Is it too early to pull out the linen?
As the temperatures warm, I turn to pieces like these linen pants to keep me comfortable and cool all day long. These high-waisted, wide-leg trousers come in several colors ranging from neutral “brown caribou” to bright “purple dahlia.” Add a block heel to complement the floor-skimming silhouette.
These pants from Nordstrom brand Open Edit are $69. There’s also a matching blazer available (alas, it is not machine washable) in straight sizes and plus sizes.
Open Edit offers a plus-size version of these pants with a slightly wider leg; they’re available in 1X–4X, also for $69 (only in purple dahlia, however).
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.
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Sales of Note…
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Nordstrom – The Half-Yearly Sale has started! See our thoughts here.
- Ann Taylor – $50 off $150; $100 off $250+; extra 30% off all sale styles
- Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything + extra 25% off purchase
- Eloquii – 60% off all tops
- J.Crew – Up to 50% off “dressed up” styles (lots of cute dresses!); extra 50% off select sale
- J.Crew Factory – Up to 60% off everything; 60% off 100s of summer faves; extra 60% off clearance
- Loft – 40% off tops; 30% off full-price styles
- Lands’ End – 30% off full-price styles
- Talbots – 25-40% off select styles
- Zappos – 28,000+ sale items (for women)! Check out these reader-favorite workwear brands on sale, and some of our favorite kid shoe brands on sale.
Kid/Family Sales
- J.Crew – Up to 50% off kids’ camp styles; extra 50% off select sale
- Lands’ End – 30% off full-price styles
- Hanna Andersson – Up to 50% off summer pajamas; up to 50% off all baby styles (semi-annual baby event!)
- Carter’s – Summer deals from $5; up to 60% off swim
- Old Navy – 30% off your order; kid/toddler/baby tees $4
- Target – Kids’ swim from $8; summer accessories from $10
anon says
Has anyone ever worn linen pants like this successfully without looking like a wrinkled mess?
FVNC says
In the early 2000s — probably 2001, 2002 since I was in college — I bought a pair of lined (!!) white linen trousers from Target that were part of a designer collaboration (maybe Isaac Mizrahi?). They looked really similar to these — wide leg, flowy, and I thought I looked like a million bucks in them! They wrinkled a bit, but not too much. Oh, to still be able to fit into those pants :)
Anonymous says
Lining is the key to minimizing wrinkles in linen garments, but it also negates the breathability.
GCA says
Alas, I can’t keep myself from looking like a wrinkled mess on a daily basis, let alone linen garments, but these would be fantastic for summer work retreats and casual team-building dinners. I have a couple of similar pairs from Uniqlo.
Mary Moo Cow says
My trick is to iron linen on both sides with a heavy dose of starch. Which is so annoying that I don’t do it often, but summer is so stupidly hot where I live that I make the effort if I’m going to an outdoor event. For work, probably not (then again, I no longer really care if my clothes are wrinkled at work.)
Anne-on says
I wore an almost identical pair in black during my spring/summer study abroad in Florence but with a lower waist (because 2002). Having my legs covered helped with the mosquitos/sunburn issues (I am pasty white and the mosquitos in Italy ate me alive). They did wrinkle but the wide legs and straight cut (vs. tight around my rear) minimized the creasing and it looked more rumpled vs. wrinkly mess. Fwiw I got tons of compliments on them from my teachers/other Italians as it was apparently a sophisticated style that they didn’t expect of us American students.
anon says
Nope. Sure haven’t. I’ll wear them for casual purposes but I feel like a mess at work when I wear linen.
Anonymous says
I think I generally look like a wrinkled mess at work, but I take your point. I live in the South and just don’t find linen to be that appealing for work (the AC keeps it freezing all year round). I love linen for casual wear though.
Emma says
I have pants somewhat like this and… they just get wrinkled? They are decent quality and I don’t think it looks that bad. I won’t wear them for super formal occasions but they are nice on a summer day, and I consider them office appropriate (even when wrinkled) with a blouse and nice shoes.
DLC says
I had a chic European coworker once say to me, “The beauty of linen is in the wrinkles.” I don’t know that I completely buy that, but I like to pretend that I do.
Anon says
I used to have linen pants that I’d iron while they were still damp. It helped somewhat.
Anon says
I wore a cotton/linen blend jumper to a party last weekend and I literally looked 25 lbs heavier in pictures because of the rumple factor + light color.
Anon says
Crosspost. Does anyone have any links/recommendations for exploring data related to room sharing and SIDS? I’m having trouble conceptualizing the contribution of NOT room sharing to SIDS risk for babies in otherwise safe living environments (e.g., babies that are fed at appropriate times, that are not at risk of accidental suffocation from a parent overdosing on drugs, etc). I want to look at the actual data, not just the recommendations, and ideally broken down with the types of risk factors present in each death. I don’t want to see the data for the poor babies who were left with heavy duvets over them grouped with the data for babies on their backs on firm mattresses with no coverings. Anyone have any leads on good places to start?
For context, I’ve been seeing recommendations to room share, including for all naps, and I don’t understand how that can work consistently. I’m guessing there must be very few people who actually follow this guideline to the letter because then you’d be around the baby 24/7, sitting in a silent dark room while the baby naps instead of cooking dinner or taking care of older children or helping an elderly parent on the phone. If you bring the baby with you to all those things instead of sitting in the dark room, how do you ensure a flat sleep surface or no noise? My best friend used a Dock-A-Tot for naps in the living room (next to the kitchen where she had her work table), but those have since been recalled for that purpose. I’d like to find a way forward that reduces real risk when possible, but that doesn’t go to crazy extremes for miniscule reductions at the margins.
Huh? says
I’ve never seen a recommendation to room share for naps. Where are you seeing this?
Anon says
It was originally from a site about safe sleep recommendations in Canada (which I had seen referenced here) – the guidelines say “safe sleep at EVERY sleep.” It looks like the AAP recommendations in the U.S. avoid saying the word nap though.
TheElms says
The AAP’s Updated 2022 Recommendations for Reducing Infant Deaths in the Sleep Environment cites to the type of studies/data you are looking for. You reduce a baby’s risk of SIDS most significantly by ensuring that the baby sleeps on a separate, flat sleep surface every time. The additional gains from everything else are significantly smaller but not zero. The data is hard to parse in the way you want because there are often multiple factors at play in each SIDS death.
Tiny babies (particularly under 4 months, when SIDS risk is highest) actually tend to sleep pretty well despite background noise and many don’t care how light or dark it is for at least the first couple months. Of course your baby could always be more particular. A lot of friends used a pack and play in the family room / living room as a safe spot to put baby for naps during the day.
Anon says
I don’t have the data, and I don’t think you have to have eyes on your kid every minute they’re sleeping, but it’s pretty easy to have your kid nap in the same room as you if you want. I have twins and, because I was too lazy to do multiple trips up and down the stairs for every nap in the infant stage, they took naps downstairs in our family room in a pack n play. It wasn’t dark and only relatively quiet (no other kiddos being loud, but we would talk and go about our business during naps). As the baby gets older, that may become harder, but when they’re little, noise and lights don’t tend to bother them (mine were in the NICU before coming home, which was bright lights and beeping monitors all day and they had no problem sleeping).
anon says
Naps seems excessive. Kid napped either on us or in the living room pack n play if we were lucky.
We moved our son to his crib and sleep trained at about 12 weeks. He hit a nasty sleep regression at that point and was getting too long for the bassinet.
Emily Oster does generally have straight forward data but true SIDs is a messy field to track. A lot of cases classified as SIDs are from the issues you mentioned.
Anonymous says
I posted on the main site, but I will also link here because I found this interesting. https://bmcpediatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12887-021-02536-z
I found this by searching NIH, which I find to be a reliable resource for medical research.
Emma says
I had a lot of anxiety around SIDS and read the relevant chapter in Cribsheet by Emily Oster a few times. I found it helpful. My baby mostly slept in a pack in play in the living room for naps in the early days. It wasn’t dark and I would watch the TV on low volume. Honestly she mostly slept on me, in the car or in the stroller in the early days. I put her in her own room around 4 months and she has slept pretty well since then. But yes, not everyone follows every single safe sleep rule at all times. It’s important to know what they are and then decide what works for you, and some are more important than others – I was very firm on no loose soft bedding and baby on her back, but clearly did not follow the room sharing until one rule and honestly held the baby to sleep a lot in the early weeks because she wanted nothing to do with the bassinet.
Cerulean says
I have a comment in mod, but I had almost the exact same experience! I don’t think many babies are able to nap much without being held in the early weeks.
Anonymous says
Yeah, whenever people post about nap routines I just laugh. My baby would not nap unless she was moving in the stroller or being held. Therefore all I did during maternity leave was take walks and sit in my armchair feeding the baby or holding her while she slept.
Anonymous says
+1. Don’t fight the newborn contact naps. They are safe and so special.
Anon says
+2. I did contact naps almost exclusively my entire maternity leave. About 3 weeks before returning to work, i started one nap/day in crib or bassinet. I also nursed baby to sleep until baby stopped falling asleep when nursing. I regret nothing.
Anonymous says
I actually hated the contact naps, but boss baby would loudly demand not to be put down so that’s what she got.
Cerulean says
I wouldn’t worry about naps in a separate room and would focus on the best way for baby (and you!) to get sleep in the safest manner possible (provided you don’t have medical issues or other risk factors). From what I remember of the early days, my kid didn’t need dark conditions to nap (and would only get good naps while on me) for the first 10 weeks or so, so it was a moot point. She napped in the bassinet in whatever room I was in very occasionally, but mostly napped while being worn. Newborns take a lot of cat naps and I felt like she got pickier about sleeping conditions around 10-12 weeks if memory serves.
We followed the recommendations for back sleeping and no blankets with circulating air in a cool room, etc., but ended up cosleeping for a bit (I think around the 3-5 month mark) overnight when her nighttime sleep got erratic. Talking to my friends who are generally by-the-book, informed parents, cosleeping at some point is really, really common. We had none of the other risk factors for SIDS and it was the best way for us all to get some sleep. We moved her to a crib in her own room for all naps and overnight 100% of the time at six months, so we didn’t wait the recommended full year.
Anonymous says
I’m not familiar with the guideline you’re referencing, but in general, for naps, I highly recommend NOT putting your baby in a perfectly dark and quiet room. You WANT them to learn to nap when there is ambient noise and some daylight. They’ll be much more flexible down the road. When DS was an infant, he often napped in our stroller bassinet, which we put on a stand in the living room. I would turn off the overhead lights, but I didn’t close the curtains or anything like that, and I would take care of things around the house or talk on the phone at a normal volume.
Anonymous says
This depends on the baby somewhat. My girl would stay awake as long as there was anything to see going on around her, and was quite capable of staying up 8 hours getting progressively more overtired. Starting from about 4 weeks. If we hadn’t put her in a bedroom, there would have been zero naps.
anon says
Same here, with both of my kids. They absolutely wouldn’t nap just anywhere, unfortunately.
Anon says
Same, had a kid who just could not nap anywhere but a crib/bed. It was a little inconvenient for travel but she dropped naps at a young age and was a fantastic night sleeper, so on balance not a big deal.
Anon says
Our ped specifically told us to put the baby in the nursery for naps from birth, to make the eventual transition easier.
We room shared at night for 6 months, then moved baby to her room with our ped’s approval. She was noisy and we all slept better in separate rooms. SIDS risks drops dramatically at that age so I was comfortable with moving then and not waiting to 1 year.
AwayEmily says
Do you have access to academic journals? There are a bunch of case-control studies that include actual Ns and some breakdown by risk factors (though not as many as one would want).
FWIW I did this research with my first kid (I am a social scientist so have all these journals available) and looking directly at the data ultimately led me to the decision that it was a very marginal benefit for what turned out to be a huge cost for us — I got almost no sleep when the baby was near me, and was in very rough shape both mentally and physically. We ended up moving all 3 kids into their own rooms at around 6 weeks (yes, weeks). Many of the other risk factors (cigarette smoking, covers, sleeping on sofas) are much, much bigger. The room-sharing one is both small and has poorly identified mechanisms.
I think you’re asking the right questions! That being said, lots of people have absolutely wonderful experiences sleeping with their babies in their rooms, and if it ends up working for you that’s fantastic.
Anonymous says
Why are you so obsessed with the data? This has been a public health recommendation in most developed countries for a decade or longer. US is quite late to the game on adopting this recommendation. Parents exhale carbon dioxide which stimulates breathing in infants. It’s not a hard concept. No one questions ‘back to sleep’ even though it’s way easier to get babies to sleep on their bellies.
Don’t stress about every single nap or sleep period. If you have the bassinette or crib in your room and the baby sleeps overnight with you there most of the time, then that’s pretty much meeting the recommendation. My babies napped in their swings in the living room/kitchen space or outside on the deck in their strollers. It wasn’t hard to supervise either situation.
Cerulean says
Swings aren’t considered safe for sleep (although I understand why some parents resort to it). I find it interesting that you seem to think that room sharing shouldn’t be a hard recommendation to follow, yet mention using a swing.
Anon says
Agreed – in fact, it’s specifically advised NOT to use swings, pretty emphatically. Why are you so obsessed with the swing?
AwayEmily says
Just a random happy note — the big kids (5 and 7) have been getting along SO well for the last six weeks. Hanging out on the swingset and chatting, playing complicated pretend games on their scooters, and just generally giving each other the benefit of the doubt when conflict arises. This is a huge relief, coming after about five months of frequent bouts of sniping at each other. It’s like something clicked over and they see each other as allies instead of as adversaries. Anyway, I’m sure it won’t last forever — they seem to go in and out of these stages — but WOW it makes parenting a lot easier.
Any happy news from you all?
anon says
Somewhat relatedly, 3.75 year old has just . . . stopped hitting. We have been working on this for six months, and IDK if something I said finally landed with him, or some brain circuit flipped on, but he just . . . stopped? Basically cold turkey? We went from multiple hitting incidents per day (only us, never at school, yay?) to absolutely none for three weeks now. I am still holding my breath, but also amazed. It is so much more fun to be around him now.
AwayEmily says
That is AMAZING. Must be such a relief. It is so crazy how quickly things can turn around. I remember when my then-4yo was having at least one GIGANTIC meltdown a day for months (like, someone had to carry him to his room and sit with him in there for 15 minutes until he calmed down) and then one day he just…wasn’t. I increasingly do think with a lot of this stuff it’s a brain circuit. They just physically cannot stop themselves from [hitting, tantruming, lashing out at a sibling] until suddenly…they can!
Boston Legal Eagle says
Siblings bickering is the hardest part of parenting right now. Mine are similar ages and they go back and forth between playing and fighting, usually based on older kid’s mood.
We are all almost recovered from a stomach bug – it hit my younger one last week and hit me Monday. Husband and older kid seem to have been spared, hopefully! And my older kid (7) now finally picks out his own clothes (mostly soccer jerseys and shorts, but not a battle worth fighting), dresses himself in the morning without too much prodding, and can do his own shower and most of the bedtime routine. Game changer.
Mary Moo Cow says
Similar to you, kids (almost 8 and 5.5.) are each other’s favorite playmates and it’s lightened the family mood. 8 year old is learning cursive, so for a school assignment to write a letter in cursive, she wrote to Little Sister, “If you could learn to stop snorting, it would be great. Do you want to play the fun game tomorrow? Love, Big Sister.” Taking that out of her folder made me snort with laughter.
Anonymous says
My bigger kid has finally started dressing himself in the morning! This is a huge win, as he’s never been very motivated to independence in self-care. He also has a lot of clothing sensory issues and correlated with dressing himself is suddenly willing to wear a wider variety of clothes- has refused any loose clothing from age 1 till now and suddenly is at school in loose pants and a size larger shirt!
Cb says
That’s lovely! We had a pal and her dad over for our pizza and movie night and it was chill and lovely.
TheElms says
It was a few days ago now but we went out to dinner at a restaurant as a family and it wasn’t a catastrophe. 4 year old colored and didn’t need a tablet and didn’t meltdown once. 1 year old mostly played contentedly in her high chair and ate the food and didn’t throw it across the restaurant and didn’t meltdown either! It was really nice and has never happened before so big win.
Anonymous says
Shoe help! I have a very narrow footed girl with low arches. She’s somewhere between a kids size 1.5 and 2. She needs sneakers because hers are size 1s and too small. They are New Balance FuelCores which are perfect. She doesn’t want them in the next size up. She also doesn’t want lace-ups or velcro, but would be okay with partial velcro.
Lace ups are an issue only because she has to unlace them pretty far down to get her foot in then lace them up very tight to get them snug enough and the whole process takes FOREVER and is frustrating. DH has the same feet and the same problem :).
Suggestions?
GCA says
New Balance works well for DS, who has long skinny feet to match the rest of himself. He has an ‘Arishi’ model that came with bungee laces. You can also put bungee laces on any lace-up sneaker!
Anonymous says
We have had success with Saucony sneakers for narrow kid feet.
Anon says
PLAE was pretty narrow for my son. Not sure about the arch support. FB has a PLAE buy sell trade group.
anon says
New Balance has worked well for my kiddo, but you also may want to look at Nikes. They seem to have a few styles with partial velcro. We’ve also had some luck with the slip-on Skechers. They seem to run narrower than the traditional styles.
Those FuelCore shoes are awesome. They’re also getting harder to find.
Anonymous says
OP here. I ignored her and ordered the FuelCores in the next 2 sizes…I told her we’d go and try lots of shoes on but that I got the FuelCores as a backup. It’s not that she doesn’t like them, she just wants “new” shoes. I appreciate the recs and have tried several of the brands mentioned in the past. I did think about bungee laces but I’m not sure if it will solve the problem. she can tie her shoes just fine, just doesn’t like all the time it takes to loosen the sneaks, put her foot in, then re-tighten (and then tie). Maybe it’s worth a try!
We had to have a talk about how bodies are different and sometimes we stick with things that work for our bodies. For her, it’s her skinny feet. For her sister, we had (have) to try a zillion pairs of jeans to find ones that fit her soccer legs and are long enough but don’t fall off her waist and are in a style she will tolerate. For me, it’s bathing suits and shoes, only I have wider than average feet so it’s the opposite problem.
anon says
Oh yeah, that’s a good lesson. The clothes (or shoes) should fit your body, and not the other way around. Sometimes that limits options, and that’s okay.
Mary Moo Cow says
Tskihoshi or See Kai Run. If you have a decent shoe store nearby, go there and get her fitted. My local store sells Tskihoshi, but not See Kai Run; if Tskihosi fits, chances are See Kai Run will, too.
Anonymous says
OP here- I think of See Kai Run as a toddler brand. Do they have shoes that a 2nd grader will find cool/tolerable?
Anonymous says
We were handed down a pair of high top Nike basketball shoes and they really help with the issue of needing to lace them up so tight. I mean it still takes forever but way fewer complaints about slipping. They’re a size larger than my kid’s regular shoes but IME they run small/narrow. I see the comments about bungee laces but for those who need VERY TIGHT lacing those don’t really work.
Anon says
what is there if not lace up or velcro? slip ons? i had narrow feet as a kid and keds worked best for me
Anon says
+1 I also had narrow feet and sensory issues (so I wanted my shoes tight) and Keds fit the bill back then. I think I had the kind with laces, but it’s just like three laces.
Festival Safety- Toddler says
Taking our 2.5 yo to a community food festival this weekend. Any safety tips? He’s generally not a runner, but they have a kids section he will be more free range. Planning to bring the stroller and try to keep him contained where possible.
Anonymous says
I used to write my phone number on kiddo’s arm in Sharpie.
sarahalge@gmail.com says
+1 do this in crowds a lot!
Also – wear bright colors so you can easily spot him, yellow, neon pink or green
Anonymous says
This is a perfect use case for the toddler leash.
Anonymous says
hot tip: sharpie your cell on his arm or stick an air tag on him, just in case.
Anonymous says
I have an AirTag on my dog and it is pretty much useless. Location tracking updates are very sluggish, even when there are lots of iPhones around.
Bette says
Dress him in a brightly colored shirt that’s easy to spot – we have a highlighter yellow shirt that ours wears every time we go to the zoo or some other crowded space.
FVNC says
We got our kids bands from ROAD iD with contact information on them. Kids wear them when we’re in crowds (infrequently, these days) or traveling. I was nervous at first that the kids would take them off (they’re velcro) but we haven’t had issues with that. Also love the idea to dress kids in bright colors from the poster above.
Anon says
Not OP, but I’ve been considering getting a ROAD ID for my kid. My husband uses one mountain biking and we have one our dog. They’re so handy.
I take it you use the bracelet with your kids? I’ve considered buying the iD that fits on a shoe for my 3 year old. But I worry it’s not noticeable enough if someone is trying to help them. I was just curious which one you have?
FVNC says
We do have the bracelets, with red bands so they’re fairly noticeable. When the kids were younger with skinny little arms, we put the IDs around their ankles.
anon says
My kid with a medical condition wears one of the Road ID silicone stretch bracelets (not velcro) all the time and it doesn’t bother her at all. The smallest size band is really tiny. You can also fit a lot of info on the engraved plate (we have her full name, medical condition, and both parents’ phone numbers).
sarahalge@gmail.com says
If you do get separated tell people and yell loudly – I’m looking for a 2-year-old in a yellow shirt named Dillon
Anonymous says
anyone have any good tips on helping kids play sports with mouthguards when they hate mouthguards? Or mouthguards that are more tolerable?
I finally found a sport my kiddo likes, but it’s girls lacrosse and they need mouthguards. She doesn’t like the taste or the feel of it. Has no problem with the googles.
Anon says
I don’t think there’s a magic solution here, just that she needs to get used to it. It will feel awkward and weird for probably at least a few practices. As long as it’s not harming her (e.g., cutting open her gums), she needs to just work on it. Kids go through this all the time with braces and retainers as well.
Anonymous says
When I was a kid the orthodontist recommended soaking retainers in mouthwash to help get rid of the plasticky taste.
anonM says
+1. And maybe she doesn’t know this but the mouthguards are for players of all ages. I wore one in college. That might help make it seem more doable. Idk how old she is, but coaches and refs will enforce this so she won’t really have an option. Maybe get a cool color? Or a big bow – idk why but the women I played with who had started as little kids seemed to love those big bows (obviously depends on the kid’s personality, but maybe that’d be a good incentive?). Hope she continues to enjoy — I found lacrosse to be a great sport and made me feel really strong!
Anonymous says
She’s 7 and will choose not to play if push came to shove, so “let the refs deal with it” means the end of the sport.
I’ve also seen advice on soaking it; I’ll try that tonight and see how it goes.
anonM says
Ag, didn’t realize she’s only 7. Maybe show her pics of college players with mouthguards? Hope soaking in mouthwash helps. Good luck.
An.On. says
Maybe look for ones that can be molded closer to the teeth – those were always much more comfortable for me, not as bulky and stayed in better. I don’t have any personal recommendations for you but maybe your kids’ dentist might?
Anonymous says
The small bulletin board in my home office won’t stay put using the 3M stickies that came with it. Any tips? It’s not a particularly rough textured wall, but has eggshell paint, if that matters.
Anonymous says
I avoid those sticky strips because if they hold the item up, they inevitably destroy the paint. Buy a board that is designed to be hung up with a nail or screws, or add picture hangers to the board you have.
Cerulean says
Buy the extra sticky 3M tabs or screw it into the wall.
climbing kids says
I hope I’m not too late in the day for this. Has anyone had luck with an indoor climbing area for very active kids? Our daughter (almost 4) climbs on everything, to the top, faster and with more agility than our 6 year old has now or ever has. She needs a safe outlet. She can easily do the simple backyard structures and I think those would be outgrown quickly. Have you built an indoor rock wall for your kid? There are lots of DIY things / Pinterest-mom things online and we are very handy and can do that but would love some first hand thoughts.
Cb says
My son’s very active bestie has a rock wall in the garage with a harness and seems to love it. She’s a kid who needs to be moving all the time, so it’s a good outlet on rainy days.
Anonymous says
My daughter is a pretty serious rock climber. I would keep the climbing in the gym rather than installing a wall at home, for safety reasons and also because if she gets bored of climbing you’ll be stuck with the wall. When she hits age 4 there should be plenty of age-appropriate classes, camps, and pre-team/team programs available. If you absolutely must have a home climbing wall, I wouldn’t put in a rope because that requires a belayer and does not eliminate the need for crash padding. I’d keep it low enough for bouldering (no rope). And I would never rely on Pinterest or the web for installation advice; talk directly to the pros. The risk of injury is pretty high even on a short wall. My daughter managed to sprain her ankle falling only about 12 feet onto a crash pad.
Anon says
I agree I wouldn’t be super comfortable with this from a safety perspective, but 4 seems really young for a class. I think in my area rock climbing classes for kids start around age 7-8. I don’t live in a big city, maybe there are more options in other places but I wouldn’t count on being able to find a class right away.
Anon says
At our climbing gym, classes begin at age 5 but you can book a private climbing session as young as 3.
Anon says
We also have a kid who is surprisingly good at climbing. We have considered taking him (2 year old) to the local rock climbing gym but haven’t done so yet. We are in metro NY, so there are a lot of climbing gyms around. I’ve seen very little kids (maybe 4-5) rock climb with a harness. My husband loves climbing so is very thrilled our kid has taken an interest in it.
We also considered building a rock climbing wall in our basement, but we already finished it and would require making a lot of holes and putting in new sheet rock, which would cost us a couple thousand dollars plus the cost of the rock climbing wall equipment. We checked out smartplayrooms DOT com. Also, our ceiling is normal height, so probably not that exciting after a while.
DLC says
Based on suggestions here, I got our kids a Swedish Climbing wall two years ago when they were 2 and 4 and it gets a lot of use even now. We got the version with the rope swing and rings and ladder. Pretty easy to install.
I would love an indoor climbing wall, but we don’t have the space for it. My brother built a climbing wall in his backyard, though. He said the trickiest part was buulding the wall at a slight angle so that the top overhung the bottom slightly.
Anonymous says
We seriously considered installing a climbing wall with a crash pad in our formal living room, but we want to move soon so decided against installing anything. We have several parks nearby with climbing structures (one is a giant, 20 foot tall rope structure) so we make near daily use of those. Good luck though! I’ll be interested to hear what you decide.
anon. says
All of these comments are so helpful, thank you! To whoever mentioned the Swedish walls, we’ve also looked at those and that seems like a good interim solution. An at-home indoor rock wall seems like a bad decision!
Anonymous says
I put my climber in gymnastics. It was a good outlet for her.
Anonymous says
Same here. Then she got invited to team…
Anonymous says
Our climber also does gymnastics, but our area (DC suburbs) definitely has climbing classes for 4 and up.
EDAnon says
We took our two kids to the climbing gym and the you get (4) loved it. He’s not out climber but he did great with the harness, going high, etc. we had to do a lot of coaching about not wandering under other climbers. He asked to go again, so I think it was a hit!
sleepless in portland says
help – first trimester insomnia. i’m pregnant for the first time and have always heard of later pregnancy insomnia but i’m only just over 5 weeks along and i cannot sleep at night. i think it’s definitely pregnancy related but i just start waking up around 3-4am and have a hard time getting to sleep aftewards. i am so miserable lol and tired and having trouble at work during the day. does anyone have tips???
busybee says
Yes, Benadryl.
Anonymous says
Unisom, the same kind they tell you to take for morning sickness. But honestly I ended up just getting up and working for a couple hours. Nothing really helped except time- it got better , then worse again later in pregnancy.
Anon says
So not sure on your situation. But I know my 1st OB appointment in a pregnancy is about 8 or 9 weeks. Which probably feels forever if you’re 5 weeks. If you have mychart (or your OB’s information website of choice) if you message in. They might have some ideas on what to take. I felt silly at my recent 9 week appointment when they gave me a chart of medications I could take for nausea, headaches, etc. And here I was just trying to white knuckle it.
Anon says
I just listened to most of the recent Best of Both Worlds podcast while taking a walk (yay 1 hour meeting ending quickly)! I know many of us post here to get ideas on what food to get for various get togethers…which I feel is a reasonable question…but this episode seemed beyond that, like a lot of their suggestions and framing sounded:
1. Out to lunch (A “heaven or hell” themed party for adults…literally no one I know – with or without kids – has time for planning this)
2. Like they don’t host that much/see friends of their own in a casual setting regularly.
Just wanted to share this very important thought with the hive today :)
Cb says
As someone who needs a LOT of social interaction to be a functioning human being, I’m always more curious about the casual stuff people do. I HATE costume parties though and I don’t know anyone who hosts formal parties beyond birthdays? Maybe they are fancier than we are.
My neighbours have their children over for a standing Sunday lunch and I think that’s fab (and sometimes we can hang about forlornly and they’ll invite us over), we realised it’s easy and low key to have another family join us for our pizza and movie Fridays (my husband shows off his pizza skills).
Anon says
We also host really casually (and frequently) and we are not fancy people. I have a 2 year old and 4 month old. The only way to do this is at our stage of life is to order two pizzas on a Friday instead of one and invite a family with similar aged kids in the neighborhood. I’ll throw together a simple salad if I’m feeling fancy. The salad rarely gets eaten though because everyone is chasing after their kids.
Mary Moo Cow says
Huh to the theme parties. I think I’d cock my head like my dog if I got that invite.
I like hosting but I didn’t do it very often for a few years post-kids. Our new neighborhood is very social, and kids are older, so I’m hosting and attending more get-togethers. They aren’t theme parties, or even formal parties, really. One neighbor is hosting an adults only kickball gamer in her giant backyard; we had neighbors over for pizza and an outdoor movie; we’ve toasted the opening of a patio at another neighbors; ladies get together after kids’ bedtime for wine and sweet treats. My 40th birthday party is going to be at the neighborhood pool this year, like it was when I turned 4.
I have fun with a theme party for my kids. We had a get together over Christmas break with hot chocolate and Christmas jewelry making and a tea party in February with real tea cups and decorating tea cup shaped cookies. So fun for 8 year olds but I can’t really picture throwing such a themed party for my own friends.
anon says
If both parents work full time and kid is in an aftercare program, does kid just not do week-night activities until mom or dad are available to take kid?
DD goes to full day K next year and loves gymnastics. We’ve had half-day prek to date so no issues with scheduling. Nanny just takes her during the day. But next year they’re 1x/week on any day Mon-Thurs at 3:45pm. No obvious carpooling solution. Such a bummer.
Anonymous says
Yep. It’s either weekend events, things that are 6pm or later (e.g. after aftercare), or one parent figures out a way to leave work early 1 day a week.
Boston Legal Eagle says
Are there no weekend classes? But for us, with WFH flexibility, we do take our 1st grader to soccer once a week at 4. A lot of sports around here start around 5/5:30, but that’s a bit late with our early bedtimes at the moment.
OP says
There are no weekend classes for her level. We thankfully have local grandparents who we can rely on 60-70% of the time. DH’s job is far more flexible than mine (still not that flexible) so maybe we can figure something out. It’s just a bummer. This world is not set up for two working parents, which I knew but I’m feeling extra hard these days as fall registration for some activities is creeping up.
TheElms says
A lot of kids struggle with the transition to full day Kindergarten so it may be best to not have any activities for the first semester anyways to give your child time to adjust. Its a long day for them, especially if they are used to a half day or a program that is more play focused and are moving into a more academic focused program.
More Sleep Would Be Nice says
I’ve thought about this a lot – DS #1 is going from private K to public K next year, and right now he’s there until ~5:30, and I expect similar times next year for aftercare. Fortunately he hasn’t expressed any interest in any activities that would require evenings…I know it’s only a matter of time. At this point in my career any activity before 5 PM will be very difficult to manage.
I do want him to start scouts next year, which will be either a) The girl scouts troop at his aftercare or b) One of us (probably me) sucking it up and making sure we get to the cub scouts meeting on time (presumably it starts at 5:30 or 6).
anon says
Girl Scouts won’t be an option for a male-identifying kid, just FYI.
Anon says
+1 we just met both scout representatives at K orientation. Girl Scouts is girls only, Boy Scouts is co-ed now.
Anonymous says
I figured she meant a girl BSA troop, which would technically be allowed but would still not be the right thing to do.
Anonymous says
Even if the troop allows it, don’t do this. Girls need their own spaces your boy does not need or deserve to intrude on that.
TheElms says
Some aftercare programs offer activity options in my area (so kid would do 8 weeks of soccer as part of aftercare, and then for the next 8 weeks you can pick something else or nothing and just do the regular aftercare activities). Some friends hire a part time nanny to drive kids to activities. The nanny picks up from aftercare and takes them to the activity and then home.
govtattymom says
We were able to make this work this year (daughter in first grade and after care). We didn’t schedule any activities during the week and she had ballet on Saturday morning and swimming on Sunday afternoon. I’m sure that as she gets older we will have to figure out a way to get her to weekday activities. But you may be able to get away with only weekend activities for the kindergarten/1st grade years!
Anon says
My great school offers both aftercare AND a bunch of extracurriculars right in the school so kid can go from school, to art/drama/chess class, to aftercare without me needing to be involved. We also do a few weekday activities that start after 6, and monitor the calendar so we can sign up for weekend slots asap when they open for activities like swim class and gymnastics.
My district’s PTA intentionally has working parents as well as SAHMs, so there’s a good mix of planning that is more inclusive of all types of family schedules.
Anon says
If you still have the nanny, why couldn’t the nanny take her? A child can always be picked up early from aftercare or skip it one day a week. My child goes to aftercare but I get her early on Tuesdays for a dance class.
Anonymous says
In my area this is what carpooling is for. Other parent takes your kid, you pick up.
Gotta figure out what the kid does between getting home and the activity though.
Anon says
DH and I have very different parenting styles, and both of us are likely applying parenting techniques incorrectly. He uses time outs a lot, and I tend to follow more of a gentle parenting approach, which probably leans more permissive tbh. This morning DH put our toddler in time out because he had a meltdown about not wanting to go to school. How do we get on the same page?
anonM says
This is a challenge as a couple, and you may never be on identical pages. Plus, what is effective for one parent may not be for another. We talk a fair amount about toddlers’ development, and how they cannot learn once they’re in meltdown mode. One thing that really helped us was reading parenting books. I read How to Talk So Little Kids can Listen and Siblings Without Rivalry, and would relay some of what I learned to DH. (Ex – omg we have to stop encouraging competition between the kids because XYZ, which makes sense because JDLFJLJ, so instead let’s have them race against US as the parents! — always best to have a new game plan, not just a list of don’ts). And we read Hunt Gather Parent together during car rides over the course of a few months (I read it out loud, or read and summarized out loud). I know this sounds silly, but it really helped us have a similar outlook and approach, even if we use different strategies. If you have those long-term goals in sight and have the same ones, it helps a lot. The more you come at it from a place of “let’s learn about this together” instead of “you did that wrong” the better the convo will go. (Ex., mornings before school are really hard, and it seems hard regardless of which parent he’s with. Let’s come up with a plan. Should we try a morning routine chart? Ideas? Let’s google some parenting advice because I want the daily battle to improve.)
Anonymous says
I’d take a course together! Try Dr Becky or Big Little Feelings. Both have great virtual workshops.
Anokha says
+1 for taking a course together. The author of “How to Talk So Little Kids can Listen” offers live workshops, and we found it tremendously useful in getting on the same page.