I got to adulting level of executive function skills by being explicitly taught--by drill instructors at boot camp. This was not for lack of trying on the part of my parents, I'll add.

We sit down and have brainstorming sessions in which my DD comes up with ideas SHE thinks would work. Then, we enforce them. If she doesn't follow through, lather, rinse, repeat until we come up with something that DOES work. If she declares she has no ideas, we'll throw some at her. Usually she rejects them all until she fixates on one she really, really hates and suddenly one of the earlier suggestions becomes her idea. ?

((hugs)) this too shall pass.

As I read it, the issue wasn't his future earnings, it was his recent earnings over the past decade which was part of the marriage. The judge is right that it has been drawn out too long--but it's entirely one side's fault and I hope she sees that as she goes over the case history. Likely settlement negotiation details aren't included in what she sees, so it may not be super obvious.

Who is outside isn't a decision that places the reader in the child's shoes. Maybe deciding what to do about it would. It could be a person or a package. And Tristan is a good boy's name. Or just go with "her brother" and don't use a name for the girl character, either. It could even be written in second person, and leave the gender of the main character unspecified. And I would use "mixer" instead of "beater" because of adult eyes and connotations/slang uses of "beater."

What has worked for us: 1. Go ahead and use the pelicucide shampoo as instructed. 2. Any uninfected people should keep product in their hair. Gel, hairspray, leave in conditioner, hair oil, whatever. Clean, dry hair is the easiest infected. 3. Any infected people after the shampoo, get the following: hair oil and twice daily, thorough nit-combing. Keep up until after the second shampooing and until it's been a couple of weeks until any sign of the buggers on anyone in the home. 4. When we had a situation where DD and a friend at school were apparently passing them back and forth, sending her to school with her hair oiled and covered with a scarf helped break the cycle.

Needing to increase meds after/during a growth spurt (and the brain can have growth spurts in development that aren't visible from outside) is not unusual at all. Puberty can also bring other issues with it. My little brother was prescribed a second medication to deal with aggression at age 11. How is your DS sleeping? Poor sleep is the root of much bad behavior IME.

You could take pity on them and tell them in decimals, since that's what's on industry-standard digital scales.

Everyone knows people go to law school because they can't handle the math to become engineers or doctors!

My DD has recently seen some bad behavior in this department on the part of her girlfriend--something about throwing away doll clothes belonging to the little ones because they were left on GF's bedroom floor.This led to an argument between DD and GF after DD took the clothes back out of the garbage and gave them back to the little kids...a full report went to GF's parents, and while the resultant fight between DD and GF was unnecessarily dramatic I have no doubt, it gives me reason to trust DD not to be a completely irrational jerk when left to watch her brother. Really, he's old enough to mostly watch himself for a few hours, so really she's "safety person" more than anything else. Her GF was babysitting younger brother DS's age who is not as independent, as well as her cousins who are younger. I suspect the GF's parents letting DD come over during babysitting will continue, since it takes some of the pressure off of GF. (While GF was melting down after their argument, DD fed the kids, etc.) DD knows she is under no obligation to be there if she doesn't want to be and we will come rescue her (or she can leave and get on a bus) if necessary.

Not mine. Sigh.

We originally planned to pull the plug on homeschooling when DD 14 started 6th grade. I was in law school and stretched pretty thin even going less than full time. That first year of brick and mortar was a disaster, and an online charter was worse, so we went back to homeschooling for the rest of junior high, and gave her an extra year. DS started K in public school and has done well, he's in 2nd now. He's definitely learning, though the pace is slow for him he doesn't mind. DD started public high school this year also, and with a solid I.E.P. in place is doing pretty well so far, except for the increase in stomach problems that's probably due to anxiety and some head-butting with her dance teacher, who doesn't seem to grok that P.E. (beginning dance is a P.E. class at this school) can do accommodations so keeps threatening to drop her from the class despite her participating as best as she can and her documented physical impairment for fibromyalgia. Really, what's best for you and your family may change from one season to another, and there's nothing wrong with that.

When I figure it out I'll let you know. Not sure I'll ever figure it out, though. Every time I think I've figured it out, it changes.

I wonder if I'm the only person on the planet who pockets a per diem food budget when on work travel and eats ramen and tuna or grocery store salads or McDonald's dollar coupon sandwiches? I'm back under budget on fuel! I had fallen behind because I worked our vacation travel fuel receipts in. So far, September has come in under budget in all areas. Woot! I'm about to have to rework the budget to figure out how best to pay DD's therapist out of pocket, because her new office won't take our insurance. It means that I'll have to pay $75 out of pocket each session and send in the forms and bills to insurance myself. In the long run, that should mean that after reimbursement, not counting deductible (which is fairly low and we usually meet by the end of February for one thing or another) I'll pay $15 coinsurance per session, but my insurance may take up to 4 months or more to reimburse. This is better than the $30 per session we have been paying OOP with the therapist billing insurance from her solo practice, without asking us to pay the full amount when we hadn't met deductible at the beginning of the year. Good thing we have credit cards with 0% interest and are building up savings! My savings account has more $$ in it now that it has at any time since I got out of the Navy in 2001. I may wind up using it to pay down a CC, but it's still nice to see the cushion there for the time being.

My dad is very "out of sight, out of mind." But it's just as well because he has no filter and can be a real jerk. My siblings that live near him go through periods of avoiding him and/or being in his disfavor. He tends to treat his stepkids/stepgrandkids better because they come around more (or live there, as one of his wife's adult daughters and her kids do). They come around more because they're there to see their mom mostly, and put up with him. My mom tends not to call terribly often partly because her youngest kids at home keep her busy, and partly because she knows I work/am busy and doesn't want to interrupt at a bad time. I have one sister who will keep me posted if something major is going on with mom, better than mom does. If something happened with me and I called or texted her, she would follow up and see how I was doing, probably.

We are planning on getting DD in to see a GYN for much this same issue (migraines with her cycle). I don't know that I would trust a GP to be up on the latest or best evidence based options.

I think teachers should be held to a high professional standard of conduct in the classroom and in interactions with students. Their private lives should be their own. I also don't think criminal history having nothing to do with children, especially if it's old history, should preclude teacher licensing or employment.

My belt and buckle arrived, so now I can show off my new kilt!

Frugal wins: I got a Costco credit card and now get 4% back on gas, plus 2% back on Costco purchases on top of the 2% back for executive membership. I started intermittent fasting during the work week, and was able to save a full week's budget for work food over 2 weeks, which I applied to credit card debt. Frugal fails: I broke my glasses. DD sprained her ankle, prompting 2 doctor visits (one urgent care and one f/u at primary care doc). I bought shoes. I put some items in the shopping cart to buy once they fit in the budget, and DH bought them when he ordered his books for the semester. Hopefully he didn't overdraw his account.

Going to a barbecue at a friend's new house.

If insurance has already settled, it's most likely going to be traffic court on the other driver's ticket.

This.

With the further info, then yes, I can understand why you went the way you did!.

I am fortunate in that my mom has been a excellent role model for this. I could thank one sister in particular for giving her plenty of opportunities for her to illustrate how to handle a train wreck (both well and not so well), while her relationship with me has been a great example of how to graciously handle a kid you do not understand, and who has made different choices than you would, but who is still turning out OK overall at the adult thing and parenting.

The Strayer-Upton volume I have sitting on the shelf, The Lord of the Rings, Teutonic Religion and Our Troth, vol. 1; whatever volume of Norse Myths I grab first (Crossley-Holland, probably), a book or two on Druidry, The Mabignogion, Beowulf, The Jungle Book, our one-volume Winnie-the-Pooh collection, our field guides (these are helpfully small), a guide to medicinal herbs, a survival manual (I don't recall the exact titles but both are represented in my home collection), DS's cub scout handbook for the year, and an anatomy and physiology text (again, I have several on the shelf). Given the part of the world we live in, whatever Spanish textbooks we have collecting dust and a Spanish-English dictionary. The set of middle school subject guides I bought for DD a couple of years ago. Zinn's Young People's History of the United States, and a few more science books to round things out. A Brief History of Time perhaps. Maybe Simply Grammar if I still have it.