I had a keychain from Coach that was a rainbow heart, so I am reminded of that.

OP said she'd given the teen a few polite warnings that her questions were not appropriate and the girl pressed on anyway. Do you think that's typical for 18? I was definitely immature at 18, (probably still immature for 47!), but I think if a friend's mom had told me "Look, you need to stop", I would have stopped instead of pressing on. I would have felt really embarrassed.

It is not unreasonable to ask the college student to inform other car-users of their schedule for a shared vehicle. Other people need to know when the car will be available for use, so they can make plans accordingly. If the college student had their own car, I would still expect to be informed of their work schedule as a courtesy paid to people who live together. My irritation would be slightly less if they had their own car, but it would still be present. If I had a paying roommate, I'd still expect to have a vague idea if they were going to be home or gone and how I could contact them in the event of an emergency.

@MaBelle I got that your post was hyperbole, born of exasperation with this obnoxious 18 year old. At age 18, she should be well past this sort of thing. I remember blurting out some obnoxious, inappropriate stuff to adults when I was 13 and rightly being put on blast for what I said. But 18 years old? Nah, you know better. Some kids around this age say inappropriate things not because they don't understand what they are saying isn't ok, but because they think it's funny to watch others get put on the spot. They like pushing the envelope. They know they are going to get a pass because they're young and other people will excuse it due to youth. I've run into this before with kids younger than your nieces friend. They feel very bold until someone tells them to cut it out. Edited to add: Also, I like your blunt style. I am also blunt and get sniffed at that I'm not gentle enough. I don't see a need to be gentle with people that are treating me rudely. I don't think you owe an 18-year old (technically) adult special consideration of her feelings when she's not considering yours at all.

This happened to my husband. His bio-dad was a player and DH has multiple half-siblings, (I think there are 7 or 9 "kids" from bio-dad. Each has a different mother). DH spoke with his half-sibling A for awhile and they are fb friends. They look alike and we actually live close to the half-sibling, but we have never met them. They don't have much in common, so once the initial curiosity was satisfied, the relationship has gone dormant. As far as I can tell, there are no bad feelings there. It's neutral. Half-sibling B was very "rah rah rah" about being "family" for awhile, and that was tough because again, they didn't have anything in common other than DNA. B seems like a decent person, just a little...intense and enthusiastic. She had a lot of expectations that DH would fill the role of "Big Brother" in her life and invited us to her wedding. We declined the invite and that put a chill on the relationship. I hesitate to call it a relationship because he didn't really know her at all. He wasn't opposed to knowing her or being friends in time, but she came on so strong. It was too much too soon. There are other half-siblings that B located and some were polite, said hello, exchanged medical info, and that was it. A few requested she leave them alone and stop reaching out to them. So, our experience has been that it's unlikely a relationship will develop with a long-lost half-sibling unless both parties are very committed to building one. It would take both people making a concerted effort to bond.

Door and window alarms, leashes for the runner, multiple locks on doors to slow the kid down, plus my dad actually installed bars on the windows for a short while. My sister would routinely get out and wander off. We'd find her asleep on a random neighbor's lawn.

Wow. No. I don't like the way Meghan and Harry behave because it seems snobbish, elitist, and rude. It has ZERO to do with her skin color. Wow.

But the Christening was different form what everyone else. It was held in the Queen's private chapel. Regular citizens don't get to have their babies christened there. Regular citizens also don't get to keep the names of godparents secret. They get to be public record. The reason Meghan and Harry get bad press is because they want to have their cake and eat it too. They want the perks of royal life without any of the tiring bits. Everyone in the royal family is "on" 24/7. Meghan and Harry aren't being put into a unique position. Princess Anne had over 500 public engagements in 2018. Talk about being "on" 24/7! While the taxpayers did not fund the lavish baby shower, the ostentatious display of wealth is not received well by taxpayers. It just looks greedy.

Re: Meghan acting like a diva. It's not just the "no photos, please" request. It's the culmination of these events that generate negative press: showing up at Wimbledon in jeans, the $500,000 baby shower, the $2.4million renovation of Frogmore Cottage, not being appropriately dressed when meeting foreign nationals, generally not seeming to follow established royal protocol, the revolving door of personal assistants and nannies. I was very sympathetic to her when she first got married. It's a big role to take on, and I expected there would be some "oops" moments. It's been over a year, however. I don't believe that anyone at Buckingham Palace is unaware of what's been happening. No one at BP is saying "Muahaha! Let her fail! Stupid American!". If she looks bad, they all look bad. I'm sure the Queen, Prince Charles, and Prince William all know of the bad press Meghan and Harry are generating and have spoken to them both about how to improve the public's perception of them and offered help. Yet...a year later nothing has improved. I don't think neither Meghan nor Harry really want to improve and follow established protocol. I think they are deliberately thumbing their noses at it all, which...ok...a lot of people don't approve of the monarchy. But it's really rich to have that attitude when you *are* a part of the monarchy and all of your expensive, ill-fitting clothes, your home, your personal body guards are provided for you by that same taxpayer-funded monarchy. Edited to add: and Harry is just as much to blame for the bad press as his wife. He's supposed to be helping her fit into this role.

I hate driving, too. The only co-op choices we have near me are 45+ *miles* away. Mentally, I just can't do that. I would not be willing to make the drive you are describing unless the opportunity was very unique and special, like a state-level practice and competition, lessons with a renowned instructor, etc. Not just another homeschool co-op. Is there no way for your daughter to get her social, emotional, and educational needs met locally? Have you exhausted all possible options? (cheer, dance, martial arts, art classes, theater, library teen programs, church youth groups, online classes, outschool, scouts, comic and game store events, etc?) If co-op is one day a week, what will happen on the other days? Will you be home those days? If she is an extreme extrovert, will she be content with one day a week at co-op? What would your perfect week look like, as far as out-of-the-house activities? What would it look like for your daughter? Can you find a compromise that gets most needs met for everyone?

Right. It's not. People were talking about whether or not sleepovers at a young age were normal. I stuck in my 2 cents. Sorry if I went too far o/t. 😕

Prince Harry looks a great deal like Prince Phillip as a young man, as well.

I am sorry for the loss of your brother. My situation with my ex was not the same as your situation with your brother. I tried so SO hard to help my ex. I refuse to defend my actions with him and toward him. My conscience is 100% clear. I don't know how to respond non-emotionally to what you've written, so all I will say is that your experience does not invalidate mine, nor does my experience invalidate yours.

Seems pretty bold of her to sit in the Royal box at Wimbledon and then complain she wants privacy. She wants the public to leave her alone, but also wants to accept financial support from the public. It doesn't work that way. It never has. She wants privacy for her child, but then teases little glimpses "Here's a little look-see at his foot! What, you want more than that? How dare you! He's a private citizen!...<later>...here's an artfully staged B&W photo of us gazing longingly at each other! What, you don't like it? How dare you! We want privacy!" Either be a public figure or don't. If you are going to be a public figure, the public is going to want to interact with you. Don't act so huffy about it.

Never mind. 😕

Ha! Try it and report back on the results.

It wasn't specifically directed at you. There are several people with different opinions on what "rock bottom" means. I was offering my own perspective.

I didn't say you did.

I don't think "rock bottom" has to mean "let the addict get even worse before they get better". I think the idea behind "Don't enable; they have to hit rock bottom" is to stop propping up bad behavior. Stop fixing problems for them when fixing the problem delays them from seeking help. If I kept enabling my ex, he would have had no reason to get sober. His philosophy was "Why should I get sober? You handle all the responsibility just fine, Miss Lemon". As long as I, (or his mother, or his buddies, or his new girlfriend, or his sister, or his grandfather, or his grandmother, or...), were willing to bail him out, give him money, pay his bills, etc, he saw no reason to change. Doing those things validated his choices. Without all of us there to run his life for him, he had to make the choice between getting sober and handling life or...continuing to drink and get high, have problems, and probably die young. The intention of no longer enabling him was not to push him further down into drunkenness. It wasn't to punish him and make him suffer. It was to make him responsible for his life choices, not everyone else. If life got worse, (and it did), it's because he made that choice. Problems only get solved when the person that has the ability to *fix things* starts to feel inconvenienced by the problem, and the burden of the inconvenience is greater than the benefit of ignoring the problem. That's the whole idea behind "rock bottom". It's not supposed to be punitive.

People like this always find someone to protect them. It's easier to pull the wool over the eyes of someone new than to change.

She is so sweet and pretty!!!!!! Oh my goodness, I want to scoop her up and snuggle her! 😺

Absolutely! Another place is findagrave.com (also free). I found the wedding pictures of my great great grandparents through someone on findagrave.

Do you have any extended family that might want some pictures? Are there cousins, aunts, anyone who you could send them to? As an amateur genealogist, the idea of throwing out family photos pains me. The only reason I know what my 3rd great grandfather looks like is because a distant relative's wife saved a bunch of old photos from her in-laws estate. It means so much to me to know what my ancestors looked like. If you are really just *done* with owning the photos, then I encourage you to look up any relatives that have connections to the photos and pass them on. There's bound to be a relative somewhere that would really, really love them.

I brought a small bouquet of flowers to my friend's birthday party. I don't think most adults expect gifts for parties, but a small gesture is appreciated.

When people say "sleepovers", are you talking about staying the night at a friend's home? Or is that code for spending the night with a romantic partner? I can see why some might feel weird about their newly minted 18 year old staying overnight with a romantic partner, but sleeping at a friend's house? What is the issue there?