The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck deeply affected me. It left a mark and something changed inside me after I read it. I will always have a place in my heart for Jane Austen. And Homer.

I would not be ok with an adult male watching my biological male child undress either. Or for that matter, all the other biological boys in the dressing room watching him undress or shower. I think as a parent I would be way more concerned with men and boys being around my potentially naked male child than a transgender student. The latter sounds perhaps uncomfortable, but not dangerous to my child. Pedophiles and boys with broomstick engaging in hazing rituals are a bigger potential problem on my radar as a parent of a young teen boy in a locker room. If I was the parent of a transgender child, my concerns for their safety would be the same. I would advocate for private spaces for ALL children to change, shower, and use the bathroom.

I think we can all relax and assume that this will all be taken care of with the next major flu pandemic. (Just a little end of the world joke to lighten the mood here... ?) Let the debate continue...

Well I am always super cautious about adults and children but then you have story after story like this: https://abc11.com/news/va-hs-football-players-facing-sodomy-hazing-charges/1085620/ Which makes me feel like locker rooms DO need adult supervision. I guess locker rooms need some kind of redesign with lockable doors to shower/change in with a common area for things like putting on gear/shoes/etc....Adult could stay in common area and supervise with a sight line to the showers to make sure only one kid per stall. 2 adults would be the best scenario to protect both youth and adults. This should work for transgender students as well. Expensive but I think this is the way we are headed. I would not want my son in a locker room at all right now, but I would be much more concerned with a possible culture of hazing by straight males than I would be about a tween or teen transgender student personally.

My point is a lot of these single mothers are still dependents and not providing more than half the support for their children so they end up having to use their parents info on the FAFSA. A lot of them earn zero income if they have a child and their parents are supporting them while they go to school. But no one makes young married couples prove they are not being supported by their parents. Why does being married but living in your parents basement with them supporting you make you an independent adult, but a single mom in the same situation is not? Just pointing out what seemed like a double standard to me.

Well we have to make the line for adult somewhere. Sure young adults still need our support and guidance, but they don't need us to control all of their decisions for them so that we can (obviously) make the right choices for them. I disagree that the sister should have to call and check with mom first. Sure for an underage minor, but that seems very controlling for adult relationships. My goal would be to have the kind of open relationships where everyone would be totally comfortable discussing things though. Obviously the daughter is comfortable telling mom about the invites but the sister wasn't. This probably has more to do with the two sisters relationship than anything with the daughter. Perhaps the sister knew mom would be upset, doesn't approve of her lifestyle, etc.. but still wanted to extend an offer to her adult niece and decided to let niece deal with mom about it.

I would just be sad if my kid didn't want to spend any time at spring or summer break with me. That is pretty much going from Christmas til fall break. But I am clingy like that, lol... I would just casually toss out in your next conversation with your sister "so DD mentioned you invited her over for spring and summer break this year.." and see what she says. It shouldn't be too awkward since your daughter told you about it now. Unless you make it awkward by getting upset with her for issuing an invitation which seems a little bit of an overreaction out of fear. I wouldn't worry about the world view thing so much. I understand your concerns, but honestly there isn't much she hasn't seen by now as a sophomore in college these days unless she goes to a very conservative Christian college or something. You had her formative years and now she will experience other viewpoints. In the end she will have to make up her own mind as an adult about what she believes.

I worked briefly in financial aid. It was the worst job I ever had. Washing dishes at a restaurant at 14 was way better. Here are some tidbits I learned on independent status. As far as having a child, the parent had to prove that they were providing at least half of the support for that child to be considered an independent student. That support could include child support or government aid, but it had to be more than what their own parents were providing in food, housing, etc...So, if a 20 year old with a child is still living at home with mom and dad paying all the bills, having a baby does not automatically make them independent. It is interesting that they did not use the same formula with marriage though. Two 19 year olds married and living in their parents basement would be considered independent, even if the parents were providing food, utilities, phone payments, car insurance or whatever. Which is kind of unfair really. It is just assumed if you are married you are out taking care of yourselves and getting married does give you an automatic independent status. This always seemed like a double standard to me. All you needed to provide was a marriage license if you were selected for verification. But single mothers under 24 listing themselves as independent were often flagged for verification to prove they were really independent. And most of the time where I worked, these students ended up having to submit their parent's income because their parents were supporting both the student and the baby.

I don't think it is tacky, I think it is annoying as heck though (referring only to decorating and the post Halloween push in the public spaces, it would be very silly to get annoyed at what people do in their own homes lol- no judgement there!) For me, it is a religious holiday and all the early hype is definitely overt commercialization. And it makes Christmas seem less special if I have been experiencing it for two months already. My tactic is to basically ignore it until December. I don't turn on any Christmas music or do any decorating until I am officially ready for the season. I dislike the cultural norm of the Christmas season beginning the day after Thanksgiving with Black Friday. I don't really agree with the message that the beginning of the Christmas season is all about sales and shopping. So I typically wait for Advent.

This isn't really a food gift, but if you have any coffee lovers in your life you can send them fresh roasted coffee beans from Blue Bottle Coffee. It is amazing coffee. There are some different choices and I think you can do a one time thing or like a mini subscription for a month or two.

I went through a bff breakup earlier this year after 20 years of friendship. It had gotten really toxic for me and I tried to end it nicely but it ended up being a bit more dramatic than I intended (she didn't take it well). At any rate all year long it has weighed on me. I didn't want to reopen the wounds or be inconsistent, since I was the one who ended the friendship. But it just all felt wrong. I wanted us to be able to be 'neutral'- not really friends, but not enemies either. I didn't want bitterness. After almost a year I sent her a text touching base and apologizing for hurting her. I am not sorry for what I did or said, but I am sorry that it was so painful for her. I really didn't want to open the door back up but it was like an oozing wound that needed to be reopened so it could heal. Now I feel like things will be less dramatic and we will be more like acquaintances. I am not diving back in, but not slamming the door in her face either. Delicate balance for me to keep it contained to what I can handle yet not be cruel and dismissive. If it is still bothering you after all this time you may need to reopen the wound in order for it to heal. It's ok if she doesn't want to hear it. You will probably feel better if you know you made an attempt to make peace. At least I did. It sounds like the issues you both had are just big misunderstandings and that you are both in a better place now. She might still be hurting from it as well and need some closure too.

I get trying to be tactful and gentle. But if the friend is the blunt type, that might go right over her head and you may find her continuing to bring up her dislike of the other person, which will put you in a continual tight spot of trying to be understanding without talking about your other friend. In my experience blunt people appreciate bluntness in others and sometimes miss finer communication styles. Even if it is not your style to be blunt, you may need to be more direct if this continues. Then it might be time for saying "I love you but you gotta find another friend to vent to about Jane because she is my friend too. I would say the same to her if she was venting about you". In the meantime whenever it comes up, I would pretend your other friend is right beside you when you answer. How would you respond if Jane was in earshot? Use that as your ruler and you will be ok.

Yeah, I am reading about sewing buttons on their eyes and about severed hands and thinking how is this appropriate for first graders??? The teacher must have just grabbed something. Hopefully she learned her lesson and the children aren't too traumatized. Goodness!

Ok really all the teacher needed to do was read the Wikipedia page on it and that would be enough information to know it is not appropriate for first graders. I would be an unhappy mama too.

Wow, I just thought Coraline was a typical Halloween cartoon movie. I was completely oblivious as I have never watched it. Part of me now wants to watch it just to see what it is about, but I am sensitive and avoid violent imagery. I wonder if the teacher did any research at all??? At the very least she should watch the movie herself first before showing it to a bunch of 7 year olds. Or just read reviews. That is really lazy and poor judgement on her part if she just grabbed something with a Halloween cover and popped it in. I mean a PG rating means very little to me. There are a ton of 80's movies with PG ratings I still don't want my teens watching. I do think most were rated before the new PG 13 came out but still. I definitely didn't trust a PG rating when they were 7. I had a kid scared by things like the bear in Brave or the witch in Snow White. This why parental guidance is suggested. PG is not for everyone.

And of course the classic Bonnie Tyler Holding Out for a Hero

Not sure what age you are working with but there is the song from The Descendents movie- Rotten to the Core

Ok this was really helpful. I pretty much followed your recipe except I used chicken broth instead of water. Came out great and everyone loves it so I am writing it down in my recipe book. It is an easy one to commit to memory which is nice also! Thanks every one!

She could try one of those incline pillows to prop her up during sleep or sleep in a recliner if she has one. I am sure she is already avoiding caffeine, spicy foods, fried or fatty foods, chocolate, tomatoes and other heartburn instigators? They make a new tums called chewy delights which is double the strength of the ultra tums and works really fast. It says on my package that pregnant women can have up to 4 a day. Some people get relief from chewing gum or a glass of milk. Milk actually makes mine worse though. Definitely small meals and not lying down right after eating. Don't drink too much after the last meal either. If none of that helps she may need medication but I don't know what she has tried that is safe for pregnancy.

I think I have everything I need on hand, I just need some measurements or proportions. There are SO many recipes online and the ones we have tried just turn out ok. I am craving a cheesy version but we can add that in to any base recipe you know is good. I have celery, onion, potatoes, chicken broth, milk or cream, cheddar cheese and bacon.

I was fantasizing about this the other night as well. I would: 1) build a moderate sized house that I loved where we live now 2) give a lot of money away to family and friends. Pay off their mortgages, send their kids to college, etc 3) set up trust funds for our kids 4)set up long-term retirement investments 5) set up a foundation/charity and find ways to help people around the world that are struggling much more than I am now without the lottery. 6) build our little church a much needed fellowship hall 7) travel and not work, other than maybe managing my non profit/foundation ? buy a little beach cottage somewhere If I was really motivated I would create my dream small private school. The kind that doesn't exist but you wish it did.

Ummm....way too much junk food (today was take out pizza). On the plus side it was a light day for dishes :)

I am not above bribery as a parenting tactic. It you think home schooling middle school is the best choice figure out how to get his buy in. Sing the praises of flexible homeschooling with middle of the week ski days while others are stuck in a classroom on an iPad all day. Buy yourself a year and tell him you can look at it again each year and discuss. Figure out his currency.

When her friends moan and groan about algebra she seems kind of surprised that they are struggling with it or that they hate math. They pretty much all hate their math classes. I think she is secretly enjoying algebra. She tackles it first thing every day where math used to be the subject she dreaded and dragged her feet on. She chooses to do that as I don't dictate her schedule. it is a dramatic change in how she views math and views herself as a student who does well in math and (gasp) possibly LIKES math.. Totally worth the extra year. I hope it pays off for all of you slowing down like it did for us.

Yeah my food thermometer works great and it was just a cheap off the shelf spur of the moment purchase. Why can't they make body temperature thermometers that accurate??? I am one of those people who is terrible at reading mercury thermometers. I don't have great eyesight so maybe I can blame that.