Wow, this is one of those threads that reminds me what a privileged little world I live in. There are 4 libraries close enough to me that I would consider them local. 3 different library "districts" but I can borrow from them all. They all have a large quiet reading room- one has a wall of windows overlooking a natural area, and a fireplace. So peaceful. The kids sections all have lots of learning toys, puzzles, and games. The kids computer section has headphones. Tons of books in the adult and kid sections. Lots of little tables and chairs scattered throughout the entire library. Different sized meeting rooms for all sorts of purposes. Truly, my only complaint with my libraries is that they're not open 24/7. I would love that! I am aware of libraries in towns where I have extended family, that are only open a few days a week. Insane!! There are two libraries in one of my local systems that have a separate but attached building space for a large, extensive, really cool play space for kids. Being part of the library system means it's free and there are lots of books in addition to all the imaginative and creative toys, but being separated means that it doesn't bother the library patrons at all, and also that children must be accompanied by their parents. I think it was genius to design it like that, because it draws more people to the library than would ordinarily come, and then people actually start to use the library before or after their trip into the special kids building. I love libraries.

Where is her port being placed? Mine was placed in my upper chest wall and I was fine the next day. Definitely tender and I was protective of that area for a long time. As a cashier, she should consider placement and whether the repetitive movements of scanning items will affect the port area. If not, she should be fine to go back to work in a day or two.

I'm only about halfway through, but I'm finding so many of these responses interesting!! DH and I both work in fields that have been described as "I'm glad someone wants to do that ultra-low-paying, yet incredibly necessary job" multiple times in this thread. Yet, we are quite comfortable- we own a home in a high COL area, we pay for private school, we go out to eat and go on vacations... I would be unhappy if my child wanted to pursue stardom. Like, if they wanted to be an NFL quarterback, or a pop singer, or whatever. Other than that, I will encourage whatever they ultimately prove to be interested in. The only requirement I have for schooling is that they do not take out any student loans. They will have to go wherever is affordable by whatever combination of scholarships, family assistance, and personal contribution is available. I personally cannot imagine spending most of my waking hours doing something with the only purpose of bringing in money, and I do not wish that for my child.

Well, one important thing to keep in mind is that biracial hair varies widely. Are we talking about black/white biracial only? My daughter is that kind of biracial and she has very dark, fine, silky large ringlets. The girl next door is also black/white biracial and she has coarse, blond tight ringlets. They have to do their hair in completely different ways. Both, however, cannot rely on typical "white" or typical "black" ways of doing hair. For example, neither can do cornrows/braids, because their hair breaks and turns into a frizzy mess. So really, it's about these adults learning the best way to do each individual child's hair. For that, I'd recommend getting some books from the library (really, this is what I did when my daughter was little) and spending some time browsing the hair care aisles at Target. Speaking very generally, curly hair and/or coarse hair should not be washed daily. My daughter has always been a roll-in-the-leaves type of kid, so she has to shower daily. She "washes" her hair with conditioner daily, and uses shampoo about once a week. She sometimes uses leave in conditioner, or a detangler, or a frizz-reducing gloss. It's a lot of trial and error. Oh! And she covers her hair at night so it's not all tangly and frizzed in the morning. Also- combs only. No hairbrushes. And she really only ever combs it when it's wet. But again, that's just one biracial person's hair.

I was going to say all of this!! In general, it seems that, yes, you can perform better than the USA if you either don't provide schooling to everyone, or if you have such a huge safety net that you pretty much have a homogenous population. While I do think we could learn something from the latter type of country, I'm okay with our overall low performance compared to the countries who don't educate large portions of their population.

There's just no such thing as a bad doughnut. They're all wonderful.

Hmm, I meant to quote a post from reguntrude (sp?) a page or two back. Stupid phone posting... Yeah, they have a separate box for the paper. Or at least they did, I haven't paid attention recently. It was for The Washington Post, and I remember all the neighbors having them. Several people had more than one, I guess because they received several different papers.

I realized something as I was driving through the neighborhood today...the newspapers are even delivered in plastic bags now, at least in dense areas like where I live. The delivery guy just throws the bagged paper out of his car window. I guess maybe my parents would still get theirs put in their box, without being bagged, but they live rurally.

I'm only on page 5, so my story probably isn't relevant anymore, but still, I feel compelled to share. Once upon a time, I quit my soul-sucking job without having another one lined up. This meant we had to transfer our family from my excellent health care to DH's excellent health care. The major difference was that mine was like $15 a month for family coverage (taken out of my paycheck) and his was around $50. I felt guilty about reducing our income by half, so I suggested that we only obtain coverage for DH and DD, thereby saving, I don't know, something like $25 a paycheck? DH said that was stupid, and we were all going on the policy. Fast forward 6 months, and I'm diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. Early 30s, no family history, I exclusively breastfed for 2 years...this was a complete surprise. My first 6 months of care cost over $100,000...for my insurance company. If I hadn't been insured, I would either be dead or homeless at this point. All this insurance talk sends my anxiety through the roof. *We've always had phenomenal coverage, with a very low employee contribution, and we don't have deductibles or any of that nonsense. This is due to being state employees. My absolute best solution for the insurance issue is to have everyone on this kind of insurance. So, maybe not universal coverage provided federally, but by the states?

In my state, yes. The parents have to pay child support and they also get some sort of charge (misdemeanor? I don't remember). My husband is a social worker, used to work in foster care, and this happened more frequently than you would think. People adopt kids with RAD and other serious issues and then don't know how to handle them.

Well, I do the whole "no shampoo" thing, which means mostly I do nothing, but sometimes I wash with baking soda and condition with ACV. It works well for that. This is the first winter I haven't had staticky hair!

I would definitely have him allergy tested again, as well as getting some blood tests run. It sounds like he's puberty aged? I teach at a school for students with autism and related disorders, and the students always seem to have a difficult time, physically, during these transition years. So there might be a hormonal issue at play. Good luck!

If you wanted to, though, it could technically be the year of the turkey for you [emoji6]

Well, mine is going to be a cardinal. I'm okay with that. Although, I'm jealous reading of everyone else's Southern Hemisphere birds!

I love this idea!! I'm actually reading her book, Urban Bestiary right now (on my phone and can't do italics or underline or anything! First time I've noticed that), and I'm excited to learn she has other books out. I will see a sparrow or finch, perhaps a crow. They're all okay with me.