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Some days, trying to find pants and a top that match is just too much — an easy-care dress is just what I need for hump day.
This elegant navy tile-print dress has a tie-waist belt, side pockets, and a mandarin collar. Just add some simple gold or silver jewelry and a blazer or cardigan for warmth for an easy look that goes from desk to dinner. And, at the end of the day, just toss it in the wash.
The Kalani Dress from Hobbs London is $315 and comes in sizes 2–16.
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 8.30.24
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Ann Taylor – 30% off full-price purchase; $99 jackets, dresses & shoes; extra 50% off sale
- Banana Republic Factory – 50-70% off everything + extra 20% off
- Boden – 20% off
- Eloquii – Up to 60% off everything; extra 60% off all sale
- J.Crew – 40% off sitewide; extra 60% off sale styles
- J.Crew Factory – Extra 20% off orders $125+; extra 60% off clearance; 60%-70% off 100s of styles
- Lands’ End – 40% off sitewide; 50% off backpacks, 40% off kids’ apparel
- Loft – Summer sale, 30% off new arrivals; up to 50% off much more
- Talbots – 25% off regular-price purchase; 70% off clearance
- Zappos – 28,000+ 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 – 50% off everything
- Hanna Andersson – Up to 40% off everything
- J.Crew Crewcuts – 40% off sitewide; extra 50% off sale styles
- Old Navy – 50-60% off; 50% off pants for the family
- Target – 20% off select clothing for all; up to 50% off home; up to 30% off select nursery furniture; up to 30% off kitchen & dining
Anonymous says
Y’all, we started 4 YO at a new school on Jan 3. We were there 1 day and then got hit with a pretty bad cold, so we kept him home for the next 3 days. Then he went to school for 1 week, and then it was a holiday, and then a snow day, and then today he has a cough again. Is he ever going to go to school? :(
Anonymous says
Yes, in kindergarten!!
J/k, and I’m sorry, this sucks. My 2nd grader’s grade has flu, COVID, RSV and lice going around so…it’s just a matter of time.
Anon says
I know a lot of illness is caught at school, but during the winter months we also limit outings a lot to limit germs outside of school. Basically we stay home or play outside (apart from holidays and other momentous occasions…I’m talking about an average weekend). We do sometimes go to the library, but I’m pretty sure I got Covid there last time since I hadn’t been anywhere else that week, lol. It does seem to help; we don’t get sick that often despite having three young kids.
Anon says
Yeah he’ll be sick a lot until late spring. It sucks but they get sick much less frequently each year. My kindergartner hasn’t missed a day of school for illness all year.
Also we never kept our kid home from daycare or school for colds or associated symptoms like runny noses and coughs (assuming she was happy and energetic and felt up to going to school). It wasn’t required by our school’s policy and other parents didn’t do it.
Anon says
Unless the school refused to keep him or he was clearly miserable, I’d be sending him with cold symptoms and coughs without a fever. And I’d be fairly pushy with a school/day care that was refusing to take him with just cold symptoms. My kid got sent home with a slightly elevated temp a week or two ago (99.9 and 100.1), so not technically a fever. She was acting fine, she was acting fine and had no other symptoms. Her temp never got above that and she never developed anything else. I sent her to school the next day. I got a bit of pushback from her teacher, but she didn’t fit the criteria to keep home, so they had to take her. She was 100% fine. If you kept a kid home for just a cold, they literally would never be in school during the winter.
Anonymous says
You are part of the reason everyone gets sick at daycare. Keep a sick and contagious kid home. if he’s snotting all over everything, he’s contagious.
Anonymous says
Amen.
Anon says
I disagree. One person can’t institute this kind of cultural change, and as long as all the other parents send snotty kids (and they do! I’ve never heard of a daycare parent keeping a kid home for a runny nose without evidence of a more serious illness), the only thing you’re accomplishing by keeping yours home is making life hard for yourself.
Part-time preschool + nanny is a good option for people who are very concerned about their kids picking up routine colds at daycare. Preschools that don’t provide fulltime care tend to be stricter about allowing kids to attend while sick.
Anon says
During the height of Covid, the only place my child went was daycare. We had no other choice because we were essential workers that could not work from home. We had no other child care options available. We took her nowhere else. We stayed home the rest of the time with her. No public playgrounds, no museums, no grocery stores, nothing. And we masked everywhere that we did go where we were around other people. And, she still got sick from colds. From daycare because she, literally, never went anywhere else. A cold is a normal illness. If you have the flexibility to keep your child home for a regular cold, please feel free to do so. But I think that it is ridiculous to expect others to do that. Especially where the kid is otherwise acting perfectly normal and fine.
Anon says
This was us too. For years literally every illness we had came from daycare, so we weren’t going to keep the kid home when we knew they’d gotten it from a classmate who’d already exposed the rest of the class too.
Anon says
My kids were recently home for 2 weeks over the holidays. Except for seeing (mostly elderly family) we didn’t really go anywhere. Guess what? They still had runny noses at the end of 2 weeks. If I kept them home until their runny noses went away they would literally never go to school.
Meanwhile, my daughter has now been home for 2 weeks and counting due to COVID (first week because she had to quarantine with me after I tested positive and then she tested positive so another 10 days). I’m so frustrated and know we’re doing the right thing, but I feel like most people aren’t even testing and just sending kids to school who may have COVID.
Anonymous says
With daycare age kids, by the time a kid gets a runny nose the whole class already has the virus. I can see more of an argument for staying home while sick for older children and adults who are more likely to spread germs when sick via sneezes and coughs, but toddlers put everything in their mouths and share germs constantly and most viruses can be spread before you have any symptoms.
Anon says
this attitude is contributing to a plague of chronic absenteeism across the country.
Anonymous says
I’m with you. My kid will go short of fever, diarrhea, or general malaise per our daycare guidelines.
As far as I’m concerned this is the pact when you sign up for daycare (and also often the written rules). If you want to avoid runny noses and coughs, get a nanny or have a parent stay home. There are trade offs when you send your kid to daycare.
Anonymous says
If you live in the SEUS, I would just expect that he will never attend school more than half the days in January. Even when it doesn’t snow our school district always manages to find a bunch of weather-related excuses for closures and delayed openings in January. I think this actually helps with the constant illness problem, though. During the massive COVID surge of January 2022 I think school was closed for all but about three days due to weather and I was grateful.
Anonymous says
My kids all went to school/day care today! Now maybe I can get some work done…
anon says
We had a delay today (after being closed yesterday) and I’m expecting another delay or closure on Friday. At least we’re ahead of friends who had a snow day yesterday and a cold day today or another local district that’s doing synchronized virtual today instead of a delay…
Anonymous says
My kids gleefully commented (en route to aftercare, which is open today, even though school is not, thank goodness) “we’ve had a FIVE DAY WEEKEND! It’s like a second Christmas break”
Cb says
I taught tweens for an hour today – and I’ve lost my voice (talking over their noise, even when they weren’t talking they were NOISY!) and am knackered. I’ve always had a lot of respect for teachers, but that’s increased by 10x. So many classroom management issues, the teachers seemed engaged but pretty fed up with the behaviour.
Anon says
For those of you who have/have had a nanny, what is your policy about nanny coming to work when kid(s) are sick? Our eldest has her first minor cold (congested/runny nose), and nanny is here today, but it got me thinking about at what point does illness merit nanny staying home? I would think anything that would keep them out of daycare, yes? (fever, vomiting, etc..)
anon says
For us it’s entirely dependent on our nanny’s comfort level. Our nanny doesn’t tend to get particularly sick with respiratory stuff so she’s very comfortable coming when our kid has a cold, sniffles…she even came when he had covid (she’d had it recently, in that case, so she wasn’t concerned about getting it again). On the other hand, stomach bugs REALLY knock her out so if he is having stomach issues, she doesn’t come.
Anon says
Yeah I feel like you need to talk to the nanny. Daycare rules seem like a reasonable starting point to me, but see what her comfort level is.
Anonymous says
Your metric seems reasonable, but you should check with her. I’ve had one nanny; she was young and made it clear she wanted to work when the kids were sick so she could meet her hours. But since they were home with her they pretty rarely got sick.
NYCer says
Our nanny still comes when the kids are sick, as do most of my friends’ nannies. But as others have said, you have to see what your nanny is comfortable with.
Anon says
+1. I thought one of the benefits of a nanny rather than daycare was that they would work even if the child is sick (severe illness excluded).
CCLA says
Same. A big part of why we hired someone was to deal with those last-minute “kid woke up with a fever” or “school is calling for someone to pick up DD” situations. It’s also clearly written in our contract which is helpful for expectation setting from the start.
TheElms says
Our nanny comes when the kids have a cold / low fever/ threw up once but it seems to be a one and done type thing (too sick for school but not super sick). If the kids have HFM, flu, Covid, or bad vomiting / diarrhea she stays home for the worst day or two and then is back when the illness is more mild.
Anon says
Our nanny comes for mild illnesses or the constant upper respiratory stuff it seems kids get. Once we’re clearly in consistent fever/vomiting territory, or it’s Covid, she stays home.
Anon says
I have a kindergartner with speech articulation issues who did six months of private speech therapy right before starting kindergarten. When she started K, we decided to pause the private speech therapy and see what the school evaluation had to say. There were some delays in getting the evaluation done, but they finally did it and they said she is in the bottom 1% for sound articulations (which was also what the private evaluation said). But the school report also says she is understood almost all the time by her teachers and peers, and in our observation she’s now typically understood by strangers too. And the errors they listed (r, th, sh, l) are all things that google says are later developing and common to mess up through age 7 (she is 5.5). So I’m kind of having a hard time squaring it.
Anyway, the school can only give her 20 minutes of speech therapy twice a month, and it will be virtual, which doesn’t seem great. I don’t know if we should go back to private speech therapy, which will be expensive and inconvenient. The “bottom 1%” thing makes me think we have to go back to private therapy, but the rest of the report makes me think it’s ok to just do the school therapy, at least for this semester.
Any thoughts if you’ve had to make a similar decision?
Anonymous says
I think doing school therapy would be fine. Virtual is not great, but it’s something. I would not do private. But I’m very much a proponent of do nothing until someone tells me I need to do otherwise.
Anon says
so we had our twins in private speech therapy, then they started public K and we had a similar result. they did this 6 week thing where they pulled them once a week and then we had another meeting. the educational standard (is it impacting their education, can they be understood by peers) is different than the medical standard, so we are still doing private (out of network) speech once a week (it used to be twice a week) and submit to our insurance for partial reimbursement. i realize it is a privilege to be able to do so. our thought is that it is easier to correct now and since we can afford it (though i’d rather be spending time/money on something else). however, it is not super inconvenient for us, so if that was a factor i might make a different decision. one of my daughters is also in OT and we were recommended for a PT eval and also got that she was in the 1% and I posted about it on here and as someone pointed out, some kid has to be in the 1%…that’s how these charts work. so for now we are sticking with OT and not pursuing PT because we do not have space in our schedule
Anon says
My deaf 3.5 year old is currently on monthly in-person speech through the school district for monitoring – she’s doing great but her articulation isn’t 100%. I like that she’s staying in the special Ed system for Kindergarten and if she starts falling behind they can expand her sessions quickly.
If I were you I’d do the school speech (and a plug for a hearing test if it’s been more than a year since your last one). I’d realllly push to make speech in-person if at all possible. Give school speech a try until the end of the school year and have an IEP follow up meeting then to see where your kid is.
Anon says
A different scenario. We were stuck doing EI virtually for my now 3-year-old for most of 2023. I REALLY think virtual services of this type are a last resort. In our experience, at times, the SLP’s camera didn’t work and she couldn’t see us, which I feel like is critical for speech, ESPECIALLY articulation.
We didn’t pursue the school district evaluation because the SLP we worked with did not think he’d qualify – he was labeling things, putting 2 words together, just not a ton of sentences with articulation issues. I’d say (my own googling) he’s about ~6 months “behind” the milestones – e.g. he’s not asking questions yet, but he can communicate when he wants something, what he’s doing, can answer questions, etc.
We opted for weekly, private ST that comes to his preschool. We started in early November and it’s been great. If he needs to continue into elementary school, unless I am told otherwise, I am interested in staying the course.
anonamommy says
We did private speech therapy for our kid for 2 full years for articulation. For us, kiddo was an early talker and had clear articulation on all but a few sounds, so it was obvious that there was an issue for those sounds that was out of whack for kiddo’s own progression. So one thing to think about is where your kid is in relation to her own development, and whether anything seems out of alignment, regardless of actual age.
The other thing to think about is setting clear goals and measuring progress against them. It’s reasonable to ask the school SLT what the goals are for the near term and how they are measured (e.g., correctly saying /sh/ 85% of the time). Ask what the progression is for sounds (r will be very last). And then in April, check how the progress is going, and whether it’s worth doing private for the summer. Setting these goals made it clear when our kid had stalled out at a certain point and we actually had to medically correct some issues that were impeding progress. (And also when we needed to switch therapists to continue to progress.)
anon says
What age did you start your kids learning a second language (if you are not heritage speakers)? In our family, we have a strong tradition of studying Spanish, although we are not heritage speakers (my mother in law was a Spanish teacher, my father was a historian specializing in Spain, my husband, I, and our respective siblings all studied Spanish throughout our educations, including 4 years in college, and I lived and worked in Latin America for years before my marriage). I had ambitions of starting to teach my son (now 3.5) at home, but it hasn’t happened yet and so I’m considering at what age to start him with some sort of class. Any thoughts on the best way and age to get started?
Anon says
Why not just speak Spanish at home? Your kid will pick up a ton. At that age you don’t need to formally teach verb tenses or what have you for the kid to get a strong foundation and develop that part of their brain.
Cb says
My son is a bit language obsessed but I only speak French (and passable pleasantries in Dutch and Polish), but we do French songs, those one-third books and now that he’s doing more French at school (maybe via screen?), we’re trying to do a bit more.
But Japanese is his one true love, and my only Japanese exposure is from when Big Bird went to Tokyo in 1990. I think he’d love a class but there is only a class (understandably) for heritage speakers in our surrounding area.
Anon says
Are you fluent? If you’re fluent I agree with speaking it at home and he’ll absorb a lot. I don’t think a kid under the age of about 6 or 7 will get much out of classes, particularly if it’s not being reinforced at home.
I wish formal language classes started earlier, but in our city they don’t start until 8th grade. My kids are in elementary school and the only people we know who formally study a foreign language either learned to speak through their native speaker parents and go to school only to learn reading and writing (Asian languages, Russian) or study it for religious reasons (Hebrew). The Germanic and Romance language speakers typically just learn at home.
Anon says
My kid was exposed to only English until she started French-immersion school in kindergarten, and now halfway through first grade isn’t fluent by any means, but can carry on an entire conversation in French (with some dodgy grammar, but totally understandable).
So in my experience, not starting until elementary school doesn’t make a difference, if they hear it for several hours a day.
Anon says
I had two friends who were pretty fluent but were non-native Spanish speakers. We met up on a trip when their firstborn was 18 months or so and they were speaking in Spanish to him 90% of the time. I’d do something similar. My husband is planning to speak his native language to our future kid as well – probably something like the “one parent, one language” approach.
Anon says
so my kids attended a jewish preschool and started learning some hebrew. (i used to be fairly fluent in both hebrew and spanish). our nanny speaks to them in spanish and i wanted to enroll them in the dual language class at our local public school, but really needed them to be in separate classes and there is only one class
Anonymous says
The best way to learn a language is to hear and speak the language in everyday life at a very young age when the brain is most open to language learning. I would speak Spanish with him at home now, watch TV in Spanish, and look for a Spanish immersion preschool or elementary school program .
Anonymous says
This. If you speak Spanish just start integrating Spanish words. Like counting, colors or items around the house. Or ask your parents to read to him in Spanish when he visits.
Anonymous says
Just buy a bunch of books in Spanish for the series that he already likes – the Elephant and Piggie books are great for this. Old Dora episodes also teach Spanish and you can flip the language to Disney + or Netflix to Spanish.
Starting early prior to learning to read will help with sound distinguishment. In Canada you can start French immersion in kindergarten or 7th grade. You can always hear who started in 7th grade after they learned to read.
SC says
My children have been in spanish immersion day care since they were infants and are now in spanish immersion elementary school. You might look and see if there’s a similar opportunity for you.
Anonymous says
This is just me being insanely curious. We’re in Charlotte and looking into private schools for our rising kindergartener. One of the requirements for the schools here is to take the WPPSI-IV test with a psychologist. I am just curious if anyone is in the Charlotte area and knows how they use the scores from these tests, or if you’re not in the area, if you’ve gone through this, how your schools used these scores. I’ve already looked on local mom Facebook groups and no one talks about this on any of these forums.
Anon says
I’m not in Charlotte but this is pretty standard for private schools. Friends in several metros had their kids take it.
Maternity Wear says
My 36 YO niece is about 3 months pregnant and I want to get her a gift card for maternity wear. I am 20 years out from this so I have no idea where to shop for this now. She has a military job so wears a uniform every day so does not need work wear, and normally wears like Old Navy or that price point, for outside of work. I want to get her the gift card for somewhere nice, something she wouldn’t normally buy for herself. Any suggestions?
Anon says
Honestly, if she isn’t looking to buy work wear, I’d probably just give her cash. I bought almost all of my casual maternity wear second hand because there is just so much of it on the second hand market for super cheap. And most of it is in really, really good condition because it’s only been worn for a short period of time.
An.On. says
Yeah, if she’s not normally a big spender on clothes, she may not be that appreciative of a gift card that will only get her 1-2 shirts. I got like 20-30 shirts and dresses for ~$80 when I bought used and didn’t have to buy anything else except bras and a pair of pants. That being said, one of my favorite maternity wear items was a Pea in the Pod shirt that I LOVED and the quality was great.
Anon says
Ingrid and Isobel is very nice and has casual options.
Anonymous says
Honestly, with the possible exception of designer jeans, expensive maternity casual wear just isn’t any nicer than Old Navy. If you want her to have something luxurious to wear, I would get her a really nice non-maternity bathrobe or lounge cardigan that she can enjoy during and after pregnancy.
Anon says
I disagree, I had some Seraphine dresses that were lovely and made me feel a lot more polished and put together than the Old Navy/Target stuff I had.
Cerulean says
Cash or Target or Gap/Old Navy gift card They all have a decent selection of maternity basics and she can always use it for something else if not.
Anon says
I’ve purchased almost my entire casual maternity wardrobe from Gap/Old Navy. Lots of nice and cozy things there! They definitely hold up for the 4 months per pregnancy that you wear them.
anonM says
+1 to gap/old navy. Gap had some cute maternity hoodies, and old navy had some dress/skirts I got for the holidays, as well as maternity PJs, which I really love.
You could also see if she needs a coat extender – the brand I have is now about $100 but if she’s somewhere cold it is very nice to keep wearing your winter jacket. This is more personal preference though, so I’d ask before shelling that out. The one I have is makemybellyfit Dot Com
Anonymous says
I’d say a gift card to Nordstrom. The Zella brand live in leggings from there were a staple for me, and they actually had decent fitting maternity jeans, which were a splurge for me during pregnancy.
Anonymous says
What about somewhere that offers nice loungewear that would work now and postpartum? My mom gave me some glorified sweatpants from J Crew that I wore a lot while pregnant and for years after – I just kept the waistband below my bump. Not sure what the best store would be for that right now.
anon says
If you know her style well enough, I’ve really appreciated my mom and grandmother picking out a few beautiful pieces that are from more expensive brands than I’d normally wear and just sending them to me throughout pregnancy, postpartum, and even now well beyond. I don’t love shopping and feel like I ought to optimize any money I spend, including gift cards. They will just find a gorgeous item or two and send it.
I still wear a gorgeous cashmere open-front sweater that I was given when pregnant a decade ago.
Anon says
Agree – I’d get a beautiful sweater or if she lives somewhere cold nice cozy slippers, plus a giftcard for somewhere that you know she likes and will use
anonamama says
Just needed to applaud this dress selection and share my love of Hobbs! If you are ever in UK/Europe, prices are much better than buying here in US. Great resale selection between various platforms. And I always take 1 size down from my US size for a good fit.