Washable Workwear Wednesday: Sleeveless Seamed Fit-and-Flare Dress

This totally outs me to everyone IRL I’ve already told this story, but I think this crowd can empathize, and it’s a fun story for a Wednesday.

The other night, I was feeding my baby a bedtime bottle. My husband was supposed to be supervising the older kids getting in the shower. I heard kid footsteps and the front door open and close. A few minutes later, I started wondering who was going in and out of the front door, if everyone was supposed to be showering. So, I put the baby down in the crib, and went to the door. There was my 4-year old son, stark naked except for his baseball glove, running all over the front yard tossing a ball to himself. (There was also my neighbor, doubled-over laughing next to his car.)

Obviously I shooed him inside and tried to explain that he *at least* needs to wear underwear if he’s outside in the front yard, because decency. That message didn’t stick at all (possibly because I failed to deliver it without laughing). As soon as I was sitting down with the baby again, I heard the door a second time. gah!

And then LAST night, I was out watering the garden (the actual garden. not euphemisms!), and my son thought it was hilarious to run through the hose stream… except he didn’t want to get his clothes wet, so he immediately stripped down completely and threw his underwear as far as he could. At least that was in the back yard. They grow out of this someday, right? I’m not destined to be bailing my kid out of jail for streaking?

Has anyone flown with the Guava Lotus crib (or a similar travel crib) as a checked bag? I know a big part of its appeal is that it fits as a carry on, but I think it would be much easier to check than keep track of another bag through the airport. We’re flying direct so I’m not worried about it getting lost en route. Would it get too banged up?

What’s the birthday party situation like in your area? My kids are (almost) and 5, and we’ve been invited to exactly one birthday party at someone’s house or a picnic shelter. All the rest are at bounce houses or similar. I kind of want to do something cheap and simple for my 3 year old after 2 years of bounce house parties for my oldest. I also want to specify “no presents”because we just don’t need more stuff. It’s not weird to have people come to our house…right? (It’s too hot for the playground, honestly, with a July birthday in the south.)

I posted this last week but for some reason there was like an 8-hour delay in its appearance on the site, so posting again with hope for replies:

This is a say-nothing moment, right?

My sister babies my nephew like crazy. Our kids are the same age– 3 and a half (they are a few weeks apart). My kid dresses herself, serves her own cereal, brushes her own teeth, etc. My sister does everything for my nephew, including feeding him by putting a fork or spoon in his open mouth and even using a bulb to suction out his mucous because he doesn’t know how to blow his nose. She refers to herself and to him in the third person (“Does Henry want a snack?” “Mommy is going to eat a banana.”) Developmentally the two kids are very much at the same stage so there is no reason for her to do all these things for him. My sister says he has no interest in doing things for himself, though while they’ve been at our house and he’s been watching my daughter, he’s started to want to do some of the things she does, like pouring water into a glass for himself or choosing his own snack.

I get that kids have different interests and that parents have different styles. We have prioritized independence and our kid has followed suit, but that’s not every parent’s priority or every kid’s personality. I very much don’t want to throw judgment at my sister who is a single mom and this is her only and final child. At the same time she has struggled with anxiety which reached a peak when her child was born and she was obsessed with how much he ate, weighed, slept, the condition of his skin, etc. These babying behaviors don’t seem to be hurting him or her– as I said, developmentally he seems totally fine and its not like he’s never going to learn to dress himself or blow his own nose, so… say nothing?

Kiddo’s daycare has a theme of the month, and the theme this month is “sports”. Last Friday it was “assigned” to them to wear a sports shirt on Friday. They are 3, so it was assinged to the parents really. We’re not super into sports, nor is kiddo, so we don’t have any sports shirts. We sent him in a shirt that has a diver in a shark cage with a shark next to it and really talked up how swimming was a sport.

He came home and reported that Futbol is his favorite sport but that all his friends liked his shark shirt. The teachers sent out a “we’re so glad most of our classmates fullfiled their assignment and wore sports shirts to share” I was annoyed, because, why are you assigning us homework? They are 3, and we all work FT. But I let it go.

We are now being asked AGAIN to send him in a sports shirt on friday to “share with his friends”. I asked him what he wanted to wear and he said his “great white shark shirt” ha.

My question is, should I mention to the teachers that maybe not every kid has a sport shirt and somewhat imply that this is just creating more work for the parents? Or is this one of those things I let go and just buy him a sports shirt? Or let go and send him in whatever shirt he wants? A certain number of the kids in his class are on county assistance, so it’s not exactly feasible for everyone to go out and purchase a shirt, which is part of my issue with it.

Thoughts?