:iagree: The only ones that can't be kept secret are issues of safety or health. And an adult is never allowed to tell them to keep something secret from parents. Ever. I had one person do that to my kids and when I found out about it...you can imagine. It was a seat belt/car seat secret and you can bet that person will never ever again be alone with my kids.

I firmly believe in less intervention. Dh still has his-no problems. Same with most of my family. I had my canines removed for braces (small lower jaw-removing caused my jaw to buckle and a gap on top), and later had an infected impacted wisdom tooth and so they removed them on that side at age 24, but not the other side.

Whoever says no is obviously not a good influence in your life.

:iagree: But not required for the host to accommodate. My children and I have had allergy and intolerance (and vegetarian lol) issues over the years. I bring food we can eat no matter what. I don't ask people to accommodate our issues. First of all, I wouldn't trust ANYone to know how to properly handle allergy protocol. I had very intelligent healthcare workers even insist things like Reese's don't count with peanut issues and stuffing isn't gluten because she didn't add flour. One year when one of my kids had a birthday at a family member's house by HER request I did insist on no dairy being served as she was very little and didn't understand what she could eat, would eat food like Cheetos off the floor, and had a really really severe reaction. I was promised yes and we showed up to a house full of dairy. Like, cheese dips left out next to our cheese-free alternatives with dairy filled crackers and cheetos and things set at kid-height and where cross contamination was inevitable. I would have had it elsewhere (like I wanted) if they would have been honest with me. So if you say you'll do something, I think it's respectful to follow through. And yes, we went home with a kid with horrific puking, diarrhea, and a bleeding rash on her birthday despite watching her like a hawk the best we could with family passing her around. Personally, I always work around guest allergies (except cat, not getting rid of those) to the best of my ability. But I do warn them that I will do my *best* but I'm not perfect, so they're welcome to come watch or help me cook if it's an issue. I've had people not tell me their allergies until afterward. Don't do that. Tell me. Seriously. It's no big deal and it makes me feel terrible if you sat through something that causes you pain.

:iagree: :iagree: :iagree: Do you want my genetic DNA? Because FWIW, those tests are inaccurate because of the lack of enough samples from tribal peoples. ;) But yes, I have done my genealogy and DNA and while I have some NA descent (Powhatan Algonkian), it doesn't even matter. It's not ok to characterize an entire living breathing surviving group of a genocide.

This. A million times this. When I was underweight (115 lbs soaking wet with ribs poking out at 5'5"), I went to a gym to work on leg strength for my bad knee. The trainer was insistent that I lose more weight since my hips were so big. I'm a pear shape. I have tiny little kid wrists (where they take frame size), a smaller waist, and a big ole bottom even when I'm in starvation mode. It really hurt me to be told that. I was trying to *gain* weight because I felt ill and frail. There is no one size fits all chart. Of course now I need to drop 30 lbs, so I'd hate to hear what they'd tell me now. I just can not lose it no matter what I do.

I've even worked in medical offices and never heard of this! I've also never once been called back less than 15 minutes post-appointment despite the fact that I am always early. Always. Delays happen and some professionals are just completely inconsiderate of patient time.

I always always always leave with at least 10-30 minutes to spare.

Cytotec has been studied and shown to be quite dangerous. Even with a loss, I would not allow it but opt for ROM and pitocin. I am very very sorry. :(

Well, I'm not having notifications or anything I *know* I recently wrote and responded to show up in notifications or my content. I feel bad because it makes it look like I'm ignoring people! I have to google it and hope it comes up.

It entirely depends on the terrain, company (little kids take like 5x the time to walk a distance), and weather. Where we are now, it's a lot steeper terrain, and colder, so 1 mile is far to me. Back in IL we would walk like 5 miles and barely bat an eye.

I always wonder why these people don't start with themselves if their prerogative is just extinction. It also makes me wish for stricter gun control laws because if you're pro-extinction, it makes me question how far you'll take that. :iagree: And let's not forget that drastically falling population rates can actually cripple economies and society. The people who want the world to be void of humans seem to forget that they'll need younger populations to wipe their butts and give them prescriptions when they're old or ill. It is just ridiculous to me.

Anyone want to chat about what they have made/are making? I dabble mostly in 18th century costume making, but I've been wanting to branch out more. Does anyone do this with their kids? My oldest is a dedicated costumer, too. We try to work some into our history studies. :)

I guess we will have to disagree on what selfish means. I am raising kids I love and who love and care for the earth and who will hopefully make it a better place. I don't see that as selfish. I see raising kids just to tote them around as accessories to be selfish as you are not thinking about them or the world. I guess if you think the only morally appropriate answer to life is to live a life of stark asceticism, then you should probably not be on the internet using the resources (oil, gas, nuclear, rare minerals). This is the modern world. We can try to do better, but pointing fingers at who is most selfish like it's some sort of competition doesn't help anything. It's some sort of jacked up elitist argumentation. ETA: The only time I see this argumentation is in some sort of one upmanship about how wrong someone else is because you obviously care for the earth more. It's bull hockey. Totally. Are you out there helping find alternatives and voting with your conscience and doing better or are you posturing yourself as great? We are humans. We are animals. We are of this earth. The earth will be there even when we're gone (for at least a few billion years). It's pretty good at taking care of things that hurt it. I do not see it as selfish to be alive or to have children, but individual actions may be selfish.

Thanks for the recommendations! We had a huge collection but had to donate them when we just moved. :( Ohhhh very cool!