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Frugal Friday’s Workwear Report: Pleated Midi Skirt

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A woman wearing a blue denim jacket, white top, and green floral midi skirt

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

I am totally loving the cheery green print on this J.Crew Factory midi skirt. Something about the combination of the kelly green and the flowers is making my heart sing.

To me, the trick for making a skirt like this one work for the office is to keep the top super conservative. With this print, I’d probably do a crisp, white button-up or a shell with a blazer.

The skirt is $79.99 — with 50% off at checkout — and comes in sizes XXS–3X as well as petite sizes XXS–L. It's also available in three other prints.

Sales of note for 3/26/25:

  • Nordstrom – 15% off beauty (ends 3/30) + Nordy Club members earn 3X the points!
  • Ann Taylor – Extra 50% off sale + additional 20% off + 30% off your purchase
  • Banana Republic Factory – Friends & Family Event: 50% off purchase + extra 20% off
  • Eloquii – 50% off select styles + extra 50% off all sale
  • J.Crew – 30% off tops, tees, dresses, accessories, sale styles + warm-weather styles
  • J.Crew Factory – Shorts under $30 + extra 60% off clearance + up to 60% off everything
  • M.M.LaFleur – 25% off travel favorites + use code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off
  • Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
  • Talbots – $64.50 spring cardigans + BOGO 50% off everything else

233 Comments

  1. Would love any recommendations of favorite interior designers or decorators to follow on social media. I’m finding my current list a little too sophisticated for our house size and formality level. In particular, we have a single living / family room that serves as the hub of our house and I am hoping to see ideas that are allow the room to function well both for family play and movie nights as well as adult dinner parties or gatherings too. Thanks in advance for any suggestions I can unwind with this weekend!

    1. Paige Wassel and Caroline Winkler on YouTube! They are single women in their thirties so not as geared towards families but they have taught me a ton and are much closer to my budget than fancier designers.

    2. The Nester has some good ideas for how to start decorating without getting overwhelmed. I don’t think you have to share her particular style to get some good ideas.

    3. The blogger Carly Riordan did a “grand millennial” redesign and I think she and her designer nailed it for a comfortable home with kids. Check out her blog and I think the designer’s name is on one of the posts.

    5. If you’re on Tik Tok, I really like Julie Jones Designs – she talks through the process of looking at spaces and making them more functional, how to incorporate color palettes, etc. I’ve learned a ton about interior design from her content.

    7. Sort og kidding, but not really – look at IKEA. What you’re describing is what IKEA is really, really good at…

  2. I’m particularly interest in the retinol serum but would be happy to hear about any experience with them, good or bad.

    1. I got the 7-ingredient cleansing oil and it’s.. fine? I probably won’t buy it again, but the bottle is pretty. If you’re interested in retinol, I’d go for an RX via Nurx or Curology or something. Cheaper and more powerful than OTC.

    2. Try the Moonlight retinal (yes, with an a) from Maelove. Discovered the brand from a science-of-skincare youtuber I follow, and it’s really great stuff. I’ve gotten rid of almost everything in my medicine cabinet and gone with all Maelove now. Even got my husband hooked – he uses more of their products than I do!

    3. If you are after retinoids for anti-aging benefits, you may as well get Differin/adapalene gel. It’s less irritating vs tretinoin, available without prescription and it’s cheap. In my opinion, retinol/rerinal cosmetic products won’t get you the anti-aging effect and are overpriced.

      1. Retinol has to be converted to retinal, then retinal has to be converted to basically tretinoin. This process takes months in your skin. Like 6 months. I agree – better to just get the prescription level stuff, and Differin is the best OTC available in the US.

  3. Feeling extra sensitive today and alone and like the universe is playing tricks on me.

    Single, 30, living alone.

    I strained an upper back muscle 2 weeks ago that was getting better but it’s back to being bothersome again. It makes sleeping hard.

    A piercing I got as a birthday gift to myself is back to being irritated and angry. Im getting it checked by the piercer tomorrow.

    I broke skin stubbing my toe this morning. I did the same thing last month.

    And its my boss’ (my incredibly unflappable, calm, supportive without being micromanagey, and kind human of a boss) last day today. They moved up her last day by a week because the financial reports went out earlier than anticipated. We have a last 1 on 1 this morning.

    Travel schedules and work schedules are also aligning this summer so I cant go see my parents sooner that July, and class schedules for one of my favorite hobbies (drawing) arn’t working for me (who’s taking a 3 hour drawing class on tuesdays from 10 til 1??).

    I sent a series of texts venting this all to my best friend over the past week. Love her but she isnt always timely to reply to things or give as much commiseration as I could use, and I could really use the commiseration right now.

    2. Ugh I’m so sorry. I hope your back and your piercing start to feel better soon! And maybe your travel schedule will change and you can see your parents sooner.

    3. Oof I’m right there with you… my husband is struggling post surgery, I’m slammed at work, and had to call in reinforcements from my MIL so I can get to London for work. And a lady scolded my son and I today for cycling on a designated shared use cycle path. We had stopped to look at the ducks so not exactly Tour de France speeds. It was such a petty thing but really was the last straw and I nearly cried.

      Kiddo and I have been eating cookies and watching octonauts which has helped, so try to give yourself a grownup version.

    4. Sending you hugs! I think you would only appreciate this if you are religious, but a friend has a public blog and she writes so eloquently about being single (but with a strong dose of faith-based writing): jennamcmurphy.com

      In any event, hope you can do some self care this weekend. I am rooting for you.

    5. Also 30, single, and live alone and there are definitely days (like you today) where it feels like the hits just don’t stop. Even on good days, I get annoyed that I have to do EVERYTHING myself.

  4. uggggggh the Meta AI search bar that has just invaded its apps is awful. dear Meta- the only thing I use your apps for is keeping up with friends’ posts. i am not looking for news or actual information of any sort. Let me turn it tf off!

    2. Yesssss I immediately went to try and turn it off and I hate that I can’t.

      I really like instagram but good lord they keep giving me reasons why I just want to delete it. Trying to force Threads, now this. whyyyyy

      1. I just found this (copied below) and it seems to work. It was also very satisfying to report it as spam.

        Other method to remove it

        Click on the circle symbol on the search bar
        Click on the AI Meta profile
        Block and Restrict the profile (I also reported it for spam lol)
        Close instagram entirely
        Reopen and try searching (should be fixed even if it still shows the meta logo)

          2. It didn’t work for me — still there, still taking up space, just now it says “blocked” in the thread…

          3. Cat – I wouldn’t be surprised if Meta is undoing this so we can’t do it but fwiw, It still looks like the AI search bar for me (in place of the actual search bar). But when you go to actually search, it doesn’t come up as the AI, just the old search.

            For now anyway.

            I don’t mind AI as an external tool, but I don’t want it forced into the apps.

    3. I feel this way about the new Adobe software. No, I do not want you to summarize my document using AI. I want to view my document. Is that so hard to understand??

    4. Agreed! I have an Instagram account just to follow accounts related to my hobby. All I want to do is search hashtags, which they’ve already made worse by not showing you everything, just “top” posts.

  5. If you know me, I will have outed myself but here we are.

    Ladies, help me keep it together. My mother is kind of famous. Not T. Swift famous. Think long ago Olympic gold medalist in a very obscure sport or retired trailblazing state politician famous. In certain circles, she is lauded as a hero and showered with compliments. She spends all her time in organizations related to her accomplishments so she lives in the circles where she is famous. As a result, she is accustomed to being the center of attention and when she isn’t naturally, she perhaps unconsciously tries to turn attention back to herself. I should be proud of my mom and I recognize that she is a cool and accomplished woman. That cool and accomplished woman pays little attention to her family. I also resent that on a those rare occasions where she spends time with my children, she does not let them shine. She brings everything they do or say back to herself.

    My daughter is graduating from law school soon. She has absolutely killed it and will receive special recognition at graduation. Her longtime boyfriend’s extended family and all of ours will be in attendance. I know my mother is going to suck the air out of the room. For example, we were discussing an award my daughter is receiving completely unrelated to what my mom does, and she said, “She gets it all from her grandmother!” I did not react, and my mom doubled down, explaining why this was a funny joke. I am certain she will say it again at graduation, probably repeatedly. Maybe I am overreacting but this is just the latest in years of attention seeking. Can’t we just have a weekend of celebrating my kid for her huge accomplishment? Can’t all the attention be ALL on her?

    Please tell me if there is a way I can preempt this, or how to react in the moment without losing it (which would also pull attention from the person who deserves it all). You can also tell me if I am being a brat.

    1. What is funny is that doesn’t out you at all. Unless we are sisters, my mom is like that, too.

      As my kids were growing up I helped contextualize my mom’s behavior for them and let them know that I, too, found it challenging.

    2. It’s annoying, but you’re right that drawing more attention to it only sucks more air out of the room. Just change the subject and keep asking questions of your daughter.

      1. Also, I’d be more worried about protestors disturbing the graduation than your mother.

    3. If your daughter is graduating law school, I am thinking that your mother is 60+. I think at that point, they fall into the category of “Bless your heart” elders where we smile and nod and then focus our attention back on the graduate. To be fair, everyone else at that graduation will think exactly the same thing about their graduate and TBF other parents and grandparents will be there, basking in the glow, and certain in their knowledge that their fortitude and perseverance comes from exactly them, so maybe you can herd them all together? Kidding. Sort of. But you, she, and your daughter are not alone, in fact, you are in a crowd of fellow travelers.

      [And this is why grandparents / grandchildren do things without the parent. It is just better that way.]

      1. Hey, my mom was 48 when I graduated from law school! (She had me at 21.)

        That said, this sounds like a mother problem, not a “old lady” problem. 60s is still young relative to cognitive decline.

        2. It’s the law school graduate’s grandmother who is 60+, not her mother. Unless both mom and grandma were teen moms, highly doubtful grandma is under 60.

          I agree on 60 not being an old lady though.

      2. Gee thanks for being open with your ageism. By no means are 60+ women “Bless your heart elders”. I’m appalled and somewhat surprised that you feel comfortable saying that.

        3. I was reading it more that there are decades of parent-child dynamics here and it seems really unlikely that grandmom will change. At that point, most of us just let it go.

    4. Your mom sounds like a sad person who is stuck in the past and has never evolved past her moment in the sunlight. You don’t sound like a brat; you sound like someone who is missing the role that a mom and grandma would normally play.

      Would a conversation with your mom before the event help? I tend to think that it won’t, if she’s clueless enough to make jokes about how her granddaughter’s greatness is all because of her. But maybe worth a shot.

      Make sure to praise your daughter and be very clear that this weekend is about her and her accomplishments, no matter what Grandma says or does.

      1. This is a tangent, but can you rise to the top without being self-centered? Without having tunnel vision and an inflated sense of self, without sacrificing time/relationships with family (a great cost, even if done for public service of the greater good)?

        My husband and I often talk about this — to be an elite athlete, you must have to believe you are awesome and sacrifice almost everything for training (hence why so many are pompous jerks). To be President of the US, you have to have an ego and put your job literally before all else. There’s not too many purely “good people” at the top of anything, IMO – a mix of natural personality and the fact that power corrupts.

        1. I competed at the elite levels of a small sport and trained with many Olympians (past and present). You’re absolutely correct that you have to be self-centered to the extreme to achieve that level of success. It takes complete dedication of all your time and mental capacity to even get to the level, let alone be competitive. Your life revolves around training schedules, competition schedules, etc., so you miss social events, important family events, etc. And you think it’s normal because everyone else around you believes that no sacrifice is too great if it moves you forward in the sport – plus you get shamed by your coaches as not dedicated enough/wasting their time if you don’t subscribe to this mentality. I used to leave training facilities and sob on the phone to my mom while driving home – she would remind me I could quit, but I didn’t want to! It was just so intense. I’m glad I did it and competing at the highest levels of my sport will forever be my greatest accomplishment/dream come true, but it certainly burned me out and made me realize I didn’t want to be the kind of person who would go to the Olympics (even if I had the talent to do so). I’m a biglaw attorney now and honestly it’s usually a cakewalk in comparison to the day-to-day intensity of elite level sports.

          To OP – I know lots of people like your mother who are considered living legends, and I almost wonder if she is Olympic athlete from my small sport. I still compete at lower levels and maintain my connections, and none of the pros I know really have friends outside the sport community because they can’t relate to normal people. I don’t have any advice other than to commiserate because I understand these insular communities that have their own hierarchies. I hope you’re able to enjoy your daughter’s success at graduation and ignore your mom’s digs.

          1. We have a person here with a personality and resume that have been subsumed by “I used to be a D1 athlete.” If OP’s mom is like this, everyone is used to it and just tunes it out after a while. Ditto a person who was ranked #2 in our state for a sport for while — 30 years later, I guess he hasn’t done anything else b/c it’s still remarked upon. Whatever. I just see it as people have some fundamental sense of being insecure in their identity. The rest of people with X job or in the retirement villa aren’t rehashing their one glory moment from decades ago.

            OTOH, I wonder if Chelsea Clinton will be posting here as her kids get older. OMG my parents steal the spotlight . . .

          3. +1 I was in a similar situation for swimming until an injury sidelined me at 17. Completely agree that elite levels of a sport requires being self-centered, both the athlete and the entire family that sacrifices to plan their lives around competitions.

        2. Counterpoint: you can be a good, caring person when throwing everything at success, so long as you take the same dedication to your personal life.

          Maybe you put limits around your campaigning during the early part if the campaign season, do what you can to alleviate the stress on your family as Election Day approaches, and have post-election family time. Maybe you have ongoing conversations with your spouse and kids about running for reelection or if it’s time to cut back. (This is another reason that I find 85 year olds in high office to be noxious. People, enjoy your grandkids.) Maybe you have some qualitative point at which your spouse gets to say “enough.”

          In short, success takes a priority over “laze around and doomscroll” time, but not over family and friends time.

          1. One of the best people in my office is very, VERY successful but he keeps his family (including grandchildren and dogs of various family members) front and center.

          2. I think you can place those boundaries if you’re a local officeholder, but not if you’re the president, the governor of a state, mayor of a major city, etc. If you are taking on that level of responsibility, you owe it to your constituents to put them first. That’s why, to do it, you have to be a person who is willing to put your family second. By definition, that makes you an unusual person.

          3. I don’t want the president of the United States putting his family and dogs first, sorry. Asking the American people to give you the keys to the most powerful nuclear arsenal on earth means committing that the job comes first.

        3. I don’t think this is universally true and this argument just sounds like jealousy to me. You can be successful and a good person.

          1. Believe me, not jealous. I have leaned so far back out of choice and would rather have my calm and happy life than other people’s version of “success”. And everyone defines it differently. But to get to the TOP – enough to be famous in whatever you did – takes a certain kind of drive/demeanor that is probably hard to turn off because it’s become so ingrained. You may be beloved by the general public but difficult to deal with in private.

    5. your daughter is old enough for you to talk to her about Grandma’s annoying behavior and that you see it for what it is. you know you can’t prevent it so you might as well give her the satisfaction of knowing others see it as self-centered nonsense too. do your siblings share your views? can you enlist their help in brushing mom off?

      I had a grandparent like this (not remotely famous but still thought he was the greatest person to grace the Earth) and while he attended my graduations and was busy making observations that he thought were funny in that particular level of voice that’s clearly meant to be overheard by others – bc of course his cleverness needs to be admired by strangers – I could laugh to myself.

      1. TBH, some schools feed the grandparental trolls by having legacy pictures, publishing them, highlighting famous relatives in their feeds (Look! It’s trailblazer Geraldine Ferraro here at graduation with her granddaughter Geraldina!), especially if the grand has any relation to the school or the activity (however tenuous), as if the school can reflect the person’s glory or name recognition back to them.

      2. This
        Does it bother your daughter? Or can she roll with it?

        “She got her accomplishments from her grandma! Isn’t that funny?!”
        “Yea but thank goodness she got her sense of humility from her dad – and her sense of humor from me”
        Make grandma bingo cards
        Enlist someone in the family enamored with Grandma to babysit her and steer her away from you – even if it is into the arms of her adoring fans.
        Should she sit on the aisle? Or inside where she can’t get up?
        Can you stick her in the overflow room to watch it on CCTV or livestream?
        Can she sit in front of you or behind you so you can pretend you don’t know her?

        There are many options

    6. My mother does this, too. Every accomplishment is about how she inspired me. I wish so much that she would understand that it makes me respect her less, not more.

      I would just talk to your daughter about this. Let her handle it as she chooses, and ignoring it is fine. Remind her – so she hears it from someone besides the voice in her head – that the only person taking Grandma seriously is Grandma. Talk about how your daughter wants to be remembered for her accomplishments: does she want to be the person putting others down (and your mom IS putting your daughter down by doing this), or is she comfortable letting her achievements speak for themselves and letting others shine?

      Finally, CONGRATULATIONS to your daughter!!! Can I be a Corporette aunt who is super proud of her, even if her grandmother is not?

      1. Yes you can and I am grateful to you and many other aunts! P.S. I have recommended she read the posts here as she builds her work wardrobe. If you see this, daughter, I love you!

        1. Congratulations, my new Corporette niece!!! Looking forward to cheering you on as you start your legal career!

    7. Your mom sounds obnoxious and I totally get why she gets why she annoys you, but the mother-daughter dynamic is unique and she probably bothers you a lot more than she bothers anyone else. I don’t think it’s worth making a big deal about it. Ignore her and everyone else will too. Your daughter doesn’t need to be the center of attention and adulation for every second of the entire weekend, that’s just your own way of being an annoying mother (and trying to get back at your mom by being the opposite of her). The last thing I would have wanted on graduation weekend was people fawning over me constantly. Just let her have fun and enjoy being with loved ones.

      1. Agree – your daughter probably has a very different experience of this, I don’t think it’s helpful or appropriate to preempt it with her. If your mom is being annoying just ignore her. And I’d be sure to schedule some 1-1 time with your daughter – a walk, a coffee, a drink, just sitting on a bench together when you tell her very directly how proud you are of her – that is what she’ll remember and will mean the most.

        1. This is great advice.

          OP, maybe you can tweak the schedule as well? Your mom can come to the big commencement but not to the award ceremony or the other smaller events where her obnoxious comments will be more noticeable? Blame it on capacity. “Oh, the university says each grad can only bring two people so her father and I will be going. Everyone else can enjoy an afternoon at Fun Local Restaurant!”

      2. I agree with this. I also would have felt awkward and embarrassed to be fawned over, especially if it was done as a very obvious subject change from whatever Grandma said.

      3. That was my first thought. If it were my mom it would drive me absolutely out of my gourd, but if it were anybody else I would just laugh to myself and think what a character she is. OP, do your best to (as my mom would say) rise above it and enjoy your time with your awesome daughter!

    8. I don’t think you can preempt it, so I think you need to focus on your reaction since you know who she is and it is not going to change for this one event. Personally (unencumbered by the lifetime of very annoying experiences that you have with her) I would just give her the “haha” and smile indulgently and then roll my eyes at my husband about it. Perhaps that would make it move on as quickly as possible. I think it’s likely that you are more focused on these comments (understandable! parents can be so triggering) than anyone else is.

      Also, I’d ask your daughter if it bothers her. I bet she’s come to terms with who her grandma is and it bothers her less than it bothers you.

      Your daughter will get her big moment! Unless your mom is insane, she’s not going to bust her way onto the graduation stage and tell everyone how it’s all because of her. And if that’s the level of insanity we’re talking about, then by all means uninvited her. :)

      1. I strongly agree with your second paragraph. This might not even be on your daughter’s radar and I don’t recommend putting it there.

      2. This. Also, I’m guessing that your daughter’s event might be stirring up a powerful reaction in you — a mix of feeling defensive and protective for your daughter, and hurt and angry because you’re remembering the times YOU had a major accomplishment and your mother made it about her — and you’re feeling fiercely protective that she will NOT do that same thing to your daughter. (If you are feeling this way, it makes total sense. It would be unusual if you weren’t.)

        If this is your experience, it might help to know that while you’re experiencing your mother’s “front and center” behavior at a 10 on the “outrageous drama” scale, most people attending will be experiencing it as somewhere much, much lower. (Also, there will be many of them who are perfectly capable of seeing your mother’s behavior for what it is.)

    9. I don’t think you’re being a brat at all. However, your daughter may not find your mom’s behavior as bothersome as you do.

      1. I also think that she’s an adult and can make her own judgment about her grandmother. I don’t see the point in making this an issue. I get why you’re annoyed, OP, but others may not care and that’s ok.

        1. Also, y’all are in the audience and she may be running around with her class and teachers. You may see each other for dinner and to help her move out?

    10. I think being prepared for the comments will help, so you can limit your negative reactions. I think it would also be appropriate to gently guide the conversation back to the original thread, so in your example, a response could be “Well, I’m so proud of [daughter] for all her hard work.” If people are asking what your daughter’s plans are, and your mother says something like, “She should come onto my project! We do such important things for the community!” I think it’s fine to say something like “Oh, she told me that she was really liked her [legal writing] class, and she’s been looking at [judicial clerk positions].”

      And gently, remember: the people you will be with are probably meeting your mother for a very limited time, and they probably won’t care if your mother is a bit self-centered. They only have to deal with it in small doses. You’ve been living with it your whole life, and you’re fed up, but their patience probably has not yet been exhausted. The person who will be most bothered by this is you. Let it wash over you and instead enjoy the moments with the people who are coming together to celebrate your daughter.

    11. Maybe do the NLP thing or “prep” mom and lean on her “good side” like “Mom, my daughter could really use your unique ability to bring the spotlight and make people feel wonderful and like no one else exists. I’m really trying to make the day special for her, and I’m counting on you” (obviously change script as needed, and that’s a draft version/first thought).

      The other thing you could do is just…give your daughter the sympathy “Meemaw crazy” eyes and make sure YOU focus on her and just keep gently redirecting and/or activating the “shame” button “Mom, I know you’re not making your own grand-daughter’s law school graduation about you, right? That’s not like you, are you feeling okay?” heh.

      1. Ugh no, don’t do passive-aggressive comments to provoke shame. That’s manipulative and gross. Just ignore the behavior and move on.

    12. My grandmother is like this and it absolutely sucks. I really don’t have advice other than going LC. These days my grandmother is a high society lady, so all she talks about is her lunch with so and so or whatever. The worst part is my grandmother does cool things like volunteer but that’s not flashy so all we have to talk about is her damn lunches. Recently I wrote and published a very important thing, so we had a family dinner where I realized my grandmother didn’t even know what my job was, she had never picked up and of the information I had tried to share with her. The narcissism is too much.

      1. SO relatable, anon at 11:03. She does volunteer work but I seriously think it’s for the dinners where she is recognized for it. It’s all I hear about.

    14. I don’t mean to be flip but thinking “Boomers gonna boom” really helps me in situations like these. It’s a self-centered generation to a large part and that becomes more and more apparent as there are more Gen X/Millennial middle-aged people doing it very differently.

      1. …I really don’t think this is generational, speaking as a member of the generation (Millennials) that rebranded skipping out of commitments as “self-care.” Self-centeredness turns up in every generation.

      2. Yeah, I’m no fan of the boomers, but self centeredness only seems to be increasing in younger generations!

        1. Yeah I really can’t with Gen Z. I just had a college kid flake on an important volunteer commitment at the last minute because she’s “tired,” with no effort to help me find a replacement, and this is something she sought out and begged me to let her help with. I agreed even though it wasn’t super convenient for me and now that she bailed I’m left scrambling and trying to sort this out when I should be working. And I’m tired too! I’m a geriatric millennial and I feel like every generation gets more self-centered. There are tons of valid complaints about Boomers but I don’t think they’re especially self-centered.

          1. I find the Boomers I work with to be extremely self-centered, talking down to people as the all knowing experts. I have less contact with Gen Z (I’m early 40s), but they seem open to learning and hearing different perspectives.

    15. I feel it’s probably on you to just tune out mom and no one else, including your daughter, really is hanging on her words. You’ve just been hearing them more and a lot longer, so I get that your may be just DONE. But maybe Gray Rock Method can come in handy here.

    16. You’re not being a brat; your mom is super annoying. I’d more or less ignore it, though, for the sake of keeping the peace. And be sure to tell your daughter what you told us here about how amazing she is (as I’m sure you will). I’d bet that your daughter cares wayyy more about what you think compared to grandma. Congrats to your daughter!

    17. Thank you to everyone for your comments and support. It helps a lot for me to understand that I am hypersensitive to this because of a long history, and that my experience is not my daughter’s. It is also helpful to hear that other mothers and grandmothers do this and it is not necessarily a product of her semi famousness and the activity I am sick of hearing about. I am reassured by the reminder that everyone else’s interactions with my mother will be brief and probably not noticeable. I will grey rock as much as possible and gently turn the conversation back to my daughter if my mother gets too far afield.

      1. As someone whose mother makes everything about her (as one example, she secretly changed from the MOB dress we bought together into a white dress for my wedding) I wouldn’t feed her ego or even acknowledge it if she’s inappropriate. Neutral, noncommittal responses or even silence are best. She’s going to do her, no matter what you say. It’ll be less stressful for your daughter if you don’t make dealing with your mother A Thing.

      2. Your plan sounds good!

        My therapist told me to always expect my mom (a narcissist) will make it about her. Having that in mind really helps. I can’t ever know the particular histrionics, but I can expect bad behavior and not be surprised/reactionary when (not if) it occurs.

      3. Good luck! I was just reminded that my grandmother had a very vivid memory of talking to one of my professors at my college graduation that she recounted a number of times even many years later. I sort of cringed at the recounting but I was in the same small room and maybe even was part of this conversation and took no notice of it when it happened. That’s all to say what your daughter registers will be very different than what you register so don’t worry too much

    18. Can you have a conversation with your mom ahead of time and say, “hey mom, I’m so glad you will be there for Anna’s big day, but let’s keep the focus on her, ok? It’s tough to live in your shadow, so I want to make sure this one day is just about her.”

      Then since you’ve laid the groundwork, if your mom starts grandstanding, you can remind her about your conversation – “ok, Mom, let’s focus on Anna, remember?”

      1. fwiw, unless the behavior is way more egregious than the example (“she gets it all from her grandmother”), I would feel WAY more uncomfortable having my mom do this, than just everyone smiles and laughs, even though it’s not the funniest joke in the world, and we move on

        1. Agree with this. My mom drove me insane but my daughter loved her to pieces and the thing Daughter hated the most was when I let my anger/discomfort at my mom show.

  6. My youth goals were to have a Jeep Wrangler. They look SO FUN, but I had no $. Now it is time to replace an aging sedan that needs new tires anyway. And I’ve grown to be a person who spends weekends in the national forests from TN to VA, so in pretty hilly / unpaved areas where maybe a front wheel drive is pushed to its limits. Is it Jeep time? Should it be Jeep time? I could get an AWD CR-V, which I think I will really like. But my heart’s not singing. Tell me something like the Jeep will always break down, etc. or to go for it. If it matters, sometimes I carry bikes on a bike rack.

    2. Go get your Jeep! Why not? Sounds like it’s a good fit for your lifestyle, and if it’s something you’ve wanted forever and can now afford, why deny yourself that joy?

    3. I don’t know anything about Jeeps, but the only way to find out whether it’s everything you ever wanted or if it sucks is to get one. If it’s everything you ever wanted then yay, it works out. If it sucks, then now you know, and you can stop wondering “what if.” That’s how I look at all my life choices.

    5. Get the Jeep! Regarding costs and things breaking and all that: you need to think of this as a cost of inner peace. One of two things is gonna happen:

      1. You will LOVE the Jeep and be so happy you have it. If it doesn’t last as long as a Honda, you won’t care because it’s worth it.
      2. Dream doesn’t match reality and that is also something valuable! Trade the Jeep in after a couple of years and get the Honda, having put the Jeep dreams to rest.

    7. Please get the jeep. Or, you know, rent one for a while. I’ve had two Jeeps. One (the Renegade) had mysterious starter issues which the dealership could never duplicate and I eventually got tired of not knowing if it would start in the morning so I traded it in for a Compass, but I still very much enjoy driving both my Jeeps, and I would have replaced the Renegade with an identical one in a heartbeat if I could have (it was during Covid shortages though). FWIW, my biggest issue was the comparatively low gas mileage, but you’ll have that on just about any AWD.

    8. The only reason I don’t have a Wrangler is I also do a lot of highway driving and they are kind of loud and rough at high speeds. That said, so fun the rest of the time! So, you know the reality of your life. I will say, I rented one on a week long vacation and that is what made me be realistic about how fun they were on vacation would not translate to the type of driving I do most of the time. If your normal commute is short though, buy the fun car you want!

      1. +1 Agreed. Love the idea of Jeep Wranglers. But every time I’m in a rental wrangler or in my friend’s wrangler on highways I am reminded that’s not the type of experience I want everyday. Definitely test drive on a busy highway if that’s a normal occurrence.

    9. Get the car you want! The Jeep wave sounds like so much fun! Don’t you want to do the Jeep wave?? :)

    12. I’m normally anti-leasing for cars, but could you do a year lease? Just try it out as a personal fun goal? Or get a used one that you won’t hang onto long/can resell. Maybe go used if you’ll be putting it to hard use.

    13. I also loved to fantasize about getting a Wrangler, until my friend in grad school bought one, and I rode in it… I found it super uncomfortable.

      But that was many years ago! If you actually test drove one recently and are still into it, I won’t be a nay sayer!

    1. someone said they had them the other day when kat posted that other mary jane shoe

    2. I would wear those to a fun party! I would make the rest of the outfit kind of staid and wear lots of bright crystal or CZ / diamond look up top

      Fun!

    3. Based on the pic, while they are not quite my style, I’d wear them pretty casually outside of work. I don’t mean that I wouldn’t put them in a party outfit – I would – but I’d wear them to dinner/brunch/a bar)a brewery myself.

    4. I have the Jeffrey Campbell swanlake flats and wear them all the time. The JC have finer rhinestones and don’t have the buckle, making them a little easier to style IMO. They are extremely flat with no support so I only wear them on days where I’m not going to be walking around a lot.

    6. I saw someone wearing the studded Madewell version the other day and loved the look, but I find the ones in the link too blingy for my taste.

  8. Has anyone donated a kidney? I donate blood regularly, but the downside to the donor is IMO negligible. I have kids at home still, so a major surgery like that isn’t in the cards (plus, I have a crazy job). I think I’ll be too old by the time I’m an empty nester to be a good candidate. Dialysis is very dire though, and maybe science will improve in the next 10-15 years so it’s not as hard on donors?

    1. A friend donated one to her mom, who I understand dialysis was becoming less effective for. She has tween kids and both she and her husband work FT. They got through it for such a compelling reason!

    2. good question! I think bone marrow donation now is less severe than it used to be.

      1. Yes! Please consider becoming a bone marrow donor. Bone marrow donors are very hard to match, and donation isn’t that bad for the donor, as I understand it. It’s very unlikely you’ll ever be contacted, but, if you are, you may be the only match in the database for the person in need.

    3. I donated a kidney to my best friend one day after turning 18 (my parents refused to consent, so I had to wait until I was 18) over 30 years ago. Recovery was probably easier based on my age but I recall being pretty much out of commission for a couple of weeks, then slowly easing back into life. I have zero regrets. Best friend is doing great. Medical science is amazing.

    4. One of my brother’s good friends did a non-directed kidney donation to kick off a kidney donation chain in his early 20s. 9 individuals were able to receive kidneys as a result of his non-directed donation and he still socializes with the recipients in the kidney chain 10 years later. He has no regrets and the recovery was manageable (he was very young though). I’ve always been so impressed that he made such a generous decision at such a young age.

    5. I haven’t been ready to explore kidney donation, but am reading up on live liver donation. Amazingly, your liver grows back! Since your kidney doesn’t, that seems more appealing to me. Kidney disease is awful and so is liver disease so you’d have a big impact.

    6. I have not but the living donor movement is getting super active and can probably put you in touch with someone close to you (demographic or geographic) to answer questions

      This is a motivating factor for me to lose weight – I’d love to be considered healthy enough to donate a kidney.(good numbers except for that darn weight and BMI)

    7. My dad just had a kidney transplant a couple of months ago. Just some random information I thought might be useful to know:
      The health and mental testing they do on perspective donors is very thorough. One person who tried to donate for my dad was deemed not suitable, because they had a distant relative with Diabetes. Otherwise, they were very healthy. So if you do have a family history of kidney sensitive conditions, that could effect the options.
      Another interesting thing, my dad is in his late 50’s. His transplant team actually preferred he have a living donor from someone who was a of a closer age versus a younger person’s kidney. They said rejection is less likely. It’s something I found surprising.
      Start to finish, the whole process for my Dad’s donor took about a year. So it’s not a super quick turn around process.
      That’s awesome you donate blood and it’s amazing you’re thinking of organ donation!

    8. After exhausting every other medication for a condition I have, I’m on a legacy drug that is only used in the rarest circumstances because it ruins the person’s kidneys. My hope is that pig kidneys are more viable in ~10 years. What a strange, awful thing to have to hope for. (Or that there are new drugs for my condition!)

      Make sure you and everyone you care about is listed as an organ donor on their driver’s license, though I hope it’s never used.

    9. My room mate in law school was a nurse and donated a kidney to one of her patients. Her recovery seemed like any other major abdominal surgery.

  9. I’m negotiating the severance package for an executive and I am irate at the number of lies he’s telling his attorney, or his attorney’s lack of interest in verifying any of it. The sheer audacity to lie about things that my client not only has documentation on – but much of it was created by the exec, is mind blowing. And yet the cost of litigation and bad PR is never worth it, so my client will probably cave to this wild amount of money due to the BS. GAHHHH. That is all.

    1. I’m shocked at how few attorneys bother to confirm if their clients are telling the truth. Maybe it’s better for them if they don’t know – some sort of “hear no evil so I can’t be responsible” type thing.

      If I were you, I would throw this all back on them and demand documentation. True, false, maybe true – make them cough up some information.

      1. Oh come on, that’s just negotiation. Opposing counsel isn’t going to verbally concede a point to you, the concession is in the number going down. This is 101.

        1. Yeah. I’m repping an employee and my job is to tell you his version of events and the version we will present in a court case if necessary, and to turn around and convey to him the weaknesses in his position and try to convince him he’s got risk and should lower his number, not to concede your points openly in negotiation.

        2. I negotiate for a living and manage to do it well without blatantly lying. Lying just drags out the inevitable. You can represent a strong position while being honest.

          1. Lying is pretty rare, IME (a long time labor and employment defense lawyer, fwiw). There’s usually truth in the middle and different ways of looking at the same set of facts.

  10. I saw the protesters’ encampment at Columbia. They all seem to have the same tent? Did they have a sponsor or funding to just bulk buy them? It looks like a jamboree of a different sort.

    1. I don’t know, but matching tents are certainly catnip for the critics – especially because Rep. Omar’s daughter was there and got suspended from Barnard for refusing to leave after multiple warnings (including being informed about suspension being imminent).

      1. A good tent is expensive. IDK that these are good tents or just need to survive a stunt, but I did not bring a tent when I went off to college. And I’m pretty sure that there is no REI or even a Walmart near Columbia.

        1. I’m pretty sure that Walmart and Amazon deliver to Columbia. They probably just bought a bunch of whatever was cheapest online.

          1. I feel bad for the Amazon driver — tents are heavy (assuming these are basic Coleman tents, not $$$ backpacking tent which in bulk are not lightweight either).

          2. The Amazon driver is fine. I feel bad for the Jews on campus who have to walk past constant chants calling for their removal from Israel.

          3. That’s what dollies are for. Tents are lightweight compared to most things universities get delivered on a daily basis.

          4. @10:54 You’d be more effective just spitting on the protesters than making ridiculous comments about worrying for the Amazon driver.

          5. I am very out of the loop news-wise this week and I read this as people in the country of Columbia and was immediately impressed that Wal-Mart and Amazon delivered there and have delivery drivers…

        2. Yeah I’m pretty sure that they’re matching because they all bought them from Amazon

    2. Columbia grad student here: As I understand it, community members (both CU affiliated and not) have donated money/supplies to the students. My guess is that the tents were donated or bought with donated money

      1. Oh that’s nice
        I just assumed the tents were repurposed from Occupy Wall Street over ten years ago

    3. What good is this speculation? If you’re trying to imply something nasty just have the courage to say it outright.
      As other plausible explanations, maybe the kids involved are also in the campus outdoor club and got them there, or maybe one or more of the many very wealthy students at Columbia bulk bought them.

    4. There are Targets in New York, right? I suspect they just bought them online from the same place.

    5. Yes, their parents are their sponsors. They’re Columbia students with credit cards and access to Amazon.

    1. I bought one of their silk night gown/slips and it is amazing. It’s reminiscent of the days when you could buy 100% silk at a reasonable price and it is wonderful.

  12. Not a real problem but I’m actually kind of stunned at how hard it is to give money away. Back story – I wanted to give a small college scholarship to a graduating high school senior someplace. Really small somewhere between 500 to 1500 dollars. Thing is I don’t personally have any connection with high schools nor that age group of kids anymore. So while I’d set some few easy criteria – GPA, extracurriculars, future plans – I’d need some entity to get the word out for students to apply. Give them say a few weeks to apply and then I select someone and write a check.

    Granted I know I’m late on this as schools close in May and June. This idea has only occurred to me recently as I spent time on college campuses and kind of recalled how hard it can be financially sometimes. But I figured at the end of the day it’s money, someone can help me get it in a kid’s hands. So I reached out to my old high school to see if we could do something in short order – eh we can set it up for next year. I reached out to 2 houses of worship which have lots of branches in my area – no response. For all the complaining regarding how college costs are so out of hand, you’d think organizations would be willing to connect people who want to give and make it easy for them to give?? I know I can just donate the money to the charity of my choice, but IDK for this I really wanted it to go to some individual who has articulated their future plans.

    1. And you get how you are asking teachers / school personnel / nonprofit people to work for free on yet another task to further something you want to do? You can outsource this, you know: scholarship dot com

      1. Pretty sure school personnel in college counseling offices don’t work for free and part of their job IS securing scholarship opportunities for their students so they can brag at graduation that this class received millions of dollars in scholarship money combined. OP I’ve run into the same issues. I kind of just shrugged and said oh well and donated money elsewhere.

        1. They don’t work for free but they also get to have a process that they implement. Sounds like they told OP what the process is – it’s already went through this year – and suggested to set it up for next year, and she didn’t like that.

          They run the process on a timetable so that it’s fair. If you run it at the same time every year, kids/family’s/the community/teachers know when it is and when the kids need to apply for the scholarships. If they allow for one off scholarships outside of that timetable, not everyone is going to be looking for the scholarship to apply. It’s really not that crazy or hard of a hoop to jump through to just make a note on your calendar to contact them in the fall to set up the scholarship.

          1. I should caveat my response, I’m referring to high school senior scholarships. It sounds like OP was focused on graduating HS seniors. I don’t know anything about college counseling offices.

    2. Honestly? It’s not an amount of money that’s worth their effort to set up a scholarship. And I say that as someone who gives similar amounts of money. There is no shame in giving comparatively smaller amounts, but if you want to give $500, you give it to an existing charity or established scholarship fund, you don’t expect someone to go to the work of setting up a scholarship in your name.

      That said, in my area all the high schools have pre-existing scholarship funds you could give to.

      2. My old high school definitely had named scholarships and most of them are only 500 or 1000 even now – just checked. But yeah I think it’s about timing. My sense was they set up and advertised scholarships to students from Dec to Feb, winners selected in March or April, and announced at a school wide ceremony in May. OP just hold off a bit – by year end or next January, they’ll definitely be able to get this up and running.

        1. They may be $500-1000 a pop, but the total pool is likely much larger to keep it going. A one time $500-1000 donation isn’t worth the administrative costs.

      3. Yep, I rolled my eyes at the thought of the administrative costs to set something up to give out 500 bucks.

      4. This. It’s not that much money for either the administrators or the students to justify the work involved. Working at McDonalds in CA now pays $20 an hour, so a $500 scholarship that takes 2.5 hours to apply needs to have at least a 1 in 10 chance of winning to be worth applying, which is why most schools have one streamlined application process for multiple small scholarships. I just give to the existing scholarship funds at my high school and college.

    3. I’ve been involved in several different scholarship programs. The barrier you are running into with the schools is that you’re late to be part of their normal scholarship awarding program – exactly what they told you. Scholarship programs that I’ve been involved with typically run applications January-February, we pick in March, the awards ceremony is in April or May. They do want to make it easy – and fair – for everyone to connect people with money, which is why they have the process that they have already in place. You’re too late for the easy process that they probably have (that it sounds like referred to). Do you expect them to advertise/do their application process over again to all the students for just your one scholarship? I think what you want to do is great, but you just need to start earlier in the school year on the process and plan for next year.

    4. I’d go to my local community college, the counselor’s office or something, and ask if I could give them some pre-loaded debit cards that they could hand out when they had an incoming student struggling to pay for childcare, transportation, tuition, or books.

      Or go to a local non-profit that helps resettle people arriving from other countries, and do the same thing so they can help any teens trying to get an education in a new country.

      1. #1 is definitely a thing that will be appreciated now. They run even in the summer when traditional residential 4-year colleges may be quiet.

      2. Sorry for the dumb question but how do counselors offices at the local community college know who is struggling to afford transport to school or books or whatever? I’d love to hand someone a gift card for a semesters worth of books or whatever – honestly they could use it for any need that makes it easier for them to attend. But do students really come share this with the school? I went to a different kind of university – our advisors didn’t know us from adam?

        1. Pretty much every large university has offices that help students with this kind of thing. People complain about the cost of college, and this is one of the very justifiable reasons why it’s increased. Students need a lot more support and all of those programs cost money, despite most of the staff that run them being poorly paid.

        2. Community colleges are starting to provide more wraparound services. Students can request things like transit passes, etc from student services.

          1. Yes, plus from FAFSAs, they have all of the data they need. I knew some people in public housing when I was in grad school, so getting you qualified for rent and reminding you about food stamps, free lunch for kids was a thing. Some students are also parents, so they need everything. Our community college has a fund you can just donate to and it does this and academic scholarships also. I’m not one to reinvent the wheel.

        3. Our community college has a fund set up for exactly these reasons. It was a faculty member who started it, and it has taken off. Any faculty member, counselor, administrator may recommend students in need for a micro grant from this fund.

      3. Yes, completely. The office might be called something like Student Life, or Student Services or Advising but students do have these needs and definitely some of them tell their advisors or professors or the school when they’re struggling. Practically anyone who interacts with college students can find a good home for grocery store gift cards

    5. I think one of the problems might be you selecting the applicant? That sets off various alarm bells in my head: many of these kids are still 17, do you want to see their transcripts, what personal information are you collecting, etc.

      You would be better off, IMHO, having the school select the winner. My high school had various scholarships ($100 or so) given out at graduation, and I think the donors just selected the criteria and the teachers selected the winners. That also ensured that all of the superstars got something, rather than having one kid win ten times and others winning zero. We didn’t apply or anything – it’s just an award.

      As another idea, you can talk to your college alma mater about doing a book award for local high school students.

      1. I’m late to the thread but work in this space. The gift is not tax deductible if given to a person or if it’s given to an org but the donor chooses the winner.

    6. Asking someone to coordinate a scholarship is a big ask, especially last minute and without resources. I used to work at a major NGO, we gave out scholarships and I probably spent a full 40 hour work week between developing the social media posts, ensuring information was on community message boards/websites, setting up a submissions page, answering questions from applicants, validating and reviewing submissions, etc. If you really want to give out a scholarship you can do all that admin and labor yourself.

    7. Keep asking around, there’s going to be an existing program somewhere near you. You just have to find the right organization. At the local high school near me, it’s the Athletics Booster club run by parents of kids on sports teams. I cut them a check for $500 late last year and it went straight into the scholarship fund that they administer. Took me maybe fifteen minutes to read through their website. The only difference is they pick the recipient, not me.

    8. You are asking for an outsize amount of infrastructure and control for a single $1500 donation, and you are asking it on extremely short notice. Meeting with you to define criteria, creating a website, getting the information in front of the audience, fielding questions from potential applicants, receiving applications, liaising with you to select a recipient, is a significant amount of work that someone needs to be paid for in most nonprofits. You are not offering to pay for that, and you are only willing to help a single student. If they had more notice, maybe they could fold your donation into a program with others, so all that legwork can serve several scholarship recipients. But in that case, you might not get to be involved in choosing the recipient. This part strikes me as somewhat strange actually. Maybe look for interesting gofundmes if you want to feel like you are helping a particular individual.

    9. My DH tried to do something similar a few years ago around the same time frame and the impression we walked away with is that high school now is a lot different than we graduated in 2000. This is a fairly large public high school in NJ in mostly a middle to upper middle class area, so it wasn’t a lack of staff or asking someone to do something for free or whatever. As the high school explained it to us, they worry a LOT now about equity. In this case the equity being – if you announce a scholarship this late in April, some kids won’t have time to apply because they are slogging out the hours working to save money while others are prepping for state championships in track or whatever, so that only gives a shot to kids for whom the last six weeks of the school year is super chill. The school was concerned that it would seem like a brand new scholarship that not everyone had an equal shot at, so like your school they told us they could do it next year and give all the kids the same one or two month timeframe to apply.

      I think this is starkly different from when we were in school. If a scholarship came in last minute, the school used to take the funds, and whoever got it got it, tough luck if the timing for applying was bad for you. Someone above also said something about selection and how it rings alarm bells that you want to select the winner. Honestly this also was NBD 20 years ago. Now there IS more focus on as many kids in the class being recognized for awards. When I was in HS there definitely was one student who cleaned up every award – academic or scholarship or whatever. She definitely was an AMAZING student and it left out a ton of students who were barely a quarter step behind her, but that legit was no concern to any school official back then as students in that class always left award ceremonies demoralized. My sense is that doesn’t happen as much any more.

    10. Seriously, give your money to an existing scholarship program (society for women engineers, AAAS, Achievement rewards for college scholars, etc ) and let them hand out. That or do the emergency funds to local community colleges- lots of CCs have a food bank that you could do a lot of good with.

      1. This. If you want “credit” for the scholarship (your name on it) you are probably going to have to endow a fund somewhere.

    11. If there is a youth organization you’re familiar, you might want to check in with their fundraising foundation. They might already have programs for individualized scholarships and are looking for new donors. I served on a state foundation for 4H at one point, and that organization help facilitate individual donations for high school seniors and current college students all the time.
      I would imagine there are probably similar programs with Scouts, STEM Groups, etc. Really any state wide organization that would have high school kids still involved.

    12. This is really misunderstanding how giving works – the amount of time and resources it will take for an organization to work with you on a process, advertise it, answer questions, get you the materials, answer your questions, and then facilitate the gifting isn’t going to happen between now and June and isn’t worth it for the tiny amount of money you are offering. Just donate to the PTA of your local public high school and it will be used much more efficiently

      1. Seriously, this. Ours at the neediest schools run food pantries and donate things like pads and deodorants that some students NEED even though they are living at home still; those homes are poor. Fund today’s need into an existing program.

      3. This. Donate to an existing scholarship fund at your local high school that directly benefits a local student, has processes and procedures already hashed out, and move on.

    13. I work in philanthropy! The minimum to set up a fund, even non-endowed, will be far greater than what you’re looking to give. I would suggest donating it to an education nonprofit or seeing if your local community foundation has an existing scholarship fund – most do.

    14. Slightly more encouraging take: I had a similar vanity project where I wanted to fund a kid to attend a specific event (which normally poor kids don’t get to attend due to costs). I didn’t want to donate to a fund, I just wanted to pay for a kid to go.
      I had luck approaching it as: narrowing down the criteria to be specific enough to rule out more than a couple kids, then contacting someone in contact with that type of kid, then asking them to offer to a kid’s parents for me to pay their way.
      (My criteria was that they be from a specific extremely small town, in a certain grade, enrolled in a particular program. A well networked person in the small town was able to identify a kid in need and informally offer my help to the parents.)

      1. To me that’s really different though because it’s creating access to an event-versus just wanting to put money somewhere, which is much more fungible

  13. For anyone wondering about passport renewal timelines, I sent mine off for standard service on March 20 and received it back today, which is exactly 30 days. At the time I sent it, the State Department website said standard processing was 6-8 weeks.

  14. Quick question – of course I am last minute with this, but I have my first colonoscopy on Monday and trying to plan what to have on Sunday – it can only be clear liquids. Does anyone know if it would be ok to drink just the broth from campbell’s chicken soup? I am also planning to drink yellow Gatorade and light colored jello but I think the broth is something that will help me feel fuller than I otherwise would. TIA!

    1. i think clear broth is fine? I probably made consomme for myself. what kind of prep are you doing? if it’s miralax + ducolax, STAY CLOSE TO THE TOILET. ugh.

      1. It is the pills – I am glad you mentioned it because I need to double check that. I have cancelled this appt twice already but I saved the pills from the first time I had it planned!

    2. Yes, broth was fine when I did it.

      My tip for fasting: chew gum! It helped me feel like I was eating something even when I wasn’t. Just don’t swallow it by accident.

    3. Could you just buy a box of chicken stock? I know that’s okay. I don’t specifically know about canned soup broth, maybe it has minuscule carrots or other things in it.

      Another tip is to start eating more lightly on Friday. No huge burgers and fries platter, etc. This will make the prep easier.

      1. Yes good point – I will look for that! And good point about today. I wasn’t thinking about that, was focusing on Sunday!

    4. I did ensure clear (be sure it is clear and not colored), which kept me from getting hungry and was super easy.

    5. Is bone broth allowed? It has more protein than regular broth, which will help with satiety

        1. I ordered broth from a Pho place which was SO much better than any broth I would have bought at a grocery store, highly recommend that!

    6. I strained my soup so it was just liquids when I did it. I needed some salt in addition to allllll the sugar I was getting from Gatorade and Italian ices.

      1. You can drink Powerade zero, or low sugar Gatorade.

        OP – make sure you hydrate enough. Even though I drank like crazy I was pretty dehydrated by the next day scope from the prep. And if you are dehydrated, it lowers your blood pressure. And the medicines they give you to knock you out for the colonoscopy lower your blood pressure. So after the test my blood pressure was barely in the 80s systolic… I kid you not…. and they were trying to push me out to start the next colonscopy and I was like…. “I can’t even stand without feeling like I’m going to pass out….”. So makes sure you get enough salt and fluids both before and soon after.

    7. YMMV but broth made me feel nauseated – there’s something about having a food-like taste in your mouth when you’re hungry and can’t eat real food that was upsetting to my stomach. It was easier for me to just drink water.

        1. Nope. Fortunately I only fast for colonoscopies so it’s not a frequent occurrence.

      2. I was the opposite – I found chicken broth (just the kind from a box) very soothing, but jello made me nauseous.

    9. My go to was take out Chicken Pho broth, because it always comes packaged separately from the noodles and chicken. Next time I’m asking if I can just get a gallon of broth only. It made the whole prep period a lot more palatable, pun intended.

    10. I know I’m just a rando on the internet saying this, but I recently read an article in a scientific journal that had done a major survey of different studies and found that it’s OK to actually eat soft, light-colored foods (like mac and cheese, eggs, pancakes, etc. ) during the prep, and that doing so did not affect how clean the the colon was. But that GI docs weren’t changing recommendations because they were afraid people would go too far and it’s really hard to get docs to change requirements away from “the way we’ve always done it.” The studies had found that loosening up on what people could/couldn’t eat didn’t affect the cleanness of the colon, but did affect whether people cancelled appointments. They had a list of foods that worked and foods to stay away from.

      Based on that, clear broth is perfectly fine. I used watered down, cold Gatorade, and also apple juice, and had to drink so much of it that hunger wasn’t an issue.

      1. My doctor does this- a low residue diet the day before an afternoon procedure. But you still had to switch to clear liquids by late afternoon (3 or 4 pm?) and then start the prep early the next morning. My husband and I both followed this protocol and they said our prep was excellent. I don’t think anyone suggests that you can eat through the entire prep period, though, that wouldn’t make sense.

    11. I just had my first today! I drank mango seltzer water, white Gatorade, and apple juice. They told me only yellow jello, no green so I skipped it because that was all I had. I think only the broth would be ok but call the office if in doubt. Yesterday was a work day so I had something to distract me and wasn’t very hungry. My biggest tip is to start the prep maybe an hour early. I finished drinking the gallon jug at around 11:30, went to bed around 1, went to the bathroom almost every hour and then woke up at 6:30. Needless to say I’m exhausted! Also, sorry to be gross but get the softest TP you can find and dab, don’t wipe as much as possible. It was painful for me, but the actual prep didn’t taste too bad. If possible take the whole day on Monday to relax. I’m working a half day and exhausted!

        1. I did it in September. If you need to drink water and can’t face as much as they say without any flavor, one or two drops of lime juice will make it easier. No coloring to distort what they are looking at, but enough flavor to ease the process along. Likewise, heating the broth with a clove of garlic and a bay leaf make it a lot easier to drink.

    12. My top tip is ordering broth from Asian restaurants if you have them. But yes, you can strain any soup. And clear usually means no purple or red. So you can have soda and coffee and beef broth too. You can have popsicles that don’t have fruit (and aren’t purple or red). Also, the guidance many doctors give for prep isn’t actually necessary. They just stick to old methods from habit. Prep can be so less challenging than it currently is.

    13. I brewed a two-quart plastic pitcher of iced tea and dumped the Miralax into it, and sipped it throughout the prep period, which worked well for me. (I checked with the doctor’s office, and they said coffee and tea was ok, just nothing colored red or purple — so lemon and lime (green) jello were ok, too.)

  15. I did not project self-immolation to be a 2024 trend. I really hope it doesn’t catch on, but with so much turmoil this year, I am worried.

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