I wouldn't go so far as to say this is the status quo, this is one child. You never know what is going on at home or if the kid has some kind of developmental delay. It is not a good idea to draw a general inference based on your observation of just one child.

How scary! I am sure your DD is fine (but please post when you hear from her!). My thoughts are with you.

I could have written this post. DH took ours into his office because I felt bad seeing it there everyday, not being used. I hated emptying it and fretting over the spots it missed. It was a replacement for an old vacuum that went kaput, and I have now replaced it with a couple of cheap vacuums, a stick vacuum for our small carpeted area upstairs and a cheap bagless for downstairs (I got the Roomba in the first place because I'm lazy, after all). I seriously vacuum so much more now than I used to turn on the Roomba. I have pets, and it seems like the vacuum cleans up a lot more hair. I think I heard the Roomba described more as a sweeper than a true vacuum. Don't know if that's true or not, but my carpets seem a lot cleaner using a true vacuum.

That's a question of content. I absolutely don't think an astronomy professor should change his/her teachings to the point where it's no longer science. In fact, DH teaches social sciences at a local college (why this topic is so near and dear to me) and discusses the idea of evolutionary psychology. Well, trust me, he's gotten backlash on this from students saying evolution is not real. He just says "This is a class in the social sciences and social scientists believe that evolution is a real process, and the belief system of choice in this class" and leaves it at that. If a student doesn't like that, well he's out of luck. IMO, that is way different than changing your audible pause from "g-d" to "gosh" or whatever.

Oh OK. :001_smile: I think the suggestion to go to the diversity officer and speak about the issue (regardless of the outcome of an initial discussion with the professor) in a general way is a good one. This could be a positive way to bring it up with an appropriate person who has the job of educating the staff of a university on cultural issues without pointing the finger at a particular professor. I think a lot of people simply need a reminder that certain things could be considered offensive even though they've gotten used to saying them.

Honestly, I am atheist and still think she should go directly to the professor first and make a request on a person-to-person level. I would be far more offended if a boss came to speak to me about something that a student could have addressed with me personally. It would make me feel embarrassed and upset and I would not have a lot of respect for the student. And as an atheist in this role, I would be fine changing my language. But of course, I would need to be made aware of the situation in the first place, and as I've said I think that would best be accomplished by waiting after class or going to the professor's office hours, pulling her aside, and saying "I don't expect you to stop saying "G-d" in class, but it hurts me to hear that and I would greatly appreciate if you would try to stop saying that during lectures." I don't see how any reasonable person would not at least try to stop. If the professor turns out to be a jerk about it, then at that point I would consider going to the department head. Students in college classes are expected to exhibit some form of adult behavior, speaking directly to a professor about such a concern is an adult thing to do. And since most college students are far from adult, I just can't help but think the professor would be impressed by your simple, direct request. I KNOW she would be more impressed with that than you going behind her back, straight to the department head.

This just seems way extreme to me. I hate confrontation on every level but I've found that a simple discussion with someone about something that really matters to me will eliminate the problem most of the time. Why not start there? Believe it or not, professors are just regular people and in my experience, most are people-pleasers. It just seems strange to me that so many people are recommending all these back-handed solutions when a direct request will suffice.

Just talk to her. She most likely is not aware of what she is doing, and if you gently approach her and explain that it hurts your feelings (without being melodramatic or heavy-handed about it) she will most likely attempt to eliminate it. I used to go to Toastmasters and welcomed when someone would point out my speech idiosyncrasies. One was using the phrase "you guys" to a mixed-gender group. It never occurred to me that that could be an offensive phrase (in the sense that it excludes women), and I am still guessing it never offended anyone, but I tried as hard as I could not to say that anymore. Besides, you really have no hope of changing the behavior unless you talk to her about it. Getting her to reduce what you consider to be blasphemous language would also help you deal with this issue on a moral level, would it not?

I know, I really wonder sometimes. I go to a doctor when I'm concerned but not without having done some research myself and asking the doctor specific questions. I believe doctors really need more continuing education. Sometimes I feel like I'm more up to speed on recent research than doctors (about the things that interest me). My mother was told for years she had gall bladder issues and a hiatal hernia when in fact she had heart disease and needed a bypass surgery. The heart diagnosis was about 10 years ago. I learned a huge lesson from that...doctors are not always the ultimate authority.

Yes, Google Calendar! It's free and you can set up reminders from 10 minutes to a week in advance (very useful if you need to remember a term paper is due in a week, then in a couple days, etc.). It was so easy to set up so I get reminders on my phone too while I'm cooking dinner or whatever, I get a little chime to remind me to do something, even something I have set daily. I know you said you are not interested in having to set up another email account but Gmail is free and a great email program to have. I use it mostly for junk email since I already have a well-established email address I give out to people I *want* to email me. I have my google email account set to receive things like weather alerts from a local tv station, and this is hooked up to my phone too. Just the other day we had a tornado watch, I got an email notice from gmail on my phone and was alerted to the weather situation, even without a radio or TV on.

I agree that examples of conversations that went wrong would help us understand. For my background, I was raised Catholic and did believe in God until my 20's, and even then it was a slow process of undoing my beliefs. My family knows that I am not religious and we never talk about it, except on occasion when my mom makes an assumption that something she says will offend me and then way overcompensates, at which point I do become offended. :tongue_smilie: I mean, honestly? In this country, you are in the minority if you are not involved in any religion, you just are. Look at the stats. So I think agnostics/atheists are used to people not getting where we're coming from and most of the time I would just rather get along than question everything someone says about religion in polite conversation. There is that old social norm not to discuss religion and taxes in mixed company. As an atheist (yes I'm actually an atheist rather than agnostic) I don't bring up religion except in private discussions with my husband. I rarely comment when someone else brings up religion, except if they start to use religion as a reason to discriminate (see my previous post about the golden rule) and I'm in a mood. I think for the most part, most people assume I do believe in God because I just don't talk about it, and I think the default assumption is that everyone believes in God.

To me, creation=evolution. The creation story in the bible is a lovely story, much like every creation story ever written in any religion. Religion: Everything in moderation. If you think religion is important, great, go to church, worship. But please don't push your religion on me. And please don't tell me you'll pray for me when I tell you I don't believe in your God. Moral absolutes: The Golden Rule is the answer to just about any moral dilemma I have. For example, would I like it if someone told me I could not marry the person I love? No, I would not. Therefore, homosexuals should be allowed to marry. I do not need to consult a really old book just to find out if I should or should not do something, I just put myself in someone else's shoes.

I think it's a bastardization of "needs fixing," which is grammatically correct (I believe) and "to be fixed." DH, an extremely intelligent man who has completed NanoNoWriMo and is very good with words, drops "to be" all the time and it drives me nuts. He's originally from rural Missouri. I cringe when our kids say it and try my darnedest to prevent them from picking it up.

I found this old thread by accident but I wanted to report that my friend is 36 weeks today! She's still on bedrest but the baby's hanging in there!

Thank you, this is what I was trying to say earlier. One of the toughest lessons I've learned as a mother is that you really shouldn't judge until you've been in someone's shoes. Remember that what works for you may not work for everyone, and that's okay. And remember that you will never know everything behind a status message. You know what? As long as kids know their parents are doing the best they can, they all turn out just fine. Even if that means the parents are happy, for whatever reason, that school is starting back up.

Well...I had mine out when I was 19 due to constant strep throat and never got strep again. But I think it makes sense that other infections would be down, my tonsils were so cryptic that they were just germ sponges. (I think around when my tonsils came out I swapped it with sinus infections, but it was during college when I was in very close contact with a lot of infections all the time). My allergies also started going a little nuts shortly after but that could be due to moving halfway across the country when I was done with college, new allergens, etc. Or it could be that I was so miserable due to strep for so long that I simply didn't notice allergies before then.

Honestly, posts like the original one here are part of the problem in the mommy wars. Clearly there is some relief for some parents to send their kids to school. Clearly that is not the preference of the OP and some others in this thread. That is why you chose to homeschool and why they did not. If you do not want to read your PS friends comment about how they are glad to send their kids to school (which may refer to any number of things, like following a regular schedule again rather than happiness to see kids gone all day), then hide your friends.

It seems normal to me. DD8 started talking about getting married to a friend of hers when she was 3, and called kissing "being married." (I always tell her she can get married in 20 years). And I believe this coincided with when we showed her the place we got married and she was introduced to some of the Disney princesses and their brand of romance.

That's funny! My mom has memory issues as well, but I think the computer must remember her password for her. I did learn how I could exclude someone from reading a particular status message after I posted my vent yesterday, and think I will be doing that more. :001_smile: I mean, I really like Facebook because it's a great way to keep in touch with a lot of people I don't live near. And I started a secret Twitter account so I can post all the stuff I used to be able to say on FB before I had to worry about offending people. Now my Facebook status messages are basically about the weather or our kids.

Holy cow, I was in such a bad mood yesterday because of something my mom posted in response to a status I had (where I said I "hated" a political figure and she went on to tell me I do not hate her, I "intensely dislike" her.) I thought somewhere around the time I got married, got my own house, had my own kids, she would accept that I was able to form my own opinions of things and accurately apply labels to my feelings. Clearly my frustration had more to do with my overall assessment of how our relationship has declined over the years than one measly comment. And here I thought Facebook would help bring us together (and more importantly, let her see pictures of her grandkids) since I also live really far away from her. And the really sad thing is she claims to hate Facebook and "doesn't get it." If you don't get it, if you're consistently posting things as your status message rather than a message on someone's wall, if you ignore my suggestions about how to hide things you don't want to see...then just stay off it. Or stop complaining about it. But whatever you do, please stop using Facebook to put me down. You raised me, you did a good job, and your job is done. People no longer judge YOU based on MY opinions. Please stop with the public criticism.

Me too, I hate summer! I guess it's like the holidays, everyone expects you to be happy because it's the summer, which makes it even worse because you're not happy. I also am not into the outdoors in general so the expectation that I should be outside more makes me unhappy. (Although I love to be outside on a crisp, cool fall day).

Let me say that I do think you are overreacting and that she is just trying to be funny, but that is as an outsider. It always feels different and more personal when you are the target of the joke, and when it comes from family. I also get what you say when you talk about her being intimidating and all. But when you write stuff like this... ...it makes me think that perhaps your sister feels judged by you. You may not think you're giving off any kind of judgmental vibe when you hang with her, you may think that she feels immune to being judged even. But honestly, this is rather hurtful stuff you are writing about your sister, behind her back. I'm writing this as someone who discovered someone writing similar things about me as a parent, and about my child, online once, who clearly had no clue I would ever read it. Someone in my family. I'm still not over it because that to me was a glimpse into how that person really feels about me. So really, when I look at what she wrote (directly to you, not behind your back, and in a clearly joking matter), well I have to think you are overreacting. Just remember that everyone has insecurities and the last person they feel needs to be judging them, especially regarding their parenting skills, is flesh and blood.

First I have to say in all fairness to WW, you can usually avoid the registration fee and if you do the monthly pass it's closer to $10/week which also gets you into all the online tools...but, yes I've heard of TOPS (I remember my aunts and grandma used to go to meetings then eat out afterward!) and I would seriously consider joining instead of WW if there were clubs nearby that I could actually get to.

Oh gosh, I don't have any advice but I have a lot of empathy! We went through that with my first and ended up giving up on nursing at 10 days. There was weight loss, it was bad. It was too much stress on both of us! But I hope you can figure out something that works for you.

After getting banned a week ago I should probably avoid this topic completely, but perhaps if you do not agree with this thread you should simply avoid it? You know, not object to each point on her 38-point list and try something else? In other words, take your own advice. It really is hard to come out with the information that you are questioning your faith. Especially on a board such as this, where you can forge some real relationships over time, and where many people are avid Christians who could not possibly understand why you'd be questioning your faith (see tags such as "sad decision"). So it is easier to list out the reasons you are questioning. Sometimes, I've found, that's the only way to prove that you're not losing your mind and you have put a great deal of thought into everything. And sometimes, as you've proven, that just isn't enough to avoid being attacked.