This post may contain affiliate links and CorporetteMoms may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Sales of note for 8.30.24
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Ann Taylor – 30% off full-price purchase; $99 jackets, dresses & shoes; extra 50% off sale
- Banana Republic Factory – 50-70% off everything + extra 20% off
- Boden – 20% off
- Eloquii – Up to 60% off everything; extra 60% off all sale
- J.Crew – 40% off sitewide; extra 60% off sale styles
- J.Crew Factory – Extra 20% off orders $125+; extra 60% off clearance; 60%-70% off 100s of styles
- Lands’ End – 40% off sitewide; 50% off backpacks, 40% off kids’ apparel
- Loft – Summer sale, 30% off new arrivals; up to 50% off much more
- Talbots – 25% off regular-price purchase; 70% off clearance
- Zappos – 28,000+ 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 – 50% off everything
- Hanna Andersson – Up to 40% off everything
- J.Crew Crewcuts – 40% off sitewide; extra 50% off sale styles
- Old Navy – 50-60% off; 50% off pants for the family
- Target – 20% off select clothing for all; up to 50% off home; up to 30% off select nursery furniture; up to 30% off kitchen & dining
See some of our latest articles on CorporetteMoms:
Click here to see our top posts!
And — here are some of our latest threadjacks of interest – working mom questions asked by the commenters!
- The concept of “backup care” is so stupid…
- I need tips on managing employees in BigLaw who have to leave for daycare pickup…
- I’m thinking of leaning out to spend more time with my family – how can I find the perfect job for that?
- I’m now a SAHM and my husband needs to step up…
- How can I change my thinking to better recognize some of my husband’s contributions as important, like organizing the shed?
- What are your tips to having a good weekend with kids, especially with little kids? Do you have a set routine or plan?
Msj says
Pumping question : how did you wise ladies scale back pumping at work? I’m five months out and would love to go from three sessions to two. My goal is to ebf until at least 6 months so I’m afraid of dropping one before then because I’m afraid of it killing my supply. I currently pump at 930, 1230 and 330 more or less and produce 25-30oz (twins!). Is there a way to do this without a drop in production? I’d like not to fully wean until closer to a year
Thanks!
Shayla says
Congratulations! Both on your twins and doing so well with pumping! Is there a particular reason you want to drop a session? (Other than pumping being the worst thing in the world. ever.) Your peace of mind is just as important as other reasons (demands at work,etc.) so if you are going crazy, just drop a session and evenly space out the remaining sessions. I may have just had a bad experience, but any changes I made to pumping/nursing after I started working always affected my supply. So keep that in mind. But, if being ebf for 6 months is very important to you, you may want to consider holding off just in case. Good luck!
Meg Murry says
The only way you can know is to try – maybe try pumping at 10 and 2:30 and see how it goes?
The thing is, your supply might keep up for a little while – it usually took 3 days to a week for me to see a significant drop in pumping production, so its hard to tell what the impact would be.
Also, babies usually go through a growth spurt at 6 months where they will start ripping through your backup supply for a week or two, unless they are already firmly established on solids. I personally might wait until they are eating solids for the babysitter, or at least until you are past that 6 month growth spurt before scaling back.
Alternately, can you go to 2 pumps at work and add in a pumping session at home before you leave after the first feeding? Or immediately when you get to the office (that’s what used to do sometimes – pump first thing while I went through my email on my phone). I also sometimes pumped DURING my car commute, but I couldn’t have done that in weather like we’re having right now.
Pogo says
oh god, that thought of pumping in this weather…
Claire M says
First, way to go on BFing twins for so long!!
+1 on waiting to scale back a few more weeks, if you can, until after that growth spurt.
When I scaled back, I saw a noticeable difference within about a month. So, instead of pumping 25 oz/day over 5 pump sessions (2 at home, 3 at work), I could only get around 21 oz. But I was a low-supply mama anyway, so YMMV, especially since you’ve been producing for twins!
Anonymous says
IME, frequency is the key to supply so your body may not cooperate if you drop a session and want to keep production up. You could try to keep the pump going for a few minutes after you have emptied your b* to see if you can increase production per session and then drop a session. Or, you could try to go to two sessions at work (i.e. 10:30 and 2:30) and add a pump session after the morning feed before work or a late night pumping session. I always pumped after the first morning feed because I tended to get engorged overnight and had the most production that way.
KJ says
I dropped from 3 sessions a day to 2 about 2 months ago when my baby was 7 months. My daily pumping production dropped from 18-20 oz to 10-12 oz. I have not noticed any supply issues when nursing my baby in the mornings/evenings on weekdays and all day on weekends. We burned through the freezer stash, and now baby gets some formula during the day to make up for the pumping deficit. Based on my experience, if you are really adamant about EBF until 6 months, I would wait until after that to experiment with dropping a pumping session. You’re almost there!
Katarina says
I dropped from 3 sessions to 2 sessions pretty early, and my supply dropped some, but not massively. When it did drop more, it was not irreparable, and increased again when I would pump three times.
Philanthropy Girl says
I am the same. My LO went to a four hour schedule very early – and I haven’t seen a drop in supply (at least not one that wasn’t related to a cold or poor sleep). A morning dose of oatmeal or mama’s milk tea seems to help when baby is going through a growth spurt.
NewMomAnon says
Update on sleeping: all of your comments yesterday helped me commit to the sleep training, so we did it again last night. Of course, last night she fell asleep in my arms during our bedtime singing – then woke up 45 minutes later. I went in, gave her a hug and checked her diaper, told her that I was going to leave but would be nearby and that I knew she could figure out how to fall asleep on her own. I did yoga for the next 20 minutes as she cried (and I turned off the monitor, what a concept!). By the time I had finished my yoga, she was done crying and was sitting up in her crib staring again….almost 3 hours later, she finally fell asleep. And she fell asleep clinging to a small lovey I keep in her crib, which she has never seemed to notice before!
And then I realized that I didn’t really have a plan for when I could nurse her during the night – I knew I couldn’t wait until she woke up on her own without messing up the progress she had made. So I went to my sleep training books (yes, I have four), and decided to wake her up an hour before her usual 2 am wakeup for a dream feed. That worked, she fell back asleep after 10 minutes of crying, and then I woke her up again half an hour before her usual 5 am feed. I don’t know if she fell back asleep after that – I went back in at 6, found her awake, and pulled her into bed with me so I could get a half hour of snuggles.
I feel like I learned a lot more about my daughter last night – that she is strong and resourceful, that she is more flexible and resilient than I have ever believed, and that I have been babying her and feeling sorry for her too much when I could have been encouraging her to dig deep and grow from challengng situations. I didn’t expect to be so proud of her this morning!
mascot says
Yay for progress! Once you get a little bit further down the road of her self-soothing, she may even be able to drop that middle of the night feeding.
NewMomAnon says
Yes, I’m hoping to wean her in the next month or two, so I am hoping we can cut all night time feedings. I just realized last night that she had an early morning at daycare today and I didn’t know how she was going to make up the calories if I didn’t feed her at night…score one for parenting by the seat of my pants.
Maddie Ross says
Here’s the biggest secret – all parenting (in my experence) is done by the seat of one’s pants.
EB0220 says
Yes, I call my approach to parenting “throw it against the wall and see what sticks”. (That’s the parenting techniques, not the kid!)
Midwest In-House says
I am home with a sick kid for the second day in a row and fear I may be home tomorrow too. My office is pretty flexible with regard to working from home (several colleagues are home today because most of the schools are closed, but their kids are older and presumably don’t need the constant supervision that my toddler does). Yesterday, I took a PTO day, but I am new to the job and don’t have a ton banked. If I worked approximately 5 hours yesterday (during naps and in the evening) and do the same today, is it reasonable to consider today a “work from home” day instead of taking another PTO on the basis that I worked more than a full day if you add in yesterday’s work? I am fairly confident that my boss won’t care, but I still feel a little guilty and don’t want to take advantage of his flexibility.
Also, sick kids have got to be one of the hardest parts of being a working mother. I so desperately wish we had family nearby…
FVNC says
I’m sorry you’re dealing with a sick kiddo. Hope s/he feels better soon!
I’m also in house, and in your situation, probably would not take a second PTO day. This is based on the fact that I work more than a 40 hour work week, some weekends, and even on days when the office is closed (e.g., day after Christmas this year). I figure it all balances out in the end. On the other hand, if you’re working mostly a 40 hr work week, I’d be more inclined to take the second PTO day since you likely wouldn’t “make it up” later.
Midwest In-House says
Thanks FVNC. I generally work more than 40 hours, especially as of late, so the time will get/has already been made up. Glad to know I am not totally off-base in thinking my approach is reasonable. I was at a firm until last year so the whole PTO thing is new to me.
If anyone has any brilliant ideas for sick day back up, I’d love to hear them. I know there are companies that provide in-home care, but it just seems so tough to leave a sick kid with a stranger (and my child is too young to understand). I looked on care.com to see if I could find someone to use regularly so s/he wouldn’t be a stranger to my kid, but didn’t have much luck as everyone wanted a set schedule.
Anonymous says
My firm offers backup in-home child care, and I’ve been able to request the same caregiver repeatedly. I think we have had the same sitter the past 4 times I used backup case. We also hire her directly as a weekend babysitter so my son is very comfortable with her. So it might be worth exploring some of those services.
Meg Murry says
Not a lawyer, but if you take a PTO day and then still work 5 hours, I’d say you definitely don’t need to take a second one if you think you will be that productive again today. Are you allowed to take 1/2 PTO days? My policy has always been – if I’m just doing the bare minimum email checking and sending just 1-2 line responses (so generally less than 1-2 hours of work total) I take the day as a PTO day. If I’m getting less than a full day’s work done, I charge a 1/2 PTO, 1/2 work from home. And if I really do work almost a full day’s work, just at a split time, I consider it a work day, especially if I’m going to make up the difference later.
Don’t set the precedent that you are doing a lot of work on days you are taking as PTO – because the day will come that you need to take a PTO day as a true day off, like when you are sick yourself, people may still expect you to be available to work, and you don’t want that.
Last – can you do any creative schedule re-arranging with your H? For instance, sometimes we were able to cobble together at least 1/2 days by me taking mornings and him taking afternoons, so we didn’t each both blow through all our PTO quickly. Or sometimes I would work a 1/2 day that was like 10-3, just so I could make it to my most important meetings.
hoola hoopa says
We don’t have 1/2 day PTO, so if I work remotely and don’t drop any balls that day (ie, call into scheduled meetings, check and respond to email a few times throughout the day, and complete what was due/promised – even if I don’t get ahead on anything else) then I don’t use PTO. I consider it a work day. That’s perfectly acceptable in my office. All my office cares is that the work is done on time, not seat time. Obv YMMV.
Sick days are hard. We don’t have back up care, so we also try to split 1/2 days and/or offset full days so that we can avoid taking PTO and meet deadlines.
Jdubs says
My department is merging with another and i just found out that the other manager will be taking over both departments and I will be working for him. Currently we are equals, but I was told this decision was made because he has less restrictions than I do (ie having to leave to pickup kids from daycare at the end of the day). Anyway. just a boo for me.
KJ says
Wow, that stings. I’m sorry.
anne-on says
Ugh. I would take this as a strong sign to find another company that doesn’t penalize parents. Leaving early shouldn’t count against you if your work is good and you’re still available via phone/email after hours as needed.
Midwest In-House says
I fully agree that it stinks, Jdubs, I am not sure I agree with anne-on’s comments, though. I hope I don’t get flamed for this, but if there are two managers who are completely equal in all respects, other than that one has certain hours of unavailability, I actually think the only logical business choice is to pick the one without the restrictions. I fully agree that men and women should be treated equally for doing equal jobs, but in today’s society, most jobs, especially management level, do require some sort of 24 hour availability. If one person is more able to meet those demands because of his/her availability, then I don’t think that you actually have two people doing equal jobs. I have no hesitation in saying that I don’t work an equal job to that of my male colleagues — not because I don’t work hard, but because I am somewhat unavailable for 2 -3 hours each day while I do daycare pick up, get my child ready for bed, etc. I am also less available for early morning meetings, weekend work, etc. I honestly think it does a disservice to the feminist movement to argue that my job performance is equal to my male colleagues and I think working mothers would be better served if we focused on more equality at home (as if men had to handle more of the child-rearing demands, you can bet that companies would stop “penalizing” women for it). Just my two cents. But I completely agree that it sucks on a personal level for Jdubs.
Jdubs says
Yes. I basically fully agree with this. However, I’m still going to have a mini internal pity party for myself.
Midwest In-House says
And you should! I completely agree that the situation stinks–I hope my post made that clear. Hugs to you.
PregLawyer says
Totally sucks. I’m sorry about that. As a middle ground between anne-on and Midwest, there may be other companies/departments that just generally have more working parents. That way you’re not being compared to someone else who just simply has more free time to be in the office. At my last firm, almost every single associate had kids. That meant there were very few associates who stayed at the office late, and almost no partner expected anyone to. People worked from home, but you didn’t need to score those extra (stupid) points by just sticking around until 8:00.
PregLawyer says
I’m really getting weary of the SAHM mantra: “I didn’t have kids just to pay someone else to raise them.” I subscribe to a couple other pregnancy message boards and see this all. the. time. I don’t want to engage in any mommy wars, but I find this comment particularly tiresome.
As a child who grew up in full-time daycare, and as a mother who expects to put her kids (starting as infants) in full-time daycare, I feel like these women just have no clue. I have a wonderful relationship with my mother, in part because she worked all the time when I was growing up. She was a great role model. Once my sisters and I left for college, she continued to have an amazing career. She is now going to retire in a couple years at the top of her profession, after 40 years of an extremely fulfilling job. She can choose to volunteer in her retirement, teach or mentor others, or just relax. She has saved enough that she doesn’t need to rely on her kids for support. She can take trips, eat at wonderful restaurants, etc. She has decades of fascinating stories and insight about being a women in a male-dominated profession that she can share with me and her grandchildren as they grow up.
Anyway, it’s fine to be a stay-at-home-mom. But don’t tell me that my kids will be harmed or unloved if I choose to put them in daycare.
Jdubs says
It’s such a “to each his own” thing. I don’t understand why moms insist on severely judging other moms for their decisions. I know for me that I’m totally a better mom because I do work outside the home. I am such a better mom for the time I do see my kids than if I was with them all day.
FVNC says
I think you’re preaching to the choir here ;-) In an ideal world, I’d work a 60% or 80% schedule, but I don’t think that’s possible at my company without becoming an easy target during layoffs. I am often jealous of parents who stay home with their children until I remind myself how much my baby has thrived at daycare, how she’s learning life skills like independence and sociability, etc. etc. There are wonderful things about being SAH; there are also great things about working outside the home. Folks who don’t realize that and make stupid comments aren’t worth your time or energy.
Meg Murry says
+1
and you are never (or almost never) going to change the mind of someone who makes a statement like that, especially an anonymous person on the internet, so just ignore, avoid and move on.
I’m with you in that daycare is a super important part of our “village” – but we also have a super high quality, (relatively) reasonably priced center. If the person making that statement has only ever seen mediocre daycare (or never seen one at all) they probably don’t really know what they are talking about. My MIL was horrified when we told her we were going to use a daycare for our child, and imagined a cold, unfeeling institution with rows of babies crying in cribs – but now that she’s seen and been to our daycare she loves it and is the biggest evangelist for our daycare center.
PregLawyer says
Sigh, I know. That’s why I never post any response on those boards, and instead come here to vent. I like it here. :)
Burgher says
This drives me nuts, too! My mom stayed home with me, and I honestly think I would have been better off with the early socialization that daycare provides. Seems like kindergarten is too late to me. My younger sister went to preschool (Head Start) and has always been miles ahead of me socially!
KJ says
As a mom, or maybe as a woman in general, you can never win. The working moms are abandoning their children, the SAHMs are betraying feminism, poor women are selfish moochers if they have kids, middle class/wealthy women are selfish careerists if they don’t have kids, etc, etc. All you can do is make the best choices for you and your family and keep your chin up. You will never please everyone, so why try?
pockets says
Tough love time: being judged by other mothers/parents ALL THE TIME for EVERY SINGLE DECISION never ever ends. EVER. And you didn’t even have a baby yet! Save your rage for postpartum, when life turns into this:
Oh you use formula instead of exclusively breastfeed? That must be so nice. I’m too worried my baby’s health/ability to bond with me/reaction to the chemicals in formula to even try that!
Oh you had an epidural? Lucky you! I wanted to tough it out to prove to myself that I could do it.
Your plastic toys with lights and sounds really entertain your kid! I just really like the look of all wooden toys, so we didn’t get that. It stinks that I can’t rely on lights and sounds and have to interact with my kid all the time!
You use baby food in jars? That is soooo convenient. I’m still making all of baby’s food by hand! It’s so time consuming but that’s the only way I know exactly what goes into his food.
You have to realize that 9 out of 10 people are insecure and trying to validate their own choices to themselves, and the other 1 out of 10 are twits.
FVNC says
This made me laugh. I did literally every “wrong” thing on your list.
And as of a couple days ago, can add one more: “Oh, you give your baby Miralax? I just feed my baby tons of high fiber food and leafy greens and she’s totally regular.” Do I want to give my child Miralax? No. But I also do not want to pull poo out of her tiny bottom because it is stuck inside while she is screaming in pain.
Tunnel says
Ahmazing.
JJ says
That is amazing and I’ve done every single “wrong” thing on there, as well.
My favorite was when a mom saw my 18-month old watching a cartoon on a Kindle Fire and mentioned “Oh? You do that? We’ve always followed the AAP’s recommendation of absolutely no screen time until our kids were 2 years old.”
Apparently that mom never needed a solid 5 minutes to herself…
T. McGill says
Stop!!!! Sorry for the Ellen caps, but I CAN’T that someone would say that to your face. How did you respond?!?!?!
PregLawyer says
Hahaha! Yes, I’d love to hear your response.
My favorite was when my 1-year old nephew was crawling on the floor of the kitchen eating cheerios off the floor. Stupid 24-year-old-me (at the time) with no understanding of parenting said “um, is that okay?” My sister gave me this LOOK, and then said “he puts his mouth on the handle of the cart at the grocery store. I think it’s okay for him to eat cheerios off the floor every now and then.” Yep. I was an a**hole.
JJ says
Yeah, I just laughed (because – ridiculous!) and said that with both me and my husband working, we were terrible parents and used the TV to keep the kids from destroying the house and/or each other while we got ready each morning. She was a new parent and *totally* into doing everything by the book. More power to her if she can keep it up (I lasted approximately two months).
Daycare Waitlists says
I missed the discussion yesterday re daycare waitlists, but just wanted to offer this : even if the list is long, it may still be worth getting on. In our area, many centers don’t remove people from the lists unless they affirmatively turn down a spot. So there might be 50 families on the list for the Infant classrooms, but the first 20 don’t even have infants anymore because so much time has passed since they got on the waitlist. We got on a bunch of center waitlists, but ended up going with an in-home daycare when I returned to work. A few months later, we got a call from one of the centers, and a spot had opened up.
Even though an in-home daycare wasn’t our first choice when we started thinking about childcare, we ended up loving it, and we felt like it was perfect for our daughter given her age and the age of the other kids there. It was a hard choice, but we did take the spot at the center. I can understand why people would turn the spot down, and the center could find themselves burning through the waitlist fairly quickly.
OliveMac says
I responded too late to that thread, and appreciate that you brought it back into the mix! My comment was: Yikes! Are any of you in the Boston area? I’m 12 weeks (hooray!), and had this on the list of things to do “meh, sometime in the next 6 months…” I think I may have been severely underestimating…
Newly pregnant says
Congrats! I don’t know the Boston market, but if I were you I’d start compiling a list of daycares near you and finding out rates/setting up tours. I’m in NYC, and the daycare waitlists are considerable. We’ve toured 3 daycares so far. 2 of the 3 are “nicer” and have waitlists (which we are on). The info from the fancy daycares has been consistent: we have a waitlist, we can’t give you an approximate time when we’ll know if there is a spot for you. The one that is by far the least expensive/fancy does not have one.
That said, my friend who lives in a suburb about 35 minutes outside of the city had no problems getting into a daycare.
OliveMac says
Super helpful, thanks! Wow, I’ll put this in the “who knew?!” category, which I assume is a bucket that is going to fill up very quickly!
CHJ says
I’m also in the Boston market, and I agree with Newly Pregnant’s advice. I would put your name on a number of different daycare waitlists. It seems pretty arbitrary which waitlists will have spots open up. At my son’s daycare, it’s all about the ages of the current kids in the infant and toddler rooms, because those kids need to move up to the next room before a space will open up in the infant room.
Also FYI, in addition to various Bright Horizons around, we liked all of these places a lot:
http://treehouseacademy.info/
http://mybilingualpreschool.com/
http://www.littlepandachildcare.com/
http://aacabudsandblossoms.org/
http://www.cclc.com/
Pogo says
I’m in the Boston area. I had friends who got on the Bright Horizons wait list in Kendall Square as soon as they knew the due date, the wait list was that long. There are also a couple of day care co-ops in Cambridge that are super popular/have long wait lists.
PregAnon says
That’s a good point. With one of ours being a “15 month wait” (allegedly), I have to believe that by the time someone’s spot comes up, there is a good chance they’ve moved on to something else.
Meg Murry says
Unless they offer a sibling preference. Our daycare does (available spots are first given to siblings of current families and to the daycare staff) so we know more than one family that never actually got a spot in the infant room because they got jumped over on the wait list- they just had to wait until their kid was 18 months and could go to the toddler room where the state minimum kids:teacher ratio is much higher.
This conversation actually reminded me of my ticking bio clock again – that if we ever want to have a #3, and we want them to go to the same daycare #1 and #2 do now, we need to get off the fence before our youngest is less than 1 year from kindergarten. Gahhh!
PregAnon says
I forgot about that! My first choice has eight (EIGHT) infant spots…with a sibling preference. This year they said they had six siblings. What the…??
EB0220 says
Gotta love the wait list that’s longer than a pregnancy! We put our names on the infant list at my older daughter’s daycare after my six week appointment, and we were still told there was a 12+ month wait. Sigh.
HM says
I took advantage of the Loft’s after-Christmas sale to order a few pairs of maternity shorts and capris (just found out #2 is on his or her way, and all my maternity clothes are for winter). Anyways, they arrived in the mail. The shorts with the demi-belly fit great. The capris with the full coverage are a nightmare! I mean, I fit into the “pants” part just fine (with a bit of room to spare even), but the belly part are like too-tight Spanx on my not-yet-even-bloated stomach! I figure since they were $4 I’ll see if a tailor can salvage them, but wow. Has anyone else had a similar experience? This is my first time buying Loft maternity pants.
Tunnel says
Loft maternity pants do have a tighter fitting full panel. It’s a regular complaint in the item comments online. I own two pairs and thought the panel was tight when I bought them at about 4 months, but I am still wearing them at 7 months so I think they do grow with you and just have a tighter feel if that makes sense.
anon says
I have this complaint also. At 8 months, I have only managed to wear my Loft pants twice, because I just can’t handle the pressure (even though they”fit” and look nicer than any other maternity pants I have). Planning to sell on ebay. Until recently I could handle other over-belly panel pants okay, so try other brands if Loft is too tight. (Now, can’t handle anything that’s not under-belly because wow, those panels are itchy.)