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This is a pretty, work-appropriate top from Zara. I like the minty green color with the bright contrasts of the turquoise dahlias (?) printed on it. I also really like the way this top is constructed. The shoulders are a little wider, and there is a seam at the waist that creates a slight peplum. I also think the sleeve openings are unique without getting in the way of typing or using the computer. All in all very pretty, and of course, machine washable. The top is $39.90 and available in sizes S–L. Floral Printed Top A plus-size option from the Rachel Roy Collection is available in sizes 1X–3X at Nordstrom. 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. This post contains affiliate links and CorporetteMoms may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!Sales of note for 4.18.24
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Ann Taylor – 50% off full-price dresses, jackets & shoes; $30 off pants & skirts; extra 50% off sale styles
- Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything; extra 20% off purchase
- Eloquii – 50% off select styles; 60% off swim; up to 40% off everything else
- J.Crew – Mid-Season Sale: Extra 60% off sale styles; up to 50% off spring-to-summer styles
- Lands’ End – 30% off full-price styles
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- Nordstrom: Free 2-day shipping for a limited time (eligible items)
- Talbots – Spring Sale: 40% off + extra 15% off all markdowns; 30% off new T by Talbots
- Zappos – 29,000+ 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 – Up to 70% off baby items; 50% off toddler & kid deals & 40% off everything else
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- J.Crew Crewcuts – Up to 60% off sale styles; up to 50% off kids’ spring-to-summer styles
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- Target – Car Seat Trade-In Event (ends 4/27); BOGO 25% off select skincare products; up to 40% off indoor furniture; up to 20% off laptops & printers
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And — here are some of our latest threadjacks of interest – working mom questions asked by the commenters!
- If you’re a working parent of an infant with low sleep needs, how do you function at work when you’re in the throes of baby’s sleep regression?
- Should I cut my childcare down to 12 hours a month if I work from home?
- Will my baby have speech delays if we raise her bilingual?
- Has anyone given birth in a teaching hospital?
- My child eats everything, and my friends’ kids do not – how should I handle? In general, what is the best way to handle when your child has some skill/ability and your friend’s child doesn’t have that skill/ability?
- ADHD moms, give me your tips to help with things like behavior in the classroom, attention to detail, etc?
- I think I suffer from mom rage…
- My husband and kids are gone this weekend – how should I enjoy my free time?
- I’m struggling to be compassionate with a SAHM friend who complains she doesn’t have enough hours of childcare.
- If you exclusively formula fed, what tips do you have for in the hospital and coming home?
- Could I take my 4-yo and 8-yo on a 7-8 day trip to Paris, Lyon, and Madrid?
Childcare rant says
Ugh, I am so annoyed at our babysitter. Our excellent preschool has a three week gap in care between the end of summer camp and the start of school. Not great, but we’ll deal. We ended up doing a nanny share with one other kid from school, at our house (both kids are 2.5). I was initially put off because we were talking about having 3 kids total, and she wanted to charge each family the same hourly rate – no discount for a share, which seems crazy to me (if I had a nanny for one kid, and then have a second child, I’d definitely give the nanny a raise, but not double). But whatever, we sorted it out. Then, the nanny kept surprising us by bringing additional kids with little/no warning. First, it was her own 9 year old, who seems to be helpful and well-behaved, but I still would’ve like more warning than same day. Then, it’s her daughter AND 7 year old nephew – again, nice kid, but zero notice. Then, last Friday as she was leaving she remarks in an offhand way that she’ll have the 18 month old she usually nannies for with her Mon/Wed/Friday this week! The older kids don’t bug me as much because they’re more self-sufficient than toddlers, but an 18 month old is in prime death-wish stage, and needs lots of supervision, especially in our house that has ungated stairs (our kid is a stairs champ at this point). Given that there’s only a few days of this left (we’re leaving for a trip on Friday, so don’t need her then), we figured we’ll just deal for a few more days, especially since overall she’s done a great job engaging with the kids, doing fun outings, and we have no safety concerns. But then this morning, 45 minutes before she was supposed to arrive, she texted to say she can’t take our kid today, because the 18 month old’s parents aren’t comfortable with it! But apparently she IS taking the other kid in the share. I get why she wants to prioritize the more long-term arrangement, but when we hired her, she didn’t mention this at all, and gave us the impression she was free to watch our kids for all 3 weeks. I feel pretty taken advantage of, and am tempted to just tell her forget about tomorrow, we’ll make other arrangements. But I guess that just hurts us, so I need to put on a reasonable face with her tomorrow…
Anonymous says
I wouldn’t count on her being available tomorrow either. I’d go ahead and activate plan B.
Anonymous says
Fire her angrily and make a new plan.
ElisaR says
i’d be annoyed too. i think i would say something at the end of the relationship – not before the last day. just let her know that you weren’t happy with the set-up and won’t be using her again going forward.
IHeartBacon says
This is infuriating. I am outraged on your behalf. I don’t have any advice for what you should do tomorrow, but just be glad this is a short-term problem. And, obviously, never use her again. Good luck tomorrow!
Anonymous says
I’d be really annoyed but also an FYI – the amount of kids she has under her care sounds like it’s over the amount allowed by state laws per one provider. Like unlicensed in home daycare or something.
Sf says
We also struggled with the three week summer gap. Employed an old babysitter and was just disappointed in many ways. But I also figure, if you’re a great nanny, you don’t have three weeks of no work in summer (unless it’s a unicorn where their regular family happens to be on vacation the same weeks). Not sure what we’ll do next year but I’m resigned that temporary care is always going to be disappointing.
anon. says
For what it’s worth, we hired a grad student for our (PAINFUL!) 3 week gap. We installed a car seat in her car and gave her our membership cards to all the places in town. It worked out great. Not perfect – lots of TV time, lots of days with no outings, I don’t mean to imply it was the gold standard or something. But just a heads up that in the future I’d recommend looking on local college message boards for students looking for some extra money. She was so so reliable, there every day at the time we set up, and my kids loved her.
rosie says
If you can make other arrangements for tomorrow, I’d tell her you’re done. I think you should be prepared for her to no show again in any case, but I might feel slightly less taken advantage of if I was the one to end things. Ugh. Sorry.
OP says
She did, in fact, just text to bail on us for tomorrow, too! Luckily work is quiet for me, and I can bill a few hours from home during nap.
The three week gap is the worst – we had some cross-enrollment options at other daycares that were unattractive for various reasons (long commute, required potty training that hadn’t happened yet), but we’ll make a point of doing that in the future. Next year at this time I will be on maternity leave, and DH has tons of vacation time, so we’re going to spend August 2020 with helpful family!
Anon says
Have any of you put your children in play therapy or other type of therapy? How long did you do it, and how did it work? My family struggles with a smorgasbord of generational mental illness in varying levels of severity (anxiety, depression, paranoia, hoarding, addiction, etc.), and I’d like to be proactive with my own children rather than sweep it under the rug until something is such a crisis that it can’t be ignored, which is generally how the older generations have handled things. I want to be proactive rather than reactive.
Anon says
Not a therapist, but come from a family wherein it was the norm to sweep things under the rug until a crisis happened.
My suggestion is to not do therapy quite yet – your children may turn out to not have mental illnesses. “Proactive” doesn’t mean getting therapy for kids who don’t need it; it means promptly addressing issues as they arise and modeling for your children how mental health should be managed throughout life.
Anon says
I think there’s a large middle ground between putting children with no apparent mental illness in therapy and waiting until a “crisis” happens. If you feel like your child(ren) have anxiety, depression, OCD etc and the symptoms are interfering with their daily life, yes, absolutely do therapy. That’s not waiting for a crisis, that’s just waiting for a disease to present itself. But I would not put perfectly healthy children in therapy just be proactive. You’re more likely to give them a complex or make them feel like they should have an illness because you think they do (like mental heath Munchausen’s-by-proxy, sort of).
Anon says
I am seeing symptoms, unfortunately. I was really hoping I wouldn’t pass on my crummy genes.
Anon says
I would start with your ped and just share facts about what you’re observing and see what they suggest. I wouldn’t try to armchair diagnose your children just because of a family history of mental illness. I don’t know what age your kids are but a lot of toddlers and preschoolers are anxious and grow out of it. I was terrified of jello in preschool and I don’t think I’m an especially anxious or fearful adult.
Emma says
I hear where you’re coming from – both my DH and I come from similar families and are dealing with the consequences of that now. Here are things I think you can do without putting your kids in therapy: encourage your children to be themselves; tell them they are good enough; help them find the things that will bring them joy; teach them to overcome adversity; and teach them that they will be loved even if they aren’t perfect or don’t turn out exactly the way you expect them to be. Let them voice their emotions and acknowledge them as real. If there is a problem, even temporarily, provide the ressources for them to get through it. Acknowledge that life is hard and sometimes it’s ok to need help. I know all of this is easier said than done, but that’s what I’m hoping for my kids.
anon says
Going anon for this.
My 4-yr-old DS is in play therapy. We started him at 3.5, and he’s been doing it for about a year. The group mostly addresses social/emotional development. For example, they started out practicing how to be in a group and how close to stand or sit and how to walk together in a line, and there was a school of fish analogy. Later, they practiced asking a friend to play, then asking for turns and giving each other turns. More recently, they worked on cooperative play and talked about a “group plan.” Now they’re learning about how to tell what someone else is feeling and thinking by reading their body language and facial expressions and what they’re looking at.
It has really helped. We see DS using scripts from play therapy, and we can support him by reminding him of them in social situations. Around this time last year, he was not interested in playing with other children. If you asked him, “Do you want to ask Susie to play with you?” he’d just say “No thank you.” He never talked about any of the other kids at school and probably didn’t know their names after like 2 months. Last week, his teachers told us that he went up to another child and asked her to do a puzzle with him, without prompting. Everyday he talks about a certain kid at school who he met last week–normal stuff like, “John always sits next to me,” and “John loves the blue play doh.”
DS also struggles with frustration and anger, and of course that comes out in play therapy as much as any other setting. The therapist has been awesome at working with us to identify triggers and set boundaries and develop scripts for dealing with that. (DH and I meet with her every few months.) I’m not sure Kiddo has made much progress on managing frustration or expressing it better, but I do think we as parents feel more equipped to handle it. DS has new teachers as of a couple of weeks ago, and the play therapist and OT met with the teachers (and us and the daycare director) to give some tools and answer questions about how to handle DS.
As an aside, DH was in play therapy from a very young age. He was either still going or went again when his parents got divorced when he was 9. I’m not sure what exactly motivated his parents to start play therapy in the first place, but one very positive effect was that it de-stigmatized therapy and mental illness for DH. He’s always known how much therapy can help, and he’s never dragged his feet about going when he recognized the need.
Mrs. Jones says
Yes. Son started play therapy when he had a hard time adjusting to kindergarten. He went twice a week at first but now, a couple of years later, goes once every month or two. He loves it and it’s helped him control his behavior.
Anonymous says
Oh! So my 6 y/o’s BFF did play therapy for a few years starting around 3.5. The girl had reallly monstrous temper tantrums, like well above and beyond what’s typical. The essence of what they worked on was Mom and Kid playing together 1:1, with Kid leading the play with Mom as a playmate. Mom was not allowed to do anything else- no phone, no dealing with other siblings, no cooking dinner, and Kid wasn’t allowed TV.
The root of the problem in this case was attention/acting out/controlling emotions. Well, 2 years later I had my own Emotionally Unstable Really Difficult Middle Kid. I did what my friend’s therapist recommended with focused 1:1 and it really, truly helped. You may want to have a go at something like that as you continue to look at other options.
Anonymous says
I live in (outer borough) NYC but avoid midtown like the plague. I’m taking my 4 year old to the American Girl store this weekend for brunch – she inherited a doll from a friend and is in love with her. Any ideas of what else we should do up there? I was thinking going up to the Central Park zoo…
Anonymous says
Central Park zoo is small, but that does make it nice for an addition to an outing rather than a full day. However, it IS expensive for such a small zoo, so you could also just do a walk through the park itself — visit the pond with the boats from Stuart Little, see the Alice & Wonderland statue, say hi to the turtles in the pond, visit a playground (there is a good one in the middle of the park right near Central Park South). One thing to be aware of is that some summers there is a carnival type thing at Wolman Rink – avoid or enjoy depending on whether you’re into that kind of thing. There is also FAO Schwartz that re-opened, I think. Dylan’s Candy Bar, maybe?
Anonymous says
I think for a 4 year old who is already going to an attraction store, I would vote for an unstructured Central Park/playground visit. I’m a fan of the zoo, but I don’t think you need more bells and whistles. Heckscher Playground in the southwest corner is very cool (although big and multi-level – makes supervision a little tough).
Redux says
Anyone have any fun plans for the last weekend before school starts (at least where I am)? My oldest is starting K so we’re doing some school supply shopping and we’re going to watch a movie (she’s only seen like 3 movies in her life, so this counts as a “big plan” in our house) and I am probably going to make long detailed lists to help me figure out how to prep lunch options. I can’t believe summer is over!
Anon says
School has been back for a month here! I’m so jealous of people who start after Labor Day.
My difficult in-laws are arriving tonight and staying with us for a full week, so this weekend is just about survival. I’m taking a long weekend in a couple weeks so that’ll be my holiday weekend do-over.
Anonymous says
We don’t get out of school til end of June though!
avocado says
If the weather holds, we are planning one last hurrah with water activities: water park, river tubing, maybe the pool. Meeting up with friends for dinner at a restaurant we haven’t tried before. Cleaning and meal prep so we get off on the right foot the first week of school. Our eighth-grader (?!?) has decided that school lunch is icky, so this year we’re planning to have her prep her own lunches as much as possible.
My daughter won’t get the supply lists for two of her classes until the first day of school, so I’m crossing my fingers that neither teacher wants anything we don’t already have on hand. The Target shelves have been nearly bare for weeks. I thought we’d be done with supply lists after elementary school, but so far no such luck.
Emily S. says
I chose not to throw a birthday party for our youngest daughter (2 tomorrow!) and I was feeling pretty guilty about it, but now, I’m high-fiving past me. A holiday weekend with no big event or rigid plan! My parents are coming to visit, though, which always means more activities than a typical weekend. We’re planning an outing to the local outdoor mall to buy new shoes for the kids, catch the Curious George exhibit at the local science museum before it closes, and visit the local botanical gardens and its splash pad on Monday. Basically, being outdoors and catching up on the things I meant to do over the summer.
Redux says
Yes, all the high fives to past you! This sounds like a much better weekend than hosting a toddler birthday party. Up top!
ElisaR says
whoo hooo!
mascot says
Hoping for a relaxing weekend with no soccer/kid activities, some yummy meals and watching college football. But, this could all change depending on Dorian and his path.
Claudette says
For those of you with kids in elementary school — what level of computer literacy, if any, was expected of your entering kindergartener? Our daughter will be starting kindergarten next fall. So far we have limited her screen time to watching PBS Kids shows, and that pretty infrequently. I’m not inclined to increase her exposure, but in your experience, would there be any benefit to introducing her to use of a computer or other device for interactive games or something?
Anonymous says
Not necessary. If her school uses technology, she’ll pick up whatever she needs to know very quickly.
Anon says
None. Our school has a kindergarten readiness checklist and it doesn’t say anything about technology, even though they use it in the classroom.
Anonymous says
Your child will definitely pick up what they need in school, so no need to necessarily work with them ahead of time, but I just wanted to chime in that I was/am surprised at how much computer work my child does. Both on the computer and on iPads. Giving her access to something like ABC Mouse or something similar is not a terrible idea.
Anon says
For my kid’s kindergarten, we were given a readiness checklist and technology was nowhere to be found. So far, no mention of technology—there’s a cart of iPads somewhere that might be brought out on occasion. No need to prepare the kid, except to teach general values (we use screen time for specific purposes and in very limited quantities, with exceptions for illness and planes).
However, use of tech varies by school. Our neighborhood school is low-tech for younger kids and is one of the reasons we picked it over a lottery school, which has heavier tablet use for young kids.
Anonymous says
None
Anon says
My friend in Florida was surprised to learn her kindergartner was taking assessments on an ipad. I’m sure they were shown how to use it but it might be more difficult for a kid seeing one for the first time. I’d call your school and ask!
Claudette says
Thanks, all! This is helpful.
Anonymous says
My kid started K today. We have a super techy district.
My kid can enter the password on my phone, text my husband an emoji, and turn on the TV. That’s it. She’ll be fine.
Shoes says
My 15 month old keeps taking off her shoes (Velcro sneakers) at daycare, and daycare is asking us to provide sneakers that are harder for her to remove. We are trying Converse high tops, double knotted. Any other suggestions? Thanks!
Ashley says
My 21 month old son has always done this. IME they will get the shoe off if they really want to, and ones with laces just make it more difficult on you (or the daycare staff) to put them back on. Sometimes our daycare will put masking tape over the shoe laces (or velcro) all the way around the shoe, which occasionally works. Otherwise, I’m constantly saying “we keep our shoes on at school” and hoping it will pass one day.
Anon says
Yeah, my toddler gets her shoes off but it’s not by undoing the velcro, it’s by yanking it off. I don’t really see how laces would change anything.
Anonymous says
We had success with high-top lace-up shoes because they’re more difficult to yank off than low-cut shoes. I found some old-school high-top baby shoes at Stride Rite.
AwayEmily says
It may just be a stage. Mine did it constantly from about 15-16 months then one day just stopped. Also worth checking to make sure the shoes aren’t too small.
Lana Del Raygun says
Daycare WWYD! We visited two in-home daycares this am, equally good in terms of location. Daycare A seemed … fine. They do part-time for $45/day, and we technically only need 3 days/week ($135/week). But they also have a TV in the main room and I feel like we didn’t quite get a straight answer about how often it’s on. They had a number of records (lead test and vax records, emergency contact forms) missing at their routine inspection last year, and it seemed more hectic, although I think that’s mostly a function of the children’s ages. There are more kids close to Mini Lana’s age.
Daycare B gave me more of a confident feeling but it would be $250/week. On the other hand that would be up to full time, so Mr Lana could drop Mini Lana off more that 3x/week instead of trying to WFH around her naps, which I think would be good. They go to the park a lot, no screens, and the provider seemed generally more proactive and on top of things. The only big downside to Daycare B (besides the cost, which we could swing) is that they have a dog who runs around the kitchen while they’re eating (and throwing food on the floor) and is “very friendly and good with the kids.” Otherwise it’s shut in a different room and doesn’t play with the kids because the provider doesn’t think dogs and little kids are a good mix. Mr Lana is going to see about going back to observe a lunch (we also forgot to ask what kind of dog it is) but do you think this should be a dealbreaker? I feel like every dog that hurts a child has someone to vouch that it was friendly and perfect until it wasn’t.
Anon says
If the dog is only around the children when they’re eating, I wouldn’t worry as much. Dogs (well, friendly dogs at least) tend to be aggressive with kids only when the kid grabs their tail or something like that, so I’d worry more if the kid were able to chase the dog around, grab the dog, hit the dog, etc. But sitting in a high chair and throwing food while dog runs around at their feet shouldn’t be an issue.
Daycare B sounds way better to me. As someone who did the “husband will WFH around baby’s naps” it’s REALLY hard past the age of about 6 months. We ended up basically each working a second shift (I worked in an office during the day and took care of baby in the evenings/weekends, husband took care of baby during the day and worked in the evenings/weekends). If you can afford it, I would highly recommend having the option for full-time childcare even if you think you don’t need it.
Anon in TX says
I think it depends alot on the type of dog. My parents have two dogs, one big that can knock down my 5 yo and a little lap dog that if she bites you is going to break skin but nothing worse than that. Sounds like this might be a bigger dog if it can knock food off the table. Also, how is your kid with dogs? If kid is not used to dogs, they can be really scary. My parents lock up both their dogs in the other room when we come over because they go crazy barking and scarying my kids (we don’t have a dog). They usually get let out later once they’ve calmed down. Personally, I go with my own comfort level and also a lot of gut feeling. If the dog is a dealbreaker, can you look for a third option, or is it down to these two?
Lana Del Raygun says
She’s not used to dogs but she’s only 9mo so she’s not that used to anything, lol. She’s been around dogs at my grandparents’ and Mr Lana’s dad’s, but not interacting with them directly. We can look for another option but we’re trying to get something locked down ASAP because we’re paying through the nose for babysitting at the moment.
Anon says
It 100% depends on the type and size of dog. A little yappy thing? No prob. My 75 lb black lab that loves food? No way jose.
FWIW, I find our dog is very distracting during meal times with our toddler who is increasingly picky. My very loving pup just.loves.food and will do anything to get something from DD. DD has grown fond of launching food across the room for pup to chase after as opposed to eating it herself, especially if it’s a new food. It’s not helping our feeding/mealtime development so the only time we put are Gentile Giant away IS lunchtime. Food for thought (pun mostly intended).
Anon says
Edit: Gentle. Doh.
FWIW, but for missing dog details, Option B sounds 5000% better.
Anon says
Hmm, I’ve had the opposite experience. The small dogs I know tend to be skittish and liable to bite a child who makes a sudden movement towards it, even if the child isn’t intending to be hurtful. Whereas bigger dogs (golden retrievers and labs especially) seem content to let babies and toddlers climb all over them and yank their tails, etc., without batting an eyelash. I think dogs feel a lot more threatened when the toddler is close in size to the dog.
Of course, if this is a family pet then you can watch your child carefully to make sure they don’t grab at the dog. But I’d be nervous about that in a daycare environment with a 1:3 or lower adult:child ratio. Our daughter’s daycare is amazing but half the time we show up to pick her up the toddlers are running around playing while the adults are occupied changing a diaper or rocking a crying baby. I don’t think this is a big deal, because the room is generally a very safe environment for toddlers to explore independently. But I’d feel very differently if there was a dog.
Anon says
I was talking about specifically a mealtime setting, which is when it sounds like the dog is interacting with the kids. I 100% agree on your other points, but at mealtime my pup is all about being an active participant and 1000% in the way. Shes 5 years old. If she were 12, she’d probably sit passively in the corner and know to give up by now.
Anonymous says
I mean, I guess for me like def B? You can’t work from home with a kid there. And millions of people have dogs in their homes.
Sarabeth says
I can’t tell if your partner has a part-time job, or a full-time job that he does from home at least 2 days/week. If the latter…you need full time daycare. With most kids, the plan of working from home around naps is going to get him 2-3 hours of work per day, max. I’m sure there are unicorn babies out there, but you can’t know in advance if you’ve got one, and your kid’s temperament now is not necessarily a good predictor of whether they’ll be chill enough to get work done in 3-4 months.
FWIW, the presence of TV at all would be a dealbreaker for me. I’d want to know a lot more about the dog before signing up for B, though.
Lana Del Raygun says
He has a part-time job outside the house and also the amorphous, sometimes-from-home job of being an artist. What would you want to know about the dog specifically? We’re going to ask about the breed (we just heard it but it sounded small), its behavior around kids in more detail, and exactly how much time near the kids it gets — would you suggest anything else?
Anon says
Age? Size? Has it been formally trained? Respond to commands? Does it beg for food? Does it bark and run around (jerky moves from little dogs scares DD to death and we own the 75 lb lab referenced above)? How do kids interact with it, if at all? How do you talk to the kids about the dog if the dog is doing something kid doesn’t like? How long has the dog been around kids in this setting?
Not saying an answer to any of these one way or the other would be a deal breaker, but they are answers I would want to know.
My cousin’s kid goes to an in-home with a golden and they get along great. It’s 100% feasible but you just need to do your diligence so you know what to expect, and it sounds like you are.
Lana Del Raygun says
Thank you!
Anon says
You’re welcome. And sorry for being all over this thread. I was a kid who was deathly afraid of dogs until I was a young adult. I feel strongly that my fear really, really had a negative impact on my social life so I take questions of dogs/child coexistence to heart. I had one objectively scary interaction that I barely recall when I was about 4, but my fear was reinforced by well intentioned but misguided parents for way, way too long. I could not walk into a room with a dog until I was about 23 years old, regardless of its size, I kid you not.
Dogs coexist with humans all the time – they’re a fact of life. Humans just gotta know what to ask and when to ask. Trust your gut. If you don’t like the answers you’re getting, time to find plan c.
Lana Del Raygun says
I really appreciate it! Partly due to being attacked by a large and allegedly gentle dog when I was about 8, I just don’t ever get the warm fuzzies about dogs, which makes my risk/reward calculus so different from other people’s that I’m never sure I’m getting the risk part right. And I don’t want to make my kids afraid, but I also don’t want to take unnecessary chances.
T says
I’d also ask if it’s current on vaccinations (only really important for rabies). I’d personally be a lot more concerned with a smaller breed than a larger one if they are going to have face-to-face contact, but that’s colored by personal experience. I’d also want to meet the dog before kiddo were there.
Blueberries says
In my experience, skilled early childhood educators make a class seem really joyful, calm (kids may be running and shouting, but in a happy and not stressful way) and not hectic almost 100% of the time. I don’t have those skills and could not make a class of toddlers calm, but I want educators who can. I’ve learned how to be a better parent from observing skilled educators.
Can you ask the provider more about the dog, like what behaviors would show that it wasn’t a good idea to have the dog around lunch anymore? And how they would handle it if the dog/kids showed those behaviors? I’d want them to consider separating dog and kids at the first, minor, sign that it wasn’t working.
FVNC says
As someone who just switched her kid’s daycare, I’d choose option B or (if the dog makes you uncomfortable) find an option C. Do not go with Option A if you already have an uneasy feeling about it. We tried and tried to make our son’s daycare in our new town work, but there was always something a little “off” and it was incredibly stressful. Don’t knowingly do that to yourself.
More Sleep Would Be Nice says
+1. So much about a childcare situation comes down to a gut feeling more than anything else alone – recommendations, research, online reviews, etc.
Annie says
+2. Sound like your kid is going to have daily screen time at option A. I’m not against screen time at all, but I want it to be when I need it to get stuff done, not when I’m paying for childcare.
Pogo says
+3. I would look for option C personally. You don’t want to have reservations.
rosie says
I would do Option B but I’d want to know more about the dog. I agree with the earlier suggestion to ask for vax records on the dog (and city/county license should be up to date), and I would also ask current/former parent references about the dog. I’d also want to meet the dog and think observing the lunchtime is a good idea. I do think it’s a little odd that mealtime is the one time they interact with the dog — our nanny sends the dog upstairs while the kids eat so they aren’t tempted to feed her, otherwise the dog will sometimes hang out with them.
I don’t think it’ll be practical for your husband to get much work done in the 2 days/week he’s the caregiver. I also would not be into regular screentime at my paid childcare.
Anon in TX says
My 5 yo. kinder kid came home yesterday and told me that he was left behind in the classroom while he was in the bathroom and because the doors were locked, he had to use the phone to call someone to come get him. Seemed totally possible and both husband and I believed it 100%. I called the school this morning to inquire as to why we were not notified, and the person was totally clueless and had no idea what I was talking about. Ok…weird but they promised a call back. Well, kiddo finds out mom is calling school and gets super embarrassed and has to admit to dad that he MADE THE WHOLE THING UP! He has never done this before with such an elaborate and plausible story. He said he just wanted to tell a funny story. So I had to call back the school and say hey, yeah never mind my kid just made it up, sorry…. The lady was nice about it but it was still super awkward. I’m not mad or anything just can’t believe he was able to tell such a tale with 100% believably. Totally snowed by a 5 yo.
Lana Del Raygun says
Oh nooo! I’m sure they think this is hilarious, though.
Redux says
Sorry, this made me laugh! FWIW, I think it’s totally normal for your obviously inventive kid to play out a ruse… I am fully expecting the same from my K, especially after she has taken very serious interest in stories from our childhood in which we have gotten in trouble at school. And last night she asked me what she should say when she gets in trouble in the principal’s office. Jokingly I said, “lawyer,” but luckily my DH jumped in with some actually helpful language, haha!
ElisaR says
wow, that gave me a little chuckle…. what a creative little dude you have!
AnotherAnon says
Paging the mom who thinks her 18 mo is lying to her.
Anon says
That was me, and I’m not sure why you felt the need to call me out. I wasn’t mad at my kid or trying to shame her, I just thought it was interesting that she appeared to be telling a lie (which I know is a totally normal part of development) and was curious if it could start that young. Obviously lies get more complex as children get older and a young toddler could never tell a yarn like this. That doesn’t mean they can’t give misinformation to avoid a negative consequence, which some people would call lying. Anyway, I thought it was a pretty innocent question and am surprised it inspired such a strong reaction.
Myrna M says
Yeah that was really petty. Kudos to you for taking it on stride. Reflects more on this snarky rude poster “paging” you than you. Which btw your question in the first place was really reasonable.
K. says
My 5-year-old who just started kindergarten has been doing a ton of this. And her stories are generally just realistic enough to kind of make sense–like it’s hard to tell fact from fiction at this point. Most of her stories involve a classmate getting in trouble or her almost getting in trouble. I honestly think she is being introduced to so many new social dynamics and authority dynamics that she is using her stories to explore various feelings and to explore our reactions to them. She is a highly imaginative child and I kind of don’t want to tamp that down, but I also wish there was an easier way to tell the fact from fiction (she doesn’t generally clarify that for us even though we keep telling her it is important for us to know sometimes).
Anonymous says
Lol, sorry, this must have been very embarrassing in the moment, but man this is funny.