Yes, but the outcomes are NOT up to you. They just are not. You do the best you can. But if things don't go EXACTLY as you thought they should, you end up like my husband who CONTANTLY second guesses himself about what he should or should not have done. Our nieces and nephews all have careers, great marriages, and children. No mental illness struggles, no struggling with what to do with their life, nothing. In my husband's mind, that is all his fault. Maybe you would agree with him. I do not. We do the best we can and leave the rest to God.

I am sorry. Parenting our parents just sucks. You are thinking correctly. All you can do!

Honestly, him being independent will probably depend on his motivation and having someone advocate for him. You are far away. Here is my experience with my father. When he was living with me, I could keep on top of him. I had him back to 1/2 normal. He was making progress. I could not handle having him live with us 24/7. I knew when he moved to his own rental house, just a couple miles away that he would regress. Because I was not there saying, "Dad, you need to walk. Get up and let us walk down the sidewalk." Several times a day. If I didn't do that, it wouldn't happen. He never got independent because his motivation wasn't there and no one was there to MAKE him. So if your dad is that way, you may just have to give up wanting him independent. My dad was in his 60's when that happened. Now my husband's grandmother . In her 90's, she broke her hip. She lived alone. 6 months later, we went to a wedding. She kept forgetting her walker. I could barely keep up with her. All motivation. Had a lady at our church, who broke her kneecap in her 90's. She was back to crawling on the floor with the 3yo just a few months later. She also took no pain meds.. Just amazing. But, you can do all the advocating you want. If your dad does not have the same motivation, it just will not matter. Just get used to it. It is the way it is.

But there are some things that are NOT flat earth material either. There are nuances that this board misses sometimes. I am a lot like Jean except I haven't done dining until very recently and even then, the time we went, we chose to eat outdoors. No one in my circle of friends has berated me for wearing a mask. Some of them put on masks as well just to make me feel comfortable. One particular couple are our best friends. They are not getting vaccinated. They have all of their other vaccines. They are not anti-mask. Yet I feel like this board would hate them. Maybe not. Sounds like Jean and others are more reasonable. But many times this board has truly sounded like a sounding board with no room for nuance.

I have spent the last 15 months crying my eyes out at night worrying about Honduras, India, Kenya. I worried about my friend who is battling cancer, taking chemo, yet teaching unvaccinated kids because that is her calling. Working with youth and pouring into their lives when the activities didn't stop. She is fine. But I spent so many days and nights over the last 15 months, crying, with this heavy feeling in my chest that the world is ending. Now all of you are saying that these variants will overwhelm us. The United States is doomed... I just can't anymore. When do I get to smile? I can cry all I want for India ( and believe me, I have) but it doesn't help them. It doesn't cause any less people to die. I masked. I am continuing to mask in certain areas ( like a crowded museum, or doctor's offices, etc.) despite the fact that I am not sure I have to. I am vaccinated. In May of 2022, I will get a booster. It is all I can do. And listening to how horrible everything is on here doesn't help me make anyone's lives better. At some point, I have to just live life. Carefully, as I have always done. If the sky falls, it falls. I have NO power at all as to whether it does or not or whether my friends will die or whether another million people will die in India. I just have no tears to shed anymore.

But in my community nothing has really happened. Whether cautious or not has not made a difference. The only difference seems to be that I missed out.

I am about to conclude that this board is chicken little. So many dire predictions and i have spend the last year in fear because people didn't mask. It really has not been a big deal. It just hasn't. The county at large has approximately 30 percent of us vaccinated. It feels more like 60 percent of my friend group is vaccinated. Church-wide, honestly, I'm not sure because I don't ask. But almost everyone I've talked to about it has vaccinated. Anyway, all that to say. Masks have completely gone away. My husband and I were the last hold outs, and we have dropped it. I refuse to live in fear anymore. I am just done worrying about everyone dying.

Everything is fine. PAP smear normal. Endometrial biopsy normal. I honestly think it was the vaccine. But of course, I cannot prove that.

Well, the dermatologist burned off my age spot on my face twice and it has come back yet again. I am barely out in the sun. My moisturizer and my foundation both have 50 sun protection in them as well. OK, maybe mine are this: Seborrheic keratoses

My area is. My daughter had 4 job offers. Many places in our town cannot find workers.

Yep. Very distracting sometimes. I always wake up in the middle of the night or early in the morning hearing a dong.

I don’t have a problem with tgat. I agree. But still feels like a double standard when tge board bashes people for telling tgeir girls to dress modestly. Maybe tge difference is it comes from the girl? But then why is the other uniform bad if nothing is truly sexual. Only the way someone looks at it is sexual.... Just so confused

Ok. I sm confused. This boards seems to be that modesty stuff is harmful and a bunch of crap. But you are for having gymnasts cover up so it isn’t sexual. But in regular clothes for regular people, you would condemn people for saying it is sexual and my boys shouldn’t bounce tgeir eyes. What a girl wears shouldnt influence them? So which is it? Sorry. Such a confusing time to raise boys. Or girls. I told my girl to be careful how she dresses. I love tgaes new uniforms, but I am surprised rhis board likes them

I don’t think that there are any alternatives for fall. They can require. Some will forge. Many will not. I don’t want best to be enemy of the good. Just realize many will slip through. Bit it is better than nothing.

I was masked myself in the waiting room. I didn’t take it off until in the exam room when the doc told me to. I just wasn’t sure why some were not wearing it when the doctor was adamant that those not vaccinated had to wear it. Only thise vaccinated could forgo it. When I went last summer, they had temp checks and mandatory masks for everyone.

Nope. At OB/GYN no temp checks. None of the staff wore any masks. The doctor told me I could take off my mask since he and his entire staff are vaccinated and I am. He then also told me to get as many friends vaccinated as I possibly good since it has tricked to nothing. He talked to me for 20 minutes about the safety and importance of the vaccine, horrible long Covid, etc. I am guessing the few patients in the waiting room that were wearing a mask were not vaccinated. But that is a guess.

Yes i agree, but it typically does not do that to postmenopausal women, which is what I as the OP wanted to ask and address.

Yes, but for me, I have not had a period in 5 years. No bleeding at all for 5 years. None. And it was not quite 3 weeks after the shot. Had a pap smear. Doing a sonogram. Doctor did not think it was related. Thinks it is probably nothing, bit doing tests to make sure. And I still feel like it was related. We will never know, but I am pretty confident all test will be negative and I won’t bleed again unless I have to have a booster.

I dont have any of that for any vaccines on my shot record. Just a list of shots. And not even that for my childhood shots.

I agree with you. I just think this fall will be a mess for those who require proof. I foresee a lot of issues and viral videos. Both sides making their extreme cases and saying how awful the other side is. Just terrible.

Yes!!!! I liked who I was much better.

What is a vaccine charge number? I was born in mid sixties. My shot record from before age 20 is on a piece of paper my doc and my mom scribbled on. One of my sons was vaccinated in New Orleans, no info taken. None for me either at the mass vaccination place. Just looked. Not in my medical records, but I have a card.

It depends. Most of my true friends are vaccinated. The ones that are not would just transfer universities if need be. These are friends that are not anti-vacs. They just want to wait 3 years or so to get more definitive info. They have every other shot. Bur the general population of my town. Yep. Those at the public school most definitely. The homeschooling ones would not lie, are outright defiant, but their kids are just getting an AA or are in the workforce anyway. College prep isn’t big in my community and especially the homeschool community.

That is weird. We waited for 5 years and no one was whispering. Well, wait. We lived and went to church in a place where our Sunday School was made up of people born between 65 and 67 . So we were 25 when we moved there and bone of the couples had kids. We all had our first one between 28 and 30. However, when we moved to our town that we live in now, I had a one year old and was pregnant at 30. We went to our church’s age appropriate Sunday School and all of them were 10 or older. Everyone was way past having babies. We finally went to a younger class. And when my youngest played soccer, I was in my mid forties, listening to all the parents moan about the awe fullness of turning 30 that year or the next. So yeah, I guess here there may have been whispers where most people get a job and married straight out of high school. But in my 20’s, where I lived and where I went to school, my family culture, etc. Waiting to establish yourself before having children was considered smart and expected.

So far, other than my children, I do not know of any young adults/ older teens that are vaccinated. Everyone that I know that is vaccinated is 50 or older. And what I witnessed with driver’s ed .... Oh my goodness. I know TONS of parents who created and signed a log, but didnt actually do it. None of my close friends at the time, but still probably 10 or more parents that I knew of. My daughter is taking an online pe class this summer. She will be doing it, but she knows many people that just faked that log. As Bootsie said, these cards are easy to fake. It will happen. The logic will be that it is a stupid requirement and kids don’t get sick anyway. I know, please do not give me all your proof. I know that is not true. My town has not been affected much at all and still believes the shut downs were overkill.