ETA - to answer OPs question - I opted to Not Push for physical and dexterity stuff. I saved Pushing for important stuff - treating others appropriately, kindness to animals, that sort of thing. For my youngest, table manners came with physical maturity. She wasn’t clumsy, but lacked “something” such that she made a total mess when she was eating. She also has a fist-handed pencil grip I could NEVER train out of her. So..... for year, she had to get Dressed for Dinner. Apron on, hair tied back, if she had nice clothes, she had to change before she could eat. When we went out, I ordered for her and it was stuff she could (mostly) eat without doing more than making a mess on the table when she accidentally pushed food off the plate with her fork. Talking with her mouth full meant she got told No Talking until she was done chewing, but I didn’t make a huge fuss about it and we waited while she chewed to listen to what she needed to say (Tricky with older sibs!) A ray of hope for you - DD is 17 now and a senior in high school. Manners are fine. She still has the crazy pencil grip, but she is an artist among other things - she draws on with her computer or with colored pencils most days. She has worked out whatever the problems were with forks and clothes. Oh and she finally learned to tie her shoes about 7th grade.......

Our primary doctors are two MDs and a DO that have a practice together. They are all great and can treat pretty much all the same stuff. No hesitation here about seeing a DO.

Bleah. That’s the stuff that gives people a bad taste in their mouth when talking about car dealerships. i would have no problem doing 30,000 miles in your vehicle. Have your mechanic add a little steering fluid if it needs it (or do it yourself). If you are really nervous about it, spend $120 and get the premium AAA membership for the next year so you have the 200 miles of free towing. Then take your trips and have fun!

And with regards to kids and devices - our family is like some of the previous posters. Our kids had access to devices early on. DD17 had a tablet for reading library books once she started reading - age 4?5? She got her own laptop for high school and a cell phone then as well. By the time she was 6 or 7 she was better at texting than I was and answered most of my text messages for me. We are a high tech family.

Speaking of unlocking to dial 911 - teach your kids about the emergency function. US cell phones can all dial 911 when the phone is locked. There is usually a spot on the lock screen that says “Emergency” or you can just press 911 on the lock screen and the call goes through. It even works on phones with no active service or no SIM installed.

I would have no hesitation with a 40/60 split, but would figure it might cost me the $2K to make it all go away if no one buys anything. My time is worth more than $2K to me. YMMV.

When faced with this same problem of sending a main dish that was supposed to sit out all morning, I cheated and sent cookies. i figures that having too many cookies was a better problem than food poisoning or food that got weird sitting at room temperature all day.

DD17 has flown domestically at least 4 times a year since she was a baby (hey - Alaska is a long way from everywhere). We got her and her siblings state IDs after 9-11 to make travel easier. Later on, we got them passports and we all travel with those. I like using my passport as ID on domestic travel because it’s faster at TSA - they all know how to read a passport. Some places the agents struggle to find the right info on my state drivers license. DD17 has chatted with TSA agents all over the country answering their questions since we have passed through most major US airports at one time or another. They almost always have asked her name, age and who she was traveling with. We practiced at home once she was big enough to answer the questions. This has been her “normal” growing up and now that she is older, she is comfortable traveling alone as well. As a frequent traveler, my recommendation is always to practice with your kids before you leave home and to take ID for everyone. Oh - and double-check kids bags yourself before going through security to avoid the Embarrassing Water Bottle incident......

A friend brought these in for a work potluck. I am a solid omnivore, but these were easily as good as any tacos I have ever had. No weird ingredients - she used a vegan spice mix from our local grocery store that doesn’t carry many options. Serve shredded cheese on the side for those who don’t do dairy. This may be the only tofu I’ve ever liked! https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/vegan-tofu-taco-crumbles/

DD17 did AP Stats after Calc BC. It made for a nice change after two years of calculus.

Airline Tickets Back in the day of paper tickets, I found an unused set of airline tickets for flights the next week inside a book I checked out. I took them back to the library and the librarian called the previous patron whose name was on the tickets apparently. Happy Ending!

Our dogs tromp around in circles until they stomp the snow down a bit and then do their dog business. But they are pretty good sized (65 pounds) so the stomping doesn’t take long.

I buy quite a bit from amazon. I agree with the others - unless the review says Verified Purchase, there’s a good chance it’s fake. And the ones that are Verified Purchase AND they uploaded a picture of themselves wearing the item? Solid Gold!

I did it all myself. I selected colleges, applied for scholarships with the help of the school councilor and even bought my own airline tickets to get there. No visits in advance, but the councilor at school let me make a Long Distance call from her office to talk to the Dean of Students to get set up for housing. My parents were fairly surprised I could go to college at all and were not involved in any part of it. They didn’t file taxes (no income) and I was 18 so I didn’t need their signatures for anything.

Buy the kid 2 or 3 good joke books. At least that way the jokes will be funny... i find that the jokester kids do well in physically exhausting solo sports. I coach x-country skiing and it’s perfect keeping kids too busy to cause trouble. Practices are with other kids, but you have to get pretty good at skiing to be able to tell jokes and ski at the same time. So both social and not social.

I have half Peacock and half Lapis - bowls, salad plates and dinner plates. I also have a stack of Plum square plates that are perfect for a quick sandwich. I have a ccouple of serving bowls of Peacock and Lapis each.

This is our kitchen - which I love. This is right after the remodel was finished, so contractor tools were still hanging around. I especially love the window over the sink and the small counter area next to the fridge which is perfect for making snacks or lunches. Having tall cabinets u to the ceiling means there is a ton of storage and DH (Chief Cook) uses the double ovens daily. DH wanted the stove top in the island and I will say that it gives us much more counter space than we used to have and that would have been lost otherwise with the double ovens. We live in the Land of Darkness, so all the lights really are necessary.

Nope. Just grew up in a time and place that was Rural, Poor and Suspicious of Government. All of us kids were ridiculously healthy growing up, but we did tend to run a bit wild.

Hopefully I don’t get chased off the board for this.... but I received all my vaccines at age 18 when I left for college. I had one dose of polio vaccine as a child when they had a polio scare, but that’s it. Mostly a mix of money, timing and government conspiracy theories, I suspect. I don’t recommend it as a Fun Time, but better late than never in my case.

Kid #4 born in May was much less work than the previous 3 winter babies. Less gear to haul around, less time warming up cars, fewer clothes to hassle with. More sunshine for mom (it is dark here in winter). Less ice to fall on.

I do this. I honestly give a book a solid try, but find that the convenience of returning ebooks and getting new ones just makes it not worthwhile to slog through a bad book. On the plus side - I read far far more books on my iPad than I ever did physical books.

Another high arch fan here. We remodeled the kitchen last March and put in a normal depth sink (old sink was shallow for a kitchen) with a high arch faucet with pull down sprayer. Makes a huge difference even in washing regular pots and pans and filling deeper pots and the dogs’ water dispenser is a breeze.

When DD17 was young, she never was much interested in TV. She would read, draw or play music in the evenings if she didn’t have some sort of evening activity out of the house. These days, she rarely has an evening that she is not doing something. When she does have an evening off, we generally watch a mystery or animae series on TV together.

I am going to guess that she already knows the answer - she needs to walk away from this employer and find another job. I have a similar job. There comes a time when the job no longer fits due to changes in the workplace or in personnel. When it’s no longer a good fit - the wise person leaves.

We hired a moving company to move everything to the garage. Since it didn’t involve storage or a truck, it was fairly cheap. They moved it out on Tuesday, carpet installers came in Wednesday and did the whole house, then movers came back Thursday and put everything back. It was pretty painless even with a lot of furniture. The mover brought 3 young guys who emptied our house in about 3 hours