We LOVE our Netflix! We stream it through our Blu-Ray player (it's a Vizio), but if we had done more research, like we should've we would've gotten a Roku. In fact, we might be getting a Roku soon, b/c we're just not happy with our Vizio. It works all right for a player, but the connection and such... we're just not thrilled. Anyway, but Netflix is a definite must in this house! I put a ton of approved shows for our kids to watch on our Instant Queue, and they're only allowed to stay on that. Then, I'm able to stay aware of what's going on. :) LOVE it.

I used to do one like that. I actually owned the site at one point. I would say that they're fun, but to be careful. They can become really addicting. I ended up leaving the game and basically shutting down the site because all of the players spent literally every second they had on the game... and a lot of time they didn't have (like time at work, time supposed to be with families, ect.). So, encourage them to have fun, but monitor it. Also, the ones I saw were a LOT of adult content. So, again, monitor carefully.

I hate when people don't call my kids by the names I gave them. I think parents put a lot of thought and effort into their kids' names, it's just rude to call them something else. My grandma called Katie "Summer Dawn" for the longest time. That's nothing like her name, but because she was born at around 4:30 on the first day of summer, she thought she had the right. I set her straight. Mom calls my Caeleigh (pronounced KAY-lee) "Leigh" (Lee). Irritates me to no end. If I wanted her name to be Leigh, I would have named her Leigh. Next card she sends to "Leigh" is going to be returned with "No such address" on it, I swear. Funny thing is, she was anal about people calling my brother by his given name (Michael, instead of Mike, which is what everyone shortened it to). It drove her batty when they didn't. Frankly, I'm the only one allowed to give my kid's nicknames. ;)

If it were me, the nail salon I'd just brush off. Probably, like others said, they just want a companion for their DD. The ear piercing is a bit odd. That's definitely something that is a family issue. Lady Gaga... I'd have a serious talk with my DD, and consider restricting access to the other girl without supervision by me, not her mom. BUT... those are our values. ;-)

Night owl. I have tried and tried and tried to get up early, to reset my clock, just doesn't work. I get a second wind around 9 pm, no matter how little sleep I've gotten the night before or during the day. I totally give up.

I don't think the Duggars are anti-sports, per say. I remember one episode where they said they play broom ball or something once a week, or every couple of weeks, at a local ice skating rink. The girls played, too. I just think they focus on other things rather than team sports.

:iagree: Me too, completely. Especially about Christmas. Dad says that she was trying to make it perfect for us, but... she ended up completely ruining it. I hate holidays. DH and I are having now to make an extreme effort to do any sort of holiday and develop traditions with our kids. Even birthdays I hate to do.

:grouphug: Praying here, Imp! :grouphug:

My parents divorced when I was 12. Dad had custody of my brother and I, but his mother died that year, as well, and he lost his job, then jumped right into another relationship (they're still married, but she's only 9 years older than me. There were definitely issues with having basically two pubescent girls fighting for control of the same house... it was a mess. We'll never be close). He basically had a nervous breakdown. So, he didn't abandon us physically, but he definitely checked out emotionally. He never really came back. He thinks we're close. I let him think that. The reality is, he has his new family, and I'm not really part of that all that much. He disapproves of the very things that makes me, me, so it's strained. I do have contact with him, though. In fact, he'll be passing through for 2 days with my sister and stepmom next week. I have a lot of anger towards my dad, too. He's a trained counselor, I felt he should have warned me, protected me (I was definitely NOT the Golden Child in our family), and, I suppose he did, in his own way, but the man wouldn't know a backbone if it knocked him on the head. He also had his own issues, probably stemming from his own mother being borderline, which is what probably attracted him to mom to begin with. He let me move out when I was 15 without a fight. I'm not sure I'll ever quite forgive him for that, although his situation wasn't much, if any better. But, there weren't the drugs and illegal activity in his house, that there was in Mom's.

Oh my word, Imp!! :grouphug::grouphug: I've been out of it for a week or two, so I completely missed this. I'm praying for you!! :grouphug:

:iagree::iagree: I just wanted to second (and third... and fourth...) this. My family has this great way of making me feel like I'm the one with the issues. I'm not, but when you're the only sane one in the asylum, you seem insane to them, you know? It's taken me years (and I'm still learning) to figure out what "normal" really looks like. Now, our family is starting (slowly) to approach that, but we're not totally there yet.

That's very much not normal. I'd insist your ped run some tests, to rule out blood sugar issues, and if she didn't listen, I'd find another. Mine skip dinner regularly, and they never act like that in the morning. Hungry, yes, but not like that.

Congratulations!!

In our house, it's cleaning the trashcan out. And the wall behind it that constantly gets splattered.

I'm not a brat, but we moved every 1-2 years growing up. I always wanted to stay put when I married and started raising children, but I married a soldier, and, even though he's out now, he still gets the itch right around when we would probably be PCSing anyway. So, we move a lot. Wish we didn't have to, though. I'm looking forward to someday having roots in a community.

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: We could be sisters. My dad got me Understanding the Borderline Mother a few years ago. It helped tremendously. I'm going to be checking out the book you recommended, too. Be grateful you and your brother can at least talk, even if you're not close. I can't talk to mine. At all. Ever. I talk to his wife, that's the only way I know anything about my nieces. I crave a better relationship with him. I've given up on having one with my parents. He's got a lot of issues he needs to deal with, too, though. So do I. Having a parent with BPD is hard. :grouphug: again. I'm here if you (or anyone) needs a shoulder.

My 10 yo DD is like this. I'm convinced she's ADD, no hyperactivity, though. We use vitamins and fish oil supplements, and they help somewhat, but, honestly, she's got to find her own system. At 6, I'd just expect to keep up the reminders for a long time. With my DD, we're working on giving her organizational skills and helping her find her own "groove," to still keep her individuality and imagination and everything that makes her, her, but still be able to function in the real world.

We're using Funnix for phonics and math. When he finishes those, he'll move into The Phonics Road and Math U See Primer. For everything else, he's just tagging along with his big brother and sister (Apologia for science, Tapestry of Grace for history, ect.). He's also using the Rod and Staff workbooks to help him learn to color, cut, paste, and generally follow directions.

They have these ice cream sandwiches... chocolate chip cookie ones rolled in chocolate chips. LOVE those!! Oh, and the chocolate covered frozen bananas. SOOOOO good when it's hot out! Of course, you can make both of those yourself, but I'm rather lazy like that... The pizzas are good, too.

We get them on Netflix, but I am pretty sure I missed a few episodes. We had to go back through and finally found a couple of ones we missed, that weren't in the series they had, and I still think I've missed one or two. I don't know when the new ones come out on Netflix, though, so we've moved on to watching Torchwood until they do. :)

I voted "other." Yes, I think there are things that the oldest is entitled to. Heaven knows I've probably screwed her up enough. The oldest (at least when I was growing up, and in my family) tends to have much more responsibility and pressure. I think with that, they deserve extra entitlements. For example, my oldest stays up late with us more often (OK, the ones younger than her NEVER do). It comes with being the oldest, and helping out like she does. She needs extra time to unwind every once in a while. She also tends to get more one on one time, because she needs it and she's earned it. Then, there are things that she gets that will be passed down. Someday, we hope to have a home with enough bedrooms that one child will be able to have their own. That will be the oldest. When she moves out, it will be passed down to the next oldest, and so on. But she gets it first.

My 8.5 yo reads them and LOVES them. He's only got 2 at the moment, but he's been reading them over and over. That says a lot... I couldn't get this kid to pick up a book just a few months ago. He would let me know if there was too much romance or something. (I actually don't think he's seen any... he's rather vocal about his "gross" factor. And, he tends to tell me the entire story as he's reading it. :glare:) BTW, the old Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Mystery TV show is on Netflix to watch instantly. **And** we found the box set at Sam's Club. My kids love those, too (more romance in those, but I haven't seen anything too horrible yet), and we'll be getting them the DVDs soon.

Very pretty!!

My DH used to do that. I solved it by making him go through each and every aspect of our curriculum, and look for cheaper alternatives that would work as well for us. Now, mind you, I had already done all of the research, and I knew he wouldn't find anything, but I made him spend the entire weekend one week doing that. And then explaining why XYZ curriculum wouldn't work, or how ABC curriculum might work, but here's the price... I think he went into sensory overload. :D It was like a computer shutting down. Now, he just trusts that I know what I'm doing. He does limit me to buying in bursts, rather than all at once, but, other than that, he doesn't haggle price with me anymore. I do agree that it's probably being on vacation at the moment, too. My DH has issues spending money when we're out of town, because we're already spending so much.

Yeah, I was thinking that, too. I thought I also read somewhere that the vaccine for pertussis isn't a true vaccine. It doesn't give you immunity, it only masks the symptoms so you don't know you're carrying, which, IMHO, is extremely dangerous. What if you come into contact with someone who *can't* be vaccinated for whatever reason? You don't know you've got pertussis, they don't know you've got pertussis, and it spreads. And it might spread to an infant (they don't give it until 6 weeks, I think), which would be VERY dangerous. **NOW... in full disclosure, I can't find where I read that now, so I might be mixed up, but I'm pretty sure that's what I saw in an article... somewhere... Still looking for it.***