How To Dress as a Hands-On SAHM and Not Look Frumpy

I was tired of defaulting to yoga pants, so here's what I wear now instead (updated for fall 2025.)

I haven’t worked in an office since 2020. For the past several years, I’ve either been a full-time remote worker who got fired every eighteen months, or almost full-time SAHM who writes when my kids are asleep. As a result, I’ve struggled with a gaping goatse in my wardrobe: stylish daytime clothes that are actually practical for stuff I’m going to do.

For the many years that I was working in an office, I had several variations of clothes in my wardrobe: my work clothes (dress codes were loose and I had too much fun with this,) my nightlife clothes (my favorite genre of clothes) my lounge clothes (boring, not pretty, but comfortable) and my daytime weekend clothes, which were typically borrowed from both my nightlife and work categories (think high-waisted acid wash jeans with a chevron crop top and wedge sandals, for example. Give me a break, it was 2012.)

But things have changed. For a while after I became a mom, I found myself buying clothes that looked cool, but which I would never realistically wear. They weren’t intended for date night, but they weren’t practical for SAHM life either. These included, but are not limited to: non-stretch but form-fitting attire that wouldn’t enable me to bend over, white jeans, dry clean only sweaters, short daytime skirts, and pastel outerwear. I also have minor sensory issues with fabrics, so certain materials kept going unworn in my closet—wool, cashmere, lace, some types of polyester, or really anything that wasn’t cotton or cotton-like. I had a lot of clothes that I liked, but never “reached for.”

These issues are probably why a lot of moms default to athleisure, but I recently wrote about the fact that athleisure is definitely on its way out. When I wrote that article, I was still trying to figure out what I would replace athleisure with. What would be practical, comfortable, but not scream, “I’m just trying to survive?” What could I reliably reach for when I wasn’t really feeling like getting dressed up, which would still basically look dressy?

Well, I’ve taken the past few months to figure that out, and I’ve finally worked out all the secrets. So voila. Here is how I now dress to look decent as a SAHM whose skin is as easily triggered as a Tumblr user in 2015. This is updated for fall 2025 fashion trends, but I like to think these ideas are somewhat timeless. Also, because I don’t always trust myself, I’m including audience polls for every idea so you can get a sense of whether other people approve (yay for peer pressure.)