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Washable Workwear Wednesday: Long-Sleeve Ruffle Shirt in Floral Eyelet

Machine-Washable Work Clothes· Recent Recs

I love this top from J. Crew’s new spring arrivals. I love how it is doing a few things at once, but all of the elements are subdued enough that they work together well. The ruffles are small and well placed; I like how they’re around the neck too. The eyelet is small, and I like the sleeves and the length. The fun color options are the icing on the cake. I absolutely love the pink, but the light blue is fun too! The top is on sale for $75.50 and is available in sizes XXS–3X. Long-Sleeve Ruffle Shirt in Floral Eyelet

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!)

Kid/Family Sales

  • J.Crew – Extra 50% off sale styles; up to 50% off summer styles
  • Lands’ End – 30% off full-price styles
  • Hanna Andersson – Up to 60% off; up to 30% off select styles
  • Carter’s – Summer kickoff deals from $6; 40% off baby essentials
  • Old Navy – 30% off your order; girl/toddler/baby dresses $7
  • Target – Outdoor toys from $3; 20% off Sun Squad items; kids’ summer styles from $6

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About April

April is a working mom, a longtime reader of CorporetteMoms, and wrote our morning fashion advice for working moms from April 2018 to October 2020. She has one child (born 2/17!) and she’s a public interest lawyer in NYC.

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    We have been home for a week (except I went to Trader Joe’s this weekend). Our 3.5 year old is starting to miss school (and he’s a kid that wakes up every day with a hopeful “No school today?”) and he asked to go to the children’s museum yesterday (which is closed),
    On the upside, he and his brother (1,5) are getting closer, which is nice to see.
    I am hoping warm weather helps slow this down and buys us some time for preparing and developing a vaccine.

    • anon says

      My 3.5 yo asked to “play with other kids” yesterday after five days of playing only with her 6 yo sister. Sorry, kid. It will be a while. The good thing is they mostly get along.

      I’m enormously grateful that it’s been nice weather here, so distancing basically means lots of time playing in the backyard in gorgeous sunshine. I have no idea how I’d cope stuck inside in an apartment.

      My feeling is that a vaccine is going to take a while. If we can just come up with a way to treat the virus and/or pneumonia effectively, this would become much less serious. A rapid test (which is in the works and getting close) would also be amazingly helpful in allowing life to resume.

      • Anonymous says

        I agree. It’s a huge problem that we cannot get a good picture of what we are dealing with.

  2. Anonanonanon says

    This top is gorgeous on her and would not look so great on me.
    I forgot there was a pandemic for a bit when I woke up today.
    Petty pandemic concern of the day: I’m high risk (immunocompromised) so I switched to eating only food from home and drinking coffee from home a little over a week ago. I miss coffee made by other people!!!!!

      • Anon says

        Yes. I got one for my husband for Christmas (Lattisima Pro – we’re latte people), and it has really been a gift for me, since he drinks regular and I drink decaf and I “don’t know how” to use the machine. Husband provided decaf lattes on the regular for the win!

    • Govtattymom says

      I really miss coffee made by other people too! My homemade cold brew is good, but I miss the certain je ne se quois of visiting the coffeeshop.

  3. No walks for kids? says

    So our neighborhood list serve is blowing up with 2 things:
    1) asking families not to go to playground. Which I’m ok with, mostly because little kids are not good at understanding social distancing.
    2) asking families with kids not to walk around the hood and restrict kids to their own yards (unless they are in strollers). I’m not ok with this. We are taking 1 walk a day. When I see people coming by, we step to the side and leave room. I think that is enough. But everyday I re-evaluate what I think is “enough”. I’m now doing things I would have scoffed at last week. Is grid the coming norm?

    • anon says

      Walks are fine. Try to walk at times when it’s not crowded and stay 6 feet apart. Don’t touch surfaces that likely have been touched by other kids (e.g., fire hydrants and playgrounds).

      That said, my friends in Europe haven’t been able to go outside to even walk their dog in a week. No going outside except for food/medicine or to see a doctor. It may be coming.

    • Anonymous says

      I think asking people not to walk outside is ridiculous and unnecessary. On our walk yesterday we left a wide berth or crossed the street. I would not comply with this and there’s no guidance from any government that says this.

      • Anonymous says

        Agree, although I’ll say on our walk yesterday, I was really surprised how few other people out were making a point of giving our family space. An older couple came up and chatted with me and the kids, even tried to high-five my son. They were really nice, but it made me nervous– for their sake, not mine.

        • Anonymous says

          That’s the message the neighborhood listserv needs to be spreading–everyone can and should get outside, but stay 6 feet apart.

    • Anonymous says

      #2 is crazy, unless you have a runner who will bolt off and hug a neighbor before you can stop him. And those kids are not likely to be walking without a stroller or toddler leash anyway, because cars.

    • Anonymous says

      Ignore. No playgrounds, no playing together, a walk with your family is fine. Don’t engage just ignore.

    • Anon says

      #2 is ridiculous and against all recommendations thus far, and I’m in a hot spot. We’re taking one walk every 2ish hours because we have an active black lab and a 2 year old.

      #1 isn’t only about social distancing, but the virus can live on surfaces for extended periods of time. Metals I think had the longest shelf life (but this is from an info graphic from last week so who knows if any of that is actually true…)

    • AnonATL says

      Yeah telling people not to go for a walk is ridiculous. I live in the burbs, so we aren’t crowding onto city sidewalks in my area, but there were people out all day yesterday (I can see the street from my home office). On my usual walking route, I passed probably 10 people that I’ve never seen out during that time. Just leave several feet of space to walk past. Kids were riding their bikes with their parents too. People need to get out and get some exercise when they can.
      You can’t stay holed up in the house all day with kids (or even without kids).

    • Anonymous says

      Bless their hearts. I think we know conclusively that these folks don’t have dogs.

      • anon says

        Just for reference, my European friends have not been allowed outside even to walk their dogs for more than a week.

          • Anon says

            All of the above. Friends in Northern Italy (suburbs to Milan), Austria (rural), and Czech Republic (Prague, big city).

            They are only allowed outside for groceries and medical treatment.

          • Anonymous says

            I guess real crime must be way down so the police can tend to fining joggers?

          • anon says

            Given that the virus is resulting in hundreds of death per day in Italy, it is not crazy that not following the quarantine should be a crime.

    • Anonymous says

      Agree the “no walks” is not reasonable (I suppose unless local conditions have rendered that unsafe). I normally tend to give a wide berth when walking, so these past few days have been no different. The joke around here is that us Midwesterners have been training our whole lives to stay at least six feet apart from others :)

      • Anonymous says

        We walk and give whee berth. Not walking (and missing my runs) would be terrible for my mental health. I am not a homebody by nature. I need that time.

    • Anon says

      We go walking in early evening (like 6 or so) so the other young kids are mostly in bed or getting ready (vs. my night owl who goes to bed at 10-11) and it hasn’t been an issue. But that seems ridiculous to me as long as your kids listen to your instructions to stay far away.

    • SC says

      I took Kiddo on a walk last night. I plan to get outside this weekend. We live in the suburbs in a neighborhood where there are rarely many people outside anyways. We waved to one guy grilling in his backyard and had short conversations with two others, who stayed far away.

    • Mean Mom says

      The issue I’m having is with one neighborhood kid who is basically wandering the cul-de-sac without adult supervision. She’s ~9, her mom is usually working (and works in the medical profession) and her (elderly) babysitter lets her and her older brother roam around. It’s usually just mildly annoying, but now she comes up to my 5 year old and wants to hug her etc. So I can’t let my kid play in our front area unless I want to have to shoo away the other kid, because the other girl doesn’t take hints.

      I feel bad, but I was at the end of my rope yesterday, and I just snapped at her to go home when she was trying to come into our house and distracting my kid so that the screen door slammed on my kid’s hand.

      Day 3 and I’m SO TIRED.

      • IHeartBacon says

        You are not a mean mom. You are protecting your children. You can tell anyone who tells you otherwise to shove it.

  4. Anon says

    With these new reports that we will be self-isolating for 18 months, I have to admit I’m freaking out a little. 1.5 years of no interaction with anyone outside immediate family seems like something that’s going to do permanent damage to an entire generation of kids, especially the youngest ones who can’t meaningfully learn or interact with friends virtually. And I know my family has it better off than most – even ignoring the economic impacts (which are huge) there are millions of kids who won’t be getting any kind of education at all if they’re not in public school, and quite a few who won’t even be safe.
    I love my parents, I don’t want them to die and I know everyone has loved ones who are 70+, but I’m not sure why we’ve all mutually agreed that it’s worth wrecking our economy, the next generation’s future and basically society as we know it to prolong the lifespans of people who likely don’t have a terribly long life expectancy to begin with. Fwiw, my 70 year old dad totally agrees with me. He said to me the other day that he probably has at most 5-10 good years left (which I agree with, based on family history and his overall health) and he really doesn’t want to lose 1.5 of them to isolation. He wants to travel and see the world before his time is up, which I completely understand.
    I don’t know – I don’t want to sound heartless, but I feel like there has been way too much focus on simply keeping people alive, and not enough focus on quality of life and the future impacts of this extreme isolation, especially for children, who have the longest life expectancy of anyone.

      • anonchicago says

        Dr. Zeke Emanuel (who crafted parts of Obamacare) was on MSNBC last night and spoke about multiple rounds of social distancing over a few years. He drew a parallel to the black plague which lasted three centuries off and on (!!!).

        I agree people are going to get fatigued with this distancing, businesses will start to go under, and the Fed cannot keep pumping money into the economy forever. For now though, we just have to focus on flattening the curve enough to avoid overwhelming the healthcare system and staying sane throughout the process.

        • Anonymous says

          Pls stop we are worried enough without baseless dramatic rumors to start the day

          • anonchicago says

            I don’t consider a public health expert to be a baseless rumor, but the attitude of ignoring news that doesn’t suit you got us into this situation.

          • Anonymous says

            He was also the death panels dude, so take that grain of salt and then calmly step away from the worst possible spin on a sound bite. Do you really think that schools and businesses will stay closed for 18 months? Like people will start going to nursing school entirely online (or doing disections on their kitchen counters)? This is going to get better. Maybe we’ll keep up with the washing of hands, but being all panicky isn’t helping anyone.

        • Anon says

          9:37 — “Death panels” was actually just end of life counseling so people knew what their options were. So yeah..you have no idea what you’re talking about and nobody should listen to you/

          • Anonymous says

            He is also saying nutty things like he is OK with dying at 75 himself because . . . judgy things re QOL of living past that. So, where my family lives into their 90s at home and on a very slow decline, I sort of tune him out and tune in some other sources with MDs and public health backgrounds. I’m sorry he has such a microphone now. Others should be amplified who are less alarmist and no less accurate.

        • Anonymous says

          This is not going to happen. Even if it should happen (it shouldn’t), there is no popular will or political will for this here.

          • Anonymous says

            It should probably happen, and there will be much more support as time goes on and the situation hits closer to home for people.

          • Anon says

            I think there will be less support for it as time goes on, actually. People who have been working from home while home-schooling their kids for 3 months aren’t going to willingly sign up for 15 more months of that. It’s really easy to say “everybody quarantine indefinitely” when you have only been quarantining for a few days or weeks. Reality will set in.

          • Anonymous says

            I think that pretty soon we will see that the sky isn’t falling and things will loosen up. Like we will do tons more tests and find that the mortality rate is in fact quite low (the sample of people tested is not representative and the number of people who dies is only stated in relation to the relatively few tested-positive people). Definitely by summer.

          • Anonymous says

            Testing is key. If we can get widespread testing like South Korea, we will be able to target restrictions much better.

          • Anon says

            I agree testing will change things. Korea has it much more under control than the US and they never even shut schools – just did tons of testing. And they are a democracy, contrary to what our surgeon general said on TV ?

          • Anonymous says

            I also think this is unlikely: we need to spread out how rapidly people get the disease, so we can handle it. Like we handle the flu. I don’t think we are going to eradicate it in the near term and I am not going to avoid life forever on that remote possibility:
            And I think people need to stop with this fear-mongering. It is going to break people and make them quit trying. And that will be worse.

    • Anonymous says

      First, it doesn’t look likely that we will all be sheltering in place for 18 months. A more likely scenario is a few months of lockdown followed by alternating periods of loosened and tightened restrictions in response to local conditions.

      Second, if we just let this thing run its course unchecked, the entire economy and the very fabric of society will be completely destroyed, so the lives you propose to sacrifice would be lost in vain.

      • Anon says

        I understand the economy isn’t everything. But it would unquestionably be better for the economy to let this thing spread unchecked, even if it killed 10% of people, and have it over with within a couple months, then to have the entire world shut down for a year and a half.

    • Anonymous says

      Please don’t spread panicked rumors. There are no credible reports we will be self isolating for 18 months. I know you are worried but passing on these rumors is harmful.

    • Anonymous says

      Youve been home with your kid for what, 3 days? And you’re already ready to let people die. Consider that you need a day with no internet.

    • Pogo says

      Did you talk to my husband this morning? He was spouting this kind of thing. Deep breaths.

    • Anonymous says

      My personal opinion (which is 100% opinion and not rooted in any articles or facts) is that this will be a thing for a couple of months. Once summer hits, large non-essential gatherings might be cancelled and all that, but life will work its way back to normal by the fall school year with some continued restrictions/best practices. I used to work in epidemiology, so I very much understand spread and how continued isolation would be best…but I don’t think it is realistic past the summer. I expect some loosening of restrictions in about a month, another wave around the end of May, another wave when school starts, and then total relaxation once vaccination is a thing.

    • AIMS says

      So Zeke Emanuel also wrote an op ed about this in the NYT. Read it. He doesn’t say we will be in isolation for 18 months. He says we will be dealing with this for 18 months and probably have 3-4 more periods of restrictions after periods of easing restrictions. That’s very different! Don’t panic. The world has dealt with worse. I think this just feels worse bc we’re all on twitter and much more connected.

    • Boston Legal Eagle says

      The idea I keep reading about is flattening the curve. Like, yes, it does impact the elderly the most but once you have a bunch of elderly people getting very sick and going to the hospital, they will take all of the hospital’s resources and there will not be enough resources to go around. So it impacts us all. If you get in an accident and need an ICU bed and it’s taken, then what? In Italy, they’re having to make choices about who lives and who dies.

      18 months does sound extreme and will likely derail the economy (not to mention the mental illness effects on everyone being isolated or home with small kids). I hope we find a compromise of some sort by summer.

      • Anonymous says

        The Italy situation is mis-stated. They have a finite quantity of ventilators. At some point, they may have more people needing them than what they have. They don’t have that situation now, they have just acknowledged that it may come. And it may not come. Or countries less affected may send some over. South Korea is not having this. China did not have this. Breathe.

        The OB department of a hospital will still exist. So will the regular emergency department. The US has a greater hospital bed capacity already than Italy and their population is older.

        • Anonymous says

          Hm, I have friends and family in Italy, one of whom has a dad in the hospital with COVID who probably ought to be in the ICU, but he’s not because there are no beds.
          The family doesn’t really know how he’s doing. It is as bad as you hear, from what I can tell.

        • Anonymous says

          I have friends and family in northern Italy. The situation is not misstated – they do not have enough ventilators, not enough ICU beds, and not enough covid-free medical staff. For people who have seen the curves comparing Philadelphia and St. Louis during the Spanish Flu – they are Philadelphia – they did not flatten the curve.

          It will be 18 months before there is a vaccine but if the spread can be slowed enough over the next 3-6 months then the hospitals will have enough capacity to treat coivd patients and other patients. I don’t want my allergic kid to get anaphylaxis unrelated to covid and there’s not ventilator available. A lot of people will get covid, many will recover without hospitalization. we just need to make sure everyone doesn’t get it at the same time. Spread out over six months is fine. Let’s be St. Louis.

          • Anon says

            The point is that you can’t just flatten the curve by staying inside for 3-6 months and then everything will be fine. Until there’s a vaccine or very effective treatments, any easing of the social distancing restrictions will immediately lead to a spike in cases that could overwhelm hospitals.

        • CCLA says

          They absolutely do have that situation now. They are triaging folks and giving palliative care to people they don’t have enough beds/vents for, then those die. Check out the Reuters piece “ Special Report: ‘All is well’. In Italy, triage and lies for virus patients”

    • Anonymous says

      Look, cable news is designed to play to your fears and it’s making you anxious. Same with twitter. I feel like reading the news from a reputable paper gives you a much better picture of the current situation.

      • Anon says

        This is from the NYT and amplified by people who make decisions in my city. I don’t watch cable news or use Twitter.

    • Butter says

      I too have read the reports that say that this will take a looong time to get through, best case scenario. But everyone is working with such limited data. We know more than we knew two months ago, and will know so much more two months from now. Between increased data, information sharing between doctors and experts across the globe, and having our entire technology and research global sector devoted to fixing this, I’m choosing to be optimistic. While a vaccine might be at least 18 months away, what they are doing with compassionate care cases and treatments will lead to improved outcomes in the much shorter term. We’ll learn about the effects of weather/UV light; real data on social distancing; how it effects certain populations, etc.

      I also think/hope we’ll loosen restrictions enough to have some people that we interact with. Maybe birthday parties are 2-3 kiddos at the house or outside, not 15-20 at trampoline parks. Our neighborhood has been super friendly the last few days, with lots of people chatting from the sidewalk with neighbors who sit on their front porch, offers to share toilet paper, and general levels of friendliness I haven’t seen before. It reminds me a bit of the day that Boston was in lockdown after the bombing. I was so afraid to leave the house but had to walk the dog, and it ended up being so nice to see people sitting out on their front porches, being communal (from a distance), and it made me feel so much better.

      Of course this is overall terrifying, but I’m going to keep being optimistic as long as I can.

    • Extra anon for this says

      Actual expert here: 18 months is a real possibility. The second the current restrictions and closures are relaxed there will be a boom in cases, so the goal is to keep these measures in place until there is a vaccine. This is also why public health experts were behind the scenes begging school systems and universities not to close yet. They all caved to public pressure and closed too early. In 4 weeks when those measures are actually justified and we’re telling people they need to stay closed for 8 more weeks, everyone is going to be upset. The fatigue of these drastic changes will set in, people will reopen things, and we will see a boom in illness and death that our medical system cannot accommodate.

      • Anon says

        “The second the current restrictions and closures are relaxed there will be a boom in cases, so the goal is to keep these measures in place until there is a vaccine. ”

        If we are not flattening the curve, just moving the spike to the right, this is useless.

  5. Anonymous says

    I keep seeing articles and advertisements for things to do during this time – shows to binge, books to read, etc. For adults. And I’m like WTH?!?! I am still working 8 hours a day from home at sporadic times and have additional childcare responsibilities. Add in meals, sleep, and a workout, and that’s like 26 hours. I get it…season of life…folks without kids and retired people might be bored. But I just hang my head in defeat.

    • Anon says

      i know, i keep saying to DH that if we didn’t have kids, this time could actually be kind of nice – we’d have more time to organize, clean, exercise, watch shows, cook, etc. instead we have toddler twins in a two bedroom apartment

      • AIMS says

        Yeah. My office was closed from hurricane sandy and we spent a week at home and it was lovely. We had friends come over, watched all the movies, read all the books. This was all pre kids of course. Now, none of that seems to apply. I have work to do and am not at all set up to do it, my kids are going bonkers, and my body hurts from being stuck inside and trying to work on a laptop propped on a bunch of pillows.

        • Anon says

          I think it’s also just psychologically so different. Hurricane Sandy was tragic, but once it was over we knew the worst had passed and life was gradually going to get back to normal, and we could seek the company of friends and family for comfort. We have no idea when this “storm” is really coming and how long it will take for life to go back to anything resembling normal, and we’re supposed to have minimal contact with other human beings in the meantime. It’s a very different situation, and this is much harder mentally, kids or no kids.

    • Anon says

      Ditto. I’m working nonstop. So many conference calls. I’m in finance so maybe that’s why, but we’re reacting to market conditions, trying to save deals from dying at this point… there are not enough hours in the day right now.

    • Boston Legal Eagle says

      I hate to whine but this situation is yet again hurting working parents more. Before, I couldn’t be in the office as much as single/childless coworkers and still felt like I worked more due to my “second job” of taking care of kids at night. But now, all of those single/childless coworkers are working more due to lower commutes and I’m working two jobs, sometimes at the same time.

      • FVNC says

        Unfortunately, I agree. I’m working on a project currently with colleagues that are more senior than I’ve worked with in the past, meaning they’re older than me and their kids — if they have any — are high school or older. They do not have young kids going bonkers in the background dividing their attention all day long. Oh, and I’m in KS so yesterday was a fun day when we learned school was canceled for the rest of the year (I assume other states will follow, but yesterday was not a good day for working parents).

      • DCMom says

        Yep. And if one more (male, always male) partner I work for tells me how he “can’t get any work done at home with the kids there!” despite have a wife who doesn’t work and therefore has the entire day to devote to watching the kids, I’m going to lose it. My husband and I are trying to juggle our demanding full time jobs with making sure our two kids under 5 don’t hurt each other or jump out windows or set the house on fire. I know many of the moms on this site are in similar positions.

  6. Pogo says

    Welp, about to join the ranks of working-with-toddler: our in-home has decided to close for the time being. She seems really torn but wants to be safe. Not totally unexpected, but still bummed. I really don’t want to call in the grandparents, partly for their safety and partly because my mom refuses to self-isolate (still going to all her volunteer events, eating out as recently as two days ago). My husband is looking in to backup care through care dot com & his employer (so have a pre-screened nanny come to our house) but that doesn’t sit great with me either.

    Just bummed that this is going to hit me harder as a working mom than all my male colleagues for whom it’s business as usual because their wives are watching the kids like normal.

    • Anonymous says

      Are people not seeing the news from New York and Seattle and San Francisco? This is coming for all of you. Social distancing is going to mean all your kids stay home and you and your husbands take care of them. Which will be very hard.

      • Anonymous says

        +1. I live in NYC, and my reality and fear are so different now than even a few days ago. Please look at the infection rate curve, and compare it to what happened in Italy. We are maybe a couple weeks away from letting people die because hospitals are beyond capacity. The US has FEWER beds per capita than they do in Italy.

    • Anonymous says

      Our daycare is not closed, but we have pulled our child. DH and I can work from home. Splitting childcare while working and keeping kiddo busy isn’t easy. But we feel we have a moral obligation to do it because we can. We are doing what we can to slow the spread so that our daycare can more safely stay open for children of healthcare workers, grocery workers, etc. They’ll stay open until they’re mandated to close by our state.

      • Anonymous says

        Yep, this is where we landed. Posted earlier this week that we were torn. No longer.

      • TheElms says

        We landed in the same spot, but it is so hard. I am certain suicide rates will skyrocket because of this. Resigning seems like a really good option at the moment.

        • Anon says

          I said the same thing to my husband about suicide rates. I feel incredibly depressed, and I’m not living paycheck to paycheck or worrying about how I’ll feed my kids if I lose my job.

          • Anon also says

            I just feel my career circling the drain, because I.can’t.do.this. and it feels like my husband is making it worse. He’s seeing this as a freaking snow day, my kid is already anxious and sensitive, and work just got insanely busy.

            And I’m pretty sure all the “rah rah! working moms!” talk they spout is really “rah rah! working moms!*” (*who have outsourced everything to hired care/family/spouse that works even in a pandemic!)

            And my kid just found my chocolate stash. FML.

          • Anon says

            Oh no about the chocolate! Lol. My family is financially better off most, but I’m still worried about the financial aspects of this. We’re currently paying full tuition for daycare and I’m not sure I’m going to have a job to go back to when this is all over, so I sort of feel like we should be saving the daycare money while we can. But then I worry about disrupting my kids’ lives unnecessarily if they can’t go back to the school they know and love. I feel like there are no good solutions here. And I know many people are facing much harder decisions than we are.

  7. Cb says

    Oof…. Scottish FM just announced school and nursery closures from Friday, with no guarantee they’ll reopen before the summer holidays…I know they are carefully following scientific advise and I totally understand that but I’m crying. I’m an academic on a limited contract – this year was supposed to be focused on publications and getting my book out, so I could get a job once this contract ended. Instead I’ll be at home.
    My husband is currently essential but suspect that might change when his whole govt building closes.

    • Pogo says

      Hugs. In the same boat and I know our boys are the same age… hang in there!

  8. avocado says

    Just got an e-mail from the school district, to this effect: “We have just learned that [major ISP] has been blocking our e-mail communications. If you have a [major ISP] e-mail address, please be aware that we are working to resolve the situation.”

    Facepalm. This whole e-learning thing is not going to go smoothly.

  9. Anonymous says

    Any advice on working from home in BigLaw when most of your colleagues have a stay-at-home spouse so they don’t have to juggle childcare? So far folks are being understanding but I am generally expected to be available all day and I don’t think I can keep it up much longer! Husband is also working from home but can watch our baby between calls more easily than I can.

    • So Anon says

      I’m in a slightly different but entirely the same boat: I’m a single parent, in house counsel, where most of my colleagues have kids that are older (high school to college) and the expectation is to keep on working. I am grateful that I have a job where I can work from home, but this is really really hard. Like really hard. My school district sent home materials to homeschool and requested that we sign a daily attendance sheet, but I have to work. My youngest is at an age where she needs hands on instruction, and I just can’t do that during the day. I’m seriously worried about them falling behind but more worried about keeping my job. No real advice over here, just know that you’re not alone.

      • FVNC says

        I have nothing helpful to add, but I’m so annoyed by the expectation that parents can become their kids’ teachers. First, I am not a good teacher; second, I have to work. I’m seeing all these posts on social media from homeschooling parents saying “this is how I do it if you need tips!” and I’m like: nope, I still have my own job.

    • AIMS says

      Can you get a neighborhood teen to come over for a few hours to play with your kid? Our kids’ school is helping coordinate resources and offered to find sitters. Maybe reach out to yours and see if they have something similar?

      • So Anon says

        Honest question: How does this jive with social distancing? If we are all trying to prevent the spread of the virus, how does having a neighborhood teen come over work, especially for younger kids?

        • Anon says

          it doesn’t. unless said teen commits to only working for your family and in their non work time to practice 100% social distancing…which is a lot to trust a teen for. where i live i’ve seen people posting on our moms babysitters group to ask for people who are willing to come and live in for a couple of weeks/months

        • AIMS says

          I think it’s a matter of your risk tolerance and personal factors. But no one is going to be able to maintain total isolation indefinitely. If you can, good for you. But for some people it’s not as easy or as simple. Maybe don’t invite the teen who lives with the elderly grandma but two healthy families who are low risk can absolutely make this sort of decision and it may help both.

          And more broadly, are we not going to stores? What do you think those people are doing checking out all your groceries and stocking shelves and cutting your deli meats. It’s very nice to be able to work from home and avoid public transport but that doesn’t work for everyone. some people have work to do and need to figure out relatively low risk ways of doing it.

          • Anon says

            I’m jealous you can find people willing to do this. Honestly, my family is low risk (and not leaving the house except for groceries) and I’d love to find another low risk family with a similar attitude for play dates and childcare exchanges. But everyone I know personally is in lockdown. I’ve thought about posting on neighborhood listservs but I’m sure I would be flamed. And there aren’t even cases in our county.

          • CCLA says

            I understand there are a host of factors at play, but personal risk tolerance is a big part of why we have the problems we have now. In order to halt the spread, even those not at moderate to high risk need to participate in extreme social distancing.

      • Anonymous says

        If you have the space and resources, do this but over video-chat. Neighbor teen can do the teaching and supervising over video, pay them electronically, everyone wins. Maybe?

    • LittleBigLaw says

      I’m freaking out about this, too. I’m home with a preschooler and a toddler while tax accountant DH is still having to work 12-14 hour days at the office. My BigLaw firm has a voluntary WFH policy and almost everyone, staff included, in our office is at home. Still, I just keep thinking, how in the world am I going to be able to do this??

    • Boston Legal Eagle says

      I hear you. This is truly going to hurt working parents (probably moms) more. You say your husband can take more time in between calls. Can he go to a part time schedule now so that he does the brunt of the childcare? My husband is doing this, as it would be extremely difficult for both of us to work full time and watch the kids in our “breaks.” Yes, this may impact his job, but this is a crisis.

    • Anne says

      Foment the revolution? I’m only half-kidding. It is insane that my husband and I are expected to work full time during this. It’s terrible for our children. If society were remotely just all parents would be shifted to 1/2 time with full pay right now so that we could make a very tough situation better for our kids. I’m livid that society is choosing keeping productivity cranking over making this better on our children.

      • Anonymous says

        No one believes you are working full time. Are you single coworkers ramping up to 15 hour days?

        • Anonymous says

          This is the problem. We are actually working full time, but no one believes it, so we have to waste a lot of time and energy worrying about perceptions and proving that we are working.

          • So Anon says

            +1. Working 6-9 am plus sporadically throughout the day then 8-10 pm is working full time.

        • Anonymous says

          I have billing requirements. I’m getting in 8 hours between 5 am and 10 pm. People are doing it. It’s obviously not easy, but it can be done.

      • Anon says

        Are childless co-workers expected to work more hours for no extra pay to make up the difference?

          • Anne says

            Actually we should all agree to just be collectively a bit less productive during this time period and childless people could cover without having to work extra.

    • Anonymous says

      My kids are older now (able to read and enjoy gadgets 24/7) but when they were little, WFH with them (schools closed, sickness) was about 150% effort on my part for 75% output, which was frustrating, but they aren’t going to cook their own meals or occupy themselves. And WFH just isn’t that efficient (I am a person who works on paper, so switching to marking up .pdfs is just less efficient for me; way less). I wish I could just take off, but it’s not like that. Plus, client and internal e-mails are skyrocketing (how do we notarize things if we are WFH? are we authorized to e-sign documents?). Lots of noise; not a lot of progress.

      BigLaw has survived me doing this (but I’m a partner — they have no choice) for a decade now. I’ve gone up some years and down others (one kid of mine was chronically ill one year, then I was), but we are muddling through as ever. I just hope it’s weeks and not months, not so much for me but for my friends who are in small retail businesses who are truly suffering.

    • Anon says

      How old is your kid? Mine is 2.5. While I would prefer to be in my home office with the door closed ignoring her while DH watches her, it’s not unfortunately practical because she’s a mama’s girl and knows I am home. When I had 3 hours of calls yesterday I went and hid upstairs so I could take them in peace and she stood at the gate at the bottom of the stairs and cried for 3 hours straight because she knew I was home and couldn’t see me – with three closed doors between us you fortunately couldn’t hear it on the phone.

      She kept DH up most of the night so he is currently sleeping in. I am working from the couch to the soundtrack of sesame street (we’ve already done Frozen II). If I have a call where I am only doing minimal talking, I take it where she can see me, stay on mute, and then unmute to talk and if folks can hear her in the background oh well. If I have to talk – see above. I take breaks every hour or so assuming I don’t have calls to put my computer down and lean in to her for 15 minutes – once she gets “filled up” she seems to do better with independent play. When I take breaks to do life things (laundry, meals, etc., I make sure to involve her even if it takes a little longer so that she feels like I’m paying attention to her). As a result, I’m essentially stretching out my day to fit in more attention with her, and I sometimes get up before her to fit in an hour or two and work after she goes to bed if I need to. If it’s nice out and I’m doing low-focus work, I will sometimes take the laptop outside where I can keep an eye on her in the yard, so that helps too.

    • Anon says

      I will probably get flamed for this, but we’ve teamed up with two families on our street with similar aged kids to rotate childcare duties every third day with. All parents work from home; all have same expectation for interactions outside the home (basically none); no grandparents or extended family in the picture. So far it’s working well. We all disinfect anything the kids have played with on a daily basis. All kids wash their hands frequently, and we’ve also started having them play the “hot lava” game but with each other, not the floor.

      I know people say absolutely no playdates, but this meets my personal risk tolerance. (I’m also pregnant and due in a few months, and will need #1 to be able to hang with these people when I go to the hospital.) Sharing in case it helps anyone.

  10. Anonymous says

    Does anyone know of any push toys that have rubber wheels instead of those noisy plastic wheels? Trying to find options that aren’t so loud and obnoxious.

  11. Anonymous says

    Just in case I’m not the only one looking for something my kid can climb on since we can’t go to the playground, Zulily has outdoor toys today.

  13. AnotherAnon says

    I rescheduled my 3 y/o’s well check today. It was scheduled for April 6 (that’s already a month after his birthday but that was the first available). I requested an appointment for May or June. Just need some reassurance that I’m not totally overreacting?

    • Anon says

      Not overreacting, it would probably have been canceled soon anyway. Our states hospital system canceled all non-emergency appointments through June, and my state only has 20 cases of the virus. I’m a little worried because I was supposed to have an biannual ultrasound soon to monitor growth of a lump/see if I need a biopsy.

    • Anon says

      I canceled my non-critical dermatologist visit that was supposed to be this week and moved it to June….

    • Anon Lawyer says

      Our pediatrician’s office is postponing all well-child visits for kids older than six months.

      • Anon says

        That seems really dangerous…what about vaccines!?!? The last thing we need is a giant measles outbreak in 6 months because a whole bunch of kids didn’t get their MMR on time. Our pediatrician has postponed well checks for full-vaccinated children over 18 months, but at least at our peds office there are no vaccines due between 18 months and kindergarten entry. The postponement notice specifically said children under 18 months or children not fully up to date on vaccines were strongly encouraged to come in to get their shots.

        • Anon Lawyer says

          I thought that too but than though well, if you’re social distancing from people than you won’t contact measles either. But my kid is only four months so I haven’t had to make that decision.

  14. Anonymous says

    WWYD – 5 year old complaining intermittently (like once a day for a couple days) that he has a tooth ache… in the sense of stating it as a mildly annoying fact, not like in a lot of pain. If it were normal times, I would have called to make an appointment with the dentist by now. I imagine they must be closed.

    • Anon says

      Could it be teething pain for his first permanent teeth? Dentists office in my area are still open for emergencies, so I would call them and ask what their advice is. Probably they will tell you not to worry about it, but I would feel more comfortable ignoring it if I’d consulted with a dentist.

    • Susan says

      Thank you for this post. this made my realize that the ambiguous pain that my 5.5yo has been complaining about (again, mildly, it’s not bothering him much and he’s a pro whiner) is probably his 6yo molars coming in.

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