Budget Thursday: Leather Mule Loafers

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A pair of Leather Mule Loafers I have yet to pull the trigger on mules. I like the style, especially how they look with cropped or ankle-length pants. My hesitation is that I have to walk a lot for work and my commute, and with slip-on shoes like this, I just know my toes would be gripping the inside of the shoe in a desperate attempt to get them to stay on (long narrow feet problems). If I were in an office more often, I would definitely be weartking these mules, which are from Zara. I like the color, and I really love the linked gold circles. These look way more expensive than they are at $69.90 with real leather. Leather Mule Loafers Curious for more? Check out some of our great recent posts on Corporette:

Sales of note for 9.10.24

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Kid/Family Sales

  • Carter’s – Birthday sale, 40-50% off & extra 20% off select styles
  • Hanna Andersson – Up to 50% off all baby; up to 40% off all Halloween
  • J.Crew Crewcuts Extra 30% off sale styles
  • Old Navy – 40% off everything
  • Target – BOGO 25% off select haircare, up to 25% off floor care items; up to 30% off indoor furniture up to 20% off TVs

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I have a 1 yr old and a 3 yr old. I work 4 days a week. My mom watches them one day and we have nanny A for the other day. Nanny A has been with us since January. She’s nice and responsible. The kids seem to like her and so far it’s been fine. My feeling has been though that though she is nice, I’m not sure she really loves being a nanny. She has a business degree, had an entry level job that she didn’t like, and then started nannying. She’s very quiet and I’ve found it hard to get to know her and get a sense of what she and the kids do all day. I will give them activities/outings to do and it seems okay but I’ve just never been thrilled. For example when she comes I’ll give her the baby while I’m finishing getting ready and she will sit with her while she plays but not really interact with her. I also feel like she lets my 3 yo boss her around.

Nanny B watched our daughter for a summer a few days a week two years ago. She has a teaching degree and has been looking for a job in the public schools with no luck. She had babysat this summer a bunch and told us that she quit her job at a private school and is going to try to substitute teach, nanny, and do free lance writing and would like to work for us.

I’m torn – on the one hand Nanny A is working out fine. I feel bad letting her go and she is a nice person. And she has expressed an interest in working with us long term which is what we want.

I just feel like I’d be more excited to leave my kids with Nanny B every day but I’m worried if we go with Nanny B she might ultimately get a teaching job and then we’d be stuck. What else would you consider?

Am I the only one who can’t wear mules without “flop flop flop” whenever I walk? These are pretty, but I have to have a strap or something at least on the heel.

My two year old have been waking up around 4am most days this week. He screams for one of us, and sometimes DH can get him to calm down and go back to sleep by rubbing his back, sometimes he asks for milk and we give it to him and that gets him to calm down, sometimes he wants to be held. I know that he has molars coming and those might be bothering him, so I have been giving him ibuprofen before bed, but that does not stop the 4am screaming. DH thinks we need to just let him cry it out, I am not sure it is going to work, but I am willing to try it after the molars come in.

For the past few nights my 20-month old toddler has fought bedtime for 2ish hours. He was in a groove of sleeping really well, like 11 hours per night straight. We’ve never done formal sleep training because every time I worked up the nerve, a switch would flip and he’d sleep well for a month or two. The past few nights, the meltdown starts the minute the light goes off. He’s cutting canine teeth, and I’ve been giving motrin about an hour before bed to try and knock the edge off before it’s time for sleep. These meltdowns are a couple of hours of screaming/crying at the top of his lungs, and NOTHING can console him. No amount of singing, rocking, water, etc. or any of my other tried-and-true methods of soothing him will work. Basically we end up battling it out until he falls asleep from pure exhaustion. HELP! Any ideas what this could be? He has ear tubes so I don’t think it’s an ear infection causing this, but perhaps the tubes have come out without me noticing? Maybe he’s developed a fear of the dark? Is it silly to take him to the pediatrician to get checked out? Would love to hear any thoughts. I’m at the end of my rope.

So my kid has started sleeping 6:30-6. This is basically amazing. However it only works if I’m at home and husband isn’t there. He comes home from daycare, has dinner, bath, bed and wakes up super pumped at 6 AM.

If husband is around kid stays up until 9-10 (husband pumps up the energy) and kidlet wakes up super cranky and wants more sleep at 8.

Now, I like scenario 1 better and kidlet needs the sleep since he isn’t napping at daycare anymore.

Is there a polite way to tell DH to kindly go away until 6:30 PM every day?

What are your thoughts on allowances, and when kids should start getting them? My son is 6.5, just started 1st grade. He acquires money periodically (generous relatives, tooth fairy, etc.), but it’s still pretty abstract to him. He likes getting it, but doesn’t necessarily translate that into the value of it, if that makes sense. Should we start trying to teach that?
Maybe as of January 1 (this is right after he will turn 7) would be a good time to start?

I am hoping to put our 9mo’s handprint on a t-shirt for a (wildly belated) father’s day present. Is there a trick for not making a mess of this? Should I give up and do a footprint instead? Any advice?

I had posted a few months ago about finding out DH was having an affair. We have been working on things and doing couples therapy and our marriage is better, but it’s a slow journey. I don’t think I can ever forgive him, to ever feel loved again. He’s trying so hard, but it’s almost like nothing will be enough to make up for the affair. We have a kid.

Well, I got a job offer of my dreams in another part of the country – one where it would be very difficult for him to find anything in his field. I don’t think I can find anything quite like this where we live, at least not in the near future. I am so torn on whether to take it and give up on the marriage / separate or turn it down. I could see myself regretting it either way.

I guess I am posting to see if anyone has any words of wisdom. How do you know when a marriage is over?

What would you do? Going back to work soon (fed gov atty) after baby #2. Was in a different job for baby #1. I have two options for pumping…a pumping room on my floor (unlike previous office, no hospital grade pump, I’d have to bring mine) or just lock the door in my office. Either way I’d have to go to the other side of the floor for each session (to go to the pumping room with my pump, or to bring milk and pump parts to the refrigerator if pumping in my office).

I’m inclined to do the latter so that I can get work done with two monitors and a telephone during pumping sessions (rather than just a laptop). Is it weird to request to do this rather than using the pumping room? Anything else I’m not considering?

FWIW I’m the first woman who has had a baby and pumped in this office since I started (and since my boss started). My boss is an older white guy, fairly clueless about this and I imagine he will forget I’m pumping on the regular.

i am a huge proponent of paternity leave and i like the idea that it can be split up for some at the beginning, some when spouse returns to work, etc. but how do people feel about someone using paternity leave when their child is 11 months old to go on vacation for a month? obviously that technically falls within the rules, but it seems to leave a bad taste that it is not really in the spirit of paternity leave. i feel like the purpose of paternity leave is to help care for and bond with the child, maybe also help care for their spouse, to make things more equal in the work place etc. I suppose technically if you are on vacation with your child you are caring for and bonding with them, but to me that feels very different than caring for a newborn?

In the category of “would you be upset” with your daycare …

DS was sent home this morning from his daycare summer program because of an incident that happened on a field trip. According to the teacher, everyone was playing on a playground and some kid started running at DS. DS’s response was to shove the other kid out of the way. There is a zero-tolerance policy for physical aggression of any kind, so he was dismissed for the day. I’m pretty p!ssed. Should he have shoved the kid? No, of course not. I also don’t think it’s a wildly unusual reaction to nearly being run over by another person and wish the director had extended a little bit of grace.

I dunno, DS has had sort of a rough week in general — nothing physical, just mainly loud and rowdy — and I can’t help but feel that it played into the director’s decision to send him home. School starts next week and he has problems acting out during transition times. It’s anxiety drive and really hard to manage, honestly. So I’m also a total ball of anxiety, wondering how the next few weeks are going to go. Kiddo has a scheduled counseling appointment next week and it cannot come soon enough. :(

What’s your favorite foundation? Currently wearing NYC liquid foundation but it settles into my lines. Do I just need to start wearing primer?

Can I talk through my worries about childcare here? I’m due in December with my first and looking at daycares, probably starting April 1. I’m also open to a nanny share and joined the FB group for my city but it looks like people only set those up a couple of months ahead of time.

The daycares I’ve seen are just not inspiring me. I’ve seen two I’d be really, really happy with – one has a mile-long waitlist and due to traffic patterns, probably is too far away to be workable. The other is closer but only takes 3 babies at a time (8 kids total) and again, a LOT of parents are interested. All the others I have reservations about – too many baby containment devices, 12 babies in a tiny space, kind of a dank, depressing area, etc. Maybe I’m just being a neurotic first time mom though? My mom wants to do 2 days a week of daycare, so I know the baby will be getting lots of focused attention on those days.

Or should I be more focused on a nanny share? I like the idea of a nanny who could take the babies out on walks or to storytime at the library, but maybe that’s unnecessary with infants?