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Updated: Mar 24, 2023 92 Comments · by

Family Friday: Changing Color Rain Set

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A pink, two-piece kids' rain set: raincoat and gray overalls

Speaking from (ahem) personal experience, kids sometimes refuse to dress for the weather. If your kid is raincoat-averse, here’s a “magical” coat that might make them wish for rain.

This raincoat changes colors when it gets wet! A drizzle is enough to get a pretty floral pattern to magically appear. This coat also has an attached hood, zip front, and pockets (to keep treasures and little hands dry). It’s even part of a set that includes a pair of rain pants. And, Deux par Deux, a new-to-me-brand, is from Quebec, where they know challenging weather.

This Changing Color Rain Set is $106 to $115, depending on the size, at Maisonette. It’s available in sizes 18m to 8y.

Sales of note for 9.10.24

(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)

Kid/Family Sales

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  • 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

About Ann

Ann is a working mom, a longtime reader of Corporette and CorporetteMoms, and has been writing our morning fashion advice for working moms since November 2020! She has a daughter (born winter 2014) and a son (born fall 2019) and is a public interest lawyer in Washington, D.C.

Comments

  1. anon says

    I woke up at 3am this morning to pee and thought, the name Laverne is never going to make a comeback, and Shirley probably isn’t either–not in the way that old timey names like Mabel and Stella and Beatrice are . . . Squiggy would be a cute nickname though! Why was I thinking about Laverne and Shirley at 3am?! I’ll never know, but please use this opportunity to throw out other names that will probably never make a comeback. Olga?!
    Happy Friday!

    • Cb says

      I met a 4-year-old at the playpark named BORIS recently! What were they thinking? Who names their child Boris in Brexit Britain, and particularly in Scotland? It might be a family name, but I’d probably call him Bo or something.

    • Anonymous says

      I heard a song called “Lorene” yesterday and remembered I had a great aunt named Lorene. I think objectively it’s fine but probably won’t be in the top 100 anytime soon.

        • Anon says

          I like Lorraine but I hate the nickname Lori and I follow the rule of thumb that you should never give a child a name unless you’re ok with all the standard nicknames for it. I had a friend growing up who was a Matthew and his mom hated Matt and didn’t want him to be called that. Uh, good luck with that…

    • anon says

      Donald. Hubert, though Huey is kinda cute. Edna. Gertrude. The nickname for Richard that rhymes with stick and starts with a D. Bert. Ernie.
      I also don’t really see the 80s names like Amber and Tiffani coming back though maybe it’s just too soon.

      • Anonymous says

        I agree! So many of the old school names are coming back!

        But I do think Karen will be on the decline for a while!

        • Anon says

          My parents almost named me Karen. It was their runner-up and they went with the feminine form of a masculine name that is somewhat hard to spell and is easily mixed up with a much more popular girls’ name that was very common in the 1980s. I HATED having a weird name that was always mispronounced and misspelled and the fact that I was always labeled the “[Jennifer-esque name] but not quite” girl and it didn’t help that there was pretty much always a pretty, popular Jennifer in my class since that name is so ubiquitous. When I found out Karen had been my parents’ other preferred name, I was convinced that was my “real” name and begged my parents to legally change it. Now of course with the recent cultural connotations I’m glad they went the other way.

      • TheElms says

        I also could see Shirley coming back, I think its pretty and sounds fairly classic.

    • Mary Moo Cow says

      My daughter named her doll Shirley when she was 6.5! Where the heck did she hear that? I have been known to link arms and sing “schlmiel, schmaziel” but I can’t remember attributing it. But I just grin every time I see the doll.

      Susan and Karen are probably on pause for a while and may fade out. Gertrude (which I considered!)? Millicent?

    • Olga's Friend says

      My BFF’s name is Olga and she has had enough negativity about her name, thank you. It’s really cruel to use a real name that real people have as an example of a terrible name, and extra cruel when that is a common name in other countries/ethnicities.

      • Anonymous says

        Agreed. I’d rather talk about names we do like rather than names we don’t.

        I’m loving Periwinkle and Patience and Petunia.

      • Anon says

        Yeah… this (and most other name discussions) always feel very racist and xenophobic to me. Olga is super common in Slavic countries, it’s just unfamiliar to Americans. Same thing with “weird” spellings of American names that are commonly used by POC. I’m here to snark on white ladies naming their kids Madysinn but that’s about it.

        • More Sleep Would Be Nice says

          +1 – I really don’t love these threads because, while not ill-intentioned, they often feature names that are Euro-centric and not really big in my diverse (largely non-White) circles. Thus, I just…scroll past.

          And please, kindly, I ask that no one tell me my experience isn’t valid.

      • Anonymous says

        No one said terrible: OP said unlikely to make a comeback. My whole life strangers have commented on my name: “that’s a boys name” “wow your mom was very progressive” “how do you even spell that”. I love my name and don’t care what anyone else thinks. If you’re an adult and you’re sensitive about your name, change it. Then you can spend your time being offended by things that are actually offensive.

      • Anon says

        I LOVE the name Mary and really want to name a potential future daughter Mary. Unfortunately my husband doesn’t see eye to eye. I love that it’s well known but not common, and I think it can sound both playful and professional – a tough balance to strike for a name that you hope suits both a child and in the future an adult too!

    • Anon says

      I find this thread really funny. I’m expecting and have a daughter with a fairly old fashioned name that I love. So been thinking about old names in the middle of the night a lot lately.
      One that I was thinking of recently, Deloris. I knew a really nice Deloris growing up, but I just don’t see that name coming back. Especially it’s meaning goes back to the word “sorrows”.
      I also know it’s becoming popular again but “Astrid” just doesn’t do it for me either.

      • Mary Moo Cow says

        Astrid makes me think of The Office, which could be a really fun nod for some parents. But I’ll never unsee the way Michael says it.

      • Seafinch says

        My 8 year old niece is Dolores, and I love it. I also love Astrid and my kids have super old fashioned, long names. They also have an evil, Bond villian, two word, extremely German surname. I think it works!

    • anonamommy says

      I pushed hard for Agnes or Agatha but DH overruled (he didn’t want Aggie as a nickname). I love love love old-fashioned names like Willa, Matilda, Theodora, Felicity, Portia, Lavinia. We ended up with something more contemporary as a compromise.

      • Seafinch says

        We have the exact same style. I also seriously considered Agnes and Agatha and would have used Taggie (Jilly Cooper inspired) but they were not strong enough in the honorific category. All of our names are versions of entrenched family names. I have a Rupert so might have been too much! I also have a Theodosia.

          • Seafinch says

            We did! I have three girls with the female versions of male family names, so I would have used it regardless, though. A great grandfather is Theodosius.

    • Anonymous says

      I’m nearing 60, and was stunned when I began seeing the “hopelessly old fashioned” names from my childhood start to come back as baby names. I associated the names with old men and women and was convinced they were “sooooo dated and terrible” they’d never be used again. And here they are, back again. I’m talking names that were popular in the 1900s – 1920s.
      So I predict there will be an era when many of the names we’re thinking of here will, indeed, be “OK” or current again. It just might be 75 – 100 years.

    • Anon says

      I think Bertha, Karen, Nimrod, and Adolf are out. Most other names are fair game to come back

      • Anon says

        Not sure it’s fair to Bertha to put it with those other three, it’s not quite that bad. True story – in Ashkenazi Jewish tradition you’re supposed to name relatives after recently deceased family members and a Bertha expired right before my younger cousin was born. Generally our family is strict and uses actual names (some people just use initials) but for that one they made an exception and picked a different B name. LOL.

      • Anon says

        Bertha, Nimrod and Adolf should most certainly never ever ever make a comeback. Bertha is a terrible name

    • Anonymous says

      I think we are unlikely to see a huge number of children named Donald, Karen or Alexa in the next 25 years. Then they will probably cycle back!

  2. So Anon says

    Headed to Ireland from the US with my two kiddos next month and renting a car to drive around the country. My oldest no longer requires a car seat but my youngest is 9 and about 65 lbs. She rides in a backless booster at home. We will be doing a fair amount of driving. What do folks do in this situation? Bring a backless booster (I have many). The info I have found online is less than helpful (car seats from US are not legal in EU but don’t rent a car seat either).

    • Cb says

      Bring a backless booster. Car seat safety is pretty lax here, but I’d feel more comfortable with it.
      Enjoy! Where are you headed? I work in the North, and need to do a proper Ireland trip with kiddo at some point.

      • So Anon says

        Thanks! We fly into Dublin and stay there for a few days, then head south to Kilkenny for a few days then over to Galway and back to Dublin. I’ve been to Ireland several times, always with my Irish grandmother, and this is the first time I am taking my kiddos and without my grandmother. It feels exciting and bittersweet.

    • Anon says

      Bring a backless booster. We’ve used one all over Europe. I’ve never heard of anyone getting in trouble for using a US seat, and it seems like even less of a concern with a booster as opposed to five point harness.

    • Anonymous says

      I wouldn’t do anything. Put her in the backseat with a seatbelt. Bring a backless booster if you want no one is checking if they are legal.

    • Emma says

      No one really checks, and if they do you can play the confused tourist card. I would think a backless booster is fine to either rent or bring, as opposed to an infant car seat where the issue is that the install is different and the seatbelts don’t lock. I know people are very anti-rental but I’ve rented infant car seats in France for quick day trips and they were fine. If I was doing a longer driving-focused trip I would probably bring or buy my own.

  3. TheElms says

    Recommendations for a beach vacation in the first 2-3 weeks of August (yes we are late to the game). Two parents and 2 kids who will be 18 months and 4 years old. I just want something with a nice beach, nice pool(s), good food, and that will be easy. Prepared to pay to get what I want (but would prefer not the utmost tippy top prices) – probably going for a week to 10 days. We wouldn’t usually do all inclusive (mostly because we aren’t big drinkers – hardly drink at all) but if that makes it easier or a better all around experience that’s fine. May be able to convince the grandparents to come but don’t know yet. Should we go to Beaches in Negril or something like that?

    • Anon says

      Beaches is great but is definitely at what I’d consider the upper end of the budget range. The Turks and Caicos location is around $1,500/night, I think Jamaica is a bit cheaper but not sure how much.

      Honestly, if you’re not wedded to all-inclusive or to the Caribbean specifically, I would just go to Florida, stay at a house on the beach with a pool and eat restaurant food. We did this twice during Covid with a toddler (because we didn’t want to fly pre-vax) and it was way more relaxing than I thought it would be. And I say that as someone who is normally pretty firmly team “hotel over Airbnb.” But the extra space, direct pool/beach access and separate sleeping areas are really invaluable with a 1 year old. IMO it’s really hard to find decent food at all-inclusive. Beaches is about the best I’ve had and it’s good but not great, so if food is a priority that’s another reason not go all-inclusive. Staying in a house also makes it easy to add grandparents last minute – just make sure the house has an extra bedroom.

      • Anon says

        Although I will say if you’re looking to take advantage of childcare for the toddler that’s a big reason to go to Beaches. They’re pretty unique in that regard – most kids clubs start at age 3 at the earliest and many start at 4, but Beaches includes care for infants and toddlers.

        • ifiknew says

          this is a good point if you want kids club for your 18 month old. Finest playa mujeres has a kids club for the babies as well I believe.

          • Anon says

            It looks like at Finest you have to stay there if your kid is under 3. At Beaches you can actually leave infants and toddlers, although I don’t know how many people do. The nursery part of the kids club looked empty when we were there.

    • ifiknew says

      I highly recommend Mexico. We rented a week through redweek/vrbo for Vidanta Grand Luxxe outside Puerta vallarta and it was incredible. It was $500/night for a 1000 SF two bedroom with a full kitchen. We still had daily housekeeping and all the hotel amenities but the comforts of a home as well. The housekeeper did the dishes for $10/day too (!!). It was luxurious and had a great kids club and the grounds were amazing to walk through. There were 10+ pools that we explored every afternoon and 20+ restaurants. Our kids were 3 and 5 so we mostly ate at the same restaurants, but we were not bored at all for a full week and i felt like it was a much better value than an all inclusive for us and I LOVED having all this space. I’ve heard Vidanta riviera maya is equally awesome.

      I think having 2 hours of kids club time made all the difference for everyone to feel like its a vacation and is hard to replicate that in the US at these prices.

    • ifknew says

      Also, look at somerset on grace bay in the turks and caicos. Ive got that bookmarked for our next beach trip as well. Kids club, very nice and luxurious but not over the top. Full kitchen with hotel amenities. It’s SUPER affordable in august too (for the turks) at $633/night for a 1 bedroom (king bed and then a sleeper sofa in living room, I bet you could get a rollaway bed too).

    • TheElms says

      I should have added, I really, really don’t want to cook all the meals. I do all the cooking now and its really not my favorite thing.

      • ifiknew says

        I agree 100%. This is why I’m done with renting houses for a long time. I like the hotels that have kitchens because I can pour some cereal for the kids or make them a cheese quesadilla if they’re starving and its not convenient to step out, but I also like knowing there are multiple easy restaurants outside my unit if we need. The daily housekeeping too is fantastic.

      • Anon says

        Totally fine if you don’t want to do a beach house rental but just pointing out that’s it not synonymous with cooking. I know it is for a lot of people, but I’m the person above who went to Florida twice and we never cooked there. A nice beach house and three meals a day of takeout or ready to eat food from the store will still be much cheaper than high end all-inclusives like Beaches.

  4. Anonymous says

    My 5 yo DD came home yesterday acting finicky which turned into a total meltdown that I sort of felt was coming. She has been showing regression signs for a few months but wasn’t willing to open up. I think she bottled up a lot of emotions and they all came tumbling out. She says her Kindergarten class is too noisy and loud. The boys are too rough, the sounds, activity, it’s a lot. She is my sensitive child- artistic, emotional, sweet, quiet, helpful. She says she loved her preschool class- (2 teachers to 10 students vs 1:20 in her public school Kindergarten). She says her teacher is angry all the time- we know her teacher quite well (she also lives on our street) and she does seem stressed out and tired from being a baseball mom to her 2 middle schoolers, and she also told me the kids behavior changed in covid and became increasingly difficult to manage- I feel for her because 20 kids is a LOT! Our school on the surface level is really great, and there is an incredible feeling of community, but I believe my DD might do better in a smaller school setting like a Montessori. Her brother on the other hand is in 1st grade fully concurred- yup she is right… it’s soooo loud and rough… and I LOVE it!!! But it crossed my mind, how to manage these divergent needs? Before the kids were in school, I thought I’d never split the kids into different schools, but now I’m seriously considering.

    • Anon says

      I think if you can swing the separate drop-offs and pick-ups, Montessori seems like a good option to explore. I do think some of this will naturally get better as kids mature – both in the sense that other kids will stop being so rowdy and your daughter will be better able to handle it. I was really overwhelmed in K but generally had a fine school experience.

      • Boston Legal Eagle says

        I agree with the latter part of this. Kindergarten is a lot, especially for sensitive kids. My older kid is probably considered a “rowdy” physical boy, but he is also sensitive and had a rough adjustment to K. Even coming from full time daycare with a class of 18 kids. 1st grade has been night and day. I would give her another year and then see.

    • Anonymous says

      Some thoughts-
      1) Have you talked to the teacher at all yet?
      2) For how long could she to Montessori? Have you toured a school, seen the class sizes in the elem grades etc? I’m not sure you need Montessori so much as private school (if that).
      3) what happens next year? She’ll get a different teacher.
      4) is this a broader problem in the schools? might moving districts solve it long term for both kids?

      My kids are about to enter K, 1st and 3rd and I do think behavior is a LOT. In our district they superfund teaching assistants so in K all the teachers have one– in K the class size is 18-22 with an aid for all but 2 hours/day. my first grader has a classroom with a main teacher and two full time aids because there are 2 high needs children in the class. In the beginning of the year it was only one teacher and one full time aid and it was…not enough. As the year went on and they upped the staffing to support the two children we needed we realized what a blessing the integrated classroom is for our child. She’s far, far more flexible and compassionate and their classroom focuses a lot on self control, which my kiddo really needs (but doesn’t have or need a 504 for it).

    • Anonymous says

      So- first, 20 kids is an incredibly small class for public school and around the same as most private schools in our area. Second, the teacher is right, Covid changed kids’ behavior and my kids’ private school teachers and my husband who is a teacher are dealing with a whole different ballgame than they ever did before. Maybe that’ll get better as younger kids who didn’t miss as much get to be school age, but I can tell you right now that even a private school is having a lot more crazy classroom behavior. I think maaaaybe exactly the right Montessori might be quieter, but you might be hard pressed to find that.

      • Anonymous says

        In K?! Our public school has a cap on K of 22, 23 for 1/2 and 24 for 3-5.

      • Anon says

        Yeah I was going to say… 20 kids seems small to me! That’s the size of my daughter’s pre-K. We just did kindergarten registration and it’s class sizes of 24-26 in our public K in a well-funded, highly rated school district.

        • Anon says

          Yeesh…my K son is in a class of 18, with an aid. My second grader is in a class of 16. We are in a not-well-funded city.

          • Anon says

            I think it varies a lot by state. I know some states have maximum numbers by law. My state doesn’t.

      • Anon says

        Dang, because 20 sounds absolutely huge to me!

        Kids are in private school, where K-5 classrooms range from 15-17 most years.

        • Anonymous says

          My kid is also in private school, and there were more than 35 kids in the kindergarten class. (Though there was a full-time teacher’s assistant and possibly a part-time aide? Hard to remember.)

    • Anon says

      Before you take the nuclear option and move her, I’d look for ways to see if things can be improved. Talk to the teacher and counselor. There are options like noice reducing headphones, finding a quiet place she can go when overwhelmed, moving her desk away from the source of chaos, getting more help for the teacher, revising line up and dismissal procedures to make it less chaotic, having her leave first or last to miss the chaos, etc.

      • AwayEmily says

        Yes, I was going to say something similar to this and what Boston Legal Eagle said. Kindergarten is hard — there are going to be kids there who have literally never been in a child care setting, so this is their first experience with group dynamics, rules, etc, and that can lead to a lot of chaos. But by first grade everyone has a year of experience dealing with the rules and norms of school and things calm down a bit.

        And also yes to figuring out some other ways to help her cope both in school (as Anon 12:28 suggests) and out of school — for example, my K-er would take an hour or so after school each day to just zone out in her room listening to audiobooks.

        So, I’d try other approaches, as well as giving first grade a chance, before pulling her out altogether.

        • Anon2 says

          My sons were never in childcare settings and their teachers repeatedly commented on how calm and well-behaved they are (and at home they are often…the opposite). My knee-jerk instinct is the opposite take – that kids allowed to mature away from arbitrary cat-herding rules do better. Guess it’s very kid dependent.

          Totally agree about finding that best way for her to decompress and starting the afternoon like that. For my kids it’s often outside time with immediate picnic snacks.

          • Anon2 says

            Ok that sounds more judgmental than I meant it! Clearly perceptions are influenced by personal experience. But like all things “kid”, K behavior really seems variable.

          • AwayEmily says

            ha, no worries, I did not read it as judgmental! You’re probably right that there’s not a strong relationship between being in childcare settings previously and ability to follow the kindergarten norms (especially since there’s such huge variation even between childcare situations)…I guess my larger point, that I could have stated better, was that that K is such a huge change for so many kids that of course that first year is going to be rough (for example, even though my kids WERE in childcare previously, it was a very non-academic, free-play sort of childcare, so K was a giant shift) .

          • Anonymous says

            Having had both a singleton and twins I think twins have built in prep. Their entire lives they don’t have a parent or caregiver solely focused on them. They are usually with a same aged child and have to wait and take turns with getting ready and sharing toys.

      • Cb says

        Yep, I agree. My son sounds similar and he does find it noisy. It’s the last week of school before Easter break and it has been meltdowns galore. So it might be particularly bad with a) this class or b) this time of year.

    • Anon says

      oh this is making me anxious for my twins starting K next year. i went to smaller private schools my whole life and i’m not sure it is going to be the right fit for them. i know plenty of people who have kids at different schools.

    • anonamommy says

      That’s a huge change in the class dynamic, but it’s also fairly normal at this age. What you describe from your daughter sounds like classic restraint collapse, which may include but not be limited to the issue at hand. There’s what, only a few months left in school? Might be worth a discussion with the teacher and/or the principal about helping to boost your daughter’s coping skills before considering a wholesale school change.

    • Meg says

      I would strongly suggest you go listen to the “ASK DR LISA” podcast on my kid complains constantly (episode 105]. I just listened to it yesterday and it gives great context on kid complaints about school being about getting rid of emotional garbage and our role being to help them get it off their chest. Hope it helps.

    • Anonymous says

      Seating arrangements can make a huge difference. Can she be moved to the front and to one side so she only has kids on one side of her and behind her? Can she bring audio books to listen to or a coloring book for lunch time?

      If she’s in afterschool care, an early pick up once a week would give her some space to relax and zone out in front of the tv or just quiet time to draw or read at home. Aim for Wednesdays as a mid week break.

  5. Abby says

    Are blackout curtains necessary for a nursery? I ordered Wirecutter’s top rec for blackout curtains which arrived today and they don’t seem that great. We have giant windows in the nursery, with transom windows (? not sure if this is the term, but square windows above our regular windows) so I don’t have a great way to add blinds that would cover the entire set of windows. Open to blackout curtain suggestions (need the length to be ~120″) OR if this will be no big deal, please tell me that too please (: Baby #1 due in 3 weeks

    • curtains says

      They’ve been a big deal for both of our kids, but depending on when the baby is going to actually start sleeping in the nursery you might be able to wait to figure out whether they matter for yours. Also worth noting that, if you’re willing to look a little insane to your neighbors, you can use tinfoil or black contractor trash bags to cover your windows (held in place with painters tape) and see if the dark makes a difference to your baby before you go all-in with installing real blackout curtains or figuring out a different darkness solution.

      • curtains says

        two more things: if the curtains you have aren’t working that well, you might want a blackout curtain rod, and it should be installed both higher and wider than the actual windows. if they’re working but you think they’re ugly, Pottery Barn has decent looking blackouts that might do the trick, especially paired with a shade of some kind.

    • Anon says

      I don’t think it’s a huge deal if it’s not a south-facing window. Room darkening is good enough. If you want nicer options, check a store like pottery barn or crate & barrel.

    • Anonymous says

      It depends!! Some kids are easily kept awake or awakened by light, some aren’t. With my sample size of two, it’s about nature not nurture. As tiny infants we didn’t have as much issue, but they were essential as the kids got a little older and we have them in all bedrooms currently with 4/8/adults (I can’t tolerate an eye mask but also can’t sleep if it’s AT ALL light). To get true blackout that are also not an eyesore, we have them behind other curtains with both sets placed higher and wider than the window.

    • Abby says

      Thank you all! I actually don’t mind the look of these curtains, and the rod I bought is the wrap around style for blackout curtains. We will try them for now, and worst case I will aluminum foil tape the windows dark

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