Family Friday: Secret Socks
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These socks were a recommendation to me from my sister, and I’ve since bought several pairs and never looked back. I had a little bit of sticker shock at first, but they’re totally worth it! My footwear of choice on the weekends are sneakers, and I’ve always been hunting for low-cut socks to wear with them. These are hidden socks that actually stay put on your foot — they have these little rubber stripes on the inside of the heel that keep them from slipping off into your shoe. If I could find the person who invented that, I’d give them a big hug. I have washed all of my pairs several times and they are holding up well, but I do recommend that you put them in a laundry bag because they’re tiny and can get easily rolled up within your other laundry. A 3-pack is $38 at Lululemon. Secret Sock, 3-Pack
Sales of note for 2/14/25 (Happy Valentine’s Day!):
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Nordstrom – Winter Sale, up to 60% off! 7850 new markdowns for women
- Ann Taylor – Up to 40% off your full-price purchase — and extra 60% off sale
- Banana Republic Factory – 50% off everything + 15% off (readers love their suiting as well as their silky shirts like this one)
- Boden – 15% off new season styles
- Eloquii – 300+ styles $25 and up
- J.Crew – 40% of your purchase – prices as marked
- J.Crew Factory – 50% off entire site and storewide + extra 50% off clearance
- Rothy’s – Final Few: Up to 40% off last-chance styles
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
- Talbots – Flash sale ending soon – markdowns starting from $15, extra 70% off all other markdowns (final sale)
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?
My 3 year has started lying to our nanny about things like “did you wash your hands” or “did you have an accident” (when clearly he did). I don’t think she shames him or anything like that but he doesn’t really do this with us. Any suggestions?
Re: naming, don’t tell anyone if you’re planning to have more than one child! We had names for both girl and boy, and shared with family. My sister had an opposite sex baby later that year and used the name we’d picked but not been able to use.
Re Naming Babies, we had two names we couldn’t decide between when our daughter was born. We announced her birth to our families as Name TBD and we gave each name 24 hours in which we referred to the baby and thought of her as that name. It became clear very quickly that one of the two names felt far more “right” than the other. 17 months in, we could not be happier with the name we picked and it fits her perfectly.
Just brought#3 home from the hospital and as I’m sitting here with her I realized there absolutely no way I will do antrafitijal baby book for her. I did one for my first- sort of. I bought one for my second and jammed a bunch of stuff in it. If it were electronic, I’d probably keep mostly up.
Is there some kind of app or service where you can record baby’s milestones and then have them turned into a physical book or other similar memento? Or any other good solution to this?
I’m OK not saving her first hair cut scraps and teeth ;).
A little happy news for a Friday afternoon: my 3yo did a peanut allergy food challenge at the hospital this morning and…is officially peanut-allergy-free! (And has already eaten a peanut butter cup as a celebratory treat.)
He had some mild reactions after we gave him peanut butter as a baby and tested positive at 1 during a skin test at the pediatrician’s, so for two years we carried an epi-pen and Benadryl around everywhere (my sister has a fairly severe peanut allergy and gave us lots of good advice on managing it). Then his last skin test and 3-year blood test came back negative, so the allergist referred us for a food challenge. Apparently a small percentage of kids do grow out of it!!
Hello Moms! How did you know the name you picked was right for your kid? I’m due in exactly 2 months and we have two top contending names but aren’t telling anyone what they are. Do you try it out at all before baby comes? Is it just the gut feeling? Any other thoughts?
I’m only an occasional poster here, but I’m going anonymous for this for obvious reasons.
I recently found out that my sister’s boyfriend (“Ed”) molested my now-four-year-old niece (“Alice”) a couple of years ago. There’s no doubt it happened; my sister walked in on him doing it. He convinced her didn’t know he was doing it because he was on pain medication or something, and she not only went back to him but moved in with him (along with Alice) about a year ago. This is coming out now because Alice recently mentioned something about Mommy and “Daddy” being the only ones who could touch her private parts, which made my sister think Ed had been molesting her again. I highly doubt my sister is pressing charges, but I do know that she finally reported the molestation to CPS because there was a lengthy interview during which a social worker informed my sister that Alice would be removed from her care if she allowed Ed to be around her again. My sister and Alice have moved out of Ed’s apartment and are apparently not having any contact with him anymore. My sister appears to want to pretend nothing really happened and refuses to have a real conversation with me about it.
I have spoken to my parents multiple times and to my sister once, and they have all assured me that Alice is totally fine. I am trying hard to believe that there won’t be any long-term harm to her.
But I am having a really hard time forgiving my sister. Ed had already caused a rift between my sister and me because my husband and I did not like or trust him from the moment we met him. Obviously we didn’t actually think he was a pedophile (well, my husband had his suspicions, but frankly I just thought he was being paranoid), but he absolutely came off to both of us as a creep. And now I know that, for the last two years, my sister knew we were right not to trust him and certainly not to want him around our own kids (now three years old and ten months). I feel betrayed that she not only hid from us that Ed had molested Alice but also continued to bring Ed around our parents’ house when our children were there.
A highly complicating factor is that my sister (who is 40+ years old, by the way) has bipolar disorder. She has a psychiatrist and is on medication. On multiple occasions, when her life has gotten extremely stressful and/or she has stopped taking her medications, she has had psychotic breaks and been hospitalized for days or even weeks at a time. So it’s not as if I can heap guilt on her about this even if that would temporarily make me feel better.
I am asking for advice here because we will be visiting my parents in just a couple of weeks and I am going to have to interact with my sister. Please help or at least tell me things will eventually be OK and I’ll be able to stand being in the same room with her.
I would like to surprise my husband with a weekend getaway this fall (timing flexible September through December). He LOVES traveling and I don’t, so this is really about him. Our son was born at the beginning of January. We live in California. We could take a Friday off and fly out Thursday night. We’ve flown all over the country during maternity/paternity leave to see family, so this trip is more about the three of us. What are your suggestions? Any ideas so appreciated!
And here I am wondering how to fit my 25 pound 10 month old into the baby swim floats so I don’t have to arm wrestle her wriggly, climbing self the whole time. I think it might be time for a baby life vest for us for a little extra protection in case I lose my grip.
We loved the Speedo vest too!
Any advice on floatation devices for a 24 pound 23 month old? (Average height, just very skinny). Puddle jumpers seem to be the norm for toddlers but they say they start at 30 pounds. We’ll be with her at all times, just want to make being in the water a bit more fun.
This sounds like low blood sugar to me. Can you eat a granola bar or something before you leave?
Help from all those tired moms out there. Any tricks or tips?
I am really struggling with my personal daily “low point” in my circadian rhythm coinciding with my evening driving commute. I’m a night owl, and at this point am getting about 6 hours of sleep a night during the week. I’m actively working on getting to better sleep habits so that I’ll have more like 7 hours a night. That said, no matter what, my “low point” in the day, even on the weekends, is usually between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.
This means that I’m super tired (even when I get more sleep) on my 50-minute drive home, which is mostly on long stretches of divided highway with few traffic lights and (thankfully) not that much traffic in the middle part. I’m not falling asleep at the wheel, but it’s a struggle to feel as awake and alert as I think I should be for driving–it’s the low point in my energy and a bit of highway hypnosis.
Sometimes I can talk to a friend or family member for the whole drive home and that helps, but I can’t do that everyday. Sometimes, but not always, pumped up music helps. Caffeine? Water? Something else that I’m missing? Just wondering if anyone else has a little routine that I haven’t thought of that seems to help in this area.
DH and I did IVF with PGS testing. We transferred two of the remaining embryos. This week, at 24 weeks pregnant, we found out that one of the babies no longer had a heartbeat. This is so shocking, especially considering these were supposed to be chromosomally “normal” embryos. Any tips for getting through this and the rest of the pregnancy with the remaining twin?
Ugh. I got home late from work last night and in my grumpy, sleepy haze, accidentally left 15 ounces of breast milk out on the counter all night long. Waahh!