My 6 year old son and I competed in our first 5k today. We did the Couch to 5k program with a local homeschool group. DS won for his age division (ages 1-6). We each came in about 350th place overall, out of about 550 people, including walkers. We both want to be in a zombie run in the fall, so we better continue training so we can improve our times. I'm trying to convince DH to do it too, as a walk/run because our 3 year old wants to run, too. He came to our last practice before the race and ran about 1/3 a mile for fun with us.

Well, comsidering that drones die after they mate, I'm not sure being a drone would be an improvement! Maybe the forum equivalent would be, "You can be a drone, but only for one post, then you are banned."

Some ideas: Magnesium supplement at bedtime Epsom salt bath Might be waking up because of hunger or low blood sugar Too many electronics or screen time in the evening Stress Thirsty or needs to use the bathroom at 5am Maybe some noise wakes him-try having a fan going or wearing ear plugs Too hot or too cold at night Before this started, was he already an early bird?

The suburban sidewalks I've lived near haven't had enough pedestrian traffic for bikes to be a problem. Obviously, downtown in a city would be different. The county where I live has many greenways (paved trails through the woods) that bikes and walkers/runners manage to share. Unfortunately, I don't think the greenways ever lead to jobs or stores. So people can use them for exercise, but still have to drive every where they want to go. I think that in many areas, sidewalk traffic is low enough that a trial run of allowing bikes could be allowed.

Doesn't it seem that allowing bikes on sidewalks would eliminate many of these problems?

I'm looking for good museum exhibits on the ancients. Any state on or near the east coast would be considered. I remember the museum in Toronto having a lot when I was there in college, but we don't have passports, which are needed to get into Canada.

I haven't read any replies yet. It's interesting that you ask this. I was seriously considering yesterday asking the same question.

Has anyone else here seen this? It never occurred to me that men that like to go dutch would see being SAHM as worthless and would prefer their wives to work and put the kids in daycare. When DH and I talked about getting engaged, I didn't especially want kids, but we agreed that if we had them, I would stay home with them, since I was always glad my mom stayed home with us. Of course, we both expected that I would work until that time. None of this had anything to do with how we paid for dates at the beginning. I wouldn't have married anyone who just assumed we'd put our kids in daycare.

I think it would be sad if a woman "settles" for marrying a man she doesn't love (when her kids aren't in danger of starving) and then in a few years finally meets Mr. Right. Also, being expected to participate in "wifely duties" when she isn't ever interested is demeaning and makes a woman feel used. When I was chronically ill and couldn't do more than one or two chores a day, I had zero interest. None. At the time, we thought the Bible taught that a spouse could never turn their spouse down, so I "went along" with it for years. It made me feel almost like a prostitute, and he was also unhappy because he knew I wasn't interested on my own. This is not an easy problem to fix, and I often have to remind myself that if I was interested before kids, maybe someday things will "get back to normal." If I had never felt that way about him ever, it might be difficult to convince myself that staying is worth it. At least, when we have problems, I can remember how things used to be.

I don't really remember my dates paying for me in high school, except for one that asked me to a dance at his school. And DH and I each generally paid for ourselves on our dates in college. I don't think it really occurred to me to expect the male to pay for me just because he was male. In the same way, I don't think it's fair for childless wives to automatically assume it's their husband's job to earn all the money, while they stay home. Now, if the couple agrees that this division of labor works best for them, that's fine. But I know a few families where there are no kids or the kids are all grown, and the woman won't work, even though the family really needs the money. To me, it makes more sense for each spouse to work 30-40 hours per week, than to expect the man to work 60-80 hours, while the wife does a few hours of cooking and cleaning.

I had a boyfriend once (long distance) where he adored me, but I started to detest him. I took him to the prom and while there, wished I had gone by myself. Unfortunately, I waited a few more months to dump him. When I was older, I realized that I didn't respect him, and that's why I had started to detest him. One of my friends is married to a man that (In my opinion) she doesn't respect and hasn't for a long time. They've had kind of a rough marriage. She once told me she considers participating in bedroom activities to be her "ministry" to him...meaning she isn't interested, but participates because she thinks her religion requires it. I think they'll stay together for life because they don't believe in divorce, but I don't think they'll ever be happy. She just doesn't like him, and although she doesn't say anything about it, it comes across in the way she treats him (and the way their kids treat him, too).

I agree. You don't respect him. I would never marry a man I didn't respect.

Well, my oldest is six and tends to not be very observant about making sure small things are all put away. Our experience with beads and other small craft items is that he thinks they are all put away when there are many on the floor still. I get tired of coming back four times to point out which ones he missed. He does much better putting away Duplo blocks and larger toys. Maybe when he's older he'll be able to handle putting away legos on his own.

I came across this video for Box 4 Blox. It basically sifts legos by size. I thought this might be useful for some of you. We have so far avoided legos in our house because we've seen what a mess they make and prefer toys that are easier to clean up (like Duplo blocks).

Oh no, my 6 year old son has also been asking me for not one, but two more kids (plus a a minivan to hold them), so there are more kids to play with. I hope he doesn't start praying about it!

Have an emergency fund, lower your expectations for what housing and car you "deserve" in your 20s, learn to cook, and avoid debt as much as possible.

First of all, some states are recourse states, where the bank can sue you for the difference between what was owed and what the house sold for at auction. If you live in a recourse state, your proposed plan wouldn't benefit you. Secondly, let's say you line up the rental while your credit is still good and then give the house back. What happens if you need to move out of the rental house (it needs major repairs, job loss, move to a safer area, or any other reason) and you can't find another good rental because your credit is bad? Or you find a rental but they charge extra for the credit risk? It may not save you the money each month you thought it would. Others have already pointed out how your credit report is used in setting insurance rates and in background checks for jobs. I had a credit check run on me just to be able to rent a car in the fall. Also, some credit card companies have what is called a "universal default" clause, where they raise your interest rate if you are late on payments to any other creditors, even if all your CC payments to them have been paid on time.

Our policy is to never turn down an invitation unless we absolutely have to. Our church meets at night, but we skip church if friends invite us over.

I guess I wasn't clear enough. The problem hasn't been my family being too busy. It's the other families we try to get together with that are so busy. I'd say 80-90% of the invitations we extend are turned down because the other families are already booked up. We've even told a few families "pick any Mon, Thurs, Sat, or Sun in the next few months to come over for dinner" and they couldn't find a free one! We spent Thanksgiving and Easter by ourselves (our families are too far away for short trips, so we see them at Christmas and in the summer). We didn't even celebrate Thanksgiving because I didn't feel like going through all that work just for us. End of whining.

Threads like these always make me feel sad and lonely. They remind me that there's only one friend from high school that I even try to contact every year or two, and his wife doesn't seem very friendly toward either DH or I. And the only friend I made in all of college was my DH. Then one of the few families from our old legalistic church that we thought were still friends with us (not close, but friends) dumped us last fall. We're still friends with one family from that church and I did call the wife twice a few years ago when I was going through a really rough time. But I know that even if she'll listen to my problems, she will never open up to me. She would view it as gossiping or being unsubmissive or something. Plus, I'm closer in age to her teenage/college kids than her. So I don't think she'll ever really view us as equals. I take a really, really long time to open up to people. And people are not naturally attracted to being friends with me, either. With everyone so busy, it's possible that I may never spend enough time with anyone to make another close friend until I'm elderly. That's depressing. ETA: At a graduation party yesterday, I had to listen to my female friend listed above talk about how many party invitations her family has been getting and how they needed to turn down a bunch so they can get the house cleaned up. This was followed by a "not that I'm not complaining." They probably got more invitations to people's houses in two weeks than we do in a year. What is the secret to being liked? I wish I had never opened this thread. It's too sad to dwell on my social failures.

I don't know if tight muscles/knots are the same as what you have, but what my family uses is a technique called myotherapy, described in books by Bonnie Prudden. I think "trigger point therapy" might be the same thing, but I'm not sure.

Maybe his chest muscles are tight and knotted up? You could try massaging the area to see if it helps.

It sounds like your DH has a religious conviction that homeschooling is good, school is bad. If this is that important to both of you, you need to get a second car, even if it's an old junker. Can you sell some stuff and get one by Sept? It sounds like you and your son will be much happier if you can get out of the house during the day, a couple times per week. He already likes doing school with you...it's the lack of other kids to play with that bothers him. The only alternative I can think of is to start a homeschooling meetup group for your area and host events at your house. You could have academic, play, crafts, or sports related activities.

Ours are 8 months old. They dent easily, especially with young kids that constantly drop stuff. Maybe we have a cheap kind. It came with the house, so I don't know what quality it is. I think it will need to be replaced in five years or less.

It sounds like your middle child wouldn't have been happy if she were born into one of those families that thinks all you need are siblings to play with?