Washable Wednesday: Botanical Blooms Collared Top
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Hopefully by making this pick for Washable Wednesday, I am willing springtime into existence. I like how this top has the blue and white stripes to keep the floral print plus Peter Pan collar from looking too froufrou, and the horizontal stripes plus middle pleat draws the eye up and down. Since my baby will pull on any necklace I wear, I am getting into interesting collars and necklines. I picture this top as one to throw on with a navy blue suit or blazer. I also enjoy a cap sleeve; it prevents me from having to wear a tank top around the office if I want to remove my blazer, and it cuts down on the shoulder bulk when the blazer is on. I like the way it’s styled in the photo with jeans, but maybe not the floral on floral as they have shown. Toughen it up with some boyfriend jeans for the weekend. The top is $69 at Nordstrom. CeCe Botanical Blooms Collared Top
Psst: Stock is running low, but the top is also available at Zappos if it sells out at Nordstrom. There’s a button-front, long-sleeved version at Nordstrom as well.
Here’s a plus-size option.
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Sales of note for 1/16:
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Nordstrom – Cashmere on sale; AllSaints, Free People, Nike, Tory Burch, and Vince up to 60%; beauty deals up to 25% off
- AllSaints – now up to 60% off (some of the best leather jackets!)
- Ann Taylor – Up to 40% off your full-price purchase; extra 50% off sale
- Banana Republic Factory – 50% off everything + extra 20% off
- Boden – 15% off new styles with code — readers love this blazer, these dresses, and their double-layer line of tees
- DeMellier – Sale now on, free shipping and returns — includes select options like Montreal, Vancouver, and Venice
- Eloquii – $29 and up select styles; extra 50% off all clearance, plus ELOQUII X kate spade new york collab just dropped
- Everlane – Sale of the year, up to 70% off — reader favorites include their scoop tee, Dream Pant, ReNew Transit backpack, silk blouses and oversized blazers! New markdowns just added
- Hannah Andersson – Up to 30% off all pajamas;
- J.Crew – Up to 40% off select styles; up to 50% off cashmere
- J.Crew Factory – 40-70% off everything
- L.K. Bennett – Archive sale, almost everything 70% off
- M.M.LaFleur – Tag sale for a limited time — jardigans and dresses $200, pants $150, tops $95, T-shirts $50
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
- Talbots – Semi-Annual Red Door Sale – 50% off + extra 20% off, sale on sale, plus free shipping on $150+
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?
Just wanted to thank ya’ll for the comments yesterday about my possibly language-delayed 15-month-old. The gentle reminders to try to keep my competitiveness in check where my kid is concerned were especially on point, as this is something I know I need to do better on.
As a follow up, our ped seemed unconcerned given how interactive my daughter is and said to just keep reading and talking to her.
My sister takes cruises with her kids (3 under 5!), but she’s a superhero. They do Disney cruises since they’re set up for littles. There’s a bathtub in every cabin I think. I’d also try to do a cruise line with flexible meal times (Norwegian). Maybe get a cabin with a balcony so you and your spouse can sit outside while the 1 year old is napping? Are you going with grandparents? Adjoining rooms would also be helpful for the napping issue. In general my advice for vacation with little people is to bring All The Snacks!
All of the talk recently of deciding whether to become a stay at home parent has made me think more about something I have really wondered about since having a child.
As it relates to two reasonably motivated professionals, I sometimes wonder whether two working parents is more successful in the long run. I live in the Midwest where nannies and au pairs are essentially nonexistent. In my area, people who really excel in an above average way (CEOs, big rainmaker partners, etc.) have a stay at home spouse/parent. I believe that to some extent these folks have excelled much more than average because of their ability to go all in. I’m sure in the beginning it is certainly rough as these folks work their way up. There is definitely sacrifice. But the end result seems to make up for it. Financially speaking in the long run, is it better to have two working parents who can only half a$$ it/can’t go all in, versus one parent who can.
Maybe it is also a consequence of many people in those positions (in my area at least) being a generation older than me when stay at home spouses were so much more common, and people were less understanding of dual working parent families.
FWIW, I’m in a dual working family, and it will be that way for a long time. Just something I’ve found interesting. I don’t know that I have an opinion, and certainly I’m not trying to offend. I’d just love to hear what the smart ladies on this site have to say.
Piggy-backing off of ShouldIQuit’s question… Have any of you negotiated a part-time schedule for a limited period of time? I was in biglaw when my first was born, and the firm had a gradual reentry where I worked 80% with one of those days for home for a period of time and then 80% with no work from home for a period and then back to 100%.
I do not want to quit (although I am also in the 90% estimate from J), and my kids are a bit older (4 and 7), but our lives are crazy and verging on out-of-control right now. My husband works in an intense job with very little flexibility at this time of year. Both of my kids have ramped up needs physically and emotionally right now (speech, potential autism diagnosis looming and beginning therapy for that child). I work from home two days per week, and I work more than 40 hours. I feel burnt out, exhausted and ready to cry at the drop of a hat with all of the demands on me and my time. I outsource as much as I can, but with the speed of life, I forgot to actually hit submit on the grocery order last week. I don’t want to burn through all of my paid leave in April, but I just need a little breathing room to get a handle on things. I’m thinking of asking to go part-time (4 days per week) for 3 or 6 months. Has anyone negotiated this type of flexibility?
Has anyone here been on a cruise with toddlers (ages 1 and 4)? Any suggestions of what to pack or hacks to make it easier?
Thanks!
That’s a great idea to track my time like that, thanks Meg Murray.
This is so helpful, thank you so much. I love how thoughtful the community is here.
It’s really helpful to me that so many women feel this way where it doesn’t make sense to quit but it’s not like working brings a lot of joy like it used to pre kids. I don’t know why that’s surprising to me, but it is.
I honestly don’t know how to structure part-time in my job. I don’t work in law, but I feel like law lends itself well because you track your hours, but I work in finance and part-time just doesn’t seem to be a thing in my world (or I have no idea how to structure it or what to even ask for). I’m also worried (as people say) that I’ll be working more than I signed up for and just cut my pay… it probably would be ideal if I could find the right structure though.
So that was me and I probably didn’t get into all of my reasons in my original post. But I’m like you – DD is a year old. There are a lot of reasons it will make sense for our family.
-DH works 1.5 jobs (without getting into details) and I solo parent at least one weekend a month, and a few weeks straight every year. No local family. So even with outsourcing grocery delivery, I have to work FT, do childcare, and manage our household. It’s stressful on me to manage it all and him to work so much and still be an involved father/husband/etc…we’re both struggling with work-life balance.
– I’ve been back at work 8-9 months and still miss my daughter terribly every day. Other working moms I know in person describe work as a “break” from the craziness of childcare, I have never felt this way. I will never get this time back and I want to soak up every second with my child.
-The cost of 2 daycares is more than my salary as were in a HCOL city/suburb. And we want another kid sooner rather than later. If I was breaking even we could justify it, but I’m not going to lose money and spend less time with my kid. Money/career just aren’t that important to me.
-Lastly, and it may sound silly, but I’m really good at being a mom and taking care of a home. Whether is social conditioning or it just comes naturally, I feel more talented at it than my job.
I remember someone recently posted here that they left the workforce to be a SAHM. If anyone else has seriously considered being a SAHM, if you could walk me through your reasoning and how it’s working out, think it would be really helpful.
I know the community here is full of amazing moms that also have great careers. I don’t want to imply my thoughts as the “right” way at all, just want to help explain how I feel.
My first baby just turned a year old. I have a great job with a kind boss and smart team, with what I think are great hours, generally just 8;30-4:30 with some occasional evenings or weekends for an hour or two, and I think i get paid really well (biglaw type money).
However, I just feel tired and burnt out from what I think is as good as it gets for a full time job and the 2-3 hours at the end of the day doesn’t feel like enough with the baby, because she’s tired and winding down. I also miss the baby all day long. I took some time off when she was ~9 months and our lives felt so much easier because I wasn’t trying to cram life errands, baby time, spend time with husband and/or work between 5:00-9:30. We definitely had long, physically exhausting days, but it’s not the mentally and physically exhausted that I feel now.
I thought a new job was the answer and I did switch jobs and while my new job is much better, I don’t feel 100% about staying in long term. I keep staying because it makes a ton of sense to put away some money now when she’s young and maybe i’ll quit if we have another, but it’s just so hard to know.
I guess I just want to know if other women feel like I do, where quitting seems illogical, but staying in the work force is also not bringing much joy.
Apologies for the poop question. My daughter is almost 3 and has just started to dive into the world of withholding. She’s potty trained, but we’ve always struggled with poop (and while we encourage pooping on the toilet, we’re also happy to just let her go in her diaper at night, which she often does). Now she’s not even happy to go in her diaper. It’s affecting her sleep because she’ll wake up when she starts to poop and scream / hold it in. She tells us that she’s uncomfortable and scared. I believe her, but I’m not sure how to address it.
I’m like 85% sure that she’s not constipated and this is psychological. She eats a varied diet, with a lot of fruit and some veggies, we give her benefiber, 2 weeks ago we introduced a probiotic, we cut down her intake of milk and carbs like bread/pasta, we encourage water. I spoke with the pediatrician last week who said that the answer is basically time, which, sure, I get, but just wondering if anyone here had any suggestions. Thanks!
Cross posting from the main site…
I think my marriage is over – I’m not sure what I’m looking for – sympathy, advice – mainly advice.
I am 6 months pregnant – my husband and I have one daughter, who is about to turn 3. There’s nothing that wrong – we’ve just grown apart, we fight constantly. Lately, he’s been staying out later and later with his single friends, drinking more, and generally being irresponsible. He’s still a good father, but I’m just out of excuses for him. Last night he came home at 6 AM, and I think he’s having an affair, but I realized that I don’t really care at this point.
So my question is – how do you go through a divorce with two young children? I don’t even know where to start – I’m just done.
I’ve used both. There’s no right answer and so much varies center-to-center and nanny-to-nanny. I’ve seen some BAD daycare centers across the country. I’ve also seen amazing ones. I’ve seen some BAD nannies and some fabulous ones. FWIW, in Massachusetts at least, daycare centers CAN leave kids alone with one caregiver, as along as they are under the ratio (3:1 or 7:2 for infants).
I’ve got 3 kids and have been through all kinds of childcare arrangements, including being home myself. I’ve found that nannies are best for the <1 set. Once you get into 12-18 months, kids *need* socialization. That can be a nanny that is super great at setting up playdates and getting out in the world, or it can be daycare, or it can be a hybrid. But I've met some 2.5 year olds that have been with a nanny only and they have a HARD time adjusting to preschool. Babies–especially those with super finicky schedules– do best with a nanny. BUT, having put 2/3 of my babies in daycare at 4 months, I can tell you that they adapt and survive (though they do have lots of fun germs that come home…) and all 3 of my kids are perfectly healthy, high functioning kids regardless of BF/FF, SAH vs working mom, daycare vs nanny. We've done it all and I bet you can't guess from meeting my kids which ones had which childcare set up! My most outgoing kid was the one nannied for the longest; my wallflower that doesn't like to share was in daycare until kindergarten. My least flexible kid was in 4 different arrangements in his 4 years.
+1. Relying only on yourself, or even you + DH + mom, for childcare is a recipe for burnout. Not to mention that it’s not realistic in the long run.
How do you deal with kid phobias? My 2 y.o. has developed a fear of vacuum cleaners. We can’t vacuum around her, she demands to see vacuums every single time we facetime with grandparents, and she totally freaks out when the housekeeper comes and uses one. Like she’s okay if you warn her but if she just sees it unexpectedly it’s a total freak out, screaming, demanding to be held, tears. If I tell her I need to vacuum, she will go into her room until I put it away.
She also gets scared of other loud noises lately. I don’t think it’s anything abnormal, just wondering what the best way to help her is. We try to explain that it’s nothing to be afraid of, but it seems to be of limited help when she’s startled by it like in a Sears when she saw a whole bunch of them displayed. Is it better to treat this as N.B.D. or to address it early and often?
DD is 14 months, and is finally moving up at daycare from the infant room to the young toddler room. Do people generally give a “farewell” gift to the infant room teachers? We’ve had a fair amount of teacher turnover since she started there at 6 months, if that matters – one teacher has been here about a month, the other since November. I can’t tell at all if there’s a gifting culture at this center, but we didn’t notice cards or other gifts at the holidays (we did $25 Visa gift cards and cookies). What would be appropriate here, if anything?