Budget Thursday: Striped Pleated Skirt

Any suggestions for getting a fiercely independent toddler to move more quickly in the morning? I love that my just turned 2-yo is so fond of doing as much as possible herself, and I’m sure it will be even more appreciated with little sib shows up in a few weeks, but good grief have our mornings stretched into an unrecognizable mess where everything she does on her own takes FOREVER. Example: She is capable of putting her shoes on in < 1 minute, I've seen her do it many times. This morning, we go to the door to put on shoes, she insists on doing it herself, I say great, fine, I'm going to load the car (in her line of sight) and you put your shoes on. I remind her every minute or so while I'm loading things that she needs to put them on or I'm going to do it for her, which results in "noooooo, i do by self". 5+ minutes later, she's sitting on the floor still, no shoes on. At that point I forcibly put them on, which results in hitting, and I don't really have time to discipline her because if we don't leave shortly I risk being late for a meeting. Of course by the time we get to her school, she's fine and seems to have forgotten, but I'm spent from the struggle (there were several this morning, that was just one). Is the answer some sort of timer? A variation on the 1-2-3 we often use (typical result is timeout if she doesn't comply, but maybe here result would be mom does it for you)?

Experienced Mommies -help me make a decision! We have a 13 month old (will be 14 months at the time in question). She is a great sleeper and isn’t walking yet, but is close. Anyway, DH and I both took a week off from work and planned to take a family vaca the week of 10/8. The location has pretty much been been up in the air (mostly due to work schedules, but also because we generally just book things last minute depending on where we “feel” like traveling). We live on the east coast. Our best friends (a married, childless couple) live on the west coast. We debated going to visit those friends for that week that we took off, and when we just broached it with them – surprise! They are going to Hawaii. We have traveled all over the world with this couple and are seriously considering meeting them in Hawaii for that week. We actually went there earlier this year with DD, albeit to a different island. I already know that the flight won’t be relaxing as we have flown with her many times and I miss the days of flying with her when she wasn’t mobile. :)

My concern is that we are moving. We planned to move in early November, but buyer wants to close on our current home sooner, which is great because we are closing on our new home next week. BUT now we’d basically come home from vacation and move in the same week. Logistically, it will be fine. We will have enough time before we leave to get the new place painted and cleaned, we can arrange for movers to pack for us when we return, but I just don’t know how DD will handle it. She is generally an easy going tot but as she comes into toddlerhood she is definitely more “opinionated.” What if we are in a hotel for a week, in a completely different time zone, and then we come “home” and a few days later, home is somewhere entirely new? To be fair, we live in an apartment and we are literally moving into the building next door, so her nanny, friends, classes and local haunts are all staying the same. Her bedroom furniture will all be the same. I don’t know if I’m overthinking this or if it’s better to not vacation (or go somewhere closer, same time zone) to make it all easier? Has anyone moved with a 14 month old? Help?

Do any of you have experience sending your kids to a daycare/preschool affiliated with a university where the child development faculty and grad students sometimes come in to use the kids in their research studies? DH and I both are affiliated with a university, and the university run daycare is like this. You get info about each experiment in advance and can opt out, but it was made clear to me that you shouldn’t enroll your child unless you generally want to participate. I don’t know how wild I am about my child being a lab rat, but in many other ways this daycare seems to be the best in the area and matches up well with what I want (no screen time, organic meal options, teachers all have college degrees, etc).

I picked up my almost-3 year old from daycare yesterday, and when I got to his classroom, the class was watching a movie (something animated about robots) on the teacher’s phone. The phone was propped up on a shelf so all the kids could see it, and it was hooked up to a speaker that seemed to belong to the school.

I have never seen them watch a movie at daycare before. I was very surprised and pretty disappointed. We were very strict about no screen time until he was 2, and after 2 we allow very limited tv. I really like to save tv for when I’m solo parenting and need a few minutes to get ready. I feel like daycare should not be using my last-resort entertainment methods….

I don’t think the teacher thought there was anything wrong with this, because she was doing it at pickup time when she knew parents would see, and the classroom is such that any of the administration/her bosses could see as well.

We have been at this daycare since he was 3 months old, and I picked it because we loved the infant care. As he has gotten older, I’ve been less impressed… after he moved out of the toddler room and is now in the preschool group, I feel like the teachers are harried and distracted, and I feel like he doesn’t get the care and attention I want him to have. I haven’t been able to pinpoint why I feel that way, but the movie thing was a good example.

Should I look for another daycare? I hesitate because he has dear friends in his class that he’s been with since birth, PLUS his little brother is in the crawler room– and I still really love the infant and toddler care there. And I don’t want to do two dropoffs/two pickups. Any thoughts please?

To what extent do you try to hide the fact that your kids are there if you get an unexpected work call? I got a call at 6pm last night, while I was making dinner and husband wasn’t home yet. LO was playing quietly and calmly, so I just took the call and tried to keep an eye on him while far enough away that if he squealed it wouldn’t be super obvious.

At the same time, it was 6pm, and it isn’t crazy to think I’d be home with my family at that point. It wasn’t client facing. I’m probably overthinking this, but I just worried it would be unprofessional if my colleague heard me say something to my son or heard him cry in the background.

In these situations, do you take the call but tell the person you have to call them back? (after LO is asleep or another caregiver arrives) Or do you risk it and hope no crisis erupts while you are on the call?

For moms of boys, at what age did you stop letting them see you undressed? Son is almost 6 and will sometimes come in while I’m showering or see me when I’m getting out of the shower. But more often, he will see in my undergarments while I’m getting dressed. He seems to care less and I feel the same but am wondering at what point should I be covering up more.