Make My Life Easier Thursday: Painter’s Towels
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This box o’ towels has come in handy for a million things around the house. I’m always trying to reduce my usage of paper towels, and the nationwide shortage really kicked me into gear. I’ve been wiping down bathroom and kitchen surfaces with a diluted bleach mixture once every week and a half or so, and probably more once my son goes back to daycare — and these rags are great for doing that.
They’re also great for spills, art projects, cleaning around window ledges, and sliding door tracks… places that would normally take A LOT of paper towels to get fully clean. I just pop mine in the washing machine and dryer and don’t care if they’re stained, as long as they’re clean.
They are $13.97 for a pack of 50 at Home Depot. Painter’s Towels
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Sales of note for 9.10.24
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Ann Taylor – 30% off your purchase
- Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything + extra 20% off
- Boden – 15% off new styles
- Eloquii – $29 and up select styles; up to 50% off everything else
- J.Crew – Up to 50% off wear-to-work styles; extra 30% off sale styles
- J.Crew Factory – 40-60% off everything; extra 60% off clearance
- Lands’ End – 30% off full-price styles
- Loft – Extra 40% off sale styles
- Talbots – BOGO 50% everything, includes markdowns
- Target – Car-seat trade-in event through 9/28 — bring in an old car seat to get a 20% discount on other baby/toddler stuff.
- Zappos – 26,000+ 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 – Birthday sale, 40-50% off & extra 20% off select styles
- Hanna Andersson – Up to 50% off all baby; up to 40% off all Halloween
- J.Crew Crewcuts – Extra 30% off sale styles
- Old Navy – 40% off everything
- Target – BOGO 25% off select haircare, up to 25% off floor care items; up to 30% off indoor furniture up to 20% off TVs
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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?
I really struggle with transitioning from paper towels to towels. I’m really particular when it comes to some types of cleaning, and I find towels leave things streakier, I have to wipe for longer, etc. I have good microfiber cloths that work on stainless steel, but I haven’t found anything that works on mirrors or windows as well as paper towels.
What’s your favorite mascara? Can be drugstore or splurge.
How did we as a society forget about the existence of rags? I feel like I’ve seen this topic come up so many times this year in different places. Even my husband found it weird when I was wiping the baby’s face off with a rag instead of a paper towel when he first started eating solids. Maybe I’m cheap, idk. :)
Any moms have suggestions from transitioning from the bottle to a sippy cup for whole milk? Specifics: My son is 12.5 months old, and for months 10-12, was a formula fed baby. Would drink out of any bottle and was doing great with drinking water at meals out of two different types of sippy cups and a straw cup. He’s fully handling the sippy cups on his own as he gets thirsty during meals. We spent about 3 days transitioning from formula in bottles to whole milk in bottles and it went great – he loves milk. However, we cannot get him to drink milk out of the sippy cups. Again – great with milk, great with sippy cups, but put milk in a sippy cup and I’ve now experienced my first kid tantrums. Any advice, suggestions, or commiseration are welcome and appreciated. TIA!
Bottle strike -commiseration or advice welcome! My eight-month old is refusing her bottle again. When I went back to work when she was 4 months, she refused the bottle for a few days and then got the hang of it (I posted here about her reverse-cycling). Never drank as much during the day as “they” recommend, but her weight was on track and pediatrician was fine with her feeding.
Queue pandemic – we are all at home, trying to juggle everything including “virtual learning” for the preschooler (WTF people) and we figure it won’t last long, so I just nurse her and we don’t keep up the bottles (in hindsight, this was a mistake).
Now months later, stay at home is relaxed, nanny share starts again (YAY), and she’s refusing the bottle. For days. She’s gone three whole days without a drop passing her lips with the nanny. Tried multiple bottles, sippy cups, open cups. My husband can get her to take a bottle sometimes, but the nanny has not been successful. She’s not crying or fussing, although she’s not napping as well. She also isn’t nursing any more at night than she was before. She also basically refuses all solid food – loves to taste it, gag, and spit it out.
Sigh. I feel like we’ve tried all the usual tips. Anyone have success stories that this too will pass? Anyone else’s eight-month-old disdain solid food (I feel like if she ate solids it would help)? At least she’s persistent and steadfast in her convictions.
I just got back from my 32w appointment, and the midwife said she heard a bit of arrhythmia on the doppler. She didn’t seem too concerned and said it’s fairly common, but of course now I’m freaking out that somethings wrong with the baby’s heart.
I’m going to call the office in a bit when I’ve calmed down some to ask some follow up questions, but has this happened to any of you before? His heart rate, growth, and ultrasounds have been perfectly fine up to this point.
Not specifically a mom question, but I can’t get the main site to post it so here goes: DH bought a motorcycle and I’m on the hunt for motorcycle boots to ride with him. My budget is around $200. Are Harley boots worth it? Should I just be basic and buy Frye Veronicas? I’m sort of lost, so any suggestions are welcome. I’m petite and not normally a moto style gal.
Thanks everyone for your suggestions for our moving road trip yesterday!
I am fed up with mindfulness at work. I am all for it as a personal practice, but telling your employees that they are responsible for reducing their own stress by being mindful while continuing to treat them like garbage is not good management. How about not threatening our lives by requiring us to show up to the office just because a bunch of old white lawyers can’t believe that people are working if they can’t see them? How about acknowledging how amazingly productive we’ve all been while WFH instead of accusing us of not working? That would really reduce our stress.
I need some entertainment today….what are your least favourite children’s books?
I hate Richard Scarry, they are so long! And so busy! And of course my son loves them.
And Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site, it’s a lovely book with lovely illustrations but I don’t know why are all men. I should go through with a Sharpie and give it a feminist edit.
We were so lucky to have our son in a state-sponsored emergency care so husband and I (both essential) could work. He will be leaving their care and going back to his regular provider, but I wanted to do something to show my deep and sincere appreciation for their work during this time (and following all the crazy strict guidelines, and being so good about it for everyone’s safety).
I was thinking a card and either a gift card to Dunkin Donuts or bringing them donuts/iced coffee? If I do gift card is giving one card with a larger amount OK so that they can split? I’m not exactly sure how many people help out with his classroom, as part of the COVID procedures involve me phoning the office to drop him off/pick him up and so I don’t think I’ve met his actual teachers, just the director and her assistant (who I’m also forever indebted to!!). I think what I’ve seen on here before is that gift card is generally preferred over an actual gift?
A couple of the other 3 year olds have handed out invitations for their in-class birthday party. I was confused because why do you have to invite the classmates when it’s in the classroom, during the day? Were these invites requests for gifts, or just to let the parents know about an impending sugar-bomb? there was no RSVP on the invite. Am I missing something, do I need to send invites for my DH’s “party”? We’ve never celebrated at her school before, but i’m going to bring mini cupcakes and read a book to the class, then let her go home early. Is this invite thing common?
Anyone on here applying to private school for next year? In NYC and hearing that the “interviews” and/or “playdates” are very likely going to be done remotely/via Zoom. I feel like this is going to make the process even more of a roulette wheel than usual.
DH and I currently both work full time and we have a toddler. I’m a senior associate in Biglaw and (mostly) love my job, he has a different white collar job that pays in the high five figures that he truly hates. He’s been thinking for a while of going back to grad school to change careers for something he’s always wanted to do and would be a much better fit for him. Now with COVID-related childcare challenges and his job becoming even more insufferable with working remote, we are thinking now might be the time for him to quit his job and enroll in school in the fall.
The big question here that I am hoping others may have gone through is, what balance of online classes + SAHD duties is reasonable? I have no expectation that he could carry a full course load and also take care of a toddler full time. I’m imagining we’d either do part-time babysitter or day care if he takes a full course load, or he’d only take a part-time course load while maybe having a morning or two per week of babysitter care to get a break or cover times when he needs to be “live” online with his class.
Another wrinkle is that I am “the clean one” and my DH is… not. He tries, but it’s very stereotypical in that he mostly just “helps” with things when I ask him. Since we’ve both been WFH for the past couple of months, it’s been a real struggle. After some heart to hearts and fights about this, he’s improved a lot. I don’t know if this would get better if he weren’t always in a funk about how much he hates his job and was the primary person for home responsibilities, or if it will get worse with him being responsible for our kid all day. Obviously we need to have very clear expectations about this before we try it.
Any other tips/thoughts for transitioning to your partner dropping down to part time work or becoming a student, and taking on more child care and home responsibilities? I’m purposely leaving the finances out of this because we’re going to talk to our financial advisor about the nuts and bolts.
We should be able to send my toddler back to daycare in the next couple weeks. It’s the best solution for our family, but I’m getting worried about her transition. She’s almost 16 months, still in the separation anxiety phase, and hasn’t been around anyone besides DH and I in 3 months. (Except for a few medical appointments, which did not go well from a crying standpoint! I think the strangers in masks made things worse?) I imagine at this point she’s forgotten all about her daycare room and teachers? And as far as I can tell all adults at daycare will be wearing masks. Please moms whose 15-16 month old kids have started daycare or gone back after a long break, tell me my kid will adjust ok?