Accessory Tuesday: Lennox Hiker STKD Boot

I read (listened to) How to Keep House While Drowning and am convinced I need to stop with the cleaning service and get a housekeeper/house manager combo who will clean, do laundry (kids, sheets, towels), and run errands if needed. (Two big jobs, kids 1 & 3.) I think we can swing 6 hrs a week at $25/hour. For those of you have found someone like this, how did you find your person? I can ask one of our babysitters if this is something she’d be interested in, but am looking for other ideas.

Interesting thread yesterday on the SAHM with 2.5 hours free from her 2 year old yesterday. Similar idea.. i’ve always had “big jobs” since graduating college that I’ve been lucky enough to make $$$. When our older daughter was 1, I took a great part-time job working 25 hours a week at a super family friendly small firm. I WFH 3x a week and it’s the dream with intellectually stimulating work and pays really really well. However, my husband works in biglaw (on reduced hours), will be partner next year and we’ve saved and invested well to where we’re in the top 2%+ for net worth and live so within our means. I feel like I’m burning the candle on both ends in that I pick my kids up from school every day and am done with work, attend all their events, volunteer at the school, supervise field trips, make dinner every night etc like maybe 85% of what a SAHM does and also 85% of what professional full-time work entails. I have zero time to myself in that i’m working all but 1 hour that they are at school and I need to be very efficient to get everything done. Not all days are equally busy, but there is just no time to rest and it sounds glorious to be a SAHM to school age kids. It also feels incredibly selfish to quit a great gig, but I remind myself that i’ve worked my butt off since I was 11 years old to achieve everything I have (with a lot of luck as well) and if we’re financially in a position to “retire”, is it appropriate to do so in your 30’s? I feel like I will stay more than occupied with my school age kids for now, but I am worried about not having another dimension outside of being a mom. I love the SAHM things and am not willing to outsource or do less of that, so I feel like working less professionally is the only option? There’s also the added thought that work lets me be independent of my husband etc, but it’s a lot of “what ifs” that I’m continuing to stay in the work force for. I’m just not sure if I would regret it in a year having so much more time and not knowing how to fill it. Having a slower pace of life sounds so nice though.. thoughts?

I’m laying here with double pink eye and a bad cold, while still caring for my toddler, and realizing the thing I miss most about childhood is getting to be sick and rest with no responsibilities. (Tied, perhaps, with the knowledge that you can go to bed at night and just sleeeep, with no worry about someone waking you.)

That’s my woe-is-me complaint for the day.

Paging the mom whose 3 year old was a lot this weekend (maybe there are several of us). I didn’t get a chance to respond yesterday but I have twins who will be three in a month and this weekend was h3ll. Potty training woes, meltdowns (probably related), clingy, crying, stubborn you name it. It’s exhausting. I was happy to sit down at my laptop and get a break from them yesterday. Then I picked them up from day care they were in a great mood. We had a decent afternoon/evening together. Anyway, no advice but I hope your week goes smoothly. I’m sort of dreading the long MLK weekend, but maybe we can spend it outside.

Thanks all for the posts + commiseration about 3-year-olds yesterday. I implemented some of the advice and empathy just last night/this AM and it helped immensely. Now just to keep it up…

Now, another potty training question. I’m going to work with kid on this over the long weekend (fun!). On the good advice of someone here, I bought the Big Little Feelings course just to give me some structure/help me with my own anxiety. They say do day 1 naked, day 2 in pants only (no undies), and then day 3 short outings in clothes (no undies). Granted, I haven’t finished the course yet (but I will) and I know they have a section on going back to work/school after day 3. I’m also not doing a small potty they recommend – he’s sat on the toilets at home and school without issue, he just needs a bit of help until he gets used to it (similar to my older kid).

Currently, kid is in underwear at school and the teachers are working with him on getting to the potty in time (so far: 0 success at home and school, but he is showing signs of understanding the feeling). Advice – should I just do undies on day 3 (or 2…?) or follow the proposed method and just let daycare help with the underwear? Or just switch him to underwear on day 3 and make sure we go to the potty every 30 minutes and forget “outings”, since that will happen naturally?

You would think I would know better since I’ve done this before, but, nope…

Hi from the middle of a snowstorm. Where are people buying jeans these days? I’d like some wide legs or flares that are office appropriate (my office doesn’t allow any distressing whatsoever), reasonably high quality, and comfortable. I keep ordering, striking out, and returning. Why is this so hard?