This post may contain affiliate links and CorporetteMoms may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
At Corporette, we’re huge fans of the sweater jacket. It combines the structure and polish of a blazer with the warmth and comfort of a cardigan.
This bright, cheery version from Boden will chase away the winter wardrobe blues. Made from 100% cotton, this boxy, nautical style jacket has gold buttons and contrasting piping. Wear it with everything from high-rise, tailored trousers Monday through Thursday to your sharpest jeans for casual Friday.
The Holly Knitted Jacket is $144 with code (originally $180) and comes in six colors/patterns. It’s available in sizes 2 to 20/22.
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.
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
- Loft – Spring Mid-Season Sale: Up to 50% off 100s of styles
- 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
- Hanna Andersson – Up to 50% off spring faves; 25% off new arrivals; up to 30% off spring
- J.Crew Crewcuts – Up to 60% off sale styles; up to 50% off kids’ spring-to-summer styles
- Old Navy – 30% off your purchase; up to 75% off clearance
- 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
Ifiknew says
my daughter broke her pinky finger on the playground this last weekend and she’s having surgery tomorrow to put two pins in it and the pins will be removed in three weeks. has anyone had a surgery like this? I’m concerned if the pinky will look and go back to normal after the few weeks. surgeon seemed to feel confident about the outcomes but would love to hear any anecdata.. thank you!
anon says
I broke my pinky as a highschooler and it looks the same as the other hand. It still clicks occasionally when it’s cold and rainy out but otherwise its fine.
Anonymous says
My husband had this exact thing happen. He does have some tightness and pain and wishes he had more physical therapy (he only had 1-2 appointments afterwards). But it looks totally normal, you’d never know.
OP says
thank you. did this happen to him as an adult or as a kid? outcomes do seem to vary in terms of pain and tightness. hoping for the best!
Anonymous says
Adult, so hopefully would be much better outcome for a kid. FYI he received a nerve block during surgery that greatly helped with the pain afterwards. No clue if they do that for kids but potentially something to ask about. Also maybe we were stupid but we were surprised the removal required a second surgery with cast etc.
R says
Has anyone used a health insurance claims advocate for help managing/pursuing a lot of relatively small medical claims? Is this something a claims advocate will even do (as opposed to working on huge medical bills from a single hospitalization)? We have theoretically great out-of-network coverage, but my kid and I both see multiple out-of-network therapists regularly so we are submitting a lot of claims for reimbursement, and our insurer keeps finding reasons to randomly deny some of them (while reimbursing identical ones from other dates). We’re usually able to get it sorted out after a few phone calls, but the job of keeping track of all the claims, getting additional paperwork from providers when requested, and following up multiple times on the claims that get denied is really adding up. We’re talking about multiple appointments per week, so tracking these has practically become a part time job. Trying to figure out if this is something we could realistically outsource.
Anonymous says
I’m not sure you can outsource this, but would love to hear back if you’re successful! Every mom I know, myself included, does this in their “spare time” ie 10PM on a Monday when I’m done working out and have finished prepping everyone’s lunches for the next day. I would actually love to do this as my job, but I would want to do it for individuals and I can’t imagine it pays very well?
Anonymous says
Hi, I’m a lawyer who does this for older adults at a nonprofit. Billing offices are incompetent, insurance companies only care about profits, regulatory agencies are pretty much nonfunctional these days, and everyone is beyond rude. Plus funding agencies are stingy. I put in my 10 years for student loan forgiveness, and I’m looking to get out…
Anon says
My company contracted with Rightway, which is a company that seems to do this. Some employee assistance programs may also do this (I don’t have any personal experience to help though). Good luck!
Anonymous says
I work in an adjacent industry and I am seriously considering this as a second career. Problem is the devil is in the details with a lot of these claims so while someone can bird-dog things, the patient (or parent of patient) still has to be fairly involved. You also may need to jump through a lot of HIPAA hoops.
Anon says
Yeah, I’m not really sure how this would work. I manage this stuff for our family, and it’s harder than h3ll to get people to talk to me about my husband’s record. I often have to put him on the phone briefly to give a verbal authorization, even though we’ve filled out all the paperwork saying I’m authorized to manage things. And we’re legally married and share a last name. Based on my experience I don’t think this is something that can effectively be outsourced to a non-family member.
Stairs Anon says
Asked this late on the main board yesterday, and got some great advice (including something that sparked more questions).
How annoying is living in a walk-up while pregnant / with a baby? One thing that I hadn’t thought about at all was a Nanny – one poster on the main board mentioned that a nanny would likely see it as a non-starter, and it would affect our search. Anyone who’s been in this situation have a perspective there?
My husband and I own a condo on the 4th floor (3 flights of stairs) – right now, it’s very livable for us, but when we bought it, we knew it would need renovations if we decided to have children while living here. We’re likely 1-2 years out from trying, but we’re starting to think if we want to move. Financially, most options are on the table – we can afford to renovate, or if we moved we’d likely sell our place and rent in the city for a few years once we were pregnant and then move to the suburbs (wouldn’t make a ton of sense to buy again in the city unless we found a unicorn).
We LOVE our place – it’s really a gem, and we’re both in good shape. However, having never been pregnant or tried to schlep a small child up 3 flights of stairs, I can’t tell if staying there is a terrible idea that we’ll regret.
Cb says
I really think it depends on stroller storage. I’ve had friends do it and it’s fine if you’re not pulling a buggy up the stairs (but is annoying if your kid falls asleep en route home). We were in a ground floor flat and I was very grateful I could just roll the buggy into the house/leave it in the little garden with a sleeping baby.
Anon says
This. We moved from an apartment to a house when my kiddo was 4 months old. Just being able to leave stuff in the mudroom/garage or letting her sleep in the stroller outside (in the shade!) if she fell asleep on a walk was SUCH a relief. I had a terrible sleeper and the transition from car/stroller to home always woke her up which killed my ability to take the ~30 minutes to prep food, eat something, throw in a load of wash, etc. It will only be a big deal for 3-4 years but it will be a BIG deal for those years.
anon says
+1. Stroller storage is big. Some people can keep it in a car trunk or under the stairs in a locked building. In our city, we’ll even see them chained to bike racks in underground parking.
It becomes a bigger deal if you have a second kid close in time and cannot physically haul a baby, toddler and all their stuff up the stairs by yourself.
Anonymous says
I wouldn’t move before you’re pregnant. It can take a lot longer than expected to get pregnant and the fact that you moved to a baby-friendly place could just be a painful reminder of what you don’t have.
anonamama says
I agree. Life is unpredictable and don’t trade off your life now for one you can’t see just yet! Enjoy that beautiful place and the married life until you really need to make a move!
TheElms says
A lot of nanny’s for infants tend to be older, so I think 3 flights of stairs could materially limit the people you have to choose from.
Obviously its going to vary person to person, but I would not live up 3 flights of stairs with a baby or young toddler.
It is absolutely possible, its just not something I would choose.
I think you would be fine while pregnant, but with an infant / young toddler it would be really hard. Also if you have a c-section coming home from the hospital that first time and needing to climb 3 flights of stairs would be hard but doable. It would get more complicated if you had a lot of doctor’s appointments in those early days. One kid lost a lot of weight and needed to be seen by the ped twice a week and the other had jaundice that needed to be monitored. With a baby you likely need to put the baby in a carseat or baby carrier to get up and down the stairs and you’ll have a diaper bag. That’s before you carry any groceries or anything else like that.
My now 2 year old is 28ish pounds and can’t quite go up/down stairs reliably so you’d be carrying them for at least some of those trips. Granted I’m not in great shape but even just 2 flights in my own house with her is exhausting.
Anonymous says
In 2016 we bought and renovated the cutest house that was super close to both our jobs. Then we got a foster baby, who we eventually adopted and the house no longer suited our needs, so we sold it and moved to the suburbs. I miss that little house every day, but I can’t imagine still living in that area. The crime, traffic, terrible schools, and just generally not kid friendly city is what made us decide to move. Tl;dr – it’s probably best to stay put until you have a kid and then decide.
anon says
We live in a 3rd floor walk-up. Whether or not you can leave the stroller downstairs is really the make or break issue. It was definitely more complicated than just wheeling the stroller out the door, but lots of things with a newborn are more complicated than before—that particular one didn’t really bother me.
Anon says
I lived in a third floor walk up until I was 8.5 months pregnant with my first. It was totally fine, and good built-in exercise. I would not have wanted to do it with a baby, though (we moved to a house in the suburbs and he was born 36 hours later). Basically, once I got my own driveway and ground level house I realized how wonderfully convenient it was…even to be able to leave the baby out front in the car or stroller while I ran inside to get something, or unloaded the groceries, which would be impossible with a walk up (or really, apt living in general). Obviously people make it work, but I would wait til your pregnant and then definitely start looking to move.
Anonymous says
Wait until you get pregnant then sell and move. No need for interim renting.
Anonymous says
I lived in a 3rd floor walk-up while pregnant and until our son was around 18 months old. We also had a dog. It was manageable, definitely while pregnant, but it was also complicated and limited our nanny options.
The building grudgingly allowed us to park our stroller in the small lobby, but it really irritated a few childless older residents and created tension with our neighbors. It was a pain to carry him upstairs in the bassinet (strollers like the UppaBaby have a detachable bassinet) if I wanted him to continue a nap in our apartment. As he got older and more mobile, it was also a huge pain to have to figure out getting groceries or shopping bags upstairs along with him, because it almost always involved multiple trips. It was basically impossible to have eyes on him at all times.
We were interested in hiring my SIL’s nanny, as her kids were getting older and they didn’t need a nanny anymore. But when she came for a trial it was quickly clear that she could not carry a bassinet up and down three flights of stairs.
By the time I was pregnant with baby #2, we were very ready to leave. Though to be fair, the family buying our apartment had two little kids! So to each their own, I guess.
Anonymous says
But again – you never know how your experience will be with a baby. For example, we never ever carried our infants anywhere in a car seat or bassinet. It felt so clunky and our kids never slept in the car or stroller. There would’ve been other reasons a walk up would’ve been inconvenient for us but that wouldn’t have been one of them.
Anon says
I think you’re probably fine to stay there. With my second, I had a birth injury and lugging anything up and down stairs would have been a problem. I probably could have worn my baby and carried a carseat (or left it in my car if you have one), but I wouldn’t have been able to carry baby in the car seat. One person in my injury support group lives a walk-up and she would drag her stroller down the stairs while carrying the baby – she made it work but got some judgement from people about it. If you can store the stroller downstairs, it’s ideal.
Anon says
Two random thoughts:
1) I think this is very dependent on what city you live in/how common these walk ups are. I don’t think you’ll have a huge issue in NYC but in Chicago you’d struggle with nannies, neighbors etc.
2) there’s absolutely no way I’d do this with 2 kids (I say as someone with 2 kids living in a downtown apartment where the vast, vast majority of people move to a kid friendlier neighborhood). So if that’s in your plan would consider that too.
Anon (OP) says
We’re in Boston in Beacon Hill (so walk-ups are pretty common, but our building doesn’t have any kids) and they’re not as common as NYC in the city as a whole.
I think this is helpful – honestly, I was leaning toward moving prior to this post, but this has definitely hit it home for me.
Given we own, there’s a bit longer of a lead up prior to moving than if we just rented, so trying to plan ahead some.
Anon says
Any recommendations for books that show non-traditional families? I’m looking both for books that talk about the fact that families come in all different forms and books that have non-traditional families as main characters (without discussing family shape)?
Anonymous says
We randomly checked out Bathe the Cat from the library. It’s not about a non traditional family but shows one in the illustration. The rhymes and story is really cute.
An.On. says
What age range? Picture books? Early reader books? Chapter books?
Anon says
Preschooler, but open to idea to save for older kids too
Anonymous says
For middle grade readers The Thing About Jellyfish has an older brother married to a man.
Anon says
i think Todd Parr has a family book. Also in Daniel Tiger most of the families are non traditional
Anonymous says
Todd Parr one is great.
I like ones that cover divorce/single parents, grandparent or aunt/uncle families as well as LGBTQ+ families.
AwayEmily says
My kids liked Stella Brings the Family.
SF says
todd parr is good and very on the nose. Aaron Slater illustrator has two moms and a (what looks like) adopted family without a discussion.
Play dates says
My almost 6 year old has never had a play date from her current K class. Normal or not? Seems like most girls (of which they are about only one third of a 22 student class) have older siblings so parents already knew one another. We both work and kind of feel like the odd man out – getting to slowly know other families at bday parties but no preexisting relationships and def no SAH parents in our house, which many families appear to have (so no week day play dates, limited in-school volunteering, etc). So, play dates would be left for basically weekends. On weekends, like most I imagine, we have activities, family time, bday parties, and so on.
DD has plenty of interaction/ playtime with her same-aged cousins and neighbors, but it’s the school friends specifically that I can’t quite figure out what we should do. We’ll force the issue/make the time if we’re really out of bounds by not having these dates so far but idk what’s “normal.” She has asked once or twice but that’s about it and typically only when she hears about other kids going home from school with one another.
Anonymous says
My husband and I both work and are introverts. We do not do play dates. I don’t really know a lot of the other moms, most of whom work PT or are SAHMs, but it has not negatively impacted my kid. He’s an extrovert and makes friends pretty easily. If YOU want to befriend the parents, you’re going to have to set up some play dates or volunteer at school or join the PTO or something. But it won’t necessarily negatively impact your kid. It sounds like she has plenty of friends to play with.
Anon says
I think it’s fairly normal. My 6 year old has had lots of play dates but we have made the first invitation with pretty much everyone, and we still initiate and host the vast majority of the time with all but a couple friends. The only friend that we have a 50-50 hosting relationship with at this point is in our neighborhood and so the kids get together with minimal involvement from the adults.
If she’s getting lots of play time with same age cousins and neighbors that sounds great to me. Additionally, aftercare is kind of like a play date at this age, if she does that. If she specifically wants to have a classmate over for a play date, reach out to their parents.
Cb says
I think in kindergarten, birthday parties are sufficient. But if there is someone who seems cool/also works and may be in need of a favour exchange, there’s no shame in saying “let’s hang out…” A couple did this to us and it was really nice, our kids are good friends, and we’ll pick up each other’s kids in a pinch.
Anon says
Have a 6 year old in kinder and have never done a playdate. He’s also in aftercare, which is like one huge playdate. I have chatted with/gotten contact information from a few of his friend’s parents, but haven’t set anything up yet. We were invited over the holidays to hang with another family, but were not available.
I see more discussion about playdates/hanging with other parents here than I feel happens in (my) real life. I also feel like it’ll pick up as kids get older.
Mary Moo Cow says
I would say it is fairly normal for this cohort of pandemic toddlers. People in my communities still talk about getting back to normal and how old habits of not socializing are hard to break. Playdates and birthdays were on hold for a good chunk of these kids’ preschool/Kindergarten year when playdates seem to take off. I’ve also observed that playdates for the younger siblings are not as frequent as they were for the older sibling, through no one’s fault, just the reality of multiple schedules instead of one.
I think playdates are valuable for a few reasons (I might get an adult friend out of it, I might have a contact I can lean on in a pinch, I have a kid who gets overwhelmed in groups but great one on one, I can’t entertain her all dang weekend) so we make the effort with both school friends and neighborhood friends. If you are asking for advice, I would try one with a friend she likes that you like and have met the parent and felt comfortable with, and see how it goes. If you don’t want to do it at your house, suggest a playground. You might like it and schedule more or you could hate it but then you’ll know.
Anonymous says
i have two kids in K. they have each had one playdate initiated by me. one of those playmates recently invited my daugther to play but we had to decline. We are also kind of unlucky in that most of the girls in their classes (also classes that are majority boys) have older siblings so the parents arent quite looking for additional friends. have you ever invited anyone over for a playdate? it’s a two way street.
Anon says
Is your child an only child? You may find other only child families are more interested in play dates or get togethers (as a generalization – of course there are exceptions to every rule). I have an only and although of course we have some nuclear family time, we try to find another family for most of our weekend outings because it’s so much more fun for our kid that way. The families I know with 2+ kids don’t seek out other families as much, which makes sense because their kids can entertain each other.
Anonymous says
I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing to take a pass on play dates, but if you’re interested in what’s normal, my perception is that the girls in my son’s pre-K class do even more playdates than the boys. Probably once a week on average for the girls, while for the boys, it’s every 2-3 weeks. Personally, I would try to find a way to lean in so that she’s not left out at school. Could you host a couple of group playdates with two friends each time? They’re sometimes annoying to schedule but more efficient if you’re time-strapped.
Anon says
Counterpoint, I think group play dates are tough at this age and three kids is an especially bad number because someone ends up left out. I would absolutely start with inviting one friend at a time.
Anonymous says
If she’s getting birthday invites, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. We started play dates because I felt like although my kid was friendly and outgoing and always had kids to play with on the playground, she didn’t have a lot of close friends and almost never got invited to birthday parties. Play dates can help turn a casual friend into a bestie, so that’s why we started initiating them, and it did help. But it sounds like that’s not an issue for you.
Anonymous says
We’ve done like maybe 2 w/ school friends. Plenty w/ friends from daycare, especially the mom friend from daycare I’m still close with. One kid from extended day did send home a note w/ his address on it and my kid said they wanted a playdate so I emailed his mom from the directory and heard nada. I don’t judge her though.
Anonymous says
In your shoes I would definitely reach out to her friends’ families to let her play with them on weekends. Not doing that as a 2020 era kindergartener I think negatively impacted my older child. We have two kids and the usual assortment of activities but there is definitely time to meet a friend at the park or have someone over for an hour or two.
Anon says
Anyone have any brilliant EASY ideas for “dress up like an idiom” day? We just found out about it, it’s Tuesday of next week and this weekend is my kid’s birthday and we’re throwing a big class birthday party on Saturday and have family coming in from out of town to celebrate on Sunday, so I’m not sure when I’m going to have any time to work on this. Fortunately we have a canned costume for “dress up like your favorite book character” on Thursday, because she was the Princess in Black for Halloween.
Also gahhh elementary school and their complicated theme days!!!! I miss daycare, when theme days were just like “pajama day” or “silly sock day.”
Anonymous says
When pigs fly–fairy wings from the costume box plus a pink curly tail made from a pipe cleaner and/or a pig snout?
Raining cats and dogs–suspend stuffies from an umbrella
OP says
Thank you! She loves pigs and I could easily and cheaply order fairy wings and a pig snout set online so I just did that.
Thanks for all the other suggestions everyone, will keep them in mind for the future.
anon says
Easiest would probably be “heart on my sleeve”. If you have any animal costumes laying around you could try something like “baseball bat” or “queen bee”.
Anon says
Can you make a potato chip out of construction paper and be “chip on my shoulder”? I feel like you can cut out an oval, fold/unfold it like an accordion for “ruffles”, and call it good.
Also, I just have to say the thought of having to do this is horrifying.
An.On. says
Ones that just involve drawing or stapling things to a preexisting outfit:
Get your ducks in a row
Butterflies in your stomach
Ants in your pants
Or, for a very lazy one: draw a giant square on a shirt with nothing in it and say it’s “drawing a blank”
The No Club says
There are a few idioms for which she could just re-wear the Princess in Black costume:
“in the black”
“black heart”
“black magic”
https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/black
Vicky Austin says
That seems very…erudite for elementary schoolers? Like, I’m pretty sure if that were one of the homecoming week theme days in my high school, nobody would have known what it meant.
A search of “punny Halloween costumes” on Pinterest yields:
-wear a nametag saying “Life” and carry a couple of lemons
-raining men: cut out a bunch of male faces and stick them to your shirt; carry umbrella
-social butterfly (butterfly wings + Instagram logo on shirt)
-the cat’s pajamas: cat ears and pajamas
-holy guacamole: wear green and put on a halo
-under the weather: foofy white hat with paper raindrops attached
-monkey business: shirt and tie, monkey ears
-dust bunny: bunny ears, carry a dustpan
-pig in a blanket: pig nose, wear a blanket like a cape
-black eyed pea: paste the letter P on a plain t-shirt, make a black eye with makeup
-party animal: any kind of animal outfit + party hat
I also like the “chip on your shoulder” suggestion. Heck, just fish a chip bag out of the trash for that one!
Vicky Austin says
I have a long comment in mod but I searched “punny Halloween costumes” on Pinterest and got some great ideas, including “the cat’s pajamas” (cat ears + pajamas) or “pig in a blanket” (pig nose + wear a blanket like a cape) or “party animal” (any kind of animal ears, nose, makeup, outfit + party hat).
anon says
im one month from my due date with my first, and just over it: “it” being everything. Im too tired to work, to socialize, to be a good partner to my husband, to even prep for baby’s arrival. my pregnancy has been normal and i have no reason to think ill deliver early so looking at another four weeks or so, probably. tips for how tf to get through these last few weeks? i hate to end pregnancy/start baby’s life with this attitude :(
Anon says
If it makes you feel any better- for both my pregnancies my peak “over it” time was 36 weeks and I actually got more physically comfortable and less emotionally miserable as time went on. I also HATED being pregnant and have enjoyed every other phase much more, so my vote would be to bad attitude to your hearts content.
Vicky Austin says
+1 – 36 weeks is when I wanted to claw my own skin off. Water gave me heartburn, all my coworkers were constantly inquiring about the state of my cervix, and the cousin I was a few weeks behind had just delivered early. By the time I delivered things were much better.
OP, it sounds like you need rest! Do that first.
Anonymous says
Yeah, don’t feel bad about hating being pregnant. It is objectively miserable for some of us. Just try to take it one day at a time and don’t think too far ahead. There is a lot that is out of your control. If you have a place for the baby to sleep ready, that’s probably enough.
anon says
This was my experience, too. Once I gave birth, it was like a fog had lifted and I felt like myself again. Crazy.
Anonymous says
this. especially after my first, I remember literally shimmying around in my recovery room the morning after I gave birth and saying to my husband, “look, I can move again! I have so much energy!”
anon says
Schedule a spa day for yourself and lots of impromptu dates if you can manage. can be as small as coffee dates or a walk around