Oy! I hadn't thought about that. Yikes, that is a very real possibility. 😠

Agreed. US foreign policy has been in a state of "short term react, long term regret" since the Korean Conflict.

This. Gut wrenching, but not unexpected.

This. And no way would my kid be participating in the sport under a coach who thinks this is okay. Nope.

We have encouraged our adult children not to marry until post high school education/job training is completed. That said, we are not "consenting unmarried adults should not be sexually active people", and find the idea of parents feeling they should have a huge say in their adult children's intimate lives to be severely over reaching. As for contraception, they were told this from early teens, and were not told it was only for unmarried sex. A crap ton of babies come into this world within the context of marriage. The marriage license does not mean an automatic ability to properly care for a child. A crap ton of virgin newlyweds have received STI's from their new spouse if my OBGYN is to be believed. People lie all the damn time, and especially about virginity in the context of conservative religion. So married couples should begin with contraception and protection if they care at all about their health.

Oh my gosh! At this point, I am in favor of jail sentences with hard labor for people like that. Maybe if we put "Here is Mavis mining granite with a teaspoon at the North Pole because she knowingly sent her covid positive kid to school" on the 6pm news, it would be a deterrent!

Truth! They have turned this into a Titanic style every man, woman, and child for themselves situation. The let it rip people and the politicians who have sold their souls in order to win re-election can kiss my a$$. I will protect my family while ignoring them, and they better not ask for any sympathy when their family is affected because there isn't any left.

This. It could have been done. The political and social will was not there. But hey, tax money can keep being funneled to sports for stadiums and crap. 😠

This. I think when a million or so are dead, half our HCW's have quit, another several hundred thousand folks are dead from otherwise treatable injuries and diseases, another half million have long covid and apply for disability, and the burial industry runs out of child and baby coffins, then and only then will this die down. Until that time, this is the Hunger Games and all you can do is protect your family the best way you can, and hope the odds are ever in your favor! Ya. I am having one of those days when I need a deserted island. I am so over humanity that it can hardly be adequately conveyed with words.

This! I am not pleased that we responsible people have to rein in our lives and the people who don't give a damn run free. There should be formal consequences for the behavior. Huge fines for not being masked, and things like gyms, concerts, sporting events, off limits.

Dh and I had our 2nd doses in April. Hopefully, we can do boosters in the fall, but I worry about other countries who don't have enough doses to even begin to tackle their population. This is really frightening! I also worry about our son living in college dorms. He had JnJ because that was all that was available at our local pharmacies when he got home from the winter term. I really want him to have a dose of Pfizer or Moderna. Thankfully, he is a super masker, and natural social distancer. He prefers space, and prefers eating outside or alone at a table in a not crowded area with his nose in his notes and textbooks. His college is requiring masks inside buildings and outside of standing in a group of more than four students. His college did SUPER well last year. 83% of the faculty is fully vaxed, and they gave enough financial incentives plus vaccine mandate in order to live in campus housing, that 74% of the student body is vaxed according to latest statistics. 6 days until classes begin, 2 days until he leaves home. Fingers crossed that he will be okay, and I think I am going to be on edge this year. He graduates April 30, 2022. Our son infrastructure school has had the two dose Pfizer, completed his second dose in June. He masks and social distances well. He will be a T.A. this fall, and is allowed to require masks of any students who come to him for assistance/meetings. The class size is small but in large rooms for both his coursework as well as his TA work. His grad school profs said they are KN95 masking, told him to make sure he had a lot of those with him, and said they can require masks - though they cannot dictate kind - to the other students. I really, really hope this works. He has lung scar tissue from the punctured lung from our 2014 car accident. Middle boy has two grad school classes this fall, but is not going full time this year because he is also picking up another minor for his BA, and that is online except one impersonal class. He has Pfizer as well, and masks too, but his in person is on a campus that I think I can accurately call "The Wild West of Michigan". It did not do well last year, got in trouble for fudging its number to the county health department, and is not having what one would call a high participation rate in vaccination for students and staff/faculty much less cooperation with social distancing. Apparently, masking went fairly okay last year and they are requiring them again. I would be extra scared if ds was working first shift. But he switched to 3rd shift stocking shelves in produce while the store is shut down which makes me feel a little bit better. But, dh is trying to get him a position doing work remote data processing so he can just hunker down. So you raise your kids to adulthood and you think, Phew! Then a pandemic hits, and you end up aging another decade in a year worrying about them. This is not going to be an easy year. We have planned though to take a covid friendly vacation immediately following youngest's commencement. We have it all booked. Cabins out west, Rapid City and Bozeman (closest to Yellowstone we could afford), camping our way out there, taking our telescope for night sky viewing. The first week of May being off season, we hope to avoid crowds since it will still be cold. Lots of outdoor activity, and cooking all our own food so no restaurants, and either just one person doing grocery/supply shopping or if possible, using curbside pick up if still available.

This. Sure to be the one doing it to someone is all fun for the seniors who know in advance and plan their life around it so no big whoop to them. It sucks to high heaven for the victim who may have a test the next day, had other plans, doesn't do well with being out so late/all night and would never choose to do such a thing or had a nasty headache the day before, or who has anxiety, or........ Personally, I would probably punch someone in the face. Not kidding. If I am in a deep sleep, and someone who does not live in my house sneaks into my room that late at night and tries to grab me, fight or flight is going to kick in, and somebody is getting hurt. It is just such a stupid stupid thing to do! They better knock on that bedroom door and identify without turning that door knob. And then I would probably tell those dumb seniors to buzz off. What kind of adult plans this for minors to do? I just cannot wrap my brain around it! I could not convince myself after this, that the coach is a human being that should be in charge of a bunch of teens.

This. I married at twenty, but began college full time D.E. at 16 on campus and had little involvement at all from my parents. So I graduated with my first BA three weeks before our wedding, and completed coursework for another related degree the following year. I am adamantly opposed to anyone marrying before having completed a degree, trade licensing and whatever apprenticeships/clincals go with it, or similar career training. I have watched a scary number of persons with young children abandoned by spouses who were "all that" or so the parents of the young engaged person thought at the time. Add to that the fact that life is messy and unpredictable, having a person who has no ability to support a family in an era when a high school diploma just doesn't cut it, and that is just a big old NO in my book. One teen from a large group of high school seniors being engaged would not make me pause to consider what is going on, but a LOT of them, and I would be uneasy.

Carol is spot on! The coach has a lot of liability in this and the school would be on the hook financially because it is for school sponsored team so our district would not allow it. If the School district did not approve it ahead of the event, the coach would be fired immediately. Unfortunately, despite the illegality, many of our high school seniors drink alcohol. 1:00 am and driving is a bad, bad mix here for teens. Over the years we have had a lot of terrible car accidents with teens driving that time of night. This would be not only a very hard NO, but the fact that the coach planned this would cause me to pull my kid out of the sport. That kind of total lack of judgment makes me think this adult should not be in charge of minors. Trust your gut, SKL. It is nagging you for a reason!

Ya, no joke. Wars have been fought over coffee! 😁

I am so sorry, Heart! I hope you can get some sleep tonight, and that ds comes through okay.

I just can't comprehend. Morals have gone entirely out the window. People like are sociopaths and should.be treated as such!

Absolutely agreed! This is just horrific!

This would be an apocalypse here! I just ordered two cans, and since we do like it thinned some with ground cacao beans to make a dark chocolate flavor, I am grinding up a couple of bags of beans, mixing it 3 parts coffee, 1 part cacao, and putting it in sealed containers in the freezer to keep it fresh.

One thing that occurs to me is that they vaccinated rapidly and very early so waning immunity in the face of delta could possibly account for it. They may need to do boosters.

It is a cultural norm in dominion/recontructionist religious groups here for girls. They marry straight out of high school so they can beginning having babies immediately and do not seek to pursue higher education or job training. But the boys are expected to wait much longer, receive trades training, work in the family business, even go to college for certain approved vocations and only at a limited number of approved conservative Christian colleges. So they marry in their late 20's, early 30's and have some money with which to establish a home. Locally, there had been a bit of a flap because a 33 year old guy courted a 15 year old girl who was married off to him when she turned 17 and her parents graduated her. She is now 26, had 6 children, and is pregnant with her 7th. Her body never gets a break, and though so young, she looks utterly worn out and way older than she actually is. This is celebrated as normal in their community of quiverfuls. Out breed the non Christians and in order to do that, take maximum advantage of starting out young but within the bounds of the law.

Sadly, very sadly, agreeing. There will be many children and their care givers sacrificed to the political gods this year.

😢 It is very clear to me that this country decided for the sake of status quo and political posturing to throw children under the bus.

Hey now woman, don't mess with them about the Viagra! That's sacred. 😂

Two scents I would not buy, roast beef, and rhubarb pie. Let's just say I would find Dh's attention exhausting! 😁