Washable Workwear Wednesday: The Mock-Neck Top
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Incorporating a touch of minimalist ’90s into your fall wardrobe?
This simple sleeveless top features an elegant mock neck and center back seam. Wear it alone with the matching skirt for a sleek outfit (know your office), or as a layer under your favorite blazer. It’s available in this fall’s featured neutral, brown, as well as classic black.
Sold Out NYC’s mock-neck top is $155.
Looking for other washable workwear? See all of our recent recommendations for washable clothes for work, or check out our roundup of the best brands for washable workwear.
Another Disney question! We’re going in January. My daughter will have just turned 7 and it will be her first time going.
We’re about to start booking (through our planner) our ‘Extras’ and I’m trying to decide about character dining. My kid isn’t obsessed with any single character or princess, but I think she will enjoy meeting many of them. She loves to play dress up and princess in general.
For our Magic Kingdom day, I was thinking about a meal at CRT and Bibbiddi Boppity Boutique. But CRT is SO expensive…I know Askerhaus at Epcot is another good princess character meal. I’m thinking of booking Toppolino’s Terrace on our departure day – we have an evening flight out and that way we won’t waste a park day going to a restaurant not at a park.
Should I skip CRT and do the Epcot character meal? Or is it worth it for the castle experience alone? I know BBB reservations can sell out – any other Princess-y extras I should look at?
FWIW – I see this as basically a ‘one and done’ trip. Not that we will NEVER come back but we aren’t going to be back every year. She also won’t know about the trip until her birthday (~2 weeks before we leave).
Opinions, please! I have a child who is academically gifted. Her neighborhood school has been unable to challenge her for a long time and I suspect will continue or worsen. Like her teachers love her because she is well behaved and gets literally 100% on all of her quizzes and assignments and extremely high standardized test scores. She does several enrichment things, like the gifted program in elementary school, and advanced math in middle school, plus music and language and sports and clubs. We’re proud of her, sure, but also isn’t straight 100s a problem?? Anyway, we are considering moving her from her middling middle school (greatschools ranks it a 7/10, the high school is a 6/10, which doesnt matter as much to me as our experience of the schools… which is also a 6/10) to a rigorous private school, despite our prior commitment to pursuing a well-rounded childhood rather than an academically rigorous one. I just feel like I am failing her if I don’t get her somewhere else.
But here’s the kicker: our other kiddo is perfectly average. She is content/challenged at our neighborhood schools, gets fine but not great grades, and is clearly learning things that stretch her capacity. Part of it is just personality– she cares less about being the teacher’s pet and shrugs off an 85% on a quiz or assignment as totally acceptable and great. (FWIW, this is our attitude, too. We want our kids to try their best, and an 85% is great if that is your best! And if Im honest, it tells me that the kid is learning and has room to grow, which a series of 100s does not). She also does sports, and music, and clubs.
My quandary is: can we send one kid to a private high school and NOT send the other? Or will that breed resentment? Assume this is a normal, high-achieving private high school and not a specialized one for special needs. Assume we can afford both (not sure if we can, but for argument’s sake). And assume that the difference between these schools is night and day (one, a large public high school and the other a small college-campus looking place). I do NOT assume that the other child could get in…
I could use some advice on how to handle an ongoing conflict with DH. He seems to think that all dirt is equally dirty and doesn’t take extra care to either prevent things from getting super dirty or to super clean anything that is super dirty.
In the past I’ve just separated our things. We each have a separate laundry hamper because I cannot stand him throwing his sweaty gym clothes or oily mechanic clothes in the laundry with my work stuff. He is not allowed to visit me at work because he tracks dirt all over the office; he doesn’t take care to not step in mud or to clean his shoes before coming into a white shoe law firm. The floor is where dirt goes so who cares if dirt is on the floor (we do not wear shoes in the house because of this)?
Now that we have a child, it’s harder to avoid. He will put the baby’s (toddler now) bottles and eating utensils in the sink and then just pour whatever gross stuff (ie raw chicken liquid) in the sink over them and then hand wash the baby’s stuff. If I were disposing of chicken yuck, I would clear the sink first and not pour it over everything, and, anything that touches chicken yuck goes in the dishwasher. Watching him pour chicken yuck on my precious baby’s silicone plate, give it a little swirl with the gross sponge that’s falling apart, and then hand it to the baby sent me in full panic mode – I practically dove in front of the baby like that plate was a bullet. I feel like I have to be on top of DH all the time to stop him from poisoning our child.
He is willing to respect my cleanliness standards to an extent, but he genuinely does not understand my perspective on this. Everything gets washed with soap so what’s the problem? The fact that he doesn’t get it means that we have similar conflicts over and over. And, he’s really unsure where the line is. Like, baby throws the pacifier on the ground, do we need a new one? Probably not, a little dirt is good for kids, but if it fell in like a pool of chicken yuck then yes! This stuff is common sense to me but it’s not to him. How do I explain this in a way that will make sense to him?
Can someone give me the down low on Trunk or Treats? My daughter’s school is doing one (not on Halloween itself) and we’ve never done one before. Are trunk decorations mandatory and how elaborate do they have to be?
my kids don’t seem to have the drive to set a goal and then do something to achieve it or to practice at something to get better. i feel like they have friends who outside of the regular sports practice, spend 10-15 min a day initiating practice, or they want to become better at drawing cats, so they will practice doing that, etc. is this something that is intrinsic? something that can be taught?
recognizing school just started, I’m seeing some early signs that my second grader is maybe not being sufficiently challenged (for example, she graduated out of the phonics program last year and is a very strong reader, but seems to be reviewing letter sounds…I get its early in the year, but still). going to give it some time but otherwise what are my options? I’m worried about her being behind next year (friends who have had the same second grade teacher have warned me about this happening to their kids).
I attempted to post this on the main page but might have gotten stuck in mod. If you hired a cleaner to do a once every few months deep clean of your home what would you ask for and roughly what would you expect to pay? I’m not expecting dishes or laundry, but all the other things you don’t think of in a daily house tidying. 3 humans in the household plus 2 dogs.
Baseboards, dusting, cleaning blinds and ceiling fans? Maybe a more deep clean of bathrooms?
I’m in a suburb in Atlanta for cost purposes or if you have any local recs.
How much recess do your kids get in very early elementary school and do you feel it’s the right amount?
Our public school does 2 15-minute recesses K-5, mandated by state law.
Local Catholic school does 2 20-minute recesses, plus half an hour of outdoor play in the afternoon for K (I’m not sure about that half hour for grades above K).
Local very fancy private school does 2 30-minute recesses plus 40 minutes of outdoor play for K. Grades 1-2 do 2 30-minute recesses. Grades 3-5 have one 30-minute recess.
Fairly different across the board especially in K, and I can’t decide if one is more “right” than the other!
Potentially divisive question: what’s your laundry routine?
I have 3 school age kids (3rd-8th) that do a bunch of activities and I feel like we are constantly doing laundry and there are piles everywhere. There has to be a better way!
We do not really have a laundry room, the machines are in a bathroom behind folding doors.
We used to be on a system of doing laundry only over the weekend, but now one that ends up with an absolutely insane amount of laundry to do at the end of the week and two the kids need to wash stuff mid week for various activities (eg something like baseball pants, swim suits or gymnastic leos where they wear every day to practice and don’t have separates pairs, or jeans that are worn Monday and again later in the week).
So if you have a system that works for a larger family, what is it? Do you just binge wash everything throw it in piles and have the kids fold and put away their own? Does your house do constant laundry and if so, does that mean the kids have to put it away every single day? And while we’re on the topic because this is a thing that our family debates constantly, do you do one giant laundry mountain, fold everything and then sort and put away or do you sort then fold?
Favorite character meals at Disney World (preferably outside the park) that aren’t crazy hard to get? We’re staying on property but only going for 2 nights/1 day so I know it will be hard to reserve things since those with longer trips will have earlier access.
Just a vent into the universe, not seeking any advice per se. I’m so tired. Tired of primary/solo parenting/the associated mental load while DH has been gone on travel like 50% of this year, tired of trying to take care of myself, the kids, the house, the dog, while working full time and getting additional responsibilities at work, which are exciting and things I want but now I feel like I don’t have the time/mental space to actually do what I want without burning the candle at both ends.
I had the brilliant idea of starting a coaching/fitness program earlier this year, and it’s been helpful but also I’m just over all the tracking and reporting. I have all the outsourcing and help, I’ve taken a weekend away, and I’m just tired. I have a work trip coming up next week and I’m so excited to just be a professional and enjoy the hotel gym for a few days, and this time I’m not leaving any typed missives or preparing any meals.
Does anyone have recommendations for tv shows to watch as a family? Both what to watch, but also how/when? I have such nice memories of watching the Thursday night lineup with my family when I was a kid, but now our screens are so individual and so on demand, and I would like to get away from that. For example, my kids will choose to watch something from Netflix, usually the same show ad nauseum because they don’t know what else to watch. DH and I are not interested in these shows, especially since they’ve been on rotation for years. And when DH and I want to watch a show, we usually wait until after the kids are in bed and use it as a wind down from the day, and usually watch something not appropriate for the kids (usually the latest sci fi thriller: Succession, Pluribus, Severence). During the pandemic we watched a lot of Great British Baking show, streaming on Netflix, but even that felt a little like a bottomless scroll. I’m not a part of the illusion-of-the-perfect-90s crowd, but there is something to waiting all week to watch Family Matters with your parents.
Anyone watch tv like this in their family?
Out of curiosity, do any of you who are working moms tend to experience mom guilt when you take an extended weekend day or a whole weekend away from your young kids and have a good time? The weekends are basically the only long stretches of time we have together, but I was just talking about this with a friend and we both felt that we don’t really feel guilty when it’s something obviously beneficial for our wellness or other important aspects of life (like seeing an elderly family member or something), whereas if we have to travel for work or work late and not see our kids in the evening, then it’s a more negative feeling. Curious where other working moms with young kids fall (I ask about young because they still need so much and don’t have their own solo weekend activities yet).
I’m planning a long mountain bike day with my 71-year-old father soon, FWIW – something I know I won’t regret. He won’t be able to do this forever. It’s my sincere hope that he can still ride well by the time my son is ready to join on his own bike.