Carpool Karaoke, Broadway style!

I'm trying to find an article I read a year or so ago (and not having much luck), about how vulnerable some boys/young men are because the "personal safety" messages are so heavily aimed at women, making men less likely to take those precautions as well. The article mentioned a young man who had his drink drugged by another man while he was on vacation in Europe. He wasn't raped, but the man who drugged him did manage to rob him of his money, ID, etc. Not as heinous a crime as being raped, but a still a violation. Perhaps we should present personal safety measures to BOTH sexes as "These are some bad things that someone might try to do to you, and here are some preventative measures you can take the lessen the odds of being victimized, and here's what you can do to help others that you see about to be victimized, but nothing is 100% successful, unfortunately."

Modesty is often presented as "respecting one's body." The trouble with that philosophy became apparent to me as I listened to a mom share a story of her teenage boy, raised to believe that men and women should dress modestly, saw a group of girls in short shorts and tank tops walking down the sidewalk, and asked his mom "Why do they dress like that? How can they expect somebody to respect them if they don't respect themselves?" It doesn't matter if both sexes are taught modesty "equally". When we tie it to respect, it gives the implied message that not dressing modestly is deserving of disrespect, or means immodestly dressed persons don't care if others disrespect them, because they're obviously not seeking to be respected.

And the whole discussion of false accusations always bugs me, because it occurs so much less often than actual rapes do, and yet we, as a society, seem more concerned about men not being believed, than women not being believed.

Yes, thank you. I posted this because discussions about rape seem to, without fail, devolve into "well she was drunk (or did some other "idiot" thing), so what did she expect," completely cutting the rapist out of the picture of what happened. Making a poor choice doesn't cause rape. Rapists cause rape. A woman making an unwise choice doesn't negate the rapists ILLEGAL, IMMORAL, HORRENDOUS CHOICE to violate her body, and it certainly doesn't lesson the trauma making her wonder "Well, maybe I did something before I passed out that lead him to think it was okay?" Assaulting an unconscious person is wrong, whether the person is unconscious because of their own actions or not. Her actions leading up to the rape are not what caused it. They don't make what he did less horrendous, or less illegal, or less traumatizing for the victim. They only make HIS actions more horrendous, because he was obviously looking for the "weak" member of the herd. I'm sure there were plenty of not-passed-out women at that party who he could have tried to get interested in having sex with him. Waiting until someone is unconscious to have sex with them speaks volumes about HIM, NOT HER.

There's no such thing as a "perfect" victim. Someone who made 100% the "right" choices to keep herself safe. A person can take all sorts of precautions, but still have one kink, one blind spot in their line of defences that a rapist will take full advantage of. Rapists cause rape. Full stop.

No, if he hadn't assaulted her, she could have avoided the whole terrible ordeal. And if he hadn't picked her (if she'd been sober, or stuck by her sister, or just stayed home like a "good girl"), I don't doubt he would have found someone else.

It's amazing how many people see no problem with it. :( When I was a sophomore in HS I overheard a guy in my English class grumble about missing a party that had gone on over the weekend. He'd heard later that some girl he thought was "hot" had been at that party and had gotten "passed out drunk" and he said if he'd known she was going to be there getting drunk he'd have gone, because then he could have "totally f***ed her." It's disgusting. :(

Read this long, but very powerful letter written by the victim of a frat party sexual assault, to her convicted rapist. (who only got *6 months* jail time because the judge thought more than that would be "too harsh" :cursing: ) https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/heres-the-powerful-letter-the-stanford-victim-read-to-her-ra

Well, this has certainly been an eye-opening thread for me! I can.not.stand being late. I'm in the "5 minutes early" camp of guests. And when I'm the host, I'm ready and haunting the windows 15-20 minutes before the stated start time, and start worrying that my party is going to be a total failure if 5, 10, 15 minutes go by and nobody has shown up yet. I had no idea that's what people considered to be "on time"! To me, that's wasted party time! :p

DD11 wants to do lots of swimming this summer, but she's already started her cycles. Is there anything designed for tweens to use while swimming? I can't imagine just regular tampons working, as they were very uncomfortable for me at first when I started using them at 14. Are there tween-friendly tampons, or regular tampons but in certain sizes, that others have found to work?

I don't think there are any black-out dates. At least, I've never run into that issue.

Yes, they also get sold out the fastest though, of course. So book fast. ;)

We use SouthWest airline points, and it depends on the flight, and which fare you choose. When you book, you'll be given different prices to choose from for each leg of the trip. Choosing the cheaper options (the "got to get away" fare) requires less points, but you'll likely end up in the last boarding group (SouthWest doesn't do assigned seating, you board in groups), so you might not get to sit next to whoever you may be traveling with, you may have to check your carry-on if the overhead bins are full, and you'll very likely be in a middle seat. My family is flying from Minnesota to North Carolina in a few weeks, and for the four of us it was under 70,000 points, but we also chose an airport two hours away from our destination, instead of in the same city, because it was significantly cheaper (and we're getting a rental car regardless). Had we chosen the closer airport though, it still would have been under 200k points for the four of us.

Form-fitting, not form-squeezing. I'll do loose-top/tight-bottoms (love my leggings and skinny jeans!) Or tight-top/loose-bottoms, or both tight. Never both loose unless I'm wear PJs.

I had a change of heart on late-term abortion after watching a friend of mine go through with one. At her 20 week u/s it was discovered that the baby had no brain, as well as many other abnormalities that hadn't been spotted at the "finding the heartbeat" u/s she received at 8 weeks. Second and third opinions agreed with the first diagnosis, and there was no chance that baby was going to survive past birth, if it even survived the pregnancy. Due to already having small children at home, and a husband who was a long-haul truck driver, they decided to end the pregnancy on their own time-table by doing an early induction at 22 weeks (it was considered an abortion because the fetus was not yet deceased, but also not at a stage of viability, even if it had been a normally-developed fetus). This allowed the husband to be there for the delivery and recovery, as well as allowed them to hold their baby as it passed away. The mother also expressed relief at at least being able to know *when* the baby was going to pass, instead of waking up every day (as she did during the weeks between diagnosis and abortion) wondering "Is today the day the baby dies?" It allowed them to move out of a very painful "limbo" and onto the grieving and recovering stage of their loss. They went on to have a healthy, normal pregnancy just over a year later.

In my own "mom circle" I'm in the minority by far with my very short hair. (pixie cut) Long, stick-straight hair, with maybe some large curls at the bottom, is far more common among the moms I've spent time with since becoming a mom myself. And that's been in three different states.

Everyone says the schools are great. There's actually very few homeschooling families that I've been able to find in this area (except for ones who are doing it for strictly religious reasons) because the schools have such a great reputation.

I'm going through a bit of an internal debate right now. I've been home schooling DD since 1st grade, and all the "horrors" you hear about with middle school was one of the reasons I did so. (my own middle school experience was far from pleasant) But now, I'm wondering if sending her to school might be the better choice for her academically. Mainly, I'm not sure if I'm capable of home schooling high school, and I'd rather she have some public school experience before high school, when the transcripts really matter, as far as college admissions go. I wouldn't want her to spend Freshman year floundering to adjust to a public school setting, and have that effect her grades, which will be permanently on her transcripts. Has anybody else done this? Did the social aspects of middle school make it not worth it? Or does anybody have any suggestions for some good online options for middle school, that are linked to the public schools, and so would have some outside accountability? We've just recently moved to Minnesota.

Presumably the couple have not been living together prior to the wedding, so household goods (or gift cards) will be greatly appreciated. No coffeemakers, though. ;)

Yes! And it's no wonder Elder Uchtdorf was a bit emotional after that one.

I love the Johnny's Garlic Spread powder at Costco (found with the other spices). Coat the veggies in olive oil, then sprinkle with the powder, and roast. It has Parmesan cheese and other spices beyond garlic in it, and is very yummy. I love it best on cauliflower, but it also works on broccoli, zucchini, and green beans.

I hate cutsie little sayings like that. Another one that bugs me is "All because two people fell in love," usually posted above a family portrait. My mind always jumps to "yes, you fell in love and got busy... Now you have kids. That's how it works. (Usually)"

Pin the tail on Eeyore? ;) If you're not expecting too many guests, you could do those little teddy bear jars of honey as favors. Or maybe as game prizes. For decorations maybe an umbrella, with a "Tut tut, it looks like rain!" sign, and red balloons, along with the woodland-themed stuff.

I think it's mentioned at least once in the books that he mainly played on winter evenings, and hardly at all during the planting, harvesting, and plowing.