Washable Workwear Wednesday: The Unstainable Parker

·

This post may contain affiliate links and CorporetteMoms may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

A woman wearing a The Unstainable Parker We just rounded up women’s dress shirts on Corporette, and in the comments a lot of readers noted that they prefer popover styles like this one from Elizabeth & Clarke. It’s a good company for moms to keep in mind because they specialize in unstainable fabric — so if you’ve been staying away from white blouses since becoming a mom, this is a good bet. It’s machine washable and dryer-safe, as well. The only catch is that you can’t just buy it by itself — you have to pick a subscription plan — and if you buy just one shirt (“one shirt a season”) you pay $60. If you agree to three shirts a season you can get each for $40. It’s an interesting model. If you really like the idea of this shirt, try a subscription, and if you don’t end up liking it, cancel. Sizes are 00-14. The Unstainable Parker Here are two options in plus sizes — one with “stain release” and one with “stain resistance.” 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. This post contains affiliate links and CorporetteMoms may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!

Sales of note for 2/7:

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

  • Nordstrom – Winter Sale, up to 60% off! 7850 new markdowns for women
  • Ann Taylor – Extra 25% off your $175+ purchase — and $30 of full-price pants and denim
  • Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything + extra 15% off
  • Boden – 15% off new season styles
  • Eloquii – 60% off 100s of styles
  • J.Crew – Extra 50% off all sale styles
  • J.Crew Factory – 40% off everything including new arrivals + extra 20% off $125+
  • Rothy’s – Final Few: Up to 40% off last-chance styles
  • Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
  • Talbots – 40% off one item + free shipping on $150+

And — here are some of our latest threadjacks of interestworking mom questions asked by the commenters!

93 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Tis the season to plan summer vacations. My uncle, who I was and am very close with, is turning 70 this summer. He was like a dad to me since my dad died when I was a kid. His immediate family, including my two cousins (whom I love like sisters), is planning a party for him in August where they live (upper part of Michigan). Before looking into the details on logistics, I said that my family would go (husband, two kids, 3 and 6, and me), and I committed to going to my mom (his sister) who lives in the same area as us. The only problem is that the logistics are completely out-of-hand. We either: (1) pay 700/pp to fly out of our town to the closest town to our uncle (still an hour away); (2) drive 2.5 hours to big airport (most likely the night before) and pay 500/pp and still drive an hour to the town; (3) rent a van and drive 17 hrs (that’s the estimate for driving straight through, which includes crossing borders). Oh the only hotel in the town is booked full, so we would stay about an hour away (at 300/night). My mom is advocating option 3, and is in the “we will be there regardless of how impossible the travel” camp. I’m leaning towards not going, at this point. Am I being unreasonable? Any suggestions on how to talk about this with my mom?

Pumping at work question: it’s my second day back to work after maternity leave (yay snow day yesterday!) and usually I just pump at night in the dark, so for the first time I’m really getting a good look at what’s happening when I pump. I set my timer for 20 mins and saw that when the timer rang, there was still a thin stream of milk coming out. Do you usually wait for the milk to stop flowing or just pump for a set period of time? I have low supply, so part of me wants to get every drop and the other part just wants to get on w my day.

Also I’m now afraid that in my exhausted haze, I’m going to get up to go to the bathroom w/o putting my nips away :)

Another vent, because apparently it’s just that week.

Just need to put this in writing so I can try to focus on my day. Work is blowing up in 8 different directions. I just had a call with China scheduled for 9 tonight. The single biggest event of my husband’s career in the last few years starts tomorrow and goes through Saturday. Long story there, but he’s been left in the lurch by some colleagues and is having to finish a huge group project himself before tomorrow. Our childcare for this afternoon fell through late last night, so we totally reshuffled our day and I took our daughter to preschool (I do not normally do this– oh my goodness I have new respect for all the moms here who do this routine on the daily– I am an amateur and was late even with Elmo’s help). I am already totally spent for the day but I need to find a major, major second wind, because there is SO. Much. to get done at work and as soon as I’m not here I’m full-on covering for my normally extremely present partner. And my birthday is Sunday, and did I mention that we have a houseguest for said event arriving tomorrow?

Just a ‘when it rains it pours’ vent. My normally very flexible, mostly predictable job just got randomly crazy due to deadlines that got ignored until JUST NOW by the powers that be, compounded by other normal projects not being able to be dropped. So I’m basically working all hours while also dealing with a small child on winter break (and massive snow outside) and trying to manage my au pair’s hours due to school being out. My husband is basically ‘on point’ the second he walks in the door, and there has been SO MUCH TV and Ipad happening.

The one bright spot is that if I power through this week, it will all be mostly done by 3pm on Friday. So much wine is in my future….

A non-mom friend just recommended this week’s Ask Polly column to my on nymag and it is really great. I think it would speak to a lot of people on this site (career choices, getting pregnant, etc.)

http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/03/ask-polly-i-quit-my-job-then-i-had-a-miscarriage.html

I saw your post from yesterday about really fast meals and wanted to give you a few that are in frequent rotation in our house.

— Tikka masala chickpeas + veggies. Get a jar of one of those simmer sauces (you can find it at TJs, or I can find them at my regular grocery store), a bag of frozen veggies + a can of chickpeas. Heat up a little olive oil in a pan, pour the frozen veggies in and let them warm up, add in the drained/rinsed chickpeas, then add in the simmer sauce. Bring to a simmer. You can sub out the chickpeas for meat (if raw, obviously cook the meat first), and you can bulk it up by adding rice (you can buy pre-cooked frozen rice from TJs, or get some minute rice). FWIW, this re-warms well, so you can make it in advance.

— Black beans in the crockpot. My kid loves the Smitten Kitchen black beans (https://tinyurl.com/js32dvf). I don’t make the cumin crema, but for the adults I like to make pickled red onions. I also add cotija cheese. I don’t soak the beans, so depending on the strength of your slow cooker I found this can take anywhere from 3.5-5 hours on high (my Instant Pot is more like 3.5-4, my previous slow cooker was 5. I just tried pressure cooking these, and found it took about 37 minutes). I sometimes will put the beans over toast (like she suggests), or over rice. I will occasionally put a fried or soft boiled egg on top of it. These beans freeze well too.

— Pasta w/ homemade tomato sauce. I’m sure this is already in your rotation, but we make pasta sauce and freeze it in ziploc bags. When we come home we cook the pasta, warm up defrosted sauce in a pan, and then add the pasta to the sauce. Takes less than 15 minutes. You can add store bought frozen garlic bread to bulk this up, and make a salad or a veggie.

— Steamed fish. I have one of those bamboo steamers. I put some parchment in the steamer, then steam the fish for about 5 minutes or so. Top with sesame oil and soy sauce (or hoisin). Serve with a side of veggies + rice. I usually do some sort of white fish.

— Also, just as a general idea: roast a sheet pan or two of veggies on the weekend. Broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, etc. Then you have veggies all week and you can just microwave them, and you just have to think about the entree.

Posting for a family member. If you worked in DC and had to work from home yesterday due to blizzard and hired a staff member from your (beloved) daycare to come watch kids while you’re in the house, and they showed up reeking of pot and clearly high. Would you a) say something to the babysitter (mom was at home the whole day and didn’t really have a different option so didn’t say anything at the time, b) say something to the daycare? c) Neither because otherwise you’re really happy with the daycare and that’s hard to find and you don’t want to rock the boat?

Unfortunately she throws everything out of her crib as soon as she wakes up.

Has anyone purchased anything from this company? How is the quality and customer service? Also, why are all the shirts white?

I have a question for those of you who used the okay-to-wake clock with success. We got the clock last week for my two year old daughter. We tell her each night that when it turns green, mom or dad will come in to get her out of her crib. She seems to understand the concept – she repeats it back to us, and when we come in, she tells us that it’s turned green. Other times of the day she’ll point to the clock and say “turns green, mama comes in.” Her wake times have always been erratic, within a range of approximately an hour, so sometimes she’ll wake up 30 minutes or so before it’s set to turn green. Historically, she screams and cries until we come in…the entire time. So now she’s screaming and crying until the clock turns green. Any advice for helping her contentment until we come in? Should we go in when she first wakes up and explain that she can’t get out of bed until it turns green? That seems a little counterproductive to me. Or should we just let her cry and hope that she eventually gets the point? (Note: she’s an epically persistent crier. When sleep training, which we seem to have to revisit every 4 months, she’ll cry for hours…)

+1 to giving chores from a young age! My son isn’t quite 18 months and I am amazed by the things he understands and can do with little instruction. He puts his shoes away, will throw things in the trash when prompted and carries dishes and drops them in the sink. He helps me clean the windows whereby I operate the spray and then he’ll wipe them down. When I dust, he gets a clean duster of his own to “help”. It’s adorable for me, helpful for me, and I swear it gives him a sense of purpose. Plus, he likes doing what he sees his adults do.

I was home with the kids (3.5, 7 months) yesterday. DH and I traded off but it was still a crazy snow day. The 3 y/o was having a borderline fit because I couldn’t play with her at the exact moment she wanted me to. I stopped, explained “mama has to do a few things before we can play. I have to do one work thing on my computer and empty the dishwasher. Then we can play.” Tantrum starts. I ask, “would you like to help with the dishes so we can play faster?” “YES MAMA!!!” And she did the entire silverware and all plastic dishes/Tupperware while I did my work email. Smiling like a kid in a candy store.

Kat, I just looked back at Friday’s sneaker post and it includes ads for some seriously horrifying books from Amazon. Definitely NSFW.

The “from sites we love” section of every post for the last few couple of weeks has also contained a gross yoga photo.

This is interesting.

What do 2 year old boys like these days? I need a gift idea for a birthday party. Thanks!