Yes and they lose points for incorrect answers. This really bugged me last year honestly. (First year in school, 9th and 11th grades.) But she did allow them to correct it and get half credit back for lost points.

It doesn't sound like this since you said it is not raised, but it did make me think of pityriasis rosea. I had this several years ago and it started as a small rash/patch in the middle of my chest. Over a couple of weeks, several more spots popped up and started itching really bad. It's essentially caused by an immune response to a virus.

Does your husband work from home? You said he is in and out all day. What does he use the study for? I agree with this. You can welcome the kids back to a guest room that is their *shared* guest room. Keeping designated rooms for them seems silly when they don’t live there and you need a room.

Well that settles it then. Thank you 😊

I’ve been looking into these. Are they really permanent? Can you use it on the bikini line?

Well, I will just tell you our story and maybe that will help you. We sold our house in 2 days in October 2020. Moved in with my parents while we looked for something to buy. Got outbid over and over and over despite offering 30K over asking and adding in ridiculous escalation clauses. Finally decided to build. Builder number one said they could do what we wanted, then said no we can't do that. Ok. Builder number two contracted with us for a custom house; then the lumber prices skyrocketed (by now it was spring of 2021) and he bailed. Started looking at pre-owed houses again. Same story; outbid, nothing great, awful awful. FINALLY found our dream builder. Only problem - small lots only. We did originally want more property but we realized that this was the area we needed to compromise. This builder turned out to be wonderful. We have a custom house that is perfect for us and we don't need to fix anything or do renovations. We have great neighbors. But small .3 acre lot. Oh, and, we were living with my parents for a year and a half 🥴 If I ever do this again, I WILL NOT SELL FIRST. No way. In your situation, I would do whatever possible to get the land and custom build. Can you do something less conventional and live in a camper on the land while you build? Two campers if you have adult kids? I don't know. You really want land, and you have specific needs. I would not settle for a house that you don't like. Moving is hard enough; downsizing when you still need the space would be miserable.

Someone recommended the Driver's Ed in a Box on a local homeschool group as being really thorough and covering defensive driving more than the others. I think I read a review about AAA being not that great. She is currently taking behind the wheel through AAA.

Has anyone used this? If you are not aware of my other thread, my daughter has her permit and she is taking behind the wheel driving lessons. She did pass the written test already but the instructor said she would benefit from a course. (She never took a course, just read the manual and took the test. It is a very easy test in PA.) I'm looking at AAA online, Allstate online, and Driver's Ed in a Box. Any feedback on those programs? I am definitely getting her a course for her own confidence and review of rules of the road, so comments saying to just take her driving are not helpful. Yes, we will continue to practice practice practice behind the wheel.

Does anyone have a pergola? If you do, I have some questions. Does water collect in the canopy and is that a problem? Does it get moldy? What about wind? I would love a covered porch but we can't do that right now. I'm looking for something to block the sun and give me some privacy while sitting outside. Something like this is what I'm looking at.

We were extremely limited in what chairs I could get for our master bedroom because a lot of them can't fit through the doorway. I never in a million years thought about that.

I forgot to mention that we got a dual zone HVAC system and it is awesome. Another thing I am glad we spent the extra money on.

Yeah so, I wanted to make this the choice. Get your license or take the bus. But I really don't feel like I should put that on her right now. The bus would pick her up at 6:30am vs leaving our house at 7:15, and gets her back after 4 vs getting home just after 3. She also has a chronic pain condition and dysautonomia with a strong heat sensitivity and the bus is really uncomfortable. My big thing is, I want her to TRY. I want to see the motivation to get her license. I think we need to take it step by step and see what happens as the year progresses.

We had a great experience building a house. Some things we wish we had done: -Wider doors everywhere. All doors. Double front door, oversized other doors. And the main staircase and hallways easy to bring furniture up. Ours is fine, but could have been better. -Covered porch in the back. -Hire a designer to help with ALL design decisions. It is HARD to make all of these decisions for a custom house. Even down to the type of trim...it's so overwhelming. Lighting is really hard too. If you will not do this, find Maria Killam's blog and read about her timeless advice for new builds. I found her just in time and it saved me from making really trendy mistakes that would date my house quickly. -Have the basement designed ahead of time. The HVAC people put our system in the wrong place and it totally screwed up what we wanted to do for finishing the basement. -I don't know the proper terms for this, but find out IN WRITING how flat your yard will be. Our lot was FLAT. Completely flat. We had no reason to think that it would not be flat when the house was finished. Well, our tiny lot has the house elevated on a hill and we have pretty much no usable flat space in the backyard. Our theory is that they stopped blasting down when they hit too much rock and didn't want to deal with going farther. Something we are so glad we did was a staircase from the garage to the basement. Although DH wishes that he had made that double doors. I am so, so happy that I splurged for the stacked cabinets in the kitchen. I love them. Get references for the builder you choose. Talk to people that live in his houses. Our builder was awesome and his references show it. If he is unhappy with a subcontractor or if they do not show up when they said they will, he never uses them again. As a result, he built our house in under 5 months just like he said he would.

Thank you so much everyone for your responses. My big take away is that I just need to be more patient and it will take longer than I originally thought. FWIW, we live in a pretty rural area. The residential areas do have more traffic. But she can get anywhere she needs to (school, future job, stores) on easy roads. Going to the mall would require a merge onto a big highway - I have no intention of rushing that. But public transportation is not an option here, so it is just NOT an option for her to not get her license. I was originally hoping that she would be able to drive herself to school next year (easy back roads) but now I am just hoping she will be able to drive herself to college classes the following year. re: teens and driving. Most of her friends have had their license for over a year and had their permit at least 6 months before that. I don't advocate that she should get in the car with just anyone, but she is unwilling to consider and evaluate what would likely be a safe situation (five minutes with a responsible friend on an easy road) vs a dangerous and risky situation. There are restrictions for teen drivers in the beginning. I think until they are 18yo it is considered a junior license and they can only have one other passenger under 18 in the car. re: her OCD and anxiety. Yes, this is definitely a factor. She takes medicine. We have been through lots and lots of therapy. I have had to learn how to parent her differently and not let the OCD dictate my parenting decisions. It is not rational and allowing the OCD to dictate just feeds the cycle. Anyway, we will press on and keep practicing. Thank you 🙂

If that's what you meant, I misunderstood your post. I thought you were saying that I should not make her learn to drive because she will end up dead.

🙄 Yeah I guess it's ridiculous of me to want my kids to learn how to drive and become independent humans that are not relying on Mom and Dad for the rest of their lives.

I just discovered that the local high school and middle school complex has lot of roads all around it and connecting the schools and they have lots of types of roads and lines, stop signs, etc. so it will be a great place to practice when no one is there this summer.

I know this was not clear from my initial or follow-up posts, but we have been taking her to parking lots a few times a week since she got her permit in February. We just started with the lessons last month. I don't think it is unreasonable to expect her to now be able to drive 15mph in a neighborhood without seeming like she might hit a parked car or mailbox. After her last lesson, the instructor told me that she needs to get out of the parking lot and onto real roads. She said she needs to get the feel for longer stretches of roads, the lines in the middle of the road, the shoulder, and curbs. Based on responses, I guess I am in it for the long haul with her, but I really don't understand what is happening here. I had NO CLUE how to drive when I started. I had never driven ANYTHING - not a go-cart, or a golf cart, or a ride-on lawn mower. The instructor took me to a parking lot to learn how to steer ONCE. For the first lesson only. Then I was on the road for the rest of the lessons. This is mandatory in NJ before getting a permit, so I guess one difference is that I had the six hours with an instructor first before my parents ever got in the car with me. I completely agree. I think this is a pretty recent phenomenon and I find it bizarre. Another thing that makes it very frustrating with her is that she will not drive with any friends. She thinks that teens are not safe drivers and just absolutely will NOT drive with a friend. So for example, two weeks ago she was invited to a party for a friend. They planned to meet and go bowling, then go to mini-golf and have ice cream. These locations are 25 minutes from our house, but the mini golf place is 5 min from the bowling place and it is a very low traffic, easy country road. I wanted her to get a ride with a friend just from bowling to mini golf so that I could drop her off and pick her up later and she would not. So I drove her to the bowling alley and waited and hour. Then I drove her to mini golf and waited and waited because I didn't know how long they would be. It was another 2+ hours. I could have gone home but I didn't know, and I didn't want to add 50 minutes. I was so furious by the end of this. I know someone will say that at some point she will need to decide whether to drive with a friend or not go, or whether to get her license and have more freedom or miss out on opportunities. The thing is that that kid has been through a lot socially and is finally starting to thrive. We moved out of state a year ago and it has been a tough adjustment for her. She has friends now and is getting invited to things and I want her to go! But I DON'T want to spend hours and hours driving and waiting for her when it is not necessary. She also has OCD and anxiety, and I guarantee that in the situation I explained above, she would have chosen to miss out on the party rather than drive with her friend that I do trust to drive her five minutes down the road. To be super clear, I am not expecting her to drive on highways or anything hard right now. My expectations are to try and to practice and to gradually increase willingness to drive places WITH us. Even after getting her license, I do expect that she will need a lot of practice with us on very specific and easy routes before she is ready to tackle them alone. That is fine. I guess we will just need more lessons...and then probably more.

I'm sure she would say that she is not ready, but I think if she were motivated, she would be. By not teachable I mean that she is not responsive to instruction, like she doesn't have a teachable attitude. Not that she isn't capable of learning.

The lessons are not mandatory, actually. In PA, they can get their permit after passing a written test and then they can take the license test 6 months later with 60 hours of practice. In NJ, it was mandatory to do 6 hours of lessons to get a permit at 16 and then you could test for your license at 17. I'm not forcing her to only have six lessons. I am forcing her to take the lessons and practice in a parking lot. I haven't taken her on the road yet. She's had three lessons with an instructor so far. One in a parking lot, one in a neighborhood, and one in both a neighborhood and a remote country road. I was hoping that she would be ready to practice on roads after the six lessons, but I think she will need more time with an actual instructor. She 17.5. I guess the frustrating thing is that I can't tell if she is really trying, because I know she is nervous and she would rather not drive. I just don't want her to be 20yo and still not have her license.

DD's name can be a nickname for a longer name. I think in the UK it has become more common as a standalone name. I do wish I had named her a name, and not a nickname. She went through a phase where she hated her name as well as the very long and formal middle name that we gave her in case she wanted more options. But she loves her name now, so, I guess all is well.

Yeah I think I’m going to have to do this when the first six lessons are done. This is (was? Lol) my plan but it’s so hard when she’s … just not doing great.

Please give me some hope that this kid will learn to drive. I did not think anything could be worse than potty training, but this is worse. She cannot steer very well. She's not teachable. She's nervous. And I think she doesn't really care one way or another about getting her license. I am SO READY for this next phase of life when my kids can drive themselves and I will no longer be their chauffer! I do have her in driving lessons, but at this point I think she will need a lot more than the six lessons before I can even trust her to drive in our neighborhood.

(Edit - these are just personal things that I have noticed in our own lives) DD started 9th grade in fall 2020. She is now entering her senior year and I think the pandemic completely changed the trajectory of her life. I feel like she missed out on prime time for mature growth and she is still recovering socially. It also took a huge toll on her mental health. For both of my kids, they were virtually screen-free prior to the pandemic. Then it all went out the window and there was no turning back. I absolutely believe that video games have been bad for my DS (15)'s ADHD. He has not taken as much of a hit in maturity and he is thriving now socially, but I do wish we never went down the path of video games. It was pretty much for survival during covid. It seems that so many businesses are still suffering due to staff shortages. On a positive note, I think there are more online options for everything now, from education to ordering food, and I like that.

Not really. I was exhausted all.the.time. I love having teenagers that take their own showers and can make their own lunch and I absolutely can’t wait until they can drive themselves places! I do miss the literature based homeschooling that we did back then and the “simple” problems of life.