from Nic and Zoe is definitely one of those pieces. (It got a separate category in our recent guide to cardigans for the office!) Every season it comes out in new colors, and women love it because you can tie it so many different ways, or just wear it open for a draped look. Instructions say to hand wash cold. It was $99, but some colors are newly marked down to $49.90; it’s available in sizes XS-XL, regular and petites. (There’s a plus-sized version as well, but it isn’t on sale.) Nic + Zoe 4-Way Cardigan
Psst: the matching tank top is down to $19, too, if you like a matched look.
(L-3)
Sales of note for 9.10.24
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Ann Taylor – 30% off your purchase
- Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything + extra 20% off
- Boden – 15% off new styles
- Eloquii – $29 and up select styles; up to 50% off everything else
- J.Crew – Up to 50% off wear-to-work styles; extra 30% off sale styles
- J.Crew Factory – 40-60% off everything; extra 60% off clearance
- Lands’ End – 30% off full-price styles
- Loft – Extra 40% off sale styles
- Talbots – BOGO 50% everything, includes markdowns
- Zappos – 26,000+ women’s sale items! (check out these reader-favorite workwear brands on sale, and some of our favorite kids’ shoe brands on sale)
Kid/Family Sales
- Carter’s – Birthday sale, 40-50% off & extra 20% off select styles
- Hanna Andersson – Up to 50% off all baby; up to 40% off all Halloween
- J.Crew Crewcuts – Extra 30% off sale styles
- Old Navy – 40% off everything
- Target – BOGO 25% off select haircare, up to 25% off floor care items; up to 30% off indoor furniture up to 20% off TVs
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And — here are some of our latest threadjacks of interest – working mom questions asked by the commenters!
- The concept of “backup care” is so stupid…
- I need tips on managing employees in BigLaw who have to leave for daycare pickup…
- I’m thinking of leaning out to spend more time with my family – how can I find the perfect job for that?
- I’m now a SAHM and my husband needs to step up…
- How can I change my thinking to better recognize some of my husband’s contributions as important, like organizing the shed?
- What are your tips to having a good weekend with kids, especially with little kids? Do you have a set routine or plan?
anne-on says
A bit of a grinch-y vent, my son’s daycare has had no fewer than 4 holiday things we’ve either had to bring food for, donate to, or dress him a certain way. I’m not even including next week with pj day, snoman day, etc. I know they’re trying to make it special for the kids but they.are.killing.me. My husband and I have both been traveling and working like crazy before the holiday and it has been so not fun to realize that ‘damn! today I need to bring in gingerbread supplies, or the teacher appreciation cookies’ (on top of their individual gifts).
I’d normally say ‘f it’ but he enjoys all this stuff so much. He’s in daycare because we work and are busy! Stop with all the extra stuff! Sigh, only a few more days until Xmas break.
JJ says
No advice but I commiserate. Signed, heading out at lunch today to stock up on all the stuff I need to bring to daycare tomorrow.
Anonymous says
Flip side- we’ve had nothing. Not even a holiday themed art project (or generic winter theme!). No decorations or anything either!
TBK says
For all of you with toddlers, you’re welcome: http://www.thehonesttoddler.com/2015/12/a-toddlers-apology-to-santa.html
MSJ says
Thanks for the smiles. This is my favorite comic for today: http://www.fowllanguagecomics.com/comic/the-strong-willed-child/
I am glad my daughter is strong and vocal, but it ain’t easy
Anon in NYC says
Ha! Both of these made me laugh.
daycare holidays says
holiday gifts for daycare teachers-
Kiddo has 2 teachers in her current room, where she has been since Sept and will be until next Sept. I will be giving them $50 and a card.
Kiddo came to this daycare in June, so was in another room from June-August. Those teachers were not great at all. I almost pulled her from the program because of how much I disliked them, but I really liked the next room up (current) teachers. Do I:
a. Give them nothing
b. Give them a card with $10 (which is what the 3 floaters are getting)
c. Give them $25 apiece and acknowledge that daycare is a tough business and I have the money to be generous even if I think they are lazy and not great teachers?
d. other? I was thinking of doing something like getting a case of wine and giving it to the director with a note that said “distribute as appropriate across the staff that has to deal with my crazy kid” (FWIW my daughter is very well behaved)
FWIW here’s why I didnt like them:
– never did the required paperwork on developmental milestones
– never scheduled school conferences (she was up for her 18 month one while in the class)
– sit around and chat/text while the kids play
– complained obnoxiously when I potty trained my kid; never offered new strategies, did not believe me that she was 100% fully potty trained at home (got director involved, this was totally crazy, and director herself stepped in and worked with my daughter and got her comfortable using the school toilets in 2 days flat)
– put kids (not mine, that i know of) in time out and totally lost their cool with them, eve thought the school has a no time-out policy
– don’t engage with the kids (and her current teachers do)–ie sit and watch kids playing with books vs reading a book to them, etc.
Anon says
I vote B (getting what floaters get) and would also vote talking to Director about the concerns you’ve mentioned (to the extent you haven’t already.) Daycare IS a tough business, but if you’re not doing your job you’re not doing your job.
Anonymous says
I have talked to her. Daughter had a really bad transition into daycare and I know it was 99% on the teachers. we ended up moving daughter up to the next class early and POOF all issues went away- drop off drama, potty issues, saying “no no no thank you please mommy” (I have a polite kid) when we got to daycare etc.
Anonymous says
To be clear she transition from another daycare due to a move. Not new to the scene.
Two Cents says
In a similar situation, I did a. They were absolutely terrible, why would I reward them with a gift? In my case, however, I actually did pull my son out of the class because the teachers were so bad. So they probably would have been shocked if I had given them something, under the circumstances.
anonymama says
you basically did pull your kid from them if you moved her up early. so they don’t need any presents. or you can do $10 like the floaters.
MomAnon4This says
Yeah, it would never occur to me to send a thank you gift to, like, a camp counselor from last summer. Which is basically what these teachers were – your child hasn’t really dealt with them in months. Just stick with the daily folks you see this season. Do you Xmas tip the guy who cleaned your gutters last spring, too? (no.)
RDC says
Any tips for getting kids to use a sippy cup? My son is 12.5 months and we’ve been unsuccessful so far. At daycare they give him his milk in a sippy cup, wait half an hour, and then pour it into a bottle (and he drinks it all). When we try at home, he just cries when we give him a sippy cup. When we pour the milk from the sippy into a bottle, he drinks it fine. (So, the problem is isolated to the cup; he’s fine with the milk itself.)
Daycare doesn’t do straw cups, and has just standard sippy cups, so I’m hesitant to search around for a cup he “likes” since that’s not what they’ll use.
Anon in NYC says
If you find a non-straw cup that he likes, will daycare use one that you provide?
I’m not quite there yet but we’re experimenting with the Munchkin Latch sippy cup. The spout is soft like a bottle, so I think there is some familiarity there. I’m also intrigued by the Munchkin Miracle 360 trainer cup, which is more like a regular cup and doesn’t have a spout.
RDC says
They might, but I was so looking forward to not having to bring and wash bottles that I really don’t want to switch to bringing and washing cups :/ I suppose this is a pick your battles thing, though.
Meg Murry says
Will you be at home for a while over the holidays when daycare is closed? Can you just go cold turkey on the bottles and only use a sippy for 2-4 days and see how it goes? Right now your son has learned that if he waits long enough he gets his bottle – so why bother with the sippy? Or if you are really worried about him not drinking milk, make mealtimes sippy only but give bottles first thing in the morning and for after dinner/pre bedtime when he’s not sitting at the table or in his highchair? Basically associate mealtime with drinking from a sippy.
When you are at home, can you experiment with taking valves out of the sippy cups to make the milk free flow? It means you’ll have to be vigilant, because a dropped cup will spill – but a sippy resistant kid doesn’t want to have to work so hard for his milk. We went to a policy of cups with anything other than water were for at the table or highchair only, and gave up on all valved sippies and just used things like the Take and Toss sippies.
RDC says
Yeah – we’re using the take and toss ones since that seems most similar to the daycare cups. I like the idea of no bottles at meals.
pockets says
I second the idea that he learned that if he waits long enough, he’ll get the bottle. It sounds like you have to go cold turkey on the bottle and get your toddler used to the idea that milk comes in a sippy or not at all. Can you talk to day care about only offering it in a sippy? Your son’s milk intake might go down for a few days, but you can make up the fat/protein with cheese or yogurt, and eventually you will persevere in this battle of wills.
Famouscait says
We went cold turkey to sippy cups from bottles. Kiddo resisted for maybe 2 meals and then relented. Never looked back.
Anonymous says
Thanks all – I was reluctant to try cold turkey but it seems like that’s the way to go at this point. Could be a long weekend but we’ll give it a try!
Samantha says
For an opposite perspective – I know pediatricians have the 1 year “deadline” to transition out from a bottle but it is really Not a thing you should stress about, IMO.
My friend’s kid stayed with the bottle until age 2 and I know another kid who inched his way towards age 3, both with no real ill effects. I mean that they would sometimes drink from sippy but often needed the bottle at bedtime or cranky time. And it took them a while to accept it and with 2 working parents, nobody had the energy to fight the good fight. That’s ok.
Cold turkey is hard on both you (the crying! the whining!) and the kid (they took away my favorite thing for no rhyme or reason!) – try to ease your way through it maybe with rewards, praise etc.
Anonymous says
Try safe sippy 2 on the straw side. Ours could not figure out the latch up. Super basic sippy cups (just plastic with a sipping hole) also worked really well.
which job do I take says
Regular poster, anon for this (and cross-posted on the main site but I wanted the insight from a more mom-centric group):
Background: I have one child under 2, plans to have more children in the future, and a spouse that works a more demanding job (doesn’t get home before 7, some nights/weekend work). I’m clearly the primary parent, even though I don’t particularly want to be.
I lost my job a few months ago and I’ve been staying home with my kid. It’s OK and I appreciate having the time with her, but I want to go back to work. Luckily, I was just offered two jobs. One part time (P Job), one full time (F Job). Both are at gov’t agencies, so both jobs would be 9-5, one would just be 9-5 5 days a week, the other 9-5 3 days a week. Benefits are the same, commutes would be similar. The work would be similar and although I think the career opportunities would be different, one is not necessarily objectively or subjectively to me better than the other (pluses and minuses to both). If after a few years I wanted to eventually work full time at P Job I’m almost positive I could. If I wanted to eventually work part time at the F Job, I probably could (maybe 60% chance).
I was all set to take P Job but I just found out what the salary is at F Job, and my jaw dropped. If you compare base salaries (i.e., grossing up P Job salary to what I would make if it were full time), the difference is at least $30k. And I’m young – $30k + raises over the next 30 years is a lot of money. Another way to look at it: at P Job, I’m doing 60% of the work for about 45% of F Job money. I would have to pay more in child care, but based on my very rudimentary math, after child care and taxes I’d be taking home $1500 more per month with F Job than with P Job.
I really want to work part time and spend more time with my kid. My life would be much less stressful if I worked part time. But $1500 a month, every month for the rest of my life is a lot of money.
What would you do? Any wisdom or insight?
Anon too says
Do you have any ability to negotiate? Could you tell F job that you have another offer and you want to know if they can accommodate a 4 day week at 80% salary? Worse case is they say no and you’re back where you are now. If they say no, can you approach P job and ask them to increase the salary on the basis that you’ve been offered a similar job at a better per hour rate? Can they find a way to start you at a higher step/salary bracket?
Anon says
Congrats on having two options to choose from!
In your shoes, I would have a hard time turning down the f/t job. I am a f/t gov employee, husband has a time consuming job. Because I work full time, we collectively earn enough to pay for some of the things that could otherwise be stressful – we have a housekeeper, we pay slightly more for a daycare that is convenient (and that provides all meals), we live in a place where neither of us have a long commute.
It works for us at least in part because full-time government is different (at least in my field) than full time private sector – never more than 40 hours a week, generous vacation / holiday time off (~24 days per year), flexibility to work for an hour or two in the evenings after kid is in bed so I can leave work every day by 4. While I would enjoy more time with my kid, with vacation etc. it averages 2 full work days a month plus weekends … 10 full days a month with my kid, 20 days a month at work. Not so bad.
But, p/t is attractive for its own reasons. Keep in mind that few choices in life are permanent – if you want to take the p/t job for now and apply for the f/t job (or something similar) in a few years once kids are in school,. that could work too.
Lorelai Gilmore says
Can you negotiate to work at the FT job, with one day/week from home? You have to have full-time childcare, but that allows you to skip the commute once per week and I have no problem getting a ton of work done while also running laundry. One working day from home helps me be able to really take advantage of the weekend with my kids. If I were you, I’d try hard to make the FT job work.
OP says
Thanks for all the comments. I’ve gone back to both jobs, P Job can’t give me more money and F Job doesn’t offer flexible schedules, so there is no middle ground. Based on my reaction to the responses (not so much the ones here but definitely the ones on the main site) I’m almost certain I’m going to take the part time job. The allure of part time is just too much to pass up.
Meg Murry says
I completely understand you wanting to take the PT job, especially with the additional details you added on the main s!te, like that you already make use of housecleaners and other outsourcing. Good for you for recognizing that your reaction to the responses told you what your gut already knew.
More money is nice and all, but it doesn’t buy you more hours in a day, and when you’ve outsourced everything you can except for hiring a second shift nanny, it makes sense to take the time over money.
I’d suggest you put your daughter into full time care, or once she is old enough preschool every morning + nanny/babysitter on the days you work. You can still pick her up early on your off days, or keep her at home to do something fun from time to time – but it’s good to keep her in a consistent routine during the week, and it will give you the freedom to get household things like groceries, laundry, car maintenance etc done during the week.
Also, one other concern – are you going to do nanny or daycare? A lot of part time jobs don’t come with much (if any) PTO, so if your daughter is too sick for school on one of your work days, can your husband step in that day?
Either way, congrats on having such great opportunities to pick from!
Famouscait says
Does F job offer you any flexibility with your schedule? If you’re having to take unpaid time off, for example, when kiddo is sick, you may not be getting much ahead. That being said, if you went F job until you had more kids, and then went P job, you could possibly get the best of both worlds. I’d be inclined to take F job if you think you can swing it.
D. Meagle says
How do you deal with “mom guilt” about having to work during winter break? Generally, I can handle the guilt about working long hours, but year-end happens to be my busy time, so not only is it impossible to take any days off, but it is impossible to get out of work before my kids are asleep. I have all these feelings of guilt/resentment that I am stuck in the office instead of spending time with my kids when they are home from school. It’s been that kind of day,/week/month; I am reaching my breaking point, looking for commiseration.
MomAnon4This says
Ha, yeah, I totally just signed my kid up for 3 days of Winter Camp. You’re not the only one. They’ll have friends there. Hopefully they’ll get a vacation another time (plan one now for spring or summer – I’m dreaming of a long weekend on Florida Gulf coast – nothing fancy). It sucks re: Mom Guilt but make the time you do spend together count. Eye contact!
Lorelai Gilmore says
Yeah, it’s really hard. I always say that summer vacation and holiday break are the two times I feel true, legit guilt about being a working mom.
For now, I’d find really great activities for the kids to enjoy while they’re on break – are there fun camps? Art classes? Playdates? Can aunts, uncles, or grandparents shoulder some of the load? Can your partner take the kids off to a fun getaway for a few days so you can hunker down and work? We’ve successfully had my husband take the kids to see his side of the family when I’ve had really horrible work issues during the winter vacation in past years.
As for getting out of the office, I’d think hard about whether there’s any way to get home for dinner – but if you can’t, don’t worry about it. Sometimes mamas have to work late. Your kids will understand.
I totally understand how you feel. Hang in there. You are doing a great job.