CorporetteMoms

Updated: Nov 1, 2018 55 Comments · by

Washable Workwear: Ponte Midi Skirt

Machine-Washable Work Clothes· Recent Recs

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A woman wearing a Kasper Women\'s Pin-Dot Pencil SkirtThis Vince Camuto ponte skirt is extremely highly rated — 4.5 out of 5 with 100+ reviews — and it’s machine wash cold and line dry. It looks like a great basic pencil skirt, and it’s a pull-on style so you don’t have to worry about an exposed zipper. This is a midi pencil skirt instead of knee length, but it’s a nice change if you’re tired of all of the very short skirts out there these days. The sizes are XS-XL and the color choices are black and “vanilla.” (Alas, the gray has sold out.) It’s available in regular, petite, and plus sizes. Ponte Midi Skirt

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. (L-all)

Sales of note for 9.10.24

(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)

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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Comments

  1. Edna Mazur says

    Does anyone know a music CD similar to the Little Baby Bum videos? Might help the kiddos in the car.

    • FVNC says

      My kiddo loves her Sesame Street CD — I think it’s ~45 minutes worth of songs that aren’t horribly unbearable for adults.

    • NewMomAnon says

      OMG, Little Baby Bum CD sounds like the worst possible thing in the entire world. Have you checked out They Might Be Giants? They have a kids’ CD about numbers and I actually kind of like it.

      If you must with the Little Baby Bum, if you have Bluetooth connection to your phone in the car, or a USB hookup, you could just run the app while you drive and the audio would run through your car speakers. Might run your battery down but whatever works, right?

      • Anon says

        Yes! TMBG has Numbers and ABC, but their best kids CD is Here Comes Science. Barenaked Ladies also has one called Snacktime. And Caspar Babypants has a ton of CDs (it’s the guy from Presidents of the United States of America) – we like the Sing Along one and Baby Beatles.

        All kids friendly but less obnoxious than most.

    • anon says

      This may be better for older kids (I’m not familiar with Little Baby Bum), but my son loves stories on CD. We have some Thomas the Train discs (British version – The Railway Stories vols 1 & 3, The Great Discovery), and a Curious George story compilation that came with a Curious George anthology. For long trips we use a portable DVD player, but the audio CDs are great to keep in the car.

    • Anonymous says

      Not really an answer to your question, but my kids are obsessed with Raffi. All Raffi, all the time in our car.

      • PhilanthropyGirl says

        Yes! So much Raffi for my 2 YO.

        And Elizabeth Mitchell. We’ve had her Little Bird album on in the car since birthday two months ago.

        I don’t know Little Baby Bum – but what about using Pandora on your phone with bluetooth or AUX connection to your sound system? Build your station around Little Baby Bum or other favorite artist. I just plug my phone into the car charger to avoid draining the battery.

        • EB0220 says

          I love Elizabeth Mitchell! Discovered her randomly on Amazon Prime music.

          I am also a lifelong fan of Raffi.

          • PhilanthropyGirl says

            Yes – life long Raffi fan here too. I can remember singing Baby Beluga with my mom as a young child. And now my sweet boys croons Baaaaayyyy-yyeee Ga-GUUUUUU-ga! and it is so precious I could cry.

          • Meg Murry says

            I’ve been wandering around my office humming and I couldn’t figure out what it was until I realized it was Baby Beluga. Except I don’t know any of the words, so now I have “bayyy-bee ba-looo-ga, bayyy-bee ba-looo-ga,la dada dada, la dada dada, da da da da da ….” stuck in my head on endless repeat.

            I guess it could be worse, and at least I’m almost done for the day. Happy Thanksgiving all!

    • Edna Mazur says

      Ooh these are good. Sesame street would probably go over well, and I bet Raffi would too. Unfortunately, my phone and car don’t really play all that well together and when we’ve tried to stream it kept stopping to buffer or something. Very no bueno. Made kiddos very mad. I’ll have to look into some of these.

    • Beth says

      My just turned 3 y/o I loves Sandra bottoms Philadelphia Chickens CD. I don’t hate it.

  2. SC says

    Vent – I’m having a tough week. We found out my cat has a cancer that’s basically untreatable (even if we could afford to treat it), and she has several months left. Toddler has been sick with a double ear infection since Sunday and has been home all week, in a terrible mood and throwing a tantrum every 5 minutes. DH is a retail manager, so this is his busy season, and he can’t take any time off. We live near a lot of extended family, but they haven’t been able to help this week for one reason or another. And if Toddler still has a fever/is contagious tomorrow, we’re going to have to skip the family Thanksgiving because there are going to be like 5 other kids there, including 2 small babies.

    • NewMomAnon says

      Hugs. So hard to watch a pet get sick.

      And – ear infections aren’t contagious, so why would you skip Thanksgiving? At least, in my state we don’t have to keep kids home from daycare if we can show that a fever is attributable to an ear infection and the child has been on antibiotics for at least 24 hours. I can see keeping kiddo home if he is generally not feeling good, but I don’t think you have to skip Thanksgiving.

      Are there any babysitter services you could call in so you could at least have a few hours to go to the gym or a coffee shop or just sit quietly without anyone screaming or crying? At some point, you gotta take care of yourself.

      • SC says

        For the ear infection, that’s what our regular doctor told us with the last ear infection. But this doctor, who’s in the same practice, said “fever free for 24 hours,” which is also our daycare’s policy regardless of cause/treatment. I just checked with my mom, who’s a doctor, and she also said he’s not contagious.

        Following up on this week’s discussion of irrational toddler tantrums, Toddler keeps throwing tantrums when he gets to the last page of the book. He thinks there’s another page and keeps trying to pry the cover apart, then getting frustrated that it won’t turn.

        • NewMomAnon says

          Oh, toddlers. My daughter had a tantrum because I wouldn’t let her poop in her humidifier basin last night.

      • Meg Murry says

        The ear infection in and of itself isn’t contagious, but if it was caused by a cold, flu or other illness that has the kiddo cough, dripping snot or drooling, that bug could be easily spread. Since OP says there will 2 small babies there, it’s probably more polite for her to stay home if her kid appears to be actively spreading germs – because the same cold in a toddler could be way more severe in an infant.

        If the kiddo is just cranky and feverish but not snotty and otherwise sick, that’s probably safer and OP would be ok to go. Or if if the “small babies” are more like age 1 and already in daycare vs a 2 month old with germophobe and/or grudge holding parents. After all, being “the person that brought a sick kid to Thanksgiving that resulted in a trip to the emergency room for my 2 month old” is not the best way to maintain happy family relations.

        But I’m a little on the paranoid side right now because I just helped a friend who had to take her younger kid to the ER when his fever spiked super high super fast.

        How far is family? Could OP leave her husband and kid at home and go have Thanksgiving dinner for a few hours?

        • OP says

          Thanks for this advice. Kid is snotty and actively spreading germs but honestly has been since he started daycare in August. The other kids who will be there are 3ish months, 6-9 months, 1.5 yo, and 4 yo. The 1.5 yo is a cousin, but the other kids are way extended family who I barely know and don’t care about maintaining relationships with. (Seriously, DH’s step-mother invited her son-in-laws’ parents, brothers, and their wives and kids, so we’re talking about my husband’s step-sister’s husband’s nieces and nephews.) That’s no reason to risk getting other kids sick though. We’ll probably go if it’s a generic cold though. IMO, you can’t bring a baby or kid in contact with 4 other babies and kids and expect them not to be exposed to germs.

          Family is just 5 minutes away, but it’s DH’s family, so I would be the one who stayed home while he went. Or we might be able to switch off or something.

          Also, an update – Toddler now has diarrhea. I’m sure it’s related to the antibiotics, so I’m not worried about it. It’s just a pain. And my throat and ears are starting to hurt.

          • Meg Murry says

            Yes, I totally agree with you that unless you want to keep your kids in a bubble, you risk exposing them to colds every time you take them anywhere, especially if there will be other kids there. At least with it only being 5 minutes away it won’t be hard to make a quick exit if he starts to melt down or get worse.

            Hope he feels better soon and you don’t get the bug too badly yourself!

  3. ANP says

    Thank you to whoever mentioned that they purchased Corolle divided plates on an earlier thread this week. I Amazon’ed some over the weekend and they are PERFECT! I was sick of our reusable plastic plates for the kids and these are exactly what I was looking for.

    • Claudette says

      Ha ha! I did the exact same thing. Yes, thanks to whoever recommended them!

      • In House Lobbyist says

        Yes they are awesome and don’t break when kids “help” by dropping them in the sink.

  4. octagon says

    Car seat Q: Hoping to take advantage of Black Friday to get a convertible seat for my 10-month-old who is about to outgrow the bucket seat. Any favorites? Kid is super tall.

    • Maddie Ross says

      We have two Britax Marathons and love them. The Chicco one is super cute, but it’s not great for taller kiddos IMO.

      • Anon says

        +1 The Britax Marathon is the best convertible. It was a bit of a squeeze in our tiny Mazda when rear-facing, but fits in our SUV just fine. Height has been fine for our 75%ile kids, if you’re way over that, then you might want to go Diono.

      • Kelly C. says

        For another perspective, we had a Britax Advocate and Britax Marathon and had a safety issue that customer service did not address. The Advocate continuously had uneven straps. When I put my child in, the left side would be super tight and the right one super loose, even after I had tried everything to get them to go back to even. Reinstalling the carseat and messing around with the headrest would fix the issue, but in a day or two it would be back. Britax customer service was HORRENDOUS. They didn’t seem to care that this was a safety issue and didn’t want to admit there was a problem. Since the problem was fixed if I took the carseat out, moved the headrest up and down, and then reinstalled, they seemed to just think I should do that everyday. Um, no. I was very unhappy with them.

        Never buying a Britax seat again.

      • PhilanthropyGirl says

        I have a Diono Radian – my kiddo runs tall too, but seems comfortable RF even now at 2+ – he may get another 3-6 months RF before he’s too tall.

        Not fighting with Britax straps has been wonderful – I’ve never had a problem with tangling like I did with my B-Safe.

    • LifeScienceMBA says

      Piggybacking here: Any recs for a convertible car seat fitting a smaller car? We have a Mercedes C230. Is a reverse facing car seat out of the question?

      • Anon says

        No specific advice, but google your car + car seat, then look for your specific year since dimensions can change. There are a ton of bloggers who post exactly which seats fit in their cars, and even give specifics on how to get 3-across.

      • PinkKeyboard says

        What age/weight/height range do you need it to go to? they make some pretty tiny ones but not all of them have the best capacities. My friend has the smallest Buick sedan (so pretty small) and has the Clek Fllo in there with no problem.

        • LifeScienceMBA says

          My son is 9 months old, about 20lbs and 28 in. He still fits his infant car seat (the legs hang out, but that’s not an issue, I guess), but will need to transition early next year.
          I thought of making use of some deals this week.

          • Anonymous says

            Cleks are my favorite and I’ve been through a few different ones with three kids. For his infant seat, make sure you check both the weight and height max. My kids all outgrew on height way before they did on weight. Height max varies by seat. Some Maxi Cosis are only 72cm but Peg Peregos can be up to 77cm.

      • Another BigLaw Parent says

        Check out the Car Seat Lady blog – she and her husband have done tons of measurements of all the dimensions of different car seats and cars. I found it very helpful!

        • LifeScienceMBA says

          Thank you so much to everyone, I will check out the websites!
          Yeah, and I already googled, but the number of hits are overwhelming.

    • BTanon says

      Agree with the advice here – we love our Diono Radian. Lucie’s List also has a good roundup of carseats for additional ideas.

      • Anonymous says

        I second the recommendation to check out Lucie’s List. Great resource for clues on where to start.

      • LifeScienceMBA says

        Yeah, I checked Lucie’s list and have shortlisted three. I think I may need to go see try them in person. I feel buying a car seat is so complicated!
        Our infant car seat is a Britax handed down by a trusted friend, so we didn’t need much of research.

  5. CPA Lady says

    I just spent six hours making a photo book of my kid’s life from ages 1-2. The office is dead and I have no work at the moment. I feel so accomplished. I got one for my mom, one for my MIL, and one for me. I used snapfish and I’m excited to see how it turns out… This is my first time making a photo book, so fingers crossed.

  6. Diono Radian says

    Also, another car seat question– I have a Diono Radian and a 3 foot tall 2 year old. The height range for rear facing is supposed to be anything below 44″. But it seems like she’ll be too tall for it to rear face way before being 44″. Am I putting her in the seat wrong or something? She does have a long torso. But still, she’s supposed to be able to be rear facing for another 8 inches, and it’s looking like it’ll be another 2 at best.

    • Anonymous says

      How are the straps adjusted? Many people don’t realize that for forward facing the straps must be at or above the shoulders but for rearfacing it’s at or BELOW the shoulder straps (not shouting, just emphasizing). Kids also grow much more slowly between ages 2 – 4 vs. newborn to 2 year old period so you may not get that much growth over the next couple years.

  7. NewMomAnon says

    I had intended to leave the office at 2 pm today. Instead, I am still here, haven’t had lunch, my phone is ringing off the hook with non-urgent questions, and the people who need to respond to my urgent questions are posting out of office messages. I’m so worried that my Thanksgiving is going to turn into “putting out work fires while trying to smile for the cameras and make all the memories.”

    And meanwhile, I just really want to go pick up my kiddo from daycare and play with her for a few hours….

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