Maternity Monday: Draped Sheath Dress

I really don’t like my daughter’s daycare. She comes back to me in generally the same condition I dropped her off (maybe with some boogers on her face), but the program isn’t enriching or educational at all (she’s 2.5). She just moved rooms and while her old teacher was really engaging and nurturing (always singing songs, doing “circle time” in the morning which my daughter really enjoyed) the new teacher is not. The old classroom wasn’t educational either, but I felt less bad about it because my daughter obviously enjoyed the singing a lot. Now I don’t even have that.

Moving her isn’t an option because this daycare is half the price of the other daycares in our extremely HCOL area and they give me the scheduling flexibility I need for my situation that I know the other daycares wouldn’t. I could try to move her into another room but I’m not sure the other room is better and it’s a lot of upheaval for her (we’re going to move in about 6 months anyway so I’m not sure that moving her classroom again is really worth it), and her best buddy is in her current room.

I’m bummed that because of various decisions on my part – the need for scheduling flexibility, the choice to live in a city instead of move to the suburbs, just generally prioritizing certain lifestyle choices – has led to my daughter being in a subpar daycare.

What are your go-to gifts for the birthday parties of your kid’s classmates? My kid has just started attending birthday parties for newly minted three year olds. (We have a very full social life outside of school so we haven’t gone to many of these parties.) None of these invitations say “no gifts” so I assume most of the other parents are bringing gifts? (My husband takes daughter and he does not really pick up on whether there are gifts or what they might be.) Yesterday I sent sidewalk chalk and I’m afraid that was too cheap. Do folks really buy a real “gift” for basically every kid in their kid’s class over the course of a year? (We are Team No Gifts and probably won’t invite most of her class to her birthday party as the people who we socialize with on our own make for a pretty big party as it is.)

Any homeschool mamas out there? Am I crazy to even be thinking about this? My son started K this year. He is gone from 8-4 every day and misses all his time spent being a boy exploring outside. He is learning new things (mostly writing) but had an extra year of preschool so he already knows all the sight words he is supposed to know by December and can read the early reader books. My husband stays home so could do the bulk of it. He sort of ran stay at home dad time like homeschooling anyway- always taking hikes, talking about things, building things, etc. We moved to this area because it has the best public schools but I feel like there is a ton of wasted time in my son’s day now. And he has picked up those annoying little boy habits that he didn’t have before in just a month. Any advice?

So update on the sleep situation – on Friday, kiddo’s daycare teacher casually mentioned that kiddo hasn’t been napping during “nap time” as school, even though they’ve been logging it as a nap every day. Grr…..

Which made a lot more sense. I thought kiddo was getting 12-13 hours of sleep each day, but she was actually getting 10.5-11 (not enough). So this weekend I moved bedtime an hour and a half earlier. Voila – 5 minute bedtime and she slept until 8 am. BUT there were still a lot of late night wakings. I’m hoping this resolves as the sleep gap diminishes?

Anyway, cross your fingers because this is life changing. I might actually be able to get back into a TV show or two after bedtime….or pay my bills on my time…or something else amazing.

Augh, yet another morning of stupid drama with DH. I am starting to genuinely wonder if the relationship is worth trying to save, or continue to tolerate. Today for the first time I had the thought “I don’t have to stay married if I don’t want to, even if DH wants to.” I grew up in a very traditional family, so the idea of divorce post-kids has always been like “only if he hits you.” But I am so, so tired of walking on eggshells and agreeing to things I don’t agree with just to keep the peace with my spouse. He can be very derisive of me and my opinions/habits/mistakes, and I’m just so tired of falling on my sword all the time about everything I do wrong while simultaneously feeling that I’m not allowed to say anything my DH does or doesn’t do that makes me angry/irritated/upset. Anyone else deal with a spouse who can dish it out but can’t take it? I’m not there yet, but it would be so helpful to hear from other women– when do you hunker down and work on things? What were your deal-breakers? When did you cross from “try to fix it” to “try to get out as whole as you can?”

Interviewing for my first post-baby job in a few weeks and trying to get an idea of how to handle any “leading” interview questions about what I like to do outside work and what my local ties are. I don’t want to bring up that I have a baby if I don’t have to, but it feels disingenuous to be overly obfuscative about it. Also, I want to make sure this is a good fit and need to ensure that the hours are reasonable because I want to be “home for dinner” and all that. Do any of you have a good way to ask if the job is really a 9-5/weekday-only kind of gig without sounding lazy? I’m incredibly productive and happy to sign on after bedtime but leaving late just isn’t in the cards for me these days.