I find Maru the cat endlessly hilarious; I had a similar cat as a kid. I'm sure everyone has seen one of these at some point but I'll link anyway in case.

It's hard because so many things you can just order online now. My mom went to England this summer and brought back a lot of traditional touristy stuff, but also some rocks from Brighton Beach (is this legal? oh well) and the coolest thing, a set of sort of flowy gauze shirts; there are two layers, one printed and one solid, and they're very very loose fitting and soft. they are tagless; she says she and her co-travelers got lost in London and ended up in [her description: "the Muslim ghetto"] an open market of some sort where they found these shirts and also gauze scarves and etc. I can't find anything exactly like them on the internet so that is a win 🙂

I got this same lecture when I had pre-eclampsia with my first; I was still in college and the last few weeks of pregnancy were the last few weeks of finals, writing papers, etc. I gave my midwife the same look- like, are you kidding? Sure, I'll write all of my term papers from the couch. (which I did). But it didn't exactly reduce stress. agreeing with ArcticMama that 28 weeks is not as early as it used to be, and 30 weeks definitely isn't.

Oh, I think they probably look terrible on me too, but let me tell you it is like wearing air. They are so comfortable around the waist especially that I don't notice them, and I am super sensitive to that kind of thing. My teenager is pretty horrified by them, but I wear them until there are holes, which for the record takes 3 years of nearly daily wear.

I admit that I was of the basic belief that once they could make their own sandwich, wipe their own bottom, and brush their own teeth, I was going to be good to go. I don't remember being all that difficult after that! so of course I have a zillion little kids, the oldest of whom are just entering the teen years, and I am starting to realize that 4 teenagers might be harder than 4 toddlers.

https://www.ae.com/us/en/p/women/joggers-sweatpants/aerie-joggers-sweatpants/aerie-foldover-jogger/0701_3879_329?menu=cat4840006 I wear them, obviously, with an actual full length shirt.

I remember being miserable in 8th grade especially. There were many factors, but the one I remember most acutely was that I was very slightly chubby. For reference, I was 5' 1 1/2" and 116 lb (I remember weigh-in day vividly, obviously), a weight I will never see again, but my "friends" were all sticks. So this is how insane middle schoolers are: I had read all the Sweet Valley Twins and Sweet Valley High books in about 2nd-5th grade, and the twins in those books, once they are in high school, are some height I don't remember and a size 6. I was sure this meant that I was not allowed to be larger than a size 6 in order to be cool. I also had no idea how junior sizing worked, so I thought a 5 was okay but a 7 was too large. I insisted that my mom buy all of my pants at a size 6 or smaller, and mostly this meant size 5s (as I was in junior styles). How my mom never said, "hey, let me look at the waist and fit of those before I buy them" is beyond me but she didn't. Well, I wasn't a 6. Maybe in some women's brands, but not in the "cool" teen brands, and I sure as heck wasn't a junior's 5. So my pants were so so so tight around the waist, where my bit of pudge was, that I was miserable all day all the time, and I was sure both that everyone knew they were tight and that they were laughing at me in the halls or after school or something. Isn't that crazy? anyway, I have relayed this story to DD14 many times (and I always always check the fit of her jeans). I have told her that obviously no one cared what size my pants said in the waistband, or that they were tight, or laughed at me for it. I've told her that almost everyone spends junior high feeling uncool and socially awkward and pretending they are fine, just like I pretended with the pants situation, and it is all absurd. Of course she doesn't believe me. "But Mom, you weren't very cool. I could be cool if only my family weren't so weird." etc.

I have clothes that you could mistake for pajamas or not depending on how charitable you were feeling. I go out in these everywhere and no one bats an eye as far as I can tell. If yoga pants are clothes, pajamas are clothes.

I feel like we have similar book tastes and I would be interested in any other authors/books you love.

OMG yes her website got me through many a rough day

We also don't own a TV or streaming video service. Oh, my kids are deprived.

I don't have bangs, I am 35. I don't plan on ever having them really as I like being able to put everything back in a braid or ponytail. My 7 year old has bangs.

I post here and read about other people's similar and not-so-similar experiences. As far as the practical aspect of it, we don't let the kids own smartphones or social media accounts like snapchat, instagram, facebook, etc., and we don't have them either. My oldest who has just started high school was mad, mad, mad. ALL of her friends have these things, she is SO UNCOOL, I'm RUINING her LIFE, why can't she just be NORMAL, why is her mother so WEIRD, etc. But I know 100% I am right on this issue so it doesn't bug me too much. I eat a lot of cookies.

If he won't serve himself from a pan, I think you've got some more serious issues than whether he eats veg. I'm not sure what any of the answers are, I'm sorry - I hope someone with more understanding/knowledge has good ideas for you.

or that she and your other adult children are your greatest disappointment in life

he could take vegetables for his plate if he is hungry for them.

Cool mist humidifier helps me a lot with cough when ill, and with keeping the mucus flowing so it doesn't get stuck somewhere and fester.

I don't think the OP is on quite this wavelength; she's called her adult children her "greatest disappointment" and etc. So that is a very different relationship to navigate, on both ends - one where you're really quite honestly and fully critical of/disappointed in your adult children, but they still want a relationship and get along well with your minor children. I would say that staying out of things as much as possible is definitely the way to go in the future.

ugh, that sounds stressful. I had a very mildly similar thing happen with my last pregnancy, where I found an ob-gyn and had a first appt. (a month in the future, of course), and everything, but when my records were forwarded they called and cancelled, saying I was too high risk. I'd had gestational diabetes with my previous pregnancy, but it was well controlled with diet and presented exactly zero problems. I can't believe you can't find someone in Baltimore, here's hoping your current best lead takes you.

Bill Bryson's In The Woods.

I think I had a similar experience with my mom which I related, although it was comparatively mild. It was one in which I was angry at her for a time for not agreeing with a moral stance I sort of discovered/grew into as a young adult, and how we both handled it badly in some ways (I was persistent to the point of unkindness where it was pointless, she called me a fanatic and lied to my daughter to subvert the moral boundary). We have healed the rift somewhat by both backing off some; we're not as close as we were but we're not fighting or anything like that; we don't talk about it and that seems to work.

It was nothing to worry about! It wasn't even as bad as what I had thought was the best case scenario. (20+ solid hours of googling and freaking out later)

Yep, I'm pretty much over the medical profession too, on the whole. The quality control does not seem to be great and they charge a literal fortune for subpar work. I used to think people were too sue-happy and that was why malpractice was so high, esp in ob-gyn, but after last spring and this summer I have a different perspective. OP, I'm sorry you feel so miserable. If you've missed the Tamiflu window or don't want it anyway for other reasons, you're probably just going to have to suffer through several days of sickness. Clear your calendar, tell your kids to make themselves sandwiches for a few days, go to bed, stay there. If it gets slightly better and then worse after about a week, I'd go back in (because that could mean secondary infection); be careful in the meantime not to get dehydrated, that's the real concern at your age and condition (not very old or very young, not asthmatic or with other pre-conditions that make the flu dangerous).

Are you sure she needs honors Geo to do Honors Alg 2? Was/is algebra really hard for her?

I just wonder, since the OP sees her son as opportunistic and selfish and not generous of heart, why she believed he would pay for an expensive trip for his sister (and be willing to have the other sister tag along) when he is not wealthy and she thinks $20 for a night out would be excessive spending for his income level. I mean, if the OP had enough faith in his willingness to spend that much money on someone else that she fronted the money temporarily, why does she think he's super selfish? And if she thinks he's only interested in hoarding his own money while spending someone else's, why trust him to spend lots of his money on the OP's minor child?