Accessory Tuesday: Vini Ankle Boot
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I’ve got wider feet, so I’m constantly on the hunt for comfy, yet professional footwear. I’m intrigued by this new-to-me Aussie brand Bared Footwear.
Every pair comes with a fit kit with foot pads and forefoot padding for a nearly custom fit. Their “biomechanical footbed” is designed to reduce pressure on the ball of your foot and provide arch support and stability.
They have a range of styles available, but for fall, I’m drawn to this classic ankle boot.
These boots are $399 and come in sizes U.S. 4-4.5 to U.S. 12. They’re available in black leather, mahogany brown leather, and camel suede.
Sales of note for 9/23/25
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Ann Taylor – 30% off tops and sweaters
- Banana Republic Factory – 40% off everything + extra 15% off
- Eloquii – 50% off select styles with code
- J.Crew – Extra 30% off sale styles, plus up to 50% off layers they love
- J.Crew Factory – 40-70% off everything + extra 60% off clearance
- M.M.LaFleur – Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off
- Nordstrom – Fall savings event! Also get 15% off select beauty items and 6x points on beauty.
- Talbots – Anniversary event! 25% off entire purchase, plus fresh fall classics from $34.50
At the first sign of a cold coming on, I take Emergen-C with zinc and start drinking echinacea tea. Are there any safe equivalents that you use for your kids? What other comfort measures do you offer when they’re sick? I think zinc has been proven effective for shortening the duration of a cold. I know a mom who gives her kids the vitamin C lollipops when they’re feeling under the weather. I usually go the chicken soup route with my kids and looking for other ideas.
Any suggestions for how to spend the 30 minutes after dinner on work days before bedtime with my 4&6 year old as the weather gets worse? We are trying to limit formal activities to one a time, so most days the kids don’t have anything. We got an Uno deck and plan to teach them. Some days we go on a walk but some days they are not into it. I’d be interested in cooperative game suggestions or anything else! Would it be weird to get a family Botley to play with together? Just looking for something that wouldn’t be dominated by the older child or too frustrating for the younger. Thanks!
Good
We have an 11 month old and a 5 year old, and lately the 5 year old has been more interested in playing with the baby. What are some safe and fun activities/toys they can do together? He’s been showing her his (more baby-friendly) cars and car ramps, which she likes.
When did your kids age out of the fisher price little people play sets? We have five (farmhouse, treehouse, truck site, gas station, car ramp) and they take up a ridiculous amount of space. We have a five year old boy and almost-three year old girl. 5 YO plays with them once in a blue moon, 3 YO a few times a month. Mostly I’m curious when my daughter will age out of them so I can get rid of them without tears. She mostly plays with hand-me-down toys and I don’t want to begrudge her playthings, but we have a million toys and none are played with proportional to the amount of space they consume (except duplos and the play kitchen).
I was laid off this morning. It’s a privileged position to be in, but I’m not sure I want to return to a full time office job. My job was fully remote. I didn’t particularly enjoy the work but loved the flexibility, especially being home with my early elementary age kids after school. I doubt I’ll be able to find something similar locally and we can’t move for various reasons. I don’t want to be a stay at home mom for the rest of my life, especially since my active parenting years are ending in about a decade, but I have a side gig that earns a little money and I’m interested in trying to ramp that up and seeing if it could be a living. If it doesn’t work out, I can always go back to an office job later, right? Anyone been in a similar situation and want to talk me into or out of it?
I am so frustrated. Last week I purposely did a thing one way because I thought that was what the boss wanted, even though it should have been done a different way. Turns out boss wanted it my way after all, and now it looks like I will miss out on a big opportunity because I misjudged the signals. Ugh.
Two low stakes questions
1) Can someone explain 6 7 to me? My 8 year old asked me because boys in her class are saying it (and won’t tell her what it means) but I don’t really know how to explain it. I know it’s a thing kids are randomly saying and it comes from Tik Tok originally (? right?) but I don’t know why.
2) Are your kids obsessed with Labubus? We were at a family event over the weekend and some parents who also have an 8 year old girl were telling us all about how Labubu mania has taken over their school and their daughter was teased for not owning one. There’s apparently a waitlist to have the opportunity to buy the authentic ones (!! like they’re Birkin bags!) so they bought her a knockoff and then she was teased because it wasn’t an authentic Labubu. It was wild to me… I don’t think my daughter even knows what Labubus are! I’m not sure if she’s just oblivious to trends or if it hasn’t reached her school yet. The latter seems entirely possible because we live in a smaller city that trends take forever to reach (skinny jeans were still ubitquitous until a year or two ago).
I realize no one except a doctor who treats a patient in person can diagnose them, but anecdotally have you seen memory loss in elderly parents or grandparents that didn’t progress to dementia? Or is it pretty much a sure thing when memory loss accelerates? My 75 year old dad has gotten noticeably worse in the last year or so at remembering details of prior conversations, and sometimes even forgets entire conversations we’ve had. He’s always loved to repeat his “go-to” stories and dispense the same little nuggets of advice, so him repeating things is not necessarily a dramatic change, but it’s been noticeable to both me and my mom that he just doesn’t hold onto detailed memories about minor things anymore. My mom – who is terrified of dementia after having a mother who lived to 97 with it and lost all her memories and cognitive function many years before she died – is convinced he has early stage dementia. I’m not so sure, I feel like sometimes old people are just kind of forgetful and it doesn’t necessarily progress. But maybe I’m being naive.
How did y’all make the final decision between a nanny and daycare?
For background – first child, I’m 5 months pregnant (we have time), I work in MBB consulting, husband works in finance. We can afford either. We have local family that is retired but still young and active (and are a ~20 minute drive away from us). My husband regularly works from home and we live in a 3BD condo in a city.
The way I see it, we can afford either (though daycare is somewhat cheaper with only one kid). If we were in the suburbs, my husband didn’t work from home, or we didn’t have local family to help deal with illness, I feel like a nanny would be the obvious choice, but I worry about managing a household employee, and my husband worries about having the nanny and kiddo around during his workday (and being able to fully disconnect from childcare). I lean slightly toward daycare for kid #1, and then potentially shifting to a nanny for kid #2 (also when we’ll likely move out to the suburbs and buy a bigger place), but am very worried about managing the 5:30PM pick-up times and illnesses.
what ultimately made the decision for you?
Hey all. Been on and off for a few weeks with work stuff, so I might have missed some relevant discussions!
Has anyone listened to the podcast “On Point,” particularly their series Falling Behind on how the education system is failing our boys? I.e. first ep is titled “Do we treat boys like malfunctioning girls?” I haven’t listened to the whole series yet, but the first few eps are intriguing and bring up a lot of points that we’ve talked about here. Boys, in general (not all! I know – my two boys are very different) need to move more, don’t respond well to the sit still and and obey model, and need different ways of learning than what’s present in our current educational landscape. And are often labeled troublemakers or given diagnoses for typical behavior (something like 1 in 4 boys are diagnosed with ADHD now?)
I’m not trying to say that we should let all order go out of the classroom, but it’s something to think about, especially when it comes to not great teachers constantly calling parents for behavior. My older son has absolutely thrived with the right teachers who appreciate different learning styles and not label him as “bad” for not being able to sit still in circle time. It makes a huge difference in how the year goes.
Best travel high chair recs? We need something for both tables and on the ground.
How do you deal with baby hairs from postpartum hair loss/regrowth? I put on a headband this morning because I was tired of trying to get them to stay down, but now I look like I forgot to take off my headband after filming a makeup tutorial. (Or I look like Ms. Rachel, which would be better but still not what I’m going for).
Finally officially a mom! After 5 rounds of IVF and a bonus 6th with donor eggs and 42 hours of labor and then a c section I’m just sitting in a hospital dying to pee and exhausted but snuggling my newborn and all is right with the world.
Shopping help. I want some flat brown boots that look current (doesn’t have to be trendy but I don’t want to look dated right away) but are comfortable and can be worn chasing children. Probably with jeans or some wine colored cropped pants I ordered or something like the Athleta endless high rise pant (but I will probably wear sneakers with these). Backstory, I’ve been living in leggings and really old ratty clothes for a looong time (basically the last 6 years). I’ve lost 20 lbs and I’m trying to get back to real clothes (but still comfortable and fine for chasing a toddler or standing on a muddy-ish field watching kid sports). I have a few pairs of cute sneakers so I think I’m covered in the sneaker department. Seen anything cute ?