Seriously. This guy talks like an abuser.

You have some good suggestions above but I agree that it's pretty weird gift idea. ?

My brother stopped smoking and he was noticing that his clothes still had a slight smell despite repeated washings. Baking soda and vinegar is what I used. I soaked them for several hours, then put them on a nice long cycle with normal detergent, and they came out no longer smelling. ?

In some situations, and this is one of them, no is a complete sentence. hugs.

Exactly this! I wish people would just do the math! I get it, if it's not in your budget, then it doesn't matter how good a deal it is. But it not being in your budget doesn't make it a bad deal. Or elitist!

I had a homeschool mom steal curriculum from me once. I said she could take the books and pay me later. She kept "forgetting" then she actually quit our co-op to avoid me. It wasn't even expensive stuff! Now I'll get payment in advance for anything I don't want to just flat out give away. But my goodness, who does that?? And no, I won't lend things out. People always worry about high school math. I tell them that if they don't feel comfortable with it, they can outsource those classes. But I'm honest about how much that might cost. I'm kind of surprised at how much "shop talk" happens in other people's homeschool groups. In every group I've been involved in, I wanted to have educational discussions (or do I?) but no one talks about that kind of thing. Out of all the homeschoolers I know, I couldn't tell you what the vast majority of them are using for curriculum or how homeschooling is going for them in general. They don't about how they're having a rough February, or they found the perfect writing program, or their kid simply isn't understanding multiplication and does anyone have a suggestion, or they haven't touched their science curriculum in six months, or anything. Nothing good or bad. You'd think homeschooling moms would talk about this big huge thing we all have in common.

We are very close in my family and no. For that matter, I only know vaguely when my brother-in-law's birthday is because he lives in town and its' very close to my husband's and one of my brothers' birthday.

“Fat’ is usually the first insult a girl throws at another girl when she wants to hurt her. I mean, is ‘fat’ really the worst thing a human being can be? Is ‘fat’ worse than ‘vindictive’, ‘jealous’, ‘shallow’, ‘vain’, ‘boring’ or ‘cruel’? - J K Rowling. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/454548-fat-is-usually-the-first-insult-a-girl-throws-at

Jennifer Lawrence is pretty but by Hollywood standards, she's fat. The modeling world is even worse. Some very disturbing stories of underweight girls being told to lose weight.

Mindy Kaling.

Point out that looks are subjective and you are sorry she feels she's ugly, but you happen to disagree. Help her explore clothes/makeup/hair styles that will help her feel better about her looks. Show her before and after pictures of makeup. They can be quite striking. But most of all, point out that her looks are not the most important thing about her and that her choices, the way she treats people, her character, her mind, are all much more important than how she looks. It's hard to believe that in our looks obsessed culture, but if she can start believing that, at least sometimes, she'll be better off.

When I was in my 20s I spent time being angry about my mother's mistakes. But eventually I forgave and came to see my mother as simply an imperfect mother, dealing with her own stuff, who did the very best she could. I too have a child who is impossible to parent. She is 17 and already blames me for everything. I have hope that she'll get over it some day. I suspect she has a whole lot of growing up before she gets to that point.

Hugs. I get it. My oldest is in PS and even though it's been much worse than I anticipated with regard to social influences, I feel it's where she belongs because we would be at war with each other if she were home. But my middle... she's so smart and so ambitious and we gave her the choice and she wanted to go. But I could be doing so much more for her at home.

Schools do waste time homeschoolers don't waste, but it's not in walking to classes and attending assemblies. It's in making everyone learn the same stuff at the same pace. No one can move ahead if they already know the material, so they are stuck there waiting for the teacher to explain to kids who are struggling. Kids who are struggling have their time wasted because when it's time to move on, it doesn't matter who doesn't get it. (I have a child who has been on both sides of this equation in public school.) They waste time in teaching to a test that's going to be forgotten ten minutes after it's turned in. But I feel like some homeschoolers probably replicate this kind of time wasting by following a curriculum too closely when they could be modifying it to suit their own child.

I did this with a co-op class and just used regular letter size card stock paper.

My four year old still doesn't get rhyming. And I didn't let it stop us from moving forward.

Story of the World. Absolutely loved it and can't wait to go through it again with my youngest. Singapore Math. Middle child grasps math quickly and intuitively but has slow processing speed. Anything that asked her to repeatedly do pages of problems would have just killed her love of math. As it is, she is going into 10th grade where she'll be doing Alg 2 honors the first semester and Trig the second semester. She wants to do as much math as she can in high school. Singapore math was perfect for her. ? Bravewriter. Middle was also a reluctant writer and this made her feel like writing was doable and maybe even sometimes fun. IEW

I recently dropped four boxes of books off at the library. What CM people would look down on and call "twaddle". ? But they were low quality books I wasn't interested in my younger daughter reading and my older two had outgrown. It was nice to get rid of them. I also did a purge of curriculum. Things I bought and didn't like, and know that I won't use for my youngest. ?

The only assigned chore my teens have is the kitchen. I have to nag to get it done but have been trying to get them to take initiative and keep it clean on their own. This hasn't been wildly successful so far, but I've just started this particular descent into madness. ? We'll see how it goes. I have a 17 year old who will be graduating high school when she's 19, so we have an entire year of her living here as an adult. Part of me thinks she'll be living here at least another year after that because I cant' see her being ready to adult independently before then, and part of me thinks she's going to leave as soon as she turns 18 because of some big fight we have. So next spring I'm going to be navigating the wonderful world of trying to live with a mentally ill, rather immature adult who has little respect for me but no capacity to live on her own. I do think all people, children and adults, who live in the house should be responsible for helping out around the house. I'm not sure how to enforce this with an adult child, but still try to show her some respect. And not drive her out of the house. While still enforcing some rules because, hey, it's my house. I'm not ready for this. ? Clearly.

Are they legitimately not hearing you or doing this deliberately? If it's a not paying attention thing, you can try getting their attention and making sure they very much do understand you. If it's deliberate, then the response is different depending on who it is in your life. A sibling vs a child vs a neighbor, etc.

A box of independent toys and games for the kids to play with while you wake up with your tea (in my case coffee) doesn't seem like the worst thing in the world. Just don't call it a morning basket. That term is already taken and that's not what it means. ? How about a Quiet Time Basket? (I realize Quiet Time Basket mom isn't here reading this.) ?

All these poorly educated homeschool students are going to grow up and speak out against homeschooling. Eventually, the backlash is going to be loud enough that homeschool rights are very threatened, or regulations will be adopted everywhere. This morning I came across a post on a local homeschool group expressing shock that people homeschool 5-6 hours a day and saying they must count video gaming and chores. I live in Missouri where we have to count hours and getting that 1000 hours a year in is a preoccupation for a lot of people. 1000 hours is a bit much in the younger years so you end up counting anything remotely educational at first. But by the time they're in like 5th or 6th grade (maybe earlier, maybe later, depending on how fast or slow your child works), it's totally doable using only actual school work. I counted all the reading my kids did and never had trouble getting to 1000. But people are still counting going to the grocery store or having normal every day parenting conversations as school hours.

It doesn't really matter what he wants it for. I'd be very annoyed and tell her no, she can't give it away. What if you had plans for it? What if you were going to sell it? Or give it to someone else? Or try to deal with the smell? Or simply keep it till you were ready on your own to get rid of it? OR you simply wanted the opportunity to be generous instead of stolen from. There's a difference.

I find it weird. I'm a private person and the one time my mother posted a public birthday greeting to me, I was uncomfortable. It was a bit over the top though. I hate being the center of attention. Also, I have this one friend whose marriage was a disaster. She was very open about it being a disaster. They fought constantly, in front of the kids, and in front of the kids she would talk about it to all her friends. It was awkward and we tried once or twice to point out that the kids were there, but she shrugged it off and said, "They see all this stuff every day." Yikes. But yeah, she'd post all this over the top lovey stuff about her husband on Facebook. It was weird. I wondered who exactly was the audience for those because anyone who knew her well knew the truth and there were lots of us. I try to remember that it's not all fake. There are people I know that I'm almost certain have very good relationships that also post this kind of message. ? But if I don't know them well, I always wonder. ?

Seriously not trying to be snarky here. But why? Why is it important that your co-workers not know you are wearing panties under your yoga pants? I get not letting your pudge show, and even understand not wanting your hair to look bad. But panty lines? I don't understand the need to hide them in 99 percent of situations, and working out, no matter who is there to see you, is one of those situations where panty lines seem perfectly acceptable. Because why not?