Budget Thursday: Ruffle-Shoulder Top
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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?
Random tip for anyone suffering from mom brain.
I installed the paid version of grammarly on my work computer (paid for with personal funds) and it has been a life-saver. I feel like my brain is mush by a certain point in the day, but I do a lot of technical writing and communicating with external partners. Last week I wrote appx. 65,000 words (grammarly sends a weekly report). It’s not always right, especially if your field has jargon, but more often than not it’s extremely helpful. My boss is a stickler for perfect grammar and punctuation (as she should be), and grammarly helps me edit down my emails to external partners.
Obviously I’ve been a regular here for years so I’m not part of a grammarly ad team sleeper cell, but I got it when I started a new high-pressure job 4 months after having a baby and it truly is a life-saver for someone who’s not a natural writer.
My only pet-peeve is it highlights my use of passive voice, which is often necessary when conversing with external partners.
My 3-year-old twins have a lot of dress-up clothes, but it’s all pretty random (skirts, hats, capes, fairy wings, etc). They love to pretend their stuffed animals are sick and make them feel better, so we’ve been planning to get them a doctor dress-up kit for Christmas. I’d rather not have identical toys (in this case), but life is so much easier when they get similar enough things as presents. Is there any role-playing dress-up idea that comes to mind that is roughly similar to the level of a doctor’s coat and stethescope? Firefighter is what comes to mind, but I’ll take any other suggestions!
Anyone have any recommendations for a cordless vacuum that is safe on hardwood (engineered hardwood to be specific) but can also do an okay job to touch up rugs and carpet? I’d really prefer to keep the budget under $250, so looking for an alternative to the Dyson models I see everywhere. Plus everyone I know with a Dyson vacuum regrets the purchase when it goes bad about two years later.
Tips on coping with toddler rejection? I’ve been travelling a lot and my toddler has been under the weather and is on full on daddy mode. He doesn’t want to cuddle me, sit next to me on the bus, or let me put him down. When my son tells me that he doesn’t want me, my husband just looks at me pityingly.
Please be kind, I know he’s a toddler and I’m the grown-up, developmentally normal, yada yada, but it still hurts my feelings and I do find myself not volunteering to do the hands on care because I don’t want to upset him. He’s fine after the initial protest but it’s still quite sad.
I would love ideas for a potential holiday party that I would like to through in theory but cannot tell if it will be completely overwhelming or not. Thinking of doing an open house type party Sunday brunch/lunch time. Have a toddler that naps in the afternoon, so firmly pre-nap. Pregnant & due this winter, so I’m a little worried about the work of doing this (although my spouse would of course be sharing in it, I’d probably be doing a lot of the emotional labor to make it happen)…but on the other hand, I worry that once baby comes I’ll basically not see anyone for a while because it’ll be cold and germ-y.
We would be inviting friends w/ and w/out kids, preschool families, neighbors. For menu, I think it would probably be stuff like bagels, maybe a veggie chili, frittata, veggie tray, some alcohol (we don’t celebrate Christmas and would not have Christmas-themed anything).
Good/bad idea? What else would you like to see at a party like this?
I need ideas for how to deal with my frustration with my 4 year old in the morning. Some mornings she insists that she has to pick her clothes out and get dressed etc herself, and some mornings she wants me to do everything for her. I get really frustrated and yell, and I don’t like that. In calmer moments, I get that she’s 4 and being 4 is hard. But when I’m trying to do everything in the morning and get us out the door, I have a hard time.
I don’t have a partner. I’m already out of bed an hour and 45 minutes before we need to leave and almost an hour before she is. I have the logistics down, I just need help with the mentality.
Any favorite kids’ luggage? We’re looking to buy my very small 6 yr old a suitcase for Christmas. Thanks for any suggestions!
Marriage advice needed, particularly from introverts. I feel like my relationship is strained right now because I just don’t have much bandwidth or energy to engage with DH after the kids go to bed. It is nothing personal, but I really crave being ALONE after a day of working, interacting with people, and parenting. (Hi, I’m an introvert who doesn’t get nearly enough time to herself.) I do not know how to solve this. If I don’t get some downtime by myself at the end of the day, I am a cranky husk of a person and have a hard time falling asleep. If I don’t spend time with my husband, he feels hurt and rejected. Understandably. He knows this isn’t personal but I can tell it hurts him. Also, I’m just dog tired — I get up at 5 a.m. to work out so I really do need to sleep.
My kids aren’t tiny anymore. The oldest kid is in late elementary school and goes to bed only 1 hour before I do (oldest kid: 8:30; me: 9:30). I honestly feel like I have less time to myself and with my DH than I did even a couple of years ago, when bedtimes were more like 7:30 and 8:00. We do get to hang out more on the weekends, but the weeknights feel like this push-and-pull to meet everyone’s needs (mine included — a few years ago, I would’ve denied myself the time I need, but now I’m trying to claim what *I* need, selfish as that sounds).
Newton-Wellesley Obgyn (in Newton, MA) – does anyone have experience with any of the doctors at this practice? The location is very convenient for me, but I thought the person who answered the phone was a bit rude, so I am reconsidering. This is for a first-time pregnancy. My PCP is with Harvard Vanguard (which is convenient to my office in Boston), but I thought I’d check out other options for an ob/gyn because it might be nice to go somewhere closer to my house.
Anyone have suggestions on how to avoid/deal with lice? Now that my daughter is in grade school, I’m more worried about her getting it — especially since she has longer hair.
Rant: I am so annoyed at having to look at 4 frilly pink flowered maxi maternity dresses for every half work appropriate maternity dress. Do more people take maternity photo shoots than go to work?
Talk to me about how you get your toddler to eat dinner and what they eat. My 2.5 year old was a great, not too picky, eater until she turned two. In the past few months, she has about 10-15 things she’ll eat. She is fortunately still good with a lot of fruits and veggies, but is rejecting things like pasta, pancakes, all meat etc that she previously did eat. I want her to eat the meals that we’re eating and I don’t want to be a short order cook, but at the same time, if she doesn’t eat, she’s up every few hours at night and is a complete mess.
I’ve resorted to turning on the tv at dinner to get her to eat some things that she previously used to eat. I feel terrible about it but with a 2.5 year old and a 5 month old, I just don’t have a lot of capacity to deal with the tantrums etc. at dinnertime.
Many thanks in advance.
just left my kid’s 18 month appointment and ped said we should be coloring and eating with spoons and forks. i’ve kind of been avoiding all of the above due to mess. we got some crayons as a party favor at a bday party, but they didn’t work very well. any crayon suggestions? similarly, any fork suggestions that won’t lead to my kid poking out their eye?
Traveling away from my baby for the first time. Does anyone know if the Milk Stork pack counts as a separate carryon? TIA.
The ONLY thing that helps my toddler when he’s in a mood is silliness. Today he didn’t want to get dressed and didn’t want to go to school so I took a time out from that struggle so we could play an extremely silly game where I am a car and he is the driver and a swerve around and he holds on for dear life. It took 5 minutes max and afterwards we were both laughing so much he barely noticed he was getting dressed.