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.
My sister-in-law passed down this inflatable tub to me, and I just recommended it to a friend who has a 6-month-old.
For an infant, I do recommend going with an infant tub, but this was a great transition item for when my son was able to sit up on his own but would occasionally lose his balance, yet wanted to explore more than an infant tub would allow. I didn’t have to fill up my entire tub, it gave him some space to splash around, and it had soft sides. Plus it’s inexpensive and adorable.
It’s $11.90 at Amazon. Inflatable Duck TubThis 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!
Do I expect too much from my nanny? I have 10-month old twins who nap for about 3 hours a day. My nanny spends most of their nap time relaxing (well-deserved!) and does most of her non-baby-watching activities (like prepping their meals and washing dishes) while the kids are awake. The kids are in a baby-proofed room so I’m not terribly concerned about safety and, if she chose to look, she could see them from the adjoining kitchen, but I would rather she try to spend their awake time watching/playing with them and take care of other things during their naps. Am I wrong or at least, expecting more than I should? In case it matters, about half of these other tasks are not things I’ve asked her to do and, tbh, things I have asked her not to do, but she does anyway (like putting away our non-kid dishes), so I don’t think its a matter of me putting too much on her plate. I know they need to learn to play on their own, but they get plenty of that because they are twins and rarely get undivided attention from an adult.
Ms B
Jun 18, 2019 12:39 pm
Eh, I liked the Primo Eurobath for the stage where The Kid was too big for the bathroom sink (towel-lined) and too small for the full tub. That thing was beyond sturdy and went on to have a long life with two of my associate’s kids and now his niece.
Anon
Jun 18, 2019 12:14 pm
How much do you communicate with daycare about late drop-offs or early pickups? We started daycare a couple weeks ago, and the teacher has already admonished us that we need to better about communicating in advance exactly what time we’ll do drop off and pick up. But it’s hard for us to predict exactly (DH and I both have mostly flexible schedules and would prefer not to wake or rush our night owl baby). I understand wanting advance notice if our daughter will be entirely absent that day and wanting us to avoid coming during naptime unless necessary for a doctor’s appointment, but it’s been a struggle to predict the days’ schedule exactly in advance and I find myself emailing the teacher multiple times per day (eg, the night before telling her we’ll drop her off at 9, then emailing her at 9 ‘actually she’s still sleeping, we’ll be in at 10’, etc) which feels crazy to me…but maybe that’s what she wants? Am I ‘That Parent’ that’s making my daycare teacher’s life miserable?
Anonymous
Jun 18, 2019 11:58 am
I can’t believe I’m posting this, but this *is* a fashion blog right?
What stores/brands do your young elementary school girls wear? My kid is headed to kindergarten and is very tall and a fall birthday- so she’s a 5/6 now and will be a size 6 in the fall. I knew what I was doing in toddler sizes, but now that she’s a girls size, there’s just so much stuff that strikes me as too grown up! Plus she’s an 11/12 shoe which is not quite girl but the toddler stuff is awfully…toddler (ankle straps on the flip flops for example).
Her “style” is not super defined. She has some friends that are clearly Sporty Spice, rocking under armor hats, gap sweatshirts and soccer shorts. She has a few friends that walked off the pages of a Mini boden catalog. She wore a lot of Tea Collection tunic dresses + leggings in preschool but that look feels too preschool to me vs elem school- am I wrong?
She is living in and loving maxi dresses and rompers from old navy band gap this summer. She likes dresses and skirts more than shorts/jeans but likes them casual. Her fave shirts are the target cat and jack floppy sequin shirts. I generally don’t go for tons of prints and I avoid “word” shirts.
Where do I start looking? I’m tempted to just stitch fix her, but I’m not that dedicated to her style :-). She’s interested in participating, but other than having her browse gap kids online or walk the aisles of TJMaxx (or worse…let her loose in Nordstrom), how do I engage her?
Anon again
Jun 18, 2019 11:51 am
My MIL, who was a SAH spouse that moved 100 times for my FIL’s career, once asked my husband what the point of being married was if his wife got home from work at 7 pm every night and he was the one making dinner nightly. My husband shut that right down. Apparently, men are only supposed to marry to have servants in her eyes. The irony is now that my FIL is retired, he does all of the cooking because he enjoys it.
Anon for this
Jun 18, 2019 11:41 am
I have unexplained infertility and after 3 failed IUIs and one failed IVF and a year off from actively trying, I’m just now learning that I may have endometriosis and the only real way to know is an exploratory surgery. Why no one offered that as an option before is beyond me. I’m just throwing that out there as a thing to look into if nothing works. I didn’t have years of problems because I had spent my whole life on birth control. Now, particularly post IVF and all the hormones, I have extremely bad pain at various points in my cycle, particularly ovulation.
Anon
Jun 18, 2019 11:40 am
We have this tub and love it. I use it to bathe my daughter on the floor of our shower so I can sit next to the open shower door and don’t have to kneel/lean over the edge of the tub. My daughter is sadly about to outgrow it at 18 months.
lsw
Jun 18, 2019 11:13 am
Do you ever feel like you’re doing it all wrong? My son is almost three and isn’t potty trained (he has zero interest, refuses to go), he’s always tracked a bit behind verbally (got him evaluated at 2 and didn’t qualify for early intervention), and recently he’s been having a lot of anger that doesn’t seem to be based in anything. He refuses to engage in any sort of calm down behavior (they try deep breathing and counting at school, we try “stomp three times” at home). He’s extremely stubborn. After he feels his feelings he’s fine but it’s a brutal five or ten minutes of hitting, us or himself, throwing toys, and yelling. We say “we won’t let you hit” and “you may not throw your toys” and take them away but it’s such a frustrating grind. I feel like an awful parent sometimes.
Our toddler is always hilarious and loving and adorable, but he is just HARD. I’ve been around a lot of kids and he’s just …extra. They love him at daycare, and for that I am so grateful, but yesterday his teacher talked to me about the anger thing. It was so we could get on the same page with how we are reacting and handling in the moment, but I felt like it was like being put on notice. I really want another child, and we’re both almost 40, but my husband is so worn down with our toddler that he can’t even imagine it, so I feel like all my parenting failures are preventing me from having another baby (I know this is ridiculous). Ugh.
Anon
Jun 18, 2019 11:11 am
Not strictly a parenting question, but how do you get back on track at work after months of unproductivity? Between some vacations, family (not kid) obligations and toddler starting daycare and all the associated illnesses, I’ve probably only worked about 50% of the workdays in 2019. My job is such that I don’t really have strict deadlines, but I am judged on my productivity and I feel like I’ve accomplished next to nothing this year so far and need to fix that stat. Oh also toddler is waking up a lot more at night (due to teething and/or illness) and I’m exhausted.
Anon Mama
Jun 18, 2019 11:10 am
I need to negotiate maternity leave. My firm’s policy is 6 weeks paid, additional time unpaid at discretion of firm leadership. I can afford the unpaid time and want to take as much as I can, because my experience has been poor sleepers for babies, and I don’t think well on interrupted sleep. I went back too early with my first, and it was a disaster on a lot of fronts–not doing that again. So: How long is TOO long so that I lose touch with my cases and clients (and partners) forget about me? Also: I have flirted with the idea of going back on a weird schedule through the remainder of the spring school semester, working 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. or something so I can be home for my older kids getting off the bus from school rather than putting them in after school care. In my experience, baby will get up at 4:30 anyway, so I might as well get work done while the office is quiet. But will that create an unavailability problem for me in the afternoons, or signal a lack of commitment?
For reference, I’m at a small-mid size law firm. I’m a senior associate, within striking range of partnership, so I have about an even mix of cases where I’m primary vs. secondary. A coworker is about to return from maternity leave. I think she’ll wind up being out about 16 weeks (which seems pretty good to me).
Anonymous
Jun 18, 2019 10:57 am
Does anyone here work for the general counsel office of a federal agency? I’m thinking about looking for a position that is close to being 40 hours a week and my husband keeps telling me to look into the opening at his agency. I am currently a mid-level biglaw associate in litigation, so this would be a big change.
So if you work in the general counsel office for a government agency do you like it? Is it at least somewhat engaging? Do you stick to 40 hours a week working? I want to hear from you!
Anoner
Jun 18, 2019 10:55 am
Potty training advice! We trained my 2.5 year old son a few weeks ago and he’s doing great except for public restrooms. He’ll say he has to go but then refuses when we get there (we have a travel potty that goes on top of the toilet). He then is like a camel and holds it for a while til we get home. Any advice? Will this just go away? Thanks!
double-bingo
Jun 18, 2019 10:30 am
I think I know what the answer will be, but I feel like I need to ask anyway, since I can’t really talk about it with coworkers or people I know. I have been asked to be on the planning/host committee for a conference next spring. I am fairly junior, so it’s exciting/a big deal for me to be asked. It would get me more visibility in my practice area (I’m a lawyer in a niche practice) and would be a great networking opportunity. However, we are TTC #2, and if we succeed anytime in the next 3-4 months, I will either have super tiny baby, or be very pregnant at the time of the conference, which would involve travel.
I know the usual advice here is to proceed in professional life as if you won’t be pregnant, and adjust accordingly if it does happen. But I would hate to make this commitment, do all the planning work, and then have to miss the conference itself. It’s not such a great opportunity that I’m willing to change my TTC plans, but I do worry that saying no now will lessen my chances of being asked again later.
LittleBigLaw
Jun 18, 2019 10:26 am
Can we talk about our own moms this morning since I’m struggling with mine? TL:DR How would you deal with your mom if she wasn’t supportive of your career?
My mom quit her job when I was very young to be a “SAHM” (I use quotes because she never really stopped working and instead managed several of my parents’ entrepreneurial ventures through the years.) We’ve always been very different people but were very close until I had children of my own. Since then, it’s like our instincts are just diametrically opposed on all things kid-related and we don’t know how to relate to each other at all anymore. Even though she’s always been very proud of my accomplishments, she doesn’t seem to understand my choices to pursue a demanding career, have my kids in full-time daycare, or -gasp!- go to a book club or date night once in a while. Lately, she’s been making backhanded comments that seem fine from the outside but are driving me bananas. For example, whenever she keeps my kids, she makes a huge show about how much they have missed me when I pick them up, how “they just needed their mommy,” etc. A few months after I accepted a demanding new position last year, she asked me if I thought my kids were “suffering” with all the hours I was working. And most recently, she expressed similar concerns to my DH while I was away on a business trip. It’s infuriating.
I love my job, and I know my kids are thriving in a lot of ways, directly and indirectly, because of it. I also know my mom thinks I’m a good mother. She just thinks it would be better for my children if I had a less demanding, more predictable job, I guess? I also try to remind myself that my mom was only in the workforce for a very short time and that she and my dad (just like all her friends and family) have a very traditional marriage. She just doesn’t have any frame of reference for what a bread-winning working-mom-by-choice looks like. Rationally, I get all this and try to brush her attitude off. But it makes it really hard to spend time with her when she’s constantly expressing her “concern” and tacit disapproval.
She’s an excellent grandmother and I’m not willing to limit her time with our family. Plus, I just miss my mom, and I hate the resentment and defensiveness that I’m feeling toward her. Working motherhood is a pretty lonely experience in a lot of ways anyway, and I hate not being able to have my mom as a resource and sounding board like I have in other areas of my life. Unfortunately, a long, cathartic talk isn’t likely to resolve our issues based on past experience. So, I guess my question is how do I maintain/regain a positive relationship with my mom without letting her comments and attitude affect my confidence, my feelings toward her, or both?
Torn
Jun 18, 2019 10:16 am
PreK question. My kid is a mid December baby. Our public school year is a strict calendar year, meaning that she would eligible for preK this September even though she won’t be 4 until winter. She’d be the littlest one in her class. If we send her to private school the cut off is September so she wouldn’t start preK until next year. Our initial plan was to just send her to public school now and see what happens. If it doesn’t work out, we would still have options to reconsider. Private school in our area is super pricey and public schools are good.
But the last year she’s been in a wonderful language immersion preschool that we really love. We want her to continue with the 2nd language but they follow the private school calendar; their classes for 3 year olds run in the mornings only and only 4 year olds can take afternoon classes that would work with an ‘after school’ schedule. I already asked if our kiddo could go to the 4s class, but they said no. If they had a full time program, we would just stick to it. But as is, it’s either preK and no immersion program or immersion program 2 days a week and no preK. I suppose we could enroll her in a 2nd preschool for the other days of the week but obviously that’s an added expense and would be a serious stretch.
I’m not sure what my question is but I guess just looking for perspectives…. what would you all do? Is it totally nuts to try to enroll her in preK but not send her twice a week? Would we get kicked out? Does pre-k have a curriculum such that it matters?
Do I expect too much from my nanny? I have 10-month old twins who nap for about 3 hours a day. My nanny spends most of their nap time relaxing (well-deserved!) and does most of her non-baby-watching activities (like prepping their meals and washing dishes) while the kids are awake. The kids are in a baby-proofed room so I’m not terribly concerned about safety and, if she chose to look, she could see them from the adjoining kitchen, but I would rather she try to spend their awake time watching/playing with them and take care of other things during their naps. Am I wrong or at least, expecting more than I should? In case it matters, about half of these other tasks are not things I’ve asked her to do and, tbh, things I have asked her not to do, but she does anyway (like putting away our non-kid dishes), so I don’t think its a matter of me putting too much on her plate. I know they need to learn to play on their own, but they get plenty of that because they are twins and rarely get undivided attention from an adult.
Eh, I liked the Primo Eurobath for the stage where The Kid was too big for the bathroom sink (towel-lined) and too small for the full tub. That thing was beyond sturdy and went on to have a long life with two of my associate’s kids and now his niece.
How much do you communicate with daycare about late drop-offs or early pickups? We started daycare a couple weeks ago, and the teacher has already admonished us that we need to better about communicating in advance exactly what time we’ll do drop off and pick up. But it’s hard for us to predict exactly (DH and I both have mostly flexible schedules and would prefer not to wake or rush our night owl baby). I understand wanting advance notice if our daughter will be entirely absent that day and wanting us to avoid coming during naptime unless necessary for a doctor’s appointment, but it’s been a struggle to predict the days’ schedule exactly in advance and I find myself emailing the teacher multiple times per day (eg, the night before telling her we’ll drop her off at 9, then emailing her at 9 ‘actually she’s still sleeping, we’ll be in at 10’, etc) which feels crazy to me…but maybe that’s what she wants? Am I ‘That Parent’ that’s making my daycare teacher’s life miserable?
I can’t believe I’m posting this, but this *is* a fashion blog right?
What stores/brands do your young elementary school girls wear? My kid is headed to kindergarten and is very tall and a fall birthday- so she’s a 5/6 now and will be a size 6 in the fall. I knew what I was doing in toddler sizes, but now that she’s a girls size, there’s just so much stuff that strikes me as too grown up! Plus she’s an 11/12 shoe which is not quite girl but the toddler stuff is awfully…toddler (ankle straps on the flip flops for example).
Her “style” is not super defined. She has some friends that are clearly Sporty Spice, rocking under armor hats, gap sweatshirts and soccer shorts. She has a few friends that walked off the pages of a Mini boden catalog. She wore a lot of Tea Collection tunic dresses + leggings in preschool but that look feels too preschool to me vs elem school- am I wrong?
She is living in and loving maxi dresses and rompers from old navy band gap this summer. She likes dresses and skirts more than shorts/jeans but likes them casual. Her fave shirts are the target cat and jack floppy sequin shirts. I generally don’t go for tons of prints and I avoid “word” shirts.
Where do I start looking? I’m tempted to just stitch fix her, but I’m not that dedicated to her style :-). She’s interested in participating, but other than having her browse gap kids online or walk the aisles of TJMaxx (or worse…let her loose in Nordstrom), how do I engage her?
My MIL, who was a SAH spouse that moved 100 times for my FIL’s career, once asked my husband what the point of being married was if his wife got home from work at 7 pm every night and he was the one making dinner nightly. My husband shut that right down. Apparently, men are only supposed to marry to have servants in her eyes. The irony is now that my FIL is retired, he does all of the cooking because he enjoys it.
I have unexplained infertility and after 3 failed IUIs and one failed IVF and a year off from actively trying, I’m just now learning that I may have endometriosis and the only real way to know is an exploratory surgery. Why no one offered that as an option before is beyond me. I’m just throwing that out there as a thing to look into if nothing works. I didn’t have years of problems because I had spent my whole life on birth control. Now, particularly post IVF and all the hormones, I have extremely bad pain at various points in my cycle, particularly ovulation.
We have this tub and love it. I use it to bathe my daughter on the floor of our shower so I can sit next to the open shower door and don’t have to kneel/lean over the edge of the tub. My daughter is sadly about to outgrow it at 18 months.
Do you ever feel like you’re doing it all wrong? My son is almost three and isn’t potty trained (he has zero interest, refuses to go), he’s always tracked a bit behind verbally (got him evaluated at 2 and didn’t qualify for early intervention), and recently he’s been having a lot of anger that doesn’t seem to be based in anything. He refuses to engage in any sort of calm down behavior (they try deep breathing and counting at school, we try “stomp three times” at home). He’s extremely stubborn. After he feels his feelings he’s fine but it’s a brutal five or ten minutes of hitting, us or himself, throwing toys, and yelling. We say “we won’t let you hit” and “you may not throw your toys” and take them away but it’s such a frustrating grind. I feel like an awful parent sometimes.
Our toddler is always hilarious and loving and adorable, but he is just HARD. I’ve been around a lot of kids and he’s just …extra. They love him at daycare, and for that I am so grateful, but yesterday his teacher talked to me about the anger thing. It was so we could get on the same page with how we are reacting and handling in the moment, but I felt like it was like being put on notice. I really want another child, and we’re both almost 40, but my husband is so worn down with our toddler that he can’t even imagine it, so I feel like all my parenting failures are preventing me from having another baby (I know this is ridiculous). Ugh.
Not strictly a parenting question, but how do you get back on track at work after months of unproductivity? Between some vacations, family (not kid) obligations and toddler starting daycare and all the associated illnesses, I’ve probably only worked about 50% of the workdays in 2019. My job is such that I don’t really have strict deadlines, but I am judged on my productivity and I feel like I’ve accomplished next to nothing this year so far and need to fix that stat. Oh also toddler is waking up a lot more at night (due to teething and/or illness) and I’m exhausted.
I need to negotiate maternity leave. My firm’s policy is 6 weeks paid, additional time unpaid at discretion of firm leadership. I can afford the unpaid time and want to take as much as I can, because my experience has been poor sleepers for babies, and I don’t think well on interrupted sleep. I went back too early with my first, and it was a disaster on a lot of fronts–not doing that again. So: How long is TOO long so that I lose touch with my cases and clients (and partners) forget about me? Also: I have flirted with the idea of going back on a weird schedule through the remainder of the spring school semester, working 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. or something so I can be home for my older kids getting off the bus from school rather than putting them in after school care. In my experience, baby will get up at 4:30 anyway, so I might as well get work done while the office is quiet. But will that create an unavailability problem for me in the afternoons, or signal a lack of commitment?
For reference, I’m at a small-mid size law firm. I’m a senior associate, within striking range of partnership, so I have about an even mix of cases where I’m primary vs. secondary. A coworker is about to return from maternity leave. I think she’ll wind up being out about 16 weeks (which seems pretty good to me).
Does anyone here work for the general counsel office of a federal agency? I’m thinking about looking for a position that is close to being 40 hours a week and my husband keeps telling me to look into the opening at his agency. I am currently a mid-level biglaw associate in litigation, so this would be a big change.
So if you work in the general counsel office for a government agency do you like it? Is it at least somewhat engaging? Do you stick to 40 hours a week working? I want to hear from you!
Potty training advice! We trained my 2.5 year old son a few weeks ago and he’s doing great except for public restrooms. He’ll say he has to go but then refuses when we get there (we have a travel potty that goes on top of the toilet). He then is like a camel and holds it for a while til we get home. Any advice? Will this just go away? Thanks!
I think I know what the answer will be, but I feel like I need to ask anyway, since I can’t really talk about it with coworkers or people I know. I have been asked to be on the planning/host committee for a conference next spring. I am fairly junior, so it’s exciting/a big deal for me to be asked. It would get me more visibility in my practice area (I’m a lawyer in a niche practice) and would be a great networking opportunity. However, we are TTC #2, and if we succeed anytime in the next 3-4 months, I will either have super tiny baby, or be very pregnant at the time of the conference, which would involve travel.
I know the usual advice here is to proceed in professional life as if you won’t be pregnant, and adjust accordingly if it does happen. But I would hate to make this commitment, do all the planning work, and then have to miss the conference itself. It’s not such a great opportunity that I’m willing to change my TTC plans, but I do worry that saying no now will lessen my chances of being asked again later.
Can we talk about our own moms this morning since I’m struggling with mine? TL:DR How would you deal with your mom if she wasn’t supportive of your career?
My mom quit her job when I was very young to be a “SAHM” (I use quotes because she never really stopped working and instead managed several of my parents’ entrepreneurial ventures through the years.) We’ve always been very different people but were very close until I had children of my own. Since then, it’s like our instincts are just diametrically opposed on all things kid-related and we don’t know how to relate to each other at all anymore. Even though she’s always been very proud of my accomplishments, she doesn’t seem to understand my choices to pursue a demanding career, have my kids in full-time daycare, or -gasp!- go to a book club or date night once in a while. Lately, she’s been making backhanded comments that seem fine from the outside but are driving me bananas. For example, whenever she keeps my kids, she makes a huge show about how much they have missed me when I pick them up, how “they just needed their mommy,” etc. A few months after I accepted a demanding new position last year, she asked me if I thought my kids were “suffering” with all the hours I was working. And most recently, she expressed similar concerns to my DH while I was away on a business trip. It’s infuriating.
I love my job, and I know my kids are thriving in a lot of ways, directly and indirectly, because of it. I also know my mom thinks I’m a good mother. She just thinks it would be better for my children if I had a less demanding, more predictable job, I guess? I also try to remind myself that my mom was only in the workforce for a very short time and that she and my dad (just like all her friends and family) have a very traditional marriage. She just doesn’t have any frame of reference for what a bread-winning working-mom-by-choice looks like. Rationally, I get all this and try to brush her attitude off. But it makes it really hard to spend time with her when she’s constantly expressing her “concern” and tacit disapproval.
She’s an excellent grandmother and I’m not willing to limit her time with our family. Plus, I just miss my mom, and I hate the resentment and defensiveness that I’m feeling toward her. Working motherhood is a pretty lonely experience in a lot of ways anyway, and I hate not being able to have my mom as a resource and sounding board like I have in other areas of my life. Unfortunately, a long, cathartic talk isn’t likely to resolve our issues based on past experience. So, I guess my question is how do I maintain/regain a positive relationship with my mom without letting her comments and attitude affect my confidence, my feelings toward her, or both?
PreK question. My kid is a mid December baby. Our public school year is a strict calendar year, meaning that she would eligible for preK this September even though she won’t be 4 until winter. She’d be the littlest one in her class. If we send her to private school the cut off is September so she wouldn’t start preK until next year. Our initial plan was to just send her to public school now and see what happens. If it doesn’t work out, we would still have options to reconsider. Private school in our area is super pricey and public schools are good.
But the last year she’s been in a wonderful language immersion preschool that we really love. We want her to continue with the 2nd language but they follow the private school calendar; their classes for 3 year olds run in the mornings only and only 4 year olds can take afternoon classes that would work with an ‘after school’ schedule. I already asked if our kiddo could go to the 4s class, but they said no. If they had a full time program, we would just stick to it. But as is, it’s either preK and no immersion program or immersion program 2 days a week and no preK. I suppose we could enroll her in a 2nd preschool for the other days of the week but obviously that’s an added expense and would be a serious stretch.
I’m not sure what my question is but I guess just looking for perspectives…. what would you all do? Is it totally nuts to try to enroll her in preK but not send her twice a week? Would we get kicked out? Does pre-k have a curriculum such that it matters?