We’re in the middle of a move that no one wants because of an absolutely necessary job change that is not optional and the whole thing is really hard on my little Bluey fan in particular. Now I have to scramble to protect her from this episode because there will be no last minute reprieve and I can’t have her secretly dreaming of that possibility. I’m honestly pretty ticked about it because it’s so unnecessary. There are a million other story lines, why this one?

Yes! That’s what it was.

I grew up with Word and find the Google Office suite very similar. The Google Docs, sheets, slides, etc. are basically scaled down version of Word, Excel and Power Point. I used Google Docs easily all through finishing my degree a few years ago, every teacher was able to accept a .pdf version as easily as a .doc. Excel was needed for statistics and a couple of other statistics heavy classes, and it had to be Excel not Sheets, but it’s not hard to switch back and forth and Sheets works fine for basic tables or organizing information. I do think a lot of kids now use Canva now instead of PowerPoint but it’s all essentially the same. Google products have 2 benefits over Microsoft. 1) they auto save every change, so there’s no “I forgot to save!” panics and 2) they are always available online so there’s no keeping up with thumb drives, or leaving the assignment at home. There are tons of classes online, through Coursera or through the library if someone needs helps with the transition from Google to Microsoft. Does anyone remember trying to use the Correl program that competed with Word for awhile?

She can pay to store it and be given a list of campgrounds it could be hauled to if he needs to use it again in the future.

That sight seems to only show open waiting lists. An open waiting list just means you can get on the list, not that they have no waiting list or have vouchers immediately availability. You can get on an open list and wait on that list for years and years. I know someone who just got on an open list that shows as open and was told the wait is around 3 years.

Him leaving voluntarily rather than face your husband doesn’t surprise me.,,

It’s hard to follow. So she lives there but isn’t an owner?

The house resident isn’t the mother. The mother of the man lives elsewhere. One of the residents is the man’s grandmother.

Arkansas specifically.

Where are you looking to find that? I’d like to pass along to info to a friend, single mom of 4 who was just told there was a 3-4 year waiting list in our area. Maybe she can look into neighboring counties.

Honestly my experience with minor children and public school services have not been great. Everyone mentions social skills classes, but finding one is impossible. No one knows of any that actually exist, just that they should. Going to public school is the social skill class, which is working out poorly, as might be expected. Speech, OT and PT was relatively easy to find, though not easy to afford if the family isn’t Medicaid eligible. Grants exist but are complicated and difficult to access, if someone can even find them.

I’m curious about the help that is being imagined as available. Can anyone detail out what that is and maybe name some programs? Im in Arkansas and I know of one program, with a 10-15 year waiting list, that will help autistic adults live on their own. It is extremely limited in number, probably less than 1000 slots and the list is so long because someone in the program has to die or be removed for someone else to get in. Since I am someone mostly ignorant to what’s available, I’m curious what’s out there. ETA: I’m also curious about waiting lists and accessibility. Does your state really have programs that you can just walk into an office and leave with keys to a paid for apartment and a stipend for living expenses, with just a diagnosis? No years long waiting lists, no jumping through bureaucratic hoops?

I recommend Telus. They have work from home jobs, up to 20 hours a week. Usually around $11 per hour. It’s boring as all get out but you can do most of it while you watch tv in the evening.

It occurred to me that I have an old school stand alone gps that I use all the time. It sits on my dash board. That might work instead.

I never knew there was such a thing!

Being the “unfavored child ” is going to hurt no matter how much you rationalize that money is just money and of course parents can do what they want with their money. When what they want is to shower money on the favorite and your left with nothing it’s still going to hurt.

I’m not sure how a map could work on a phone with no internet. I guess just static digital versions of paper maps? One that gives directions would have to connect to the internet. A Camera is no problem, nearly all phones have cameras and they don’t require internet.

Which isn’t fair either and could and should be corrected now to reflect the care and expense you are actively carrying now. It’s also not fair to just decide to give everything to one sibling before any care or arrangements for care have been made. The sibling who is getting the house and defending it as her right may very well flake when it comes time to provide care, because that behavior is very indicative of an incredibly selfish person and selfish people seldom do caregiving. Then that sibling gets all of the inheritance in exchange for doing nothing.

I see your point here 100% but not everyone ends up needing care prior to death. So far my husband and I have lost 3 parents between us and only 1 needed full time care for about a month. The other two were easily able to care for themselves outside of the last 48 hours, in our case both spent those in the hospital. If we, or our parents, had been counting on years of full time caregiving labor to “even” things out it wouldn’t have happened but it would have been too late to go back and rebalance it.

Does anyone taking it actually feel good while your on it? I’ve been curious about it but a friend has been on it and it seems to be working mostly by making her feel to miserable to eat. Is that a common thing?

From someone on the other side, it’s really hard to preserve a relationship with a sibling after feeling like they have intentionally, happily, and right to your face screwed you out of thousands of dollars. If the sibling wanted a relationship they probably shouldn’t have done that. It’s always preached to the one who got screwed over to “preserve the relationship” but no one ever tells the sibling doing the screwing to not do that in order to preserve the relationship. At some point it’s not necessarily about the money, it’s about the clarity of who that person is and the realization that you don’t actually want to be in relationship with that sort of person. Same with parents who are blatantly showing favoritism and a complete disregard for the feelings of one or more of their children. Once your parents have deliberately disregarded you its hard to want to preserve that relationship.

I couldn’t tell you what kind it is, or was. I’m not sure if the one we have now is the same one. The guns are his thing. I know that I struggle with some guns because my wrists are incredibly weak, but some I can handle. It was a pretty strong preschooler though! He was a Mighty Mouse type kid. There are 100s of accidents every year where little kids accidentally shoot people with guns so some guns must be operational by tiny ones.

I don’t quite understand this, is the dude having friends over to camp in the yard, or are all the men suppose to go camping leaving the elderly women on their own?

It’s hard when it’s not really anyone else’s responsibility to support him either. That doesn’t mean the whole family has to tolerate him doing drugs on the property while they all support him. Unfortunately people who should be institutionalized often end up on the streets because its impossible for a family to support an obstinate adult for what might be 50-60 years of adulthood, especially when that person is unpleasant. That was the idea behind why we used to have institutions in the first place. Especially if all of the supports and help are rejected. Institutions used to be involuntary, which was problematic of course. But family can’t force this guy to take help. It sounds like they’ve already been helping him for years actually.

I think this is a point that gets missed in so much of the discussion around school violence and just school misbehavior. We are forcing kids into hours of daily frustration by placing them improperly grade level-wise, without the correct supports in place. Then we(as in society) are shocked when kids act out, aggressively in some instances. It's like no one who works in or around schools has ever met a child, or even just another human. Popeye was really on to something in the human psyche with his "I've taken all I can takes and I can't takes no more". We have to stop trying to force children into inappropriate situations and then acting shocked that they act out in various ways.