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Thursday’s Workwear Report: Pleated Cotton Maxi Dress

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A woman wearing a plus-size green maxi dress with nude heels

Our daily workwear reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.

I had lunch with a friend last week, and when she arrived wearing this dress from Kensie, it was obviously the first thing I asked her about. The color is so vibrant, it felt like summer was starting the moment she walked into the restaurant.

I should note that the model makes the dress look like it’s mid-calf length, but my friend is 5’6” and it was a full maxi-length on her. Fortunately, the collar and pleating makes it look more work-appropriate than the maxi sundresses you may have in your closet. 

The dress is $64.97 at Nordstrom Rack and comes in sizes 1X-3X. It’s also available in pink. 

Sales of note for 6/26:

238 Comments

  1. No question; just frustration.
    IDK how people are supposed to be able to have a small business or work with kids, elders, needing to let plumbers in, etc. Except that this explains why my family for generations lived in a small LCOL town with limited economic opportunities: you pitched in as a larger multi-generational family unit and got things done. Moving away to a big city for opportunities got my parents and later me that, but at the cost of so much complexity and hiring almost everything out (often with iffy results). I get that not everyone has a stable or reliable family, and mine has gone to sh*t now that we are too spread out and some people have stopped talking to each other, but I just feel like I’m on a hamster wheel I can’t get off of.

    1. This is why it’s such a problem that the economy requires two-worker couples. You need to have one person at home at least part-time for this stuff, but middle-class people cannot afford that.

      1. The economy has always required nearly every family to have two working adults.

        1. Not when I was growing up. Even blue-collar families could afford a SAHM. Maybe in the Victorian slums, but that was a problem.

          1. But when my people were farmers, work and home were the same place.

            Now, the only people I know using a clothesline are either very, very poor rural people or my very rich bougie neighbors who are currently doing the trad-wife thing.

          2. My parents used a clothesline into the 1990s at least. I had some nice going-out shirts that got ruined by fading. The sunlight is great for white shirts and linens though.

        3. One of the working adults was often working on full time childcare, household management, cooking, cleaning, laundry, and household good production, with maybe some part time work of a similar nature on the side.

          1. Yeah, this. My 60s stay at home mom was doing all the childcare, all the cooking including baking bread and canning, all the cleaning, managing a truck garden, and working part time at a local school. You had to be UMC to have the kind of life these posters imagine.

      2. The economy absolutely doesn’t require two incomes. It requires one solid income. Something like 30% of American families with kids and two parents in the house are single income households.

        1. That kind of “solid,” meaning you can afford a mortgage and food and insurance and necessities and still save for emergencies and retirement, is north of $200K. Especially with kids.

          1. Maybe nobody’s ever going to retire, but you must know that there are a ton of families (large families even) in single income households where the income is less than $100k.

          2. And these families are never going to retire and are going to be financially ruined if the roof starts to leak or the washer breaks.

          3. You must live in a bubble if you think there aren’t people managing to own houses and have children with less than $200k, lol.

          4. It very literally is not in most of the country, and I did not say anything about home ownership. I live in SF, and as long as I live here, I will rent, because that is what makes sense in this market. If I want to buy, I’ll leave SF.

          5. omg that’s insane. Our HHI is <$200k and we feel filthy rich in the non-Chicago Midwest. We have seven figure retirement savings, a robust college fund, a fully paid off house and we take multiple nice vacations a year. You can have a roof over your head on a far lower income. Outside of a few HCOL cities, $200k is a LOT.

          6. $200K gross is somewhere in the vicinity of $6500/month after benefits and maxing two 401Ks. That’s not enough to save for college, pay off a mortgage early, pay the bills, and save for emergencies.

          7. Well I don’t know what to tell you, but we have done all that on <$200k HHI. LCOL area, but a lot of the Midwest and South is LCOL.

            $6,500/month is $78k/year… that seems way too low if your gross pay is $200k? Even if $46k is coming off the top to max out two retirement accounts, that's over half your salary to taxes which doesn't seem right even in the highest tax states. The first $100k is only taxed at 12% federally.

            Our monthly takehome is more like $9k after maxing two retirement accounts, and we usually get a decent (high four figure) refund at tax time. Our state taxes are low and we have almost no out of pocket costs for benefits (HDHPs). $9k/month goes pretty far in a LCOL area.

          8. This comment made me curious so I just looked at our 2025 taxes. Rounded to the nearest 1k for MFJ couple:
            Gross income: 189k
            Adjusted gross income (after retirement contributions): 142k
            Taxable income after deductions: 110k
            Total federal tax due: 12k
            Total state tax due: 6k (<- this was more than I thought it was actually)

            That works out to a net of 124k/year or a little over 10k a month which tracks with my estimate of $9k/month during the year and a nice refund at tax time.

            We take the standard deduction, no special loopholes. You might need a new accountant because I have no idea how you're getting a net of only $6,500 a month for a household earning $200k!

          9. Our family HDHP premium is in the vicinity of $350/month, then we have to max the HSA. So that’s more than $1000 lost to take-home pay right there.

          10. That still doesn’t get you anywhere near $6,500 and that HSA money isn’t “gone” it’s money you can use for healthcare expenses you’d otherwise pay out of pocket.

        2. 30% cannot be the right statistic, when we know what the average household income is for the US. C’mon.

          1. Go do some research and come back with a different estimate, then, instead of lazily relying on your own assumptions.

          2. Based on 2015–17 CE data (used in the rest of the analysis) for married couples with children under age 18, the proportion of “one full time, one not working” households is 30 percent; the proportion of “one full time, one part time” households is 14 percent; and the proportion of “both full time” households is 52 percent.”

            My statistic was from the literal Bureau of Labor Statistics, btw.

          3. In response to the poster at 10:16 citing the BLS data – I think what other posters are highlighting is that 30% doing it is not the same as 30% truly being able to afford it (i.e., covering future education costs, retirement, emergency savings). So 30% could be true, while the statement that “the economy absolutely doesn’t require two incomes” could be false.

          4. Idk, I know plenty of people making it just fine in my Midwest home town on a single income. They own their houses. They go on vacation. I presume they’re saving for retirement based on what I know about their personalities.

            It just is not true that everyone is broke unless they have two incomes.

        3. Not every household surviving on a single income is doing that as their first choice. Especially outside of big cities, salaries are not high enough that they allow a family to afford childcare and commute costs, so one of the parents ends up staying home.

          1. Of course. In this case the economy not only doesn’t require two incomes, but it forces one income.

          2. Sure. But they’re surviving just fine. Two incomes is absolutely not necessary.

          3. Right. Very common in military families. Who will hire and train the non-military spouse who often has kids, no local relatives to help out (a common them when there are two working adults and kids under driving age), and she will just move in a year or two or will get canned when one kid gets sick too much and she has to miss work.

          4. It’s common to make homeschooling possible too (which people do for all kinds of reasons including medical, not as a first choice).

          5. Scraping by paycheck to paycheck, hoping no appliances or vehicles break down, and that everyone stays healthy enough is not exactly “just fine” you know.

          6. Be real. Just about anyone who works for a living is just hoping that everyone stays healthy enough.

          7. The number of people who have no concept that there is a huge percentage of our population who cannot afford basic medical copays (if they even have insurance) or even OTC meds in case of a cold is truly shocking to me.

          8. I don’t agree it’s from living in a bubble; do people really think that all the people who work for them (service workers, etc.) all have health insurance and long term financial security and retirement accounts, etc.?

          9. The percentage of the commentariat here that doesn’t understand that a good chunk of America is managing to live and save on under $100k is truly shocking to me.

            Yes, my friend who works for the local hospital doing HR in a medium size town in the Midwest is doing fine. Yes, my BIL in the same town who works for the railroad is doing fine. Yes, my uncle who worked as a diesel fitter for 40 years and now is a plumber who only works for people he knows and likes is doing fine.

            There is this attitude here that everyone who is isn’t a lawyer must be destitute or working as a gig economy worker, and it’s just not true.

          10. This is true where I grew up. Yes, most people own their own homes but 50% make less than 50,000. Yes, they are going on vacations and have cars and all of that, but the credit card debt is probably very high. Women stay home because they can’t afford childcare. I wouldn’t want to live like that.

          11. And you don’t have to. But plenty of people manage without two incomes. You don’t have to be one, but it’s a choice you’re making, not something society is forcing you into.

          12. 1:01 – there is a vast difference between the lifestyles of skilled trades workers making high five figure salaries with benefits and the households where the sole income comes from working <$20 per hour shifts at the local factory and one parent stays home with the kids because the jobs they can find don't pay enough to cover the cost of gas to get there and back. Of course people make it work. What other choice is there? That's not thriving, it's (barely) subsistence living. And just because they manage to save enough for a vacation doesn't mean they can put away money for retirement in any meaningful way.

          13. Duh. The assertion was that the economy requires two workers. That is patently false. That doesn’t mean that you can work any job anywhere and expect to thrive. You have to actually have a skill people want to pay you money for. Mopping floors at Burger King isn’t a career.

        4. Your statement is ambiguous because you don’t define what you mean by one “solid” income. Please elaborate.

          1. I know a lot of single income households. In my world it means a full time job with benefits, even if it’s entry level or only requires a high school education.

          2. Middle class income, adjusting for local COL (higher in SF than Topeka). Very doable.

        5. It’s also very regional. I live in a LCOL area and in our area only rich women work outside the home because they’re the only ones who can afford childcare. If you have 2 or especially 3 kids, it’s hard to earn more than childcare costs without an advanced degree or a special skill. I would not describe most of the SAHM families I know as rich, but most of them are doing fine and not in poverty.

          1. Similar in my MCOL area, although the “doing fine” piece is nuanced. They may be doing fine right now, but not when the furnace goes out next winter, not when the breadwinner is injured by a drunk driver, not when they hit retirement age and have to keep working because they never made enough to save anything after the bills got paid.

          2. Getting hit by a drunk driver is a wild thing to include in the same list as replacing a furnace, lol. That’s going to affect any family, regardless of income, both financially and not financially.

          3. Replace it with a workplace injury if you think drunk driving injuries are a wild lol occurrence. There have been three crashes caused by drunk drivers on my suburban side street so far this year so it’s more of a concern for my neighborhood than furnaces going out. Hopefully you are intelligent enough to mentally substitute an example that you find valid to your own experience.

          4. You can insure against a lot of this stuff, and you would normally be able to sue for a workplace injury. One of the richest people I know got set for life financially because of a workplace injury (not saying it’s a desirable thing – but unlikely to be financially ruinous unless you work for a very small business that has no money left to pay out).

            There are definitely people who can afford shelter and food when things are going well but don’t have any savings for an emergency, but in LCOL places it doesn’t take a massive income to have a modest nest egg.

          5. The willful oblivion on this board is insane. Enjoy your bubble while it lasts.

    2. Remote work made this a lot easier. It’s being clawed back now but there are still a lot of jobs that demand regular facetime but will let you stay home to meet a plumber.

      1. Remote work has made this soooo much easier. Unfortunately my employer has recently instituted a hard return to office and idk what I’m going to do about my (very necessary) upcoming furnace and water heater replacements. I guess I’ll burn a vacation day or two.

        1. The vast majority of companies will still let you WFH to handle things like this. It’s quite an overreaction to think otherwise.

          1. HA! Very much depends on the company. Many cultures won’t permit, “Oh I’m going to WFH because X, Y, or Z repairman is coming.”

          2. This is a very privileged take. Many, many places DGAF about your need to flex for very normal life stuff like this.

          3. Yeah as a generalization this just isn’t true. Even if a company allows its white collar workers to do this from time to time, that doesn’t mean everyone in the company can. And it’s very culture dependent. My manager despises WFH and holds it against his team when we do this.

        2. Put a contractor lockbox on your door and give the contractors the code. You do not need to be home for a water heater or furnace swap.

          2. We have a dog and the whole stinking downstairs is open concept. I feel that many contractors won’t come into a house with no owner home but a big dog roaming around. I also have teen girls; I’d leave them home alone, but not with a male worker/s; that seems like it could go so wrong, so fast.

            People do this though?

          4. Crate your dog. Have your teens go to the library or park if you’re that worried about them.

          5. Just watch the news.

            OTOH, I know adult women who are afraid to be alone with contractors. To me, that seems a bit excessive (or get other contractors). But with a phone, you can be “on the phone” with someone and that would give 99% of creeps pause.

            Maybe we all just need handymen on retainer? Or to live in a building with a good super?

      2. Yes! Remote has made it a lot easier for this, and work has been flexible on the actual days so it can be a day that work can be done. Has become very much the norm.

      3. There are a lot of things I don’t like about being a (large? medium?) firm lawyer, but the flexibility I have with my schedule to do things like work from home to meet the plumber is one great thing and one of the biggest reasons I declined a government job.

    3. I didn’t realize that in many ways, once my kids left day care, my life would get into deeper and deeper levels of logistically harder. That is barely grammar but I can’t do better at the moment. Maybe it gets better when the kids become competent drivers? IDK. Not there yet but hopeful.

      1. The entire reason I have stayed in a job that I only tolerate these days is because I’ve earned so much flexibility over the many years I’ve been here. As long as I have school-age kids, I can’t see myself leaving.

        It does get better when you have a driver. This week, my oldest (16) has been picking up the younger one from day camp. Having a third drive is a GAME CHANGER. That said, it takes many years to get to this point. (The worst is having a high schooler with commitments who is unable to drive.)

        1. I have two high schoolers who don’t drive. Yet. My only goal this summer is to get the nervous one more comfortable driving and to get the other one enough behind the wheel time to pass the test. Send prayers. Also: this eats up most of my free time right now. But I’m hoping that at least one can drive come August. This close to just letting Jesus take the wheel some days.

          1. That was us last summer! I promise that it will be worth it when they can get places independently.

        2. I can remember the glorious day that I first sent my new driver to the store for bread and milk!

          1. I can send my ten year old to the store on his bike for groceries, and it is similarly glorious!

      2. It does get better as the kids get older. Once they can drive themselves for sure, but even before then, we had seasons where we got creative and made it work. A few examples: a fellow track team friend who lived up the road had a grandma who was happy to pick up and drop off our kid for practices and meets. Then there was the semester where another theater dad with a 12-seat van did a taxi circuit for the whole crew after rehearsals. Once in a while we also leaned on unconventional people for help. Our neighbor’s retired mother was visiting for the summer and was willing to babysit last minute when I had a job interview and no childcare. Our public library let our then 8 year old walk over to volunteer after school the two weeks our car was out of commission for school pickups.

    4. Many moons ago I was a nanny to two Big Law lawyers and I swear half of my job was just being home so I could let in contractors, cleaners, etc. Obviously not an affordable option for everyone!

    5. Being born in a town where I have extended family and plenty of economic opportunity was a blessing that I didn’t appreciate until adulthood. That said, col is crazy high here and plenty of people trade close family for a giant house in some random city.

    6. My best friend has a lady that comes a few days a week for a few hours while the kids are at school and they’re both working. She deals with the plumber, puts dinner in the crock pot, organizes the drawers and wraps birthday gifts, ect. The fact that she’s neither cleaning nor doing childcare and is still plenty busy says a lot about what goes into a running a home.

        1. Seconded, this sounds like an incredible option and I need to know how to secure this arrangement!

        2. We found someone like this from a local Facebook sitters page. Search ‘town name sitters’ (or similar) and you’ll get people who do everything from ‘mother’s helper’, pet sitting, and ‘house manager’ services. Lots of empty nester moms/young grandma types who want to work a few hours a week on a flexible schedule and are great at running a household since they’ve been doing it their whole lives!

          1. I wish people just accepted getting paid on the books. I feel that that has gotten rid of something like 90% of people I’ve talked with (do they never want social security or medicare? you can’t work under the table forever and ever).

          2. Are you will to pay 30% or more to get this type of worker on the books? Because that’s why.

          3. Yes. And carry worker’s comp. It’s not worth risking a professional license for.

            But I think people just don’t want to pay taxes. Maybe I can just call it a tip?

          4. Anon at 10:22am. My nanny won’t accept pay on the books because she will lose her housing. She is wonderful with my children so I pay cash and keep it moving.

            When I was in a bigger home I had an au pair who enjoyed Martha Stewart. She did so many beautiful projects, made many lovely meals and cakes plus did the kids laundry.

            The au pair was a happy medium of affordable and on the books.

        3. It was very hush hush! Another working mom at her kids school very quietly let her know this amazing lady had some availability. She wasn’t sure why she’d need it and the other mom was like “trust me you want her!” And it’s been great. I think it’s the kind of thing where you really need a specific person who knows how to run a home and takes initiative.

    7. Get a contractor lockbox and put cameras in your house. The repair people can let themselves in.

      1. A smart lock also has this feature. Every tradesperson ever has worked in a home when no one is home.

      2. Or just a contractor you trust. I’ve had a fabulous relationship with mine for a decade and he lets himself in, with keys, sans cameras. So does our house cleaner and dog walker. It is possible to trust people.

        1. I only said cameras because I know the commentariat here, haha. We also don’t have them in the house and do the contractor box with our handyman and plumber regularly!

        2. Same; I cannot fathom letting a stranger into my home to do thousands of dollars of work without being there to answer questions.

          1. Mine will just call and FaceTime if there’s a question but he knows my house well and my preferences so it’s rarely an issue.

          3. Of course I have a cell phone but the contractors in my rural area very often do not.

            This is a big country, not everyone lives the same life of privilege that you do.

          6. Cell phone ownership in the US is >98%, and higher among working age people. It’s really not a “privilege” thing. Job that gives you enough flexibility to be home to let in workers is a privilege though!

          7. My neighbors have 6 people in their house, ranging from adults to middle schoolers. They share one cell phone between all of them. If mom needs the phone so she can call the kid’s doctor, dad can’t take it to work with him that day. This is reality for many people around you, even if you pretend it’s not true.

          8. You can buy a basic cell phone for $50 cash and a prepaid plan for $20/month. If your hiring people to work for you who can’t afford that, pay more. Heck, if you’re struggling in your $$$$ lawyer job because you have to be home to answer said contractor’s questions in person, buy an extra phone and leave it at your house for any tradespeople who need to call you!This is not an unsolvable problem.

        3. We had a tradesperson we trusted for years. His son took over the business and didn’t pay his people. Things went missing around our house—not even things you think would be tempting, they took his equipment in retaliation and there was shouting and then we had him show up at 10 at night telling us not to worry that he was getting our house keys back from his soon-to-be ex a meth addict. I still have no idea what all has been stolen and that’s in some ways even worse than losing the things. I’ll never have someone have access like that again. Folks saying otherwise are incredibly naive.

          1. Okay, then quit your job so you can make sure that things you don’t even know you own don’t get stolen.

          2. You had an inflection point when ownership changed. That’s not the same thing as a long time trusted person.

          1. Also, all of the people upthread suggesting a mother’s helper are also suggesting having a contractor in the house unsupervised.

          2. Yes, the way we make two big jobs and maintaining our house, pets and life is to hire help. Mothers helpers, contractors and cleaners with keys, dog day care that gets the dogs in our house. You do have to trust people at some point. It’s why my response to most “should I take a pay cut” questions is no, life is a lot easier when you can hire help.

          3. Good for you! Any suggestions for the rest of us on how we can find and then develop such trust with tradespeople?

          4. Ask your neighbors, and ask your tradespeople. My plumber was a referral from a neighbor who had been using him for 15 years, and he introduced me to my drywall guy and my window cleaning woman.

          5. I’ve found some really great trusted tradespeople over just a few years (since moving to my house/town/state), and it’s all been through word of mouth. The sellers of our house referred us to their handyman and cleaning lady (who are married to each other), who took care of the house before they bought it, too. They’ve referred us to a few other people they trust. So have some other new local friends. We don’t have cameras and have always had good experiences with people doing their work and leaving everything in good shape.

        2. Life has a lot of tradeoffs. Not saying there’s no risk to giving tradespeople access to your house, but you have to decide what risks you’re willing to take, and what you’re willing to give up to avoid them. Same with anything else you choose: putting your kid in daycare, or hiring a home health aide for your elderly parent, or letting a mechanic work on your car brakes, etc.

    8. I have been so very lucky to work from home (despite 20% travel) since my kids were born 15+ years ago, especially as we have no local family. The logistics of daycare were deceptively easy but the coordination a school calendar requires and the insanity of registering for camp in Jan/Feb. is a unique kind of hell for working families. I’ve seriously considered a babysitter for my 13 and 15 year old because neither can drive yet and school/sports/work commitments are often impossible to align. So far we’ve made it work with a good group of other parents who are open to carpooling but I am white knuckling it through till we have another driver!

      1. All my friends have the mother’s helper described above to help with this lift. I would absolutely look into that in your shoes.

      2. This is a real thing! I know a few families who basically found summer drivers (usually a college kid) for their younger teens.

    9. There is a reason that my husband and I moved back to our parents’ hometown when our son was little. And this is why I have suggested that my son stay in the same state and us even thought the State is Flor-duh.

      To the poster who said we’ve always needed two working adults that is only partially true. One adult, the man went out everyday and labored for money. The mother scrubbed clothes on a washboard, swept several times a day, cooked from scratch, etc. She worked but not outside the home for money.

      1. And someone still does those tasks at home, but now there are two adults working outside the home and they have to do the in-home work too. Three jobs for two adults instead of two.

        1. No one in modern times is scrubbing clothes on a washboard or sweeping several times a day in an age of washing machines and vacuums. The historical work of women has been materially reduced by the work of machines.

          1. My husband sweeps our main floor several times a day, fwiw. Your experience and opinion is not universal.

    1. I have a shirt dress that’s similar on top and the same color, and I get multiple compliments every time I wear it!

  3. Big thanks to all the feedback on my house dilemma yesterday afternoon. I was the poster asking why we wouldn’t upgrade our home before buying an investment property. I got a ton of good insight and had the opportunity to speak with my husband. The takeaway was that he’s not on board with moving to a nicer home unless certain very specific properties become available (specifically large historic homes that would have comparatively lower taxes). He sees our home as an obligation and our any additional properties as investments. While I think reasonable people would disagree, his financial philosophy has served us well so far. He also reminded me we should have access to a private pool club next summer where we can host occasional playdates.

    I’m currently looking at properties to renovate in either in our town or in a more rural area a few hours away. I haven’t done a renovation in a few years so I’m somewhat excited for that.

    1. My husband had this attitude for a long time–our home is a financial obligation, not a place to enjoy living. It led to a lot of financial decisions that have come back to bite us in the long run, like deferred maintenance and not buying a better home a long time ago before ours had fallen apart and prices had skyrocketed. Now he has finally decided he wants a nice home, and we can’t afford it when we could have before.

      1. A home is an asset, not a liability. A lot of houses today are future teardowns, even if they are in relatively ok shape, because the land is more valuable to future buyers than the structure. So deferring some cosmetic maintenance is not crazy. I’m at a point where I’ll spend a lot on something I enjoy (i.e. my pool) but I won’t change up carpet or gut-reno my kitchen because my dated cabinets and layout are still serviceable.

      2. Yeah, it seems kind of sad to never want to invest in making the place where you spend most of your time a comfortable place to live.

        1. But the discussion yesterday also brought out that maybe the home is comfortable *to live*, while not being a good space to host, at least on par with other more lavish homes.

    2. I don’t quite get the mentality that a home is an “obligation.” It’s literally where you live your life. Not saying your family home should be your only investment, but it’s just a strange way to think, IMO. Especially when you’ve put many thousands of dollars into it already.

      If I were thinking “investment property,” I would be thinking of something that benefits my family, like a vacation home. Not something that gives me more chores to do.

      1. It’s specific to our area. Purchasing a house million or more than our current home’s value leads to tax obligations that are really significant. Our current home is renovated to our taste and well maintained and reasonably sized. It’s just not on par with 90% of our children’s friends’ home and we can’t host events.

          1. Hey,you might have missed yesterday but I had a whole comment about this. Yes, we can and do host people. But not the larger events we’d like to.

            Yes, sometimes people do host thanksgiving when people eat on coffee tables or on their laps, in basements and in tents. But we’re opting to not host our family and it’s a bummer. Sure we could. But we don’t.

          3. Are OP’s friends unwilling to be hosted or does OP just want to host to a higher standard than she currently can? It’s a huge difference.

          4. Op here. People aren’t unwilling to come over. The difference is that we’re not able to host the kind of events we’d like to. Everyone in my family loves my casual Xmas eve. They do, it’s great. We all gather around the kitchen island and laugh and drink and eat casually. But for thanksgiving, people expect to be seated at a table. Same for our casual cocktail parties-people love them. But the all day bring the family type of open house holiday parties won’t work here. I can and do host pizza for another family or two on Friday nights. I cannot do the big indoor outdoor football watching parties or summer parties where people want to be outside. This isn’t a “oh I would host if only problem” so much a a logistical issue I’m running into after lots of hosting, if that makes sense.

    3. I’m in a similar situation, a few years ahead of you. We picked a local investment rental near our primary home. I really don’t love our primary house, but it’s comfortable and serviceable for a big family with WFH parents. For us, the “nicer” home option was never really going to come on the market (we were only willing to move in a two-block radius, and we need a really specific layout that honestly won’t exist unless we build it, which we were not willing to do).

      We also don’t host much, but it hasn’t been nearly as much of an issue as our kids have gotten older. We are in a very walkable spot (part of why we won’t leave a 2 block radius), and kids want to meet at the pool or a local hang out spot. Play dates just aren’t really a thing anymore.

      Our rental home is super convenient to us, and as housing gets more expensive in my area, I’m happy we have it. In addition to the rental income, it might end up being a launching pad for my kids (with conditions of course) as they get older. The mortgage is at 2.7%, so rental income easily covers the costs, and by the time my kids are out – the mortgage will be shockingly lower than rent in the area of our metro location.

      Do I sometimes wish we had a show stopper home? Yes, I do. But I also love traveling, and the cost to maintain a home is high and getting higher, so I can’t even imagine how much extra cash we’d spend if we had a pool + maintenance obligations on a fancier house.

    4. We did a ton of work on our house during the pandemic when we couldn’t travel, and I’m very happy we did. We are Very Old and my husband and I both say this is the first time in our lives we’ve lived in a house with no Bad Rooms. It’s really nice to live in a house we really enjoy.

    5. In yesterday’s post when you talked about hosting, I assumed you meant hosting fancy cocktail parties or large holidays. If it’s just playdates you’re hosting, do not let your own pride prevent your kids from playing with their friends THIS summer! Kids like to play at the house with the good snacks, the nice parents, and most importantly – the good friend! Sure, kids like to go to the house with a pool and a tennis court, but they also appreciate a welcoming home with engaged but non-helicopter parents who seem to genuinely care. This level of keeping-up-with-the-Joneses must be exhausting for you.

      1. +1. Of the families we regularly hang out with, ours and our son’s favorite to visit lives in the most modest house of the bunch (and there are a couple of very fancy houses in there). They’re super fun people and always have good food, and those are key!

      2. I mean my kids don’t want to be inside in the summer. It’s impossible to blame them. We have a very small patch of grass and a deck. No room for wiffle ball. Everyone else has a pool and huge yard and snacks and lovely parents. It’s fine, but the bottom line is we can’t reciprocate these afternoon invitations to play outdoors and swim. Could we offer to do rainy day movies? A trip to the golf range? Yes we can and do but that doesn’t mean it’s not an obstacle in our social life. My kids feel it, they get it. It’s not tragic just annoying.

        Same with thanksgiving and other holidays. Sure, we can make people eat on couches or standing up. But my mom can have everyone sitting at a table so it’s a very clear downgrade to come here. We do cocktail parties but can’t do the big open houses that are popular for Christmas. Of course you can entertain in a studio apartment but not at the scale that our family and friends are used to.

          1. Also, I totally get. I love having good entertaining space at my house.

          2. Great question! As I alluded to above we’re on the wait list. My sweet friend who sponsored us swears we’re a shoo in.

  4. What are the best summer slip shorts? Is Thigh Society worth the money? If you got a pair with a phone pocket, do you find you can only use it with sportier looks or vacation outfits?

    1. Cotton bike shorts with a pocket for when they will be an outer layer; jockey skimmies (I find them just as good as thigh society and usually cheaper) for under skirts/dresses.

    2. I like Jockey slip shorts but they’re underwear, not anything I’d put a phone in. Are you looking at the right category of things if you want to carry a phone in them?

    3. How would logistics of accessing a phone in your underwear work? That’s not what slip shorts are for…

      1. I always see the ads advertising this feature! (guessing OP has as well) — and I too am wondering about it! Do you just reach your hand up your skirt??

      2. 100% agree but when i have a dress that doesn’t have pockets i end up sticking my phone in my bra. i can see it being useful if you’re out walking somewhere where you don’t really need your phone but want to have it on you. so you put it in the slipshort bike pocket but only access it when you take a break.

        and there are so many insanely short skorts right now i just wonder if everyone is trained to think of slip shorts as acceptable-to-see underlayers right now. i feel like that’s how the 15-year-olds are getting trained.

    4. For the phone pocket, the LLL tennis skirts with the built in short work well. The biker shorts liner stays in place. These are my go to for concerts, and just embrace that sometimes I have to hike up the skirt a bit to get my phone.

    5. I have Jockey slip shorts as well as Thigh Society slip shorts. While I like the thigh society ones better, I do not like them enough better to pay the price difference. So I won’t be replacing them and will stick with the Jockey ones.

  5. Years ago, I purchased three heavy jersey knit, stretchy, ruched, double-layer dresses. I think I got them at Macy’s or Kohl’s. (I remove tags as I hate the feeling on my neck). They are just above knee length and 3/4 sleeve. Black and white prints but a solid black stripe down the sides. I stored them in a suitcase and they were always wrinkle-free thanks to the heavy jersey. I need to replace them, but can only find single-layer or wrinkle resistant styles. Any ideas for a duplicate?

    2. Take the opportunity to modernize your dresses, that doesn’t sound current at all. Sometimes the need to replace is the best thing that can happen to your closet.

      1. Um, rude! Let the gal wear what she wants. I cannot articulate how gross I find the “women must be on trend!” nonsense on this page.

        1. It’s not rude to point out on an ostensible FASHION blog that something is wildly out of style. I didn’t tell her to revamp her whole closet. I said take the opportunity that’s presented by this dilemma to modernize. Maybe a fashion comment section isn’t the right place for you?

        2. I agree with 9:57, because people should wear whatever they want. On the other hand, many times I nostalgically pined over a garment I no longer had, and actually took the time to track the same thing down on a resale site and buy it. With almost no exceptions, I found that I wasn’t interested in wearing it once I got it. Older styles often just don’t look right or have worn out their welcome. It’s often more an emotional need than a practical need to wear an older-style item.

          1. +1. Recently someone commented if it’s hard to find a style that used to be everywhere it’s a sign the look is dated. Ruched jersey dresses fall into that category.

      4. Counterpoint: it’s the kind of dress that will be back in fashion in 2-3 years. The important thing IMHO is to find something that is sold in stores today, not on a resale site, to be current. The J. McLaughlin pick is a great one for the task.

    4. I also had a few similar dresses years ago and found them at places like TJ Max, Nordstrom Rack, and Burlington.

      This may not be priority for you, but FWIW: while I don’t chase trends and am not terribly worried about being very current, I did retire all of those dresses when I RTO after covid. They were not timeless classics and made me feel very dated.

    6. The Boden ottoman knit dresses are amazing. They are heavy/thick enough to work in colder seasons, but still breathable, non-wrinkly, and comfortable. Boden cycles through necklines (I prefer the V or scoop), but the sleeves are usually three-quarter or full length.

    7. there were some glory days for those kinds of dresses around 2010 or so – Lands’ End dresses were so good but I also still have ones from Target or whatever. pockets, thick jersey, easy wash, etc. these days you’re not going to find those at the target/lands end price range anymore. you can try dresses like the J.McLaughlin or maybe even MMLF. maybe also check out boden’s ottoman material, it’s a thicker fabric. oh and modern citizen has some that might be a bit more modern but i can’t speak to the fabric on those, but longer midi length etc.

      https://mmlafleur.com/products/glenda-ember-red
      https://www.moderncitizen.com/products/fei-tie-front-organic-cotton-dress-dark-maritime

      1. I have two of the Modern Citizen Fei dresses and love them. Very high quality and they have held up well (machine wash, delicate cycle, hang dry). Because they are cotton they are not absolutely wrinkle free, but I’ve never felt the need to iron them.

  6. We’ve talked about this before but wow, I’m getting nervous for the young teens on motorcycles masquerading as e-bikes. There have been two cases in my area lately where the cops actually stirred themselves to pull these kids over, but they outran the cops (stopped a few miles later) and got slaps on the wrist for it. Then as I’m exiting the 8-lane highway at a very sketchy intersection, six teens are literally doing wheelies and weaving in and out of the slowing cars. Finally, it’s a daily occurrence for these motorcycles to weave in and out of pedestrians on the paved walking path where they aren’t allowed, period. I actually called the cops myself one day when a kid deliberately veered towards my child, buzzing him, and the operator sighed and said she thought she knew who it was (third call that day).

    It’s easy for me to see that an utter lack of enforcement (our towns limply focus on “education”) is a major problem – but what I don’t get is where the hell the parents are. My heart almost stopped when those teens were weaving at the exit ramp. It would have been SO easy to accidentally kill several of them in just seconds. Some of these bikes are expensive and the parents are obviously the ones paying for them. But why?

    1. Would love to hear if there are any women here who have bought their teen an e-bike and if so, their justification.

      It is a scourge and I hate it. I worry for the kids on the e-bikes with no helmets but at some point my worry is more about my own kids’ safety on our suburban sidewalks.

      1. OP here and I feel the same. If another teen buzzes my toddler (happened when he was just 15 months), there will be hell to pay – but I also really, really don’t want to see a 14-year-old die because his parents let him ride an illegal motorcycle in traffic.

        1. Our town finally banned e-bikes and motorcycles for those without drivers licenses but it took 3 kids dying before it happened.

          1. That’s the law in our city, and it still is not a deterrent for these idiot parents and their equally idiotic children.

        1. I don’t think she’s saying that, just that this is a page for women so they’re the ones who can comment.

      3. I live in the city and the souped up e-bikes on the bike paths and roads are a menace. Super dangerous and often very agressive – riding at people for fun and generally being threatening. A 10 and 12 year old are in hospital after falling off escooters at speed. Who is buying these for their kids?

        I have a pedal assist kit on my bike for my commute but it taps out at 15mph, so it’s just a boost up the hills versus going faster than a normal bike.

      4. I made my young child (5 at the time) wear a helmet on a power wheels and everyone in my family though I was being insane. Shortly after, a neighbor borrowed it for a party (with our permission), their 6 year old tried to do a wheelie, fell off, broke an arm, and got a concussion.
        This was on a kid’s ‘toy’ that was speed limited to something like 3-5 mph, I cannot imagine giving literal children access to bikes that go 30mph plus.

      5. I have a high schooler and a middle schooler, and I feel the same way. Somebody in our neighborhood is going to get killed.

    2. Risk tolerance. No different from how some parents insist their kids wear helmets while others do not.

      1. Are they actually thinking about the risk (and the illegality) and saying sure, though? Or are they afraid to stand up to their kids when they ask for these bikes for Christmas?

        1. Genuinely, I am related to this sort of parent, and there is just no thought or fear going on. It’s just “oh cool I would’ve loved that as a kid” with no further assessment of whether they weren’t allowed to do it as a kid because it’s unsafe.

          1. I think a lot of it is “what do I buy my kids for Christmas when they already have everything?” I have literally had this conversation with multiple parents. My suggestion is usually “concert tickets,” not “potentially lethal machine.”

          2. Yup. I have neighbors like this. Their 13 year old zipped down the street the other day with their TODDLER sibling in their lap, no helmets on either of them. The parents were hanging out in the yard, so they were clearly aware of the situation. I can’t begin to understand.

          4. I have a neighbor like this. There is no thought, really. She, her husband, and 2/4 of her kids are just modern versions of Daisy Buchanan. They are also extremely woke, so it’s the whole spectrum, politically. My area of the city can’t get enough of these bikes and is very goat yoga soy latte mom area (vs Maga).

      2. We ran into a colleague of my husband and their 3 kids were bouncing around the backseat… just boggles my mind.

    3. It’s the same reason some parents let their kids ride dirt bikes or shoot guns. That reason? Idk. But the same logic underpins all three.

    4. Sounds real FAFO and I’d be annoyed too. Say what you want about San Francisco but at least they’ve cracked down on the dirt bikes here.

    5. Where are the children belong in all spaces crowd? I think it’s similar blindness. This isn’t annoying ME, so it must be fine.

        1. Lolol right? Those convos apparently triggered this poster into oblivion. Next it’ll be a post about toxic waste from a nearby dump and “huh where’s all the kids belong everywhere people now?”

    6. They’re everywhere in my neighborhood and I completely don’t understand why parents are buying them for their kids. They are so, so dangerous.

    7. Oh I hate it. I have a 14 year old who has a regular bike and it’s not even something she wants at all. She rides her bike all over.

      FWIW, many of the middle school boys have them and they are awful.

    8. I do not have teenagers, but I would help get my teenager an ebike if they wanted it for transportation. (They earn half, I earn half, they’d need to sell me on how they’d be safe and it’s a good investment.) I strongly believe that kids should have more independent mobility than is considered normal now, and it shouldn’t be dependent on a car. (Too easy to kill self and others when compared to ebikes.) In my ideal world that would be good public transit, but I’m also not limiting myself to living in places where a teenager could find the bus useful.

      However, I also live in an area where I have never seen the kinds of behavior described. I assume it’s because we live in an area that has plenty of mountain and dirt bike areas, so teens being stupid on bikes is probably more contained to those areas.

  7. We are planning to move our cat’s litter box to a landing/hallway area, where we are also going to install built in cabinets. Any ideas for ways to hide the litter box? Has anyone tried a cabinet space with a cat door, plus a door you can open to remove and change the litter?

        1. Why don’t you let us know where you get your sustainable, craftsman-made, heirloom quality litter box furniture then?

          1. I don’t have cats, thank god, so the only creatures pooping in my house use a toilet.

      1. That’s what we’re thinking – wondering if anyone btdt and whether cats are okay with it

      2. Caveat: if cat misses or sprays you are going to have a very foul odor that is horrifically difficult to get rid of when it’s built in and not contained to some separate item of furniture. My condo’s former owner used a linen closet to hold the litter box. Three coats of original Killz finally got it to where Bailey’s Cat Pee Closet doesn’t stink up that whole side of the condo anymore, but I still can’t use it for linens.

        1. If the pee got there, an appropriate enzyme based cleanser can get there. I agree that it should be built in such a way that it’s easy to clean, but it’s terrible to just paint over it without neutralizing the odor first!

          1. Plaster walls, wood floor, and apparently used for years this way. It was soaked all the way into walls and floor of closet.

            Cleansers didn’t provide much relief. It probably doesn’t help that cat pee is one of the odors I despise the most.

          2. I get that it’s a big job, and that staining won’t improve, but the right enzyme cleaner can neutralize the odor if used in the same quantity (soaked all the way through).

            I couldn’t just have the odor lingering.

          4. That is not true. We had an unusable cabinet because the prior owner did this. Do something that can be disposed of without tearing out cabinets.

    3. We have a litterbox nook built into our bathroom wall (occupying space underneath our attic stairs) and it’s nice in some ways, but we’ve had issues with her tracking (or more likely, I think, kicking) litter out of the box and into the path where we walk, which is not that nice on bare feet. Consider whether you can set things up to avoid that issue.

    4. Hey it’s me your cat and I hate it already and I will be peeing everywhere to communicate my displeasure.

      1. And on the off chance that I do deign to use it, I will scatter poop-infested litter crumbs across the landing and down the stairs so you can track it all throughout my castle.

    5. We put the litter box in our utility closet and put a cat door in the door. It worked great. Kept the litter and smell relatively contained and out of sight, and the cat learned to use the door very quickly.

      1. I have friends who have done this as well, and I thought it was brilliant. If I had an appropriate closet and/or garage at my house, I’d do it as well.

    6. I’d leave the base of the cabinet open (no door) that would accommodate a covered litter box & get sweet kitty acclimated to it in its existing location
      Agree with the poster above
      if the cat sprays, it’s a nightmare

      1. That’s what I did. I built in a litter box area when I remodeled my bathroom, but it’s open in front. Kitties like it and it’s easy to get to for scooping and emptying.

    7. I’d experiment first with closing in the litterbox you have now in the way you’re envisioning for your hallway, and see whether your cat tolerates it. Not a good plan to build a whole piece of furniture and THEN find out that your cat won’t deal with it.

      1. yeah … I have never had a cat that would acquiesce to the litter box furniture plan.

      2. This. My 11lbs cat considers the litter box in the vanity space in our bathroom cabinets to be just barely big enough for his preferred level of social distancing.

      3. Agreed. My last cat refused to use a litter box with a lid at all. My current two cats prefer the open litter box to the closed litter box, though we have and they use both.

    8. I had a circle cut into the far end of a wall-length bench with three storage areas with pulldown doors. The litter box goes into one of the storage areas, on top of a rug for stability. I vacuum the area and wash the rug regularly. (I DID ask if they could cut a cat head shape instead of a plain circle but apparently the pointy ears were too difficult.) This was all part of a custom closet install of a former porch area.

      They–well, I think one of them uses it most–had no problem acclimating to it.

  8. I like the look of the Zara belted double-breasted linen vest. Does anyone own this in real life? I envision wearing this with jeans on a casual office day or on site at a client office where the client is very casual. Thanks!

    1. I have 2 zara vests from last season. Make sure your undergarment selection doesn’t show, the underarm area is a PITA. Otherwise I like it for summer meetings!

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