Washable Workwear Wednesday: Mongolian Cashmere Cardigan Sweater

How much time are those of y’all with Nannies waiting to have them back after a kid (under two) tests positive? I’m having trouble understanding the current CDC guidelines! Everyone else in the house negative.

Also for older siblings who are vaxxed, my first graders school allows her to attend with a negative Pcr. Not sure on sending her to ballet – her ballet studio has them mask of course and the rules are “follow the cdc” which would actually mean she could go…!

thank you to all who chimed in yesterday on our parents trip. i was not intending to start a heated debate. i will say that i do realize that covid is still very very real and impacting many people’s lives. i have a friend whose younger daughter is immunocompromised and her doctors told the parents not to send the older daughter to school last year. this year the older one was all set to go back to school when Delta hit, so they waited until it calmed down a bit. She was finally back in school and then now with Omicron, the older one is home again. Another friend was put on bed rest in the hospital with her pregnancy for a couple of weeks. Her child could not visit. She also had to make the difficult decision to keep her daughter out of school because if she was exposed to Covid, then my friend would be alone for the delivery (and thank goodness she wasn’t alone because she lost 80% of her blood, and ended up with a hysterectomy and many blood transfusions). now baby was born and is in the nicu and they are sending the daughter back to school, but if she gets exposed to covid, the parents cannot visit the baby. these decisions are really hard for these parents. I realize that this is an anonymous board, but to say that your family did your part by getting vaccines and so now covid is ‘over’ for you, completely ignores what is still very real for many people. all of these people are dealing with both the physical and mental health impacts of the pandemic. i am not suggesting you stay home forever, but at least acknowledge that there are others out there.

p.s. if we go away, we will do something within driving distance otherwise there are too many variables at play. and i realize we are lucky that we are in a position to be able to consider doing that

I am so tired and out of it that my heart just dropped when I saw an email from our daycare director because I immediately assumed there was an exposure and school has closed again….. even though my kid is currently quarantined and didn’t go to school today because her classroom is already closed. Facepalm.

For parents of kids with ADHD – I found this article to nicely outline/articulate some of the strategies we’ve found most helpful for routines (homework and otherwise). Hopefully it is useful to others!
https://www.additudemag.com/following-directions/?utm_source=eletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=school_january_2022&utm_content=011922&goal=0_d9446392d6-44a9f745f0-307784834

My in-laws want to do a family trip for a milestone anniversary later this year. Originally there was talk of doing a cruise which I was actually kind of looking forward to, because DH, DD and I would have had our own cabin and the included meals and activities would remove a lot of the decision-making or lack thereof about what to do. But now given the pandemic situation the plans have (understandably) changed and the idea is to just rent a big house somewhere in the woods, likely in the south in the summer because my in-laws ignore weather when choosing vacation destinations. This is pretty much my version of hell. I hate heat and humidity, the constant togetherness and having to share public spaces like bathrooms and kitchens, the lack of structured activities which will result in everyone just doing nothing and me being labeled bossy if I try to plan something, having to cook or constantly haggle over where to eat and listen to them complain about how much a meal at a mediocre chain restaurant costs, having to clean up after eight people or accept a much lower standard of cleanliness than I’m used to etc etc. It really just sounds completely awful to me.

So I have two questions:

How rude is it for me to skip this trip and just let my husband take our daughter? I think they will be offended, because they’re people who always look for reasons to be offended, but I also think they really only care about my husband and child’s presence and if they were being honest they’d tell you they prefer I stay home.

And second, for those of you with narcissistic or verbally abusive family members, how do you and/or spouse set guidelines about what behavior you will and will not tolerate, especially in front of your kids? DH has historically not been great about removing our daughter from situations I consider inappropriate, so there’s part of me that feels like I have to go on this trip just so I can be there to remove our daughter in case there’s sustained screaming or something else I really don’t want her seeing. I don’t think her physical safety is in danger, but I worry about their words and behavior hurting her, especially now that she’s getting to an age where memories formed now may stay with her until adulthood. Perhaps I’m overreacting, in which case feel free to tell me that, but this is all so foreign to me. My parents were certainly not perfect but they were warm and loving and they never bullied or verbally abused anyone the way DH’s parents do.

My almost 6 year old loved the Dory Fantasmagory, Princess in Black, and Zoey and Sassafras series! Any other recommendations?