We were in Oman, and it was a while ago, so it might be different, but I'd say daily life was the same, except conducted in T-shirts and long pants / skirt (i.e. no shorts or sleeveless tops - people did it but it was looked down on). Only one shop carried pork products, and it was kept in a separate room. Only one store had alcohol and you needed a special license to buy. Book Depository would probably be your cheapest option for books, but I used to get deliveries from Rainbow Resource Center and Amazon with no problem (except expense). Dubai was the nearest Ikea to us (good for cheap temporary furniture), but there were furniture stores where we were, and plenty available second hand because so many people were there short term. Lots of amazing handcrafted furniture from India. All the leading clothes brands, although mainly European. If you have children, not being connected with a school could be isolating, because a lot of social connections are built through schools, but if Doha has a good homeschooling network, that might be different. Oman didn't and the one homeschooler I contacted was very dismissive of me as a mother of a preschooler, so I enrolled dd in an IB school, which was a fantastic experience. She got an incredible exposure to people from all over the world - 17 countries were represented in her class of 22 (taking into account parents). We had a very happy, easy life there for the most part.

Same here.

We're about to put ours on the market. Haven't had an agent around yet because I keep finding something else I want to 'fix' before someone sees my house! But from the other side - we looked at 4 houses last weekend. Two were carefully staged (e.g. no clothes in the open plan walk in wardrobe, beautiful dinner sets laid out on the table) but the other two were distinctly 'lived in' and I never would have noticed the things you mention. I noticed one door that had been scribbled on by kids but that would drive me nuts if it were my kids anyway, and I noticed damaged floor boards because I laid ours and brightly coloured walls because I've painted over similarly coloured ones and know it's a hassle. When you're buying you're too busy looking at the big picture and inserting yourself into it to notice the small stuff!

I would reply to that Instagram post with something like: "It's sometimes hard to tell what happening from a distance. At a recent meet I had to deliver the news that my son's time wasn't as good as he thought .... etc" And then block her. I hate social media.

I don't say things I don't believe or hurt people on purpose, but I know I speak in hyperboles: "I always" or "I never" instead of "I usually"' or "I don't often" which can be hurtful and insulting. I think I'm more aware of that tendency now. On the other hand, picking apart someone's word choice can be a way of avoiding the kernel of truth: "You're right, you don't 'always' leave your clothes where they fall, but you did yesterday and the day before and the day before and the day before."

I recently banned my talker from using his ipod for a month. So, no audiobooks... Did I ever regret it! For the first week I put up with continual stream-of-consciousness talking: And it's really my best book ever because I love dragons and mom if I had a shrink ray I could make you tiny and then I'd turn the what's that thing call? the dial and make you big again and look at those clouds do you think it will be a tornado? Dh was away that first week and I nearly lost it, even with ds in school 6 hrs a day. He did calm down, though, after the first week. He started reading a lot. It was a good experience, but for quick quiet I'd hand over an iPod loaded with 50 hours of audible and Librivox books and have a quiet summer! Ds usually listens over and over again.

Helping man a table at a fun run is something dd's girl guide group did. Little ones would have to be supervised but could still help.

This last weekend was 'not busy'. Dh has been working 6-6.5 days a week for months, dd has been studying for exams and get social life has been flourishing - the result has been much fewer slow, at-home weekends. This weekend dh was home, exams were finished and I banned social events. I accidentally slept in until 9:55 on Saturday after a bad night. After lunch we drove around and looked at some open houses as we're looking to buy soon. We stopped at a bakery for snacks. Then we went to the beach (winter here) where dh and ds fished from the pier while dd and I took a walk. We bought a round of 'real' hot chocolates and walked around the marina while drinking them. Home after that for dinner and TV. Sunday we got take-out breakfast from McDonalds and ate that at home before heading to the zoo from 10-4pm. A quick 'team effort' grocery shop on the way home and an easy dinner, then tv and relaxing in bed. That's an active fun weekend for us, but not 'busy'. Busy would imply activities outside the family to someone else's schedule. We wouldn't usually spend so much money on one weekend's entertainment but it was special to be 'not busy' for a change.

Ds9 loves The Hero's Guide to Saving your Castle and the follow on. I enjoy them too. It's the tale of the four fairy tale princes who rather resent being referred to generically as "Prince Charming" - they have names! They get together, overcome their weaknesses, learn about friendship and save the day (well maybe not the latter, but they try). The narration is excellent.

No scolding from here! I'm on top of this issue and it's still a daily battle. It does help that the house is small and I pass her room on the way to the bathroom, so I remind her regularly to stop what she's doing and do the things she should have done (take plates back to the kitchen, put clothes away when they left her body etc). Then I stand in her doorway and wait until she does it... And we don't leave the house in the morning until it's reasonably tidy (my parts of it too). There are a couple of issues here: firstly I don't want to live surrounded by mess, and, yes, I'm one of those people who thinks adults have more 'rights' in the family home than kids, at least about this sort of thing. Secondly, I was pretty messy at her age and it took me decades to make tidiness an instinctive habit. It was hard, and in between I was often ashamed when people visited unexpectedly, which is a horrible feeling. It is definitely a hassle for me to continually chase this issue with a 15 year old, but I try not to make it a battle. I issue specific instructions and wait for the task to be completed. I try not to take resistance personally or get angry. Sometimes I even get it right. Thank goodness ds9 seems to have some sort of genetic mutation which lends itself to natural tidiness!

Ds9 seems to learn a ton of human biology from watching Operating Ouch!. And about animals / nature from Deadly 60. Also Horrible History and Horrible Science. He loves Walking with Dinosaurs although it's not specifically aimed at kids.

When I look back on it from the outside, my mother and three sisters seemed to live out their personalities. They get on well, and are close. But older sister, who is the organiser, organised and was most involved, second sister went along with things but was supportive, third sister was supportive but also suggested fourth sister could resign her job, move back home and become a paid caregiver, and fourth sister (sensibly and with the support of 1 and 2) declined and remained physically far from the situation.

Are you sure that's what they were implying? It really didn't cross my mind until I got to this paragraph. When I hear "don't look like campers" I assume high heels and silk shirts and make up and hair dryers. I'd probably build a snappy comeback around that, actually. (We did actually go camping with a friend who complained about the bathroom facilities. I thought they were basic but fine. No, she said, there wasn't a mirror! I'll admit I prefer not to look at myself when camping. I get home, step straight into the shower, and resume life from there!)

I can't see the OP's dd's age, but if she's a teen don't forget the free weekly audiobooks from SYNC this summer. (ETA: I see age in the title now - check the SYNC books then. They're for teens but some books cover more intense subjects.) And I'm really sorry this happened to her! Maybe you should school through the summer and give her 6 weeks off afterwards when the cast comes off? At least she'd be busy...

This web page provides a spreadsheet of songs that mention specific ages. As luck would have it, 17 is the age she found mentioned most often. http://quantitativepeace.com/blog/2014/07/data-collection-project-songs-that-mention-being-a-specific-age.html

We did 'no gifts' for exactly this reason. It is quite possible to party / enjoy yourselves without receiving gifts. We were certainly not anything like that well off back then but we had both had separate apartments and had the basics and I could not bring myself to ask for stuff (eg a registry) when I knew that most people were like us and starting out.

My experience was on a board there too. Not drama, particularly, just nastiness.

I ended up in tears after some pregnancy forum nastiness - blocked a number of emails so people couldn't contact me directly and never, ever went back again. That was 10 years ago and I still don't engage much online - I post and move on, for the most part. It was a horrible experience. You should be able to find a group of older moms, or vbac moms or older vbac moms where you'll feel more welcome. Or not - I was on a 'specialised' group and it didn't really stop the nastiness!

Thanks for the thoughts. Blood tests weren't really helpful - she wanted to see me because my ferritin (stored iron) was really low. But that said, I'm not anaemic (which can cause palpitations) so we're back to square one. We just need to eliminate some potential causes of the low iron. And all the other things she tested for that might result in palpitations were negative. Although I do have slightly high cholesterol and higher than normal B12 (how? why?). It's frustrating! My next step would be to use the Holter monitor to check what's actually going on. I need to do more research first. OP - when is your appointment?

It's interesting to see how customs vary! It's been about 15 years since I've been to a wedding, but when we were in the stage of life where we were attending lots of weddings a bridal shower was often called a kitchen tea and gifts were small items, often for the kitchen. Wedding gifts were larger, and taken with to the wedding where they were left on a gift table.

28, I turned 29 9 days later

I am going through almost exactly this at the moment. I had the EKG, heart rate low if anything. I don't have the fluttering or tightness when exercising, only when I first sit or lie down, usually at night. I'm not anxious except when this is occurring. I just had a battey of blood tests and she called me back to see her this morning, so they obviously found something. I'm also not a hypochondriac - checked my records and I've had 3 dr app in the last three years all for obvious symptoms (lumps and bumps and swellings). Something feels 'off' and I'm a little anxious.

Dd has been to Australia, Greece, Jordan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Oman, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, UAE. Ds9 (although he won't remember all of them): Australia, Malaysia ("that place where I had that chocolate cereal"), New Zealand, Oman ("where I was born"), Philippines, Singapore ("where we went on the trains"), UAE ("where my sister let me fall off the bed when I was a baby"). It is his abiding dream to sleep on a plane, so he's very eager for our planned Europe trip! He's fun to travel with. He had the people in front of us on our last international trip a few years ago in fits of (nervous?) laughter with winners like "We're REALLY high up!" and "I think the pilot turned off the engine." 😄

Typical here with ds9, and I agree on the 'ragamuffin' look! He finds jeans stiff and uncomfortable, though. I can't fault him on the thinking: boys jeans seem much harder than women's jeans, at least the stretch ones I buy. I only buy pants in plain and neutralcolours, and try to keep those in mind when buying shirts. Dd or I occasionally 'veto' something he's put on, like the black, grey and burgundy shirt with the blue pants. And I tell him when he looks good, with details about why "Those pants match the colour of the trim on that shirt". I really need to put in a concerted effort to find him comfortable jeans.

You can calibrate the battery. I'm not sure if this actually improves performance or simply improves the way the ipad reads the battery's charge, but it's what my engineer dh told me to try with my phone. There's an explanation here: http://katiefloyd.com/blog/my-experience-with-the-ipad-battery Or you might have to pay to get the battery replaced: https://support.apple.com/ipad/repair/battery-power