Make My Life Easier Thursday: Bamboo Charcoal Air Purifying Bags
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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
- Target – Car-seat trade-in event through 9/28 — bring in an old car seat to get a 20% discount on other baby/toddler stuff.
- 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?
Yesterday, there was a great discussion about managing Biglaw hours with a baby. I wanted to add that one thing that helped me was bookkeeping my weekly hours starting on Saturday morning. This meant that any weekend hours put me ahead for the coming week, rather than feeling like catch up for hours I hadn’t billed for the prior week. It is a slight change in perspective, but it felt better to be working ahead…like I was a super mom. If I had a good weekend, I’d use those extra hours to pad my week and I’d go to bed earlier or to spend guilt-free time with my kid or even by myself.
YMMV, but I had a steady practice and pretty constant hours every week and found this really helped my state of mind.
I am traveling on a plane with my 1 yo tomorrow for the first time. On the reservation I put him as a lap infant. However, I just checked in and didn’t get a boarding pass for him. We’re flying United. Is this normal? Thanks all!
I know that this too shall pass; however…
This morning I tried to wake up extra early to have some time to work and just sit quietly before the house woke up. 4 year old had to also come down and sit on my lap. Feeling like a bad mom because I caved and let him watch a show because he had met all my conditions (fully dressed, breakfast consumed, dog fed) a full 45 minutes before we have to load up.
Then at school, teacher pulled me aside… my kid knows he’s funny and it’s awful and we need a behavior chart now… Great. Failure as a parent #2.
Feeling like I need to give up every bit of personal time and sanity I have in order to optimize the environment for my kids and hold my job together. Not digging it.
How many gifts are you getting your kids, if you do gifts this time of year? My daughter made a Christmas list with four items, and I’m inclined to get her every one, since they’re like $20 each at most. I feel like that’s reasonable right?
My 6 month old attends a large corporate center daycare. We started in late October. The center has 3 infant rooms, each with 2 teachers (but the teachers also float between the rooms and there are floaters that cover drop-off / pick up). As a result I don’t really even know all the infant teachers. I found out yesterday that starting Monday baby is changing infant rooms. I’m flummoxed about how to handle holiday presents. As best I can tell the center doesn’t do a cash collection. I don’t ever see any other parents to ask. And there is a parent board but they have monthly calls and I couldn’t make the November one because of work and the December one is after we will leave for the holidays. Would it be appropriate to ask the center director what parents do in this circumstance?
I read something this morning that helped me feel better about the general working mom situation of my life. It seems like a few people on here are having a rough day so I thought I’d share.
I follow Laura McKowen on all the socials and she had a really great post on fb this morning talking about being in a funk, losing her sh&t and being grumpy, judgmental, etc. and shared a Glennon quote: “I forgive myself relentlessly”. I love that. I’ve set a goal to work on self acceptance for next year. Forgiving myself relentlessly seems like a good start.
Channeling Buble here at having to laugh at some of the routines on yesterday’s thread, especially those without kids. I know if I posted this on the main site, it would seem like I’m channeling #mommymartyr at complaining about the hectic mornings with kids but I think most of us here get it. Well here’s mine, if anyone cares to share a morning routine while in the trenches:
5:30am – Wake-up after hitting snooze once. 1 year old is up around this time so husband gets him and gives him milk.
5:35-5:55am – Shower, get ready.
6:00-6:30am – Eat breakfast, give 1 year old breakfast, read phone for a bit. Husband is showering and getting ready.
6:30ish – 3.5 year old is usually up by now. Give him milk and light breakfast (granola bar, squeeze). Turn on TV.
6:40am – 7:00 – This is the fun part where we get everyone dressed, pottied, brushing teeth, get a screaming 1 year old in his winter gear, negotiate with a 3.5 year old who is resisting the above and trying to do everything but get ready, finish getting ourselves ready and out the door.
7:00 – 7:15 – Daycare drop off for two.
7:20 – 7:30 – Drive back home.
7:30 – 7:45 – Walk to train (this is my exercise of the day, woo!)
7:50 – 8:30ish – Train
8:45am (often around 9 if I’m on a later train) – Finally at work.
I know my commute and daycare drop off add a ton of time. But it is what it is right now.
So I have made it to month 8 of my first pregnancy. Mentally, I have been in a satisfied place pretty much the entire time, but I am starting to really get nervous about the life that I will be giving up and the uncertainty ahead. I think the schedule conversation may have worsened it – knowing that I will be sacrificing time and sleep, feeling like I never appreciated what I had before. Please help to assure me that it’s normal to freak out a little now and that I won’t be full of regret?
Our friend is pregnant with her second (oldest will be three when baby is born). I’d like to send her a present since we live in separate cities and I missed her shower– I only have twins and I don’t know what I’d want for a second pregnancy! They aren’t finding out whether it’s a boy or girl, and I assume she still has swaddles, etc. from the first. Any inspiration?
Do any of you follow busy toddler? Usually I am not one to bother with things like sensory bins but I do like some of her ideas, including her kindness Christmas countdown chain. I’m planning to do only 12 days, but anyone have good suggestions for acts of kindness for my 3 and 5 yo? She had a list too, but looking for other good ideas… easy to implement where they will hopefully understand the point.
Any managers out there willing to share what you typically get for your team for the holidays? I have 8 people reporting to me, half remote and half in my office. Usually I just do Starbucks gift cards for $15 but now I wonder if that’s too little. I’d love to hear what others do.
Something someone posted yesterday about the leisurely kid-free morning routines inspired me to post this. Now that you are parents, if you had to put your plans for a family on hold, what would you do to take advantage of your additional kid-free years? What do you miss about your time pre-kids?
For context, we had been TTC for a few months but had to stop when I was diagnosed with a serious illness. I just finished treatment (which took many months), and am starting to come out of the stressful fog. We won’t be cleared to TTC for a few years due to the nature of the illness and treatment, but I’m healthy now. Because this wasn’t my choice, just bad luck, I’d like to really take advantage of, and appreciate, this extra kid-free time so I feel less of a loss. But other than traveling to Zika locations, which we are excited about, I don’t have many ideas.
I completely lost my crap on my kids this morning. The morning had actually gone really well, up until the last 10-15 minutes. Kids were dressed and fed ahead of schedule, and I let them have screen time as a reward. Well, then all h3ll broke loose when I asked them to put on coats and shoes while I brushed my teeth and poured my coffee for the road. They, of course, started bickering and became completely helpless. When I was finished with my stuff and saw that they had not even attempted to put on coats and shoes, I just … lost it. They’d been told like 5 times at that point and I was just over it. In fact, the phrase “I have asked you 5 f*cking times to do this” MIGHT HAVE slipped out of my mouth. Even I was shocked at myself, but seriously, this is not a new routine, guys!
DH was sick and in bed, and I had previously been so proud of keeping the kids quiet and focused while he rested.
Can I have a do-over? And why does their inability to follow basic directions tick me off so much? (For context, my oldest child, a 10-year-old, has ADHD and mornings are generally rough with him until the meds fully kick in, but this was a new low even for me.)
They were treated to a lecture in the car about showing respect by doing what is asked of them. And I did apologize for the cursing but still feel crummy about it.
Working mom guilt/ advice on managing in-school activities: My oldest is in Kindergarten, so this is a new dynamic for me. How do working parents handle the myriad in-school activities where parents are invited in the middle of the day?
I work 45-min away and have a pretty facetime-heavy job (law). We have said no to everything so far– classroom parties, book fairs, lunch with mom in the cafeteria, and other things that I have no idea how other parents are attending. Today I happened to have a Dr.’s appointment in the morning that would give me a window of time that coincided with the in-school activity before I had to be on a conference call late morning. So, I surprised my kiddo in the middle of the 2-hour activity, planning to stay for 45 minutes. When it was time for me to leave, she lost it. Hot, sad, tears, and no-mommy-please-dont-go… It was horrible. My first thought was, well this was a mistake and I shouldn’t have come. But, I will almost never have a 2-hour window in the middle of the day to go to her school, so does this mean I just say no across the board instead of coming to partial activities? Ugh, I feel so sad that what I thought would be a fun and happy surprise ended in tears. Are these things only for SAH/ WAH parents?
Mom win of the day – we got professional photos taken for holiday cards and there is only ONE photo of all three of us where my daughter is looking at the camera and smiling. And of course I was making some horrible expression in that photo. So…I photoshopped my mouth from one of the other photos onto it. I remember using photoshop in high school and it was so hard and you had to have the steadiest hand to perfectly select the area you wanted and it always looked fake, but now thanks to all that AI magic, the computer knows what you’re trying to capture and stitches it all together perfectly and even with my amateur work you would never guess this photo was altered. Hoooooray for technology!