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These are such fun pants from the brand Scotch & Soda. I definitely don’t have the body type to tuck a shirt into high-waisted pants like this, but I can see them looking nice incorporated into my regular wardrobe/regular work shirts. They are described as wide leg, but I like that they aren’t blousy or too casual looking. The ankle length is nice, and the color is unique and fun. I think these can be dressed up or down and can do double duty. I’d wear them with a black top and leopard flats! They are $148 and available at Anthropologie as an online exclusive. Lilac Wide-Leg Pants
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Sales of note for 3.26.24
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Ann Taylor – Up to 40% off your full-price purchase; extra 50% off sale
- Banana Republic Factory – 50-70% off everything plus extra 20% off purchase
- Eloquii – 50% off all workwear
- J.Crew – Annual Spring Event: 40% off sitewide; extra 40% off sale styles
- Lands’ End – 10% off your order
- Loft – 50% off Lou & Grey; 30% off new arrivals
- Nordstrom: Spring Sale: Up to 50% off
- Talbots – 25% off your purchase, including markdowns
- Zappos – 37,000+ 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 – 40% off everything; extra 10% off your purchase with code
- Hanna Andersson – Up to 30% off swim; up to 30% off HannaJams
- J.Crew Crewcuts – 40% off sitewide; extra 40% off sale; 50% off kids’ styles
- Old Navy – 50% off Easter deals
- Target – 20% off Easter styles for all; up to 30% kitchen & dining; up to 25% off TVs; BOGO 50% off shoes & slippers for the family; $100 off select Apple products
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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?
Anonanonanon says
These are so cute, but I’m 5’4″ and a pear so yikes. Also, this probably sounds crazy, but I feel like I don’t have the hair for looks like this? Like you should have long hair with beachy waves or some fun hairstyle for this and I have thin, fine, straight hair that won’t do a thing.
anne-on says
I am very very jealous of your thin fine hair – you can always cut it into a blunt bob, or do bangs without it looking weird, or do one of the fabulous angular vidal sassoon haircuts without it becoming a frizzy mess. Mine is mid-length, and either waves or curls (and I can blow it out) but it requires so.much.time (and effort, and product). Grass is always greener I guess!
Anonymous says
Not the OP but I can’t do bangs. If my hair gets short enough, it fuzzes in humidity and looks like a cross between a cotton ball and Golda Mier (I love her, but her hair . . . ).
AnonATL says
Yeah I’m not fun enough for these in purple. I would wear the heck out of them in a nice army green though!
AIMS says
I have long wavy hair and I don’t think it would work with these pants at all! I think something more fun and/or short would look more chic. In fact I often think if I only had the courage for a short funky cut I could wear so many more things without worrying that they will look frumpy.
Also, April, love the styling suggestion!
Anonymous says
I think that Iris Apfel or the lady from The Accidental Icon on Insta could rock these. I have something similar from Old Navy in black (for like $15) that I think I can rock but very carefully with definitely an artiste vibe.
Anonymous says
The length on these pants is terrible – cropped slim pants = ok, cropper flares = bad. It reminds me of being too tall for pants in middle school. FWIW I think it’s easier to pull off fun stuff pants these if you have another fun accessory, like wacky glasses.
Anon says
If I don’t get sick from the coronavirus, I’m going to lose it from exhaustion. My toddler is whining at me every 2 minutes despite my best efforts, my job sends me a constant barrage of urgent requests, and on top of that I’m sad and worried about everything happening and the news only makes me feel 10x worse. I know I’m a fortunate individual in many ways, but this is so draining!
Clementine says
That sucks and I’m sorry.
One thing that did help me – I actually blocked off 45 minutes on my calendar for lunch. During that time, we take a walk. We get outside, the kids aren’t complaining (hopefully), I get some activity (otherwise I only clock like 500 steps a day… but then again I’m not carrying my phone so I know it’s undercounting), but mostly it gives me a break from feeling like I’m just ‘on’ ALL THE TIME.
Anonymous says
It’s very emotionally overwhelming and there’s an article floating around (I think from HBR?) about how we’re all experiencing a form of grief. I’m awful at “self-care” especially since we’ve had our second kid but this situation has MADE me prioritize it because otherwise I know I’ll turn into an anxious and angry mess. I have to take a 45 min walk every day either with the kids or without after bedtime. We even went in the rain the other day. And last night I used a fancy body scrub and face mask which really did make me feel better. Find something to relieve your stress if you can (I don’t mean to add to your to-do list, which I know self-care can feel like that).
Anonymous says
I make time to run or walk every day. Work is important but I do not bill my time and I am getting core stuff done.
If I don’t get that movement in, I am close to tears regularly (and I am generally quite resilient). It is a really difficult time.
Anonymous says
It is so exhausting. My son’s school district sent out a letter to parents on managing all this with such gems as “stay hydrated!” Right, a glass of water is going to make this shit show workable.
Cb says
Yep, agreed. I’ve managed to do yoga every evening but I’m just exhausted from both everything I have to do and just the general tedium.
Patricia Gardiner says
I’m so sorry. It’s exhausting.
Here is what I am trying this week to break my downward spiral:
Doing a Calm app meditation (beginner!) during naptime.
Doing a short workout video after bedtime- fitness blender has a 15-minute cardio-yoga blend that I really like.
Limiting my obsessive news checking to twice a day.
TBD whether these will help…
Anon says
I know what you mean. Objectively, I have it pretty good – a house, all my immediate family healthy so far, a job that is continuing to pay me and lets me work from home, and internet access so my early elementary kids can keep up with school work. But this is so exhausting. I feel like I shouldn’t be complaining, that it shouldn’t be this hard, but it feels like I’m failing at everything I’m trying to do (work, mom, wife, friend).
I finally set app timers on my phone. 15 min of FB and IG, 15 min of browsing, 45 min of games. I browse for news in the morning, play games right after kids go to bed, and check FB/IG a few times through the day. Otherwise I’m trying to stay off the phone. It’s only been a few days but it is helping somewhat. I think the constant news that I can’t do anything about was only adding to my anxiety and making me spiral downward.
Pogo says
Yep. With you. I noticed today I’m putting lots of extra emotional labor on myself – scheduling out all these FB Live storytimes and stuff for LO – that DH would never even think of (I’m the one who follows all the accounts on FB or insta for kid-friendly stuff). I was furiously trying to connect the HDMI to my phone in between answering emails so LO could watch a FB live from the zoo we visited recently while he just kept yelling WHERES THE TURTLE MOMMY YOU SAID THERE WOULD BE A TURTLE ON THE TV
And then after I was like, what did you learn about the turtle, what does it eat? And hes like, uh… grass?
We need to be kinder to ourselves.
GCA says
yes to the emotional labor. DH, between jobs, is doing 80% of childcare and I’m doing 20%, but he’s happy if he’s kept them alive, fed, and taken them outdoors. Do you ever see dads looking up all these cute toddler and preschooler activities? Has a single dad I know posted the nifty little color-coded schedule? Nope. Meanwhile I wrote out an entire list of possible kid activities and posted them on the fridge. As far as I know they’ve referred to it once.
Boston Legal Eagle says
FWIW I’m a mom (obviously) and am happy to keep them alive, fed and somewhat engaged/limit screentime. I don’t do color coded schedules and am not planning any “kid-enrichment” activities. I don’t feel bad about that because we’re in a crisis and teaching them is what preschool is for!
GCA says
yeah, definitely! And we put this on ourselves – because society’s messaging is that this is moms’ domain, whether to keep kids busy and out of your hair or to keep them enriched and learning. I’ve mostly Dropped the Ball on this, other than that activity list, but I still *feel* like I’m failing at everything.
Anonymous says
The only person who can save you from busywork unnecessary emotional labor is you. Fed, Alive, and outside is enough.
Pogo says
exactly – I was just saying I realized that. I was putting this on myself, no one was telling me to do it.
SC says
My husband is doing 80% of the childcare because he is a SAHD. His standard is alive and fed and leaving me alone. All of our therapists have emphasized the importance of a routine, but that’s a work in progress. Lunch, reading time, and alone time are pretty set in stone.
DH and Kiddo are doing some of the activities that the teachers send home (about 30-45 minutes 3 times per week). They’re doing telehealth occupational therapy twice per week, and they’re doing some exercises recommended by the OT. Other than that, activities include doing yard work together, making spaghetti and meatballs (thanks, Daniel Tiger), etc. Kiddo decided our car needs to go to the car wash, which is obviously closed, so washing the cars may be one of this afternoon’s activities. Kiddo LOVES doing this stuff with Daddy and could not be happier. DH has ignored all attempts at a structure that resembles a traditional preschool.
Anon says
Instead of trying to stay on top of all those live streams, I’ve just been putting on Planet Earth or a YouTube kids solar system playlist or something. Still “educational” or whatever (more for my own self-judgement than actual education, probably) and much less headache.
Spirograph says
Oh, thanks for the reminder about Planet Earth! We have a DVD set for that, and the kids have never seen it.
Pogo says
Planet Earth has too much animal peril for our sensitive little guy. If a baby animal gets separated from its mother he’ll lose it and start sobbing. I let him watch Nemo on a plane once, and even after fast-forwarding through Nemo’s mom’s death scene, now when he sees a fish anywhere he goes “Oh no fishy sad. Fishy lost him’s mommy.”
Cb says
Yes, I need to check out a bit more. My husband has the ‘easy’ shift and I need to give him some of the enrichment activities and assign myself some DT time.
Anon says
Trying to organize all the live streams would drive me insane, so we’re only watching ones that we can stream on-demand (Cinncinnati Zoo, for example).
Boston Legal Eagle says
Yes to all of the above. I read that grief article too, and it really resonated. Everything in our lives has been turned upside down and all of the planning and arranging that we did to make life work (i.e. time for exercise, childcare, connections with others) is basically banned right now. Oh and the stock market is crashing, we may lose our jobs or may work for people who don’t get that we can’t just work from home like nothing has happened because we are stuck inside with the kids! This probably doesn’t help but just know that you’re not alone in feeling this way. We’re in an unprecedented crisis without any clear answers.
I am of course grateful for the health of my family and a truly equal partner to go through this with, as well as my real and virtual friends here to relate with.
Anon says
Yes, fears over job security are another big concern. I thought the chances were low that both my husband and I would have jobs in jeopardy at the same time but that now seems likely.
Patricia Gardiner says
Good morning – my 17.5-month-old seems to be entering the tantrum phase just in time for lockdown. Any suggestions for favorite books, strategies, etc to help deal with behavior? There are so many out there, I don’t know where to start!
Anon says
One we read was Calm Down Little Monkey. But honestly, the only way past is through! I’m sorry, it’s hard!
CPA Lady says
Honestly, trial and error. There is not actually a one size fits all method. And what works at one age is not necessarily what is going to work at another age.
Different things you can try to help your kid through the tantrum:
– sit there quietly
– hold your child
– leave your child alone
– talk your child through it
My kid tended to become more overwhelmed, hysterical and enraged if I touched her or talked to her during a tantrum when she was in the 1-3 age range. The thing that worked best at those ages was to leave her alone and let her cry it out, and then hug it out once it was over. Once she got a little older, we could hug it out and talk it through from the beginning.
CPA Lady says
We also really liked the Little Monkey Calm Down book. It’s one of the few board books we still have. I also have “Breathe Like a Bear” but it’s geared towards older kids.
Anonymous says
Ugh I am right there with you with my 21 month old. And she’s the youngest of 3 which adds a dimension of attention seeking and “just shut her up, mom.”
Solidarity.
TheElms says
Is it possible that my 10 month old is entering the tantrum phase? We’ve had 2 days of non-stop tantrums (it was so bad that we went to the ped yesterday because I was convinced she had an ear infection – but she does not – and given the current circumstance I really did not want to take her to the ped). Diaper changes are horrendous, she screams and cries until she starts gagging. No amount of singing, playing with toys, even looking at videos of herself on the phone calms her down at all. We had to get out of the bath yesterday – it had been 25 minutes and she was starting to shiver and between not wanting to get out and being slippery she nearly cracked her head open on the toilet and then the tile floor. Distraction doesn’t seem to work at all – even high value distraction like my phone. I’ve also tried holding her, giving her her pacifier, a stuffed toy, ignoring her and nothing seems to make any difference. She typically settles down in 3-5 minutes (sometimes after 30 seconds) but its happening every 15-20 minutes during the day.
Is there anything to do other than wait for it to pass?
The only other possible explanation I can think is she is getting close to walking and generally quite frustrated that she can’t walk independently yet.
Ifiknew says
Is she sleeping well and is she eating well? Those are my first two clues to tantrums. I’d give it a few days, my kids ebb and flow in days like this. Consistent non stop tantrums didn’t start till after age 2.25 for us. So sorry you’re dealing with this. Hugs
TheElms says
Her sleep is a little disturbed but still pretty good. Her eating is similar. She happily drinks all her milk, but can be picky about what finger food or purees she will eat. But overall I think she’s getting enough food.
Anonymous says
Is she entering a growth spurt? My kid’s tantrum-y spells mostly coincide with growth spurts.
go for it says
Here is one that worked from 18mo through 5yr old youngest child. Pencil jumps outside regardless of the weather, on the pavement. I literally would pick kid up and carry kid out to do it. I told kid to jump all the feelings out, then we could go back in. The older sib had the option to stay inside for peace, or join for the fun of it. It was a desperate parenting moment that ended up getting used quite alot.
Patricia Gardiner says
Thank you for all the replies, suggestions, and solidarity!
Has anyone tried any strategies like Harvey Karp’s Happiest Toddler on the Block? We tried his 5 S’s for soothing crying babies and it did seem to work… Or I know there is one about talking so kids will listen?
Anon says
Esme and Roy – they do deep breathing exercises every time there is a “monster meltdown”. Kiddo likes the show a lot and we are able to use the breathing exercise in meltdowns at other times.
Spirograph says
We also liked Calm Down Little Monkey.
Daycare/preschool has a “cozy corner” in the classroom for when kids get overwhelmed/sad/upset/just want to be alone, where they’re supposed to remove themselves to. They started doing it at home without my input; their cozy corner is behind the couch, out of sight and in a different room from where they typically play. My kids are a little older, but I think they started this around 2. You could make an intentional cozy corner maybe with a blanket, stuffed animal and a book or two and see if it’s appealing. Good luck! That’s not a fun phase to be trapped at home with.
Anonymous says
These are clown pants.
Anonymous says
I think some women could look great in them, but they also kind of remind me of Helen Madden, Licensed Joyologist
Anonymous says
My mom has generously come over to help our with our 7 month old during this difficult period while my husband and I work from home. She thinks she is great with babies but she is not great – she’s constantly in baby’s face shaking toys, making noises, moving her around instead of letting her play, etc which cause her to get flustered and screamy. So then she thinks baby is cranky/hungry/tired/pooped, none of which is the case, and her attempts to problem solve are making it worse. How do I nicely tell her to back off and let baby be a little bit? I feel ungrateful but it’s so hard to work with constant interruptions. I want her and baby to get along better because it’s so important to her (my mom) and she is having a ball taking care of baby. My mom is pretty scatterbrained and has ADHD so she doesn’t always get any hints or gentle suggestions. Trying to restrain myself from reverting into a bratty teen.
anon says
As someone with loved ones who have ADHD: gentle hints and suggestions do not work. You need to be crystal-clear about what you are observing and how she needs to fix it. You can do this with kindness, but trust me, HINTS DO NOT WORK.
Anon says
Maybe tell her about Montessori observing the child. You can literally take notes, but you just sort of watch the kid and see what they’re interested in/doing and then help if needed.
She sounds like way too many dads I know TBH.
Anonymous says
Send her home since that’s where she should be anyway? Blame the pandemic situation?
Anonymous says
Can you write down a schedule? Deliver it as “daycare / nanny sent this to help us out.” Include free play and give examples.
Anonymous says
You’re not supposed to have visitors. You’re supposed to only be within 6 feet of ppl who actually live in your home. Send her a copy of the rules.
Anon says
We are all just doing the best we can here.
Anonymous says
Not applicable, not every location is the same.
Anon says
You don’t know what state OP lives in, what rules she is subject to, the type of work she is doing, or her moms age or health status. If her mom isn’t a high risk group, isn’t taking public transit to get there, and the four of them are not seeing anyone other than each other, I really don’t see the difference between this and someone who has 5 people in their family.
Anon says
Yeah, this. Grandparents shouldn’t be interacting with their grandkids, unfortunate as that is.
Anon says
I’m not sure I agree. If no one is attending work, school, social events or using public transit, it may actually be safer for grandparents to be staying with younger folks, so they can avoid trips to the store. Delivery/curbside pickup might be ideal but it’s extremely limited now in many areas.
Anonymous says
Neither of is interacting with anyone else, so there is no risk.
Anonymous says
Thank you all for the excellent suggestions!
GCA says
Hard pass on wide-legged pants, as cute as they are. Was not cool enough for them in the late 90s (hi extremely awkward, stubby-legged teenage years), still traumatized!
Cb says
On a zoom call with 15 colleagues, out of all of us, only 2 have children at home. Colleagues are now bragging about how quiet it is and how productive they are, I’d bang my head on my desk but I’m hiding from my toddler in my bedroom.
anne-on says
I have never, ever, been more grateful to work on a predominantly female team (one that is also female led!) where I have the fewest children (an only) as nearly every.single.person now has to work and manage multiple children and their schooling at home. It is HARD but it helps knowing that I don’t have to ‘hide it’.
Anon says
I’m the only person on my team with kids, except for one guy who has a SAHM wife. So yeah…. no one understands why this is not enjoyable for me.
AIMS says
The guy with the stay at home wife that I work with actually got into an argument with me over the fact that it’s ‘equally hard for him’ because he has to help with the kids or ‘it wouldn’t be fair to his wife’. My head nearly exploded. I’m happy that I stood my ground but I really think he still doesn’t understand the difference between two working-from-home parents and one.
anon says
Oh hell no.
Anon says
Yeah all my colleagues without kids are talking about how nice it is to work from home…. they have no idea what I’m going through
tk says
I’ve been a lawyer for 12 years and worked my way up to a leadership position in a gov’t agency – the only one at my level with young kids. It took less than a week at home with a kindergartener to be mommy tracked … projects that would normally have gone to me during an emergency were assigned to an old dude with no kids, 3 or 4 levels below me, because I need to share childcare responsibilities with my husband during typical working hours. It’s been so demoralizing how quickly I’ve become irrelevant without access to childcare.
Anonymous says
Okay, so I 100% understand your frustration and where you are coming from and am totally on your side. So please don’t take this the wrong way. But do you think it is possible that whoever assigned the work was just trying to be considerate since this is probably a stressful time for you? Sometimes I think we (myself included) get so concerned about this that we forget to give people the benefit of the doubt sometimes. There’s so much stress right now, just trying to throw out some potential positive to the situation. I highly doubt your superiors find you irrelevant. You’re a rockstar!
anne-on says
I know we talked about Fair Play before, but I just got an email stating that they’re going to be opening up the cards to everyone and detailing how you can try (just try!) to divvy up the nightmare of WFH/childcare/illness/etc. tasks we’re all dealing with thanks to the Coronavirus. I am really hoping it just lets me frame the discussion with my husband in a more productive way as opposed to resentment about ‘who is doing more’ (and the CPE concept on the cards has really really helped FWIW).
https://www.fairplaylife.com/the-cards/cpe#
Anon says
Cute kid things lately? I know it’s only Wednesday (right? honestly not sure) but I need the pick me up. :)
My 2 year old has previously only used computers for Skype with friends and family, but yesterday I let her watch the first Peppa Pig episode on my computer and she’s spent today begging me for us to “Skype with Peppa” again haha.
AnotherAnon says
That is really cute. This morning my 3 y/o dug up a pre-k workbook I purchased on a whim then never gave him. He didn’t do any of the activities but perused it, commenting on all the pictures. My favorite comment was “Oh look, Mama! PUPcakes!” for the page with cupcakes that is supposed to teach counting or something.
Anon says
we have certain items and toys that live on the changing table – a pretend phone, diaper cream, hand sanitizer, etc. and my 22 month old likes to choose what to hold when getting changed and then when we are done, she puts the item down and says “go to sleep. good night” because we once told her that these items rest on the changing table. she is loving learning to talk and we have one book called “little trailblazers” and hearing her ask for the “twailbwazer” book just cracks me up every time.
RR says
My youngest keeps giving out hugs. She calls them “[her name] hugs,” and they are the best hugs ever. She says that is her job while we are home.
Anon says
Aww!
Bean74 says
My preschooler was looking at a placemat with pictures of the signers of the U.S. Constitution on it. He decides William Blount, a signer from North Carolina, was really name “Taxi Braxi.” It’s really cracking me up today!
AwayEmily says
After a week and a half of intense sibling conflict and a lot of discussions about using words and walking away, my 2yo and 4yo finally seem to be “getting it” and playing together well. This morning they played “family” on their own for an hour, using my old pumping supplies to make a milk factory (??) for their babies using various stuffed animals. I even heard them resolve several conflicts ON THEIR OWN!
Anyway, it’s not all great, there was a lot of sibling drama before nap, but I think things are slowly trending better, and maybe this will ultimately be good for their relationship.
So Anon says
I keep going back and forth between being grumpy that anyone is asking me to do work and then when no one is asking me to do anything imminently, getting concerned about job security. I have zero indication that my job is not very secure, but being a single parent makes even the thought terrifying. Moral of the story – I am not handling this well.
avocado says
Hang in there! It’s okay to feel overwhelmed. You are in a tough situation. You don’t have to be happy about it. Just keep swimming.
I am lucky that my kid is older and doesn’t demand much attention during work hours and I have an employed spouse, but I still can’t concentrate and am grumpy that I’m being asked to do any work that isn’t directly related to the COVID-19 response. Nothing else seems meaningful right now.
farrleybear says
I agree, I’m having a hard time focusing on other work. I’m in the nonprofit area and able to work on some COVID-19 related grants and other support work, which is great, but other projects feel worthless.
AnotherAnon says
Not to be even more of a downer but I need to create a will. Any tips or resources? I’m married with one (adopted) kid. We have joint assets in a community property state: we do not own property (we have a mortgage). I briefly looked at legalzoom but not sure if it’s necessary to spend the money.
Anonymous says
We recently did this with an attorney and I wish we’d used an on-line service or a book. She gave us virtually no advice, and the one piece of advice she did give us was inconsistent (two different answers on different occasions). All of the documents were forms that she didn’t even customize properly–I found multiple errors that she had to correct. Who knows how many errors are in there that I didn’t catch. YMMV.
Anon says
Also wondering about that. I’ve heard you need to use a lawyer and LegalZoom is not adequate.
Pogo says
LegalZoom will put you in touch with a lawyer. I believe I even got to choose. They are in your state (in my case, in my metro area even) so they know the exact applicable laws. You can have conference calls with them as much as you want, you can have them review documents as much as you want, and it’s included in the fee for the estate planning package.
What’s not included unless you sign up for it is secure storage of the docs and follow-up questions in the future. It’s some kind of add-on plan that I cancelled because I was like, oh we don’t need that. But now I am personally responsible for securely storing all originals and making sure I name the trust correctly at all my financial institutions, whereas if I kept paying (or I’d just dealt straight w/ a lawyer) they would help me with that. Depends on how much you think your time is worth – it was for sure more work on our part to use LegalZoom than to pay an attorney to prepare/store everything. And we still had to contact every financial institution directly to name the trust, which took a bunch more time.
LegalZoom is the bare minimum I’d do unless you yourself are a lawyer.
Anonymous says
Our attorney did not store the documents or contact our financial institutions to designate beneficiaries. We had to do that ourselves.
Pogo says
RE: financial institutions, it was more of a matter of us needing to do all the research to make sure we were communicating correctly to Vanguard what we needed, and at that point we had cancelled the legal plan so had no lawyer to call and ask to confirm. We figured it out through a combination of g00gle and reading Vanguard’s website, but if we’d had a lawyer we could have just asked them. DH got pretty frustrated trying to understand all the legalese; it was doable, but required uninterrupted weekend time which is a precious commodity!
On storage, I know that totally depends. But everyone our parents’ age that we know stores their originals at the attorney’s office. Maybe that’s less of a ‘thing’ now? I also don’t know anyone our age who has a safe deposit box, either.
I’d probably still do LegalZoom again, just definitely be prepared to spend your own time on it. I did feel the attorney gave us quality advice – she walked us through all these morbid what-ifs which are the whole point of estate planning, but that I wouldn’t have thought of. It helped us understand why you’d choose one way of writing it over another.
Anon says
Sounds like you didn’t have the best attorney. We had two brief meetings with the attorney. We discussed what we wanted at the first meeting and signed all the paperwork at the second meeting. There was no other work involved for us (which is part of why we went with an attorney).
Anonymous says
Anon @3:31, the attorney designated beneficiaries for you? How does that work? Did you have to give her power of attorney and all your account info? That would have been more work for us than just designating the beneficiaries ourselves.
Anonymous says
Do you have an EAP through work? We got a well through a discounted legal service that way.
Anonymous says
*will. Trying to work with a cat on a my lap and a screaming toddler outside.
Anonymous says
I would hire an actual lawyer if you can. It was only $800 in our mid-size Midwest city for two in-person appointments and all the paperwork (will, guardianship, basic trust, living will, healthcare directives, etc.). I’m guessing a lawyer can do it for you virtually, especially now. Our situation was very simple (standard inheritance rules and very simple property, just a house we own outright and retirement funds), but I’m still very glad we used an expert and were able to talk through everything. There were some things she brought up (like guardianship of our pets) that we hadn’t thought of and wouldn’t have included if we’d done it ourselves. I am a former lawyer who never practiced in this area, for what it’s worth.
Anonymous says
Our will had to be signed in person, witnessed, and notarized.
Pogo says
You definitely need it signed in person with two witnesses and a notary no matter what. LegalZoom tells you that, you’re just responsible for it yourself.
Anon says
Yes, of course, but that was pre-pandemic. There’s virtual notarizing now at least in NY state and I assume it will become more widespread.
Anon says
Don’t use legal zoom. Your estate will end up paying more to attorneys later because of how some of their docs are set up.
Anon says
Welp, just got the first summer camp cancellation notice. I knew this wasn’t going to be magically resolved by June 1, but it was still an unwelcome reminder that we’re going to be in this situation until August at the very least.
Anonymous says
I wish ours would just go ahead and cancel. I am not sending her no matter what, and if they cancel I think I will get at least some of my money back.
anon says
I am effing furious. I took a walk around the block to stretch my legs before a conference call. Up the street, kids from *5* families were playing together like it’s just another normal day. So we’re talking around 10 kids, many of whom have other siblings plus parents. Meanwhile I’m actually making my kids keep their distance and no playdates are happening. YOU GUYS — THIS AIN’T GONNA WORK IF YOU DON’T FOLLOW THE RULES.
Anonymous says
Our neighborhood is like this. There is a group of families on our street that seem to spend all of their free time together in each other’s yards or taking over the street like it’s their front porch. Now that schools are closed, the kids are playing together all day. I have to keep a very close eye on my own kid, even in our fenced backyard, to keep her away from them. We were actually considering a move this summer partly to get away from this bunch (they are loud and obnoxious and engage in all sorts of dangerous behavior), but now that’s not going to happen.
Anonymous says
Seriously where can I buy diapers and wipes??? Help!
Anon says
I could find pampers in stock for delivery within the next week or so on amazon in sizes N to 5 (unfortunately we’re in 7’s). Walmart online had a broader selection of sizes (including 6’s and 7’s), and had wipes.
HSAL says
Oh so stressful. I think online has been tough but my local Target was fully stocked in store.
Anonymous says
Our Costco had them in store, but not online. Also, if you have options for stores, when things were starting to get sparse, I was able to find wipes at a Target located near my office is more of a “business” area much more easily than closer to my house in the suburbs.
Also, if you’re really in a pinch– nextdoor or local moms group? Someone posted on one of those looking for diapers last week and a bunch of people responded. I would be happy to get some to someone who couldn’t find them in store– we don’t have a hoard, but certainly enough to last a while!
Anon says
Pampers is sold out online and everywhere in my area, at least in bigger sizes. I bought Seventh Generation overnight diapers online from Target.
Ifiknew says
We’ve used this brand called parasol for years. It’s phenomenal and should be in stock at their website
Anonymous says
Suggestions above – but this whole thing is so crazy that we bought cloth diapers and cloth wipes just in case.
Anonymous says
We found some at a CVS!