Make My Life Easier Thursday: Extra Large Display Digital Alarm Clock
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As a bad sleeper and a parent of a teenager, I’ve been struggling with how to handle an age-appropriate curfew. If she’s supposed to be home by midnight, I’m faced with the challenge of 1) staying up until then, 2) having her wake me up when she gets home and then struggle with falling back asleep, or 3) doing neither of those things and waking up in a cold sweat at 2:00 a.m. because I don’t know where she is.
Lately we’ve been trying a new arrangement that involves this basic alarm clock. It sits on a console table outside my bedroom. When I go to bed, I set it for a few minutes past curfew time. When she comes home, she turns it off so the alarm doesn’t sound. This way, I can still get some sleep knowing that if she’s not home by the agreed-upon time, something will rouse me so I can track her down. (Do I still wake up in a panic sometimes? Sure, but I think that’s just parenting.)
So far, it’s worked fantastically. We did have one close call, but she called me from down the street to let me know she was on her way so the alarm wouldn’t be the thing to wake me.
Any alarm clock will work, but this one blended in well with some of our other decor and the display is big enough for me to read without my contacts in. What more can I ask for?
The clock is $20 at Target.
Sales of note for 7/15/25
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Nordstrom – The Anniversary Sale is open for everyone — here’s our roundup!
- Ann Taylor – Semiannual sale, extra 50% off sale styles
- Banana Republic Factory – 40-60% off everything + extra 50% off clearance
- Eloquii – Limited time, 100s of styles starting at $9
- J.Crew – End of season cashmere sale, take 40% off select cashmere
- J.Crew Factory – All-Star Sale, 40-70% off entire site and storewide and extra 60% off clearance
- M.M.LaFleur – Sitewide Sale, save 25% with code — 48 hours only! Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off
- Spanx – Free shipping on everything
- Talbots – All markdowns, buy 2 get 1 free, on TOP of an extra 40% off (ends 7/15)
Is there a better metric than Lexile for determining reading level for independent reading? I’ve found Lexile is not very accurate. For example, I have a kid that can easily read Diary of a Pug but really struggles with Magic Treehouse even though some of the Magic Treehouse books have a lower Lexile level than the Pug books. I don’t think it’s just a quirk of my kid because looking at the Pug books, they seem much easier to read – much more repetition and fewer long words.
I know I could ask a librarian, but I thought people here might also have advice.
My dryer decided not to work anymore upon our return from vacation. The washer still works great. Is there any reason, other than aesthetically having them match, that I need to replace both the washer and the dryer?
Anyone else not feel mom guilt to any significant degree? I’m very close to my sister and she has heavy mom guilt about a lot of things (a deadbeat husband doesn’t help since so much is on her plate) and in conversations before my kid was born, she said things like “good luck avoiding the mom guilt” as if it was inevitable. I haven’t experienced it like that, though. There were plenty of days where I resented having to spend so much time away from my baby because I would much rather play with him than wait at the doctor’s office for two extra hours, but even that wasn’t guilt so much as annoyance. I miss him and love spending time with him and don’t feel guilty about planning my first overnight away from him soon. Anyone else in the same boat?
Any suggestions for a 7th birthday gift for a girl who is kind of mature for her age and can be a bit of a mean girl? It’s a small party and I assume they’ll open gifts at the party and my daughter is a little anxious about having a gift that pleases the birthday girl (which is a whole thing I don’t love, but I also don’t want her to be embarrassed at the party). My daughter says all manner of dolls, stuffies and arts and crafts are too baby-ish for this friend. She gave my daughter beauty products for her birthday, but I really prefer to avoid makeup and beauty stuff. She’s not a Swiftie, to my knowledge, which is generally my go-to gift for the more grown up girls who’ve moved beyond dolls. Budget is about $20.
Help me settle an argument with my husband –
Do you think it’s normal/okay for the nanny to reorganize our entire pantry?
Context: We had a discussion with her a month ago about being more proactive and gave specific examples, such as – clean and organize the kid toy area, text us if the milk has run out, and remove obviously too small clothes as you’re doing the laundry.
I came home the other day to find my pantry reorganized such that laundry detergent and kid snacks were all on the bottom shelf, rather than the previous higher (out of toddler reach) shelf. The pantry was not a model of exact organizational beauty before the reorg. From a purely aesthetic perspective it looked better afterward but was not functional in my view for safety and general purposes (e.g., all the rice lining the back of the shelf, with a row of tomato sauce in front, then a row of canned beans in front — rather than lining things up so you would take the first packet of rice and see the next behind it like in a store). Also, she likely did this during 2 hour nap, so no concerns about not paying attention to the child.
Okay ladies – took the SSRI this morning! Guess what? I’m OK! It’s almost like a placebo effect so far where I “feel” it working (which I know isn’t how it works).
What are your go to activities for restaurants and/or long car rides for toddlers? Our toddler is 2.5 and pretty good at our local restaurants/in the car but we have a ton of travel this summer.
For restaurants, we used to do sticker books and little figurines but they are hit or miss now. I was thinking a mini magnatile set?
For the car, we do like podcasts so any recommendations welcome. Other ideas?
Just a word of hope for everyone in the trenches of picky eating. In the last couple months, my 7 year old has started asking to try a bunch of new foods and has liked many of the things she’s tried, including lobster, (very mild) Indian curry and hummus. She’ll now eat beef and chicken in pretty much any form unless it’s spicy, so we can easily go to restaurants that don’t have kids menus. This was unimaginable a year ago when she only ate stereotypical American kid food, and even more unimaginable around age 4, when she was down to around 10 foods. We did all the wrong things, including prepping (simple) separate meals for her (because it was so much easier than fighting about food) and giving up on even offering her new foods (because she always said no) and still things worked out. I think many kids just need time.