This is why free range parenting gives me the heebie jeebies. That poor girl.

Honestly, if my kids didn't know this stuff at 13, I would be concerned about my ability to teach.

I would go to Claire's, or some place similar. IMO, the pediatrician doesn't do them nearly as often and and they end up crooked. Also, a jewelry store can do both ears at once.

Can you define "good for you" and "full of crap" ? What are you looking for in shampoo?

tankless water heaters cloth diapers cloth napkins cloth feminine products cloth paper towels low flow toilets and shower heads radiant heat barrier in the attic never having cable TV veggie seeds for the garden a husband that can fix anything :D

Awful.

I safety pin lots of things around here with my skinny-minnie kids, but have never tried undies :D We do use Gymboree for the girls, I hadn't even thought of Gymbo for my boy. I should stop by there tomorrow!

How often does this type of stuff happen? Once day, 5 times, 10 times? When you forget a word, how to do find it? Do you have to substitute another word, or will it come to you if you give it time?

Basically this. Thanks! :D I would still put *something* towards retirement then buy food. Even on special diets, there are ways to save, it just takes more work. (I had to do special diets a couple of times.)

Yes! My parents are having to worked past retirement age just to survive. They could have easily made different choices and been in much better shape financially.

Definitely different priorities. Debt free and saving is priority one for us. We still get plenty of family memories, but most are made in our own home. We do get to travel, but we pick our vacations carefully. Right now we are planning a 3 week drive across the US in a couple of years... We are not at a place where we have to scrimp on food, but I would and have when necessary.

Thanks!

:001_smile: I'll take a look! Thanks. I can't find the Gerber ones in 18 month. Only 2T, which is too big. They must've discontinued them.

them anywhere. If you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Yes. Maybe a small amount, but yes. Our first year of marriage, we brought home a whopping $11,000 and still put a small amount towards savings. Here is an article called - "Too Broke to Save? Never."

Is there a nearby church offering the class? Our church offers it several times a year and provides partial and full scholarships -- perhaps you could do that if it is available.

No I can't. Savings are the first expenditure, period. Then housing, then food (living on beans if needed), then utilities. You can homeschool for nearly free if needed. I would never choose 'family memories' like vacations over saving. Family memories can be made in the backyard for free!

We are totally debt free. We took a class (Ron Blue) at our church while we we very poor college students which helped set our perspective for the last 18 years. First, we both got degrees in something that produces an actual job that allows the degree holder to make a living. We also got graduate degrees in our fields. We paid for school ourselves, taking the minimum amount of loans possible and working all through school. When we finished, we used one of our salaries to pay off our student loans ($40,000 total for both of us) as quickly as possible. We did purchase a house at that time, but kept our beater college vehicles until the loans were paid in full. We also paid as much extra on our house as possible each month and I worked overtime at every opportunity. Once we had children, our total salary was cut in half, but since I was a SAHM, DH was able to go above and beyond at work and God blessed him with a better position and higher pay. We continued to live frugally and paid huge chunks on our house whenever possible. We also put back the maximum for retirement accounts. My hubby hates debt with a passion and will do just about anything to stay out of debt.

YES! Of course -- I didn't really know there was an option not too :confused: We put the maximum into DH 401K and I have my own retirement account that we put the maximum into each year.

Last I read, liver was terrible for you it is not recommend. I can't imagine why you would even want to eat it.

I wash 3 or 4 loads each day. I pile the cleans in a laundry basket and fold at night after the kids have gone to bed. I have never been able to master folding as it comes out of the dryer. If I did that, we'd miss chunks of school and the 2 yo would destroy something. We are a family of 6.

IMO, it is better to say no than to do what she did in this instance.

Sure there were accidents that could have been prevented. I had two friends killed in a car accident as teens because they weren't wearing a seat belt (pre-seatbelt laws). I had had 2 friends suffer severe life altering head injuries from falling off of bikes without helmets - I am not sure helmets even existed. I had one classmate killed when riding the back of a truck. I know an 80 yo man that desperately wishes toddler car seats had been available in the 50s so his only son would still be alive today. If you or I didn't get hurt or killed from accidents it wasn't because helmets, seatbelts and car seats etc aren't needed, it is because we were lucky. I have worked in pediatric rehab units and have seen literally hundreds of children with severe brain injuries from bike falls without a helmet, being hit by cars when wandering the streets unsupervised, near death drownings and countless other injuries sustained because they were not being supervised by an adult. These children can no longer swallow, speak, walk, or think clearly. They will be disabled for life. If the adults that were charged to care for them had been a little more responsible, they would be living normal lives. I am not impressed with the free range movement at all. You can teach children responsibility while ensuring their safety at the same time.

It was just too time consuming.

So you think she made no mistakes in this instance?