I've lived in various rentals for the past 17 years, and while I much prefer places run by management companies instead of individual landlords, I had one very good landlord who did something similar -- below market rent but more stringent requirements for renting. He was looking to sell the place shortly and needed it kept in good shape It worked out very nicely for both of us. If I were renting a place out, I would also not allow pets.

We just bought a house and I wouldn't know the seller's agent if I fell over her. All contact has been through our agent (who knows the seller's agent fairly well, apparently.) I'd be careful not to cut off your nose to spite your face, myself. It is HARD to find the right house.

The most recent study I saw had some fairly compelling numbers suggesting that young children in group care settings got more infections than children not in group care, but that by school age those same children had fewer infections. So if you have a child for whom a early infection would be especially bad news, you'd want to keep them out of daycare, but for in general there may be a trade-off between getting sick earlier and getting sick later. My kids have never been in daycare or school, and I sometimes wonder they are going to get just slammed with illnesses if and when they ever go into some kind of school setting (e.g., high school, college).

That would be my (uneducated) guess as well.

I'm afraid that I'm still a little fuzzy on your situation -- perhaps because I'm not all that familiar with the social landscape in the UK. Is the problem that you can't find other academically oriented families, you can't find other conservative Christian families, or that you can't find other families who are both?

I don't know what most people think. However, just FWIW, I agree with your sister. From everything I have read it has yet to be shown that care by a parent in the early years makes much of a difference one way or another, at least in terms of measurable outcomes. Obviously, the subjective experience of motherhood (and I'd say of childhood, too) is entirely different, and I feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to stay home with my children since they were born, but I have yet to read anything that convinces me that it is making any kind of meaningful long-term difference in the sorts of things (e.g., health, behavior, academic achievement) that social scientific studies examine.

We just bought a house last week (cautious yay) and ultimately wound abandoning all of our original preferences except: (1) Location (wanted a close-in neighborhood with lots of families around, but also on a quiet street) (2) Usable yard (3) Enough rooms -- not necessarily bedrooms, but separate rooms -- that we can have both a (shared) study and a space for guests.

:iagree::iagree::iagree: If someone under the age of 80 were to use 'negro,' I would assume that they were either (1) trying to make a point (which is annoying and rude); or (2) just emerged from some sort of all-white community that did not read newspapers, watch television, or otherwise engage with the rest of American society for the last few decades. I mean, really, it's not that hard to keep up.

:iagree:

I serve three meals and two scheduled snacks (more like mini-meals) per day. While I take preferences into account -- usually-- when preparing meals, my general policy is here it is, take it or leave it. You may NOT make rude remarks to the cook, but you are free to decline politely and go hungry. But every eating event is a brand new world. So I wouldn't offer anything else at lunch, but just proceed with snacktime as originally planned. I do agree with everyone who has said that the situation is different when it's not your own child.

Get thee to a migraine specialist. My DH is a lifelong migraine sufferer and he is *finally* getting some relief after he consulted a doctor who specializes in migraines earlier this winter. I only wish we had done this years ago. FWIW, my husband has also at times gotten tremendous relief from acupuncture; while other times it has not done much at all. According to his migraine doc, acupuncture has been shown to help about a third of the time.

I will teach it, for sure, but I'm not going to die on the hill of enforcing cursive writing forevermore. My husband swears that cursive is faster, but I printed my way through college, law school, and a Ph.D and when I challenged my husband to a race, we tied. (Clearly we need to get out more.)

We live in a tiny apartment, but I wouldn't give up our adjustable kid-sized table for anything. They do all writing/drawing/crafts there (which also makes it easy to contain mess) and it's surprisingly handy when we have other little friends over for meals.

That is very odd. The nuchal test was just starting to become more common when I had my now-almost-6yo, but my understanding is that offering it is now standard of care for all pregnant women, regardless of age. Far fewer false positives than the AFP. I have occasionally had things denied because they were submitted by a midwife instead of a dr. (urgh), and now that I think about it I was once denied for something (don't remember what, it may have been a fetal echocardiogram) even when they resubmitted it under their backup OB's authority. I ultimately got it covered by having the perinatologist I was also seeing put in the request. If you're also consulting a high-risk doc, that might be an option. The only other thing that occurs to me is that I also ran into trouble when I went over three ultrasounds -- any more than that required special authorization. Have you already had multiple ultrasounds, by any chance?

Hey, I have this! It was my father's when he was a child. I think the publication date is 1926, IIRC. I had to put the set in storage this year but am looking forward to getting it out. The whole thing smells a bit from a fire in my grandmother's apartment back in 1980 or so, but substantively it is just a treasure.

That's good to hear -- thanks for replying! It's always nice when someone backs up one of my half-baked ideas with actual, you know, informed experience. :001_smile: We will keep on keeping on.

You can get OTC test strips at the drugstore to check for a UTI. They are nowhere near as precise as the test strips at the doctors,' and neither one is as good as a culture, but they can give you some helpful information.

:iagree:

LOL. When I was pregnant last year, my mother called me to tell me that she had heard a Jewish boy name that was just so lovely and unusual: "Jacob! Isn't that nice? You don't hear that every day." Actually, Mom, you do. Jacob was the #1 boys name in America in 2009. :001_smile:

nm -- double post, AGAIN.

As far as I'm concerned, the only correct definition of "American name" is "name belonging to an American person." As for choosing a name that is easily pronounceable by native English speakers, I can certainly see why it might make a kid's life easier, although it's perhaps a bit less interesting for the rest of us. :001_smile:

:iagree: Great post.

You did them a huge favor and they want to say thank you. Let them. As prior poster said, you can of course thank them and say it wasn't necessary, but insisting on giving it back is going to come across as odd, and possibly a bit stand-offish (by implying that their gift was inappropriate).

My BIL used to work at amazon and still has lots of contacts there. I will ask him about this policy and will report back.