My mom is a great lady and I often take her parenting advice, etc. The way she parents NOW is pretty awesome. I do sometimes find myself parroting things she did when I was a kid that weren't so marvelous--reactions when depressed and overwhelmed, such as yelling at children, for example. There are a few things my mom did/said when I was a kid that I seriously never want to repeat. But I think knowing that she's overall a great mom but made occasional mistakes also helps remind me that I'm not going to break my DD"s spirit by yelling now and then...especially if I know how to apologize afterward.

We use Aveeno in as high an SPF as we can find for daily outdoor stuff, and Bullfrog, again as high an SPF as we can find, if we're going to be in the water. We keep use to a minimum by wearing clothing that covers most everything--sun hats, shoulders covered at a minimum for DD, I'm usually in at least 3/4 sleeves, DD is usually covered at least to the knee and I'm usually in something that comes to mid-calf to ankle, so we really just need to dab a bit on our necks, noses, ears, and exposed extremeties. Detesting the sunscreen-application process (on both DD and my part) has been part of what's led us to a habit of more modest dress.

Regarding her being up late: What time does she HAVE to be up in the morning? Not what time do you routinely roust her out, but does she actually need to be up for school/church/inflexibly scheduled activity? To me one of the prime reasons to homeschool is to keep a schedule suited to everyone's internal clocks. Around here, that means night owls, mostly. Is there any way you can be flexible about this bedtime? Let her stay up late, in a productive way. If she'd rather stay up until eleven or midnight because she has trouble falling asleep at 10, great, let her sleep in in the morning or have a quiet time/nap in the afternoon, and have her do some of her independent schoolwork or reading in the quiet of late evening when everyone else has gone to bed. Regarding the phone use: Clear rules about what is and is not allowed for phone use are important, mostly for courtesy to other people in the house, safety, and courtesy to those who might be on the recieving end of a call. When I was that age we weren't allowed to call anyone after 9 PM. That was in the days of house phones, when no kids had their own lines or cell phones, and a call would disturb a whole family. Also it would tie up the phone so no one else could use it, so we were limited to 15 minute calls. Does your daughter have her own line or cell phone? If so, is she only making local calls that aren't disturbing the households of the people she's calling? I still won't call my mom after 9 PM, but I'll call my sister at midnight because I know she's a night owl and will be up. If it's a cell phone, does she keep in her allotment of minutes? I will certainly have a different set of rules for the phone for my DD than my parents did. If she's just calling and talking to a friend, and the friend's parents have rules that allow it, might you consider doing the same, especially if it's not costing extra, is at hours where she's not tying up the phone line for other people, and isn't interfering with sleep or meeting responsibilities? Negotiating some new rules over it that your DD agrees to (or better yet comes up with; if it's her own idea it's that much easier to hold her to it), then enforcing those with taking away the phone, etc. for not sticking to the deal. My mom's usual method with teen foster kids who try to call people they aren't supposed to (like a parent who's only authorized supervised calls, for instance), is to arrange things so that the only phone in the common part of the house is a wireless, and taking the phone into her bedroom at night, along with the cell phones. That way there's no opportunity for the girls to break the rules, short of sneaking out of the house.

They've actually had them albeit with less enthusiasm selling before this month, since before the beginning of the year. I work at Wal-mart and made a new year's resolution to not use any more disposable plastic shopping bags. They're bigger than the ones I've seen at some of the chains (Frye's, which is Kroger elsewhere, for example), but I think they are smaller than the ones Whole Foods sells. Thanks to several occasions of forgetting my bags and penalizing myself by buying more rather than giving in and using plastic, I have quite the collection now. I think they're cute. "Paper? Plastic? Neither." Yes, many cashiers are still COMPLETELY clueless about them. I see more people use them at the self-check, though I am downright bubbly in my enthusiasm on the rare occasion I get a customer using them. I'm fairly sure I'm the only cashier in the store (at least on 2nd and 3rd shift) who knows how to properly fill them. I so need to get a job at TJ's or Whole Foods...

Thanks for the link! It's fair to say that Pagan homeschooling resources are scanty at best. I'm Heathen and raising DD as such. DH is more or less agnostic, and goes along with Asatru as the family religion. In the course of exploring classical homeschooling I've learned a bit more about Hellenic Paganism; likely we'll learn more when we delve into the mythology. We live in a big city and I know there are several Kindreds in the area, but they're a bit stand-offish, and not terribly welcoming to new members. My involvement in the Pagan community here has been limited to the ASU student group, which unfortunately is dying out because no one will step up and come to meetings when told they're expected to contribute and participate even as new members.

I'm really not sure if we'll get it for my DD when the time comes. It won't be as new in eight to ten years, if it's still on the market. I do have some rather major problems with it, though: 1. It only targets a few of the most common strains of HPV. This means that if it is used widely, in a decade or two those strains will no longer be the most common strains; others will spread faster absent the competition; the protection is temporary at best and likely illusory thanks to natural selection. 2. The cancer risk can be effectively dealt with with preventative screenings. Given 1., preventative screenings are a needful thing anyway, so...why spend the money? 3. Which brings us to the point that it's expensive and both individuals and states are paying for it, in the case of states with public health money that could likely be put to better use. 4. And while we're on public health, MEN can catch and spread HPV too, though they don't have the cancer risk women do. So why oh why is this vaccine being targeted only at young women? It might help ameliorate point 1., but only for those who get the vaccine. If your goal is to truly reduce the risk for all women, then as many women AND men should be vax'ed as possible, right? Several things about this vax just don't add up. The only thing that seems to is the profits for the manufacturer.

Personally, I think having an OB in the room can hinder and interfere with labor. The one and only person who should have a say is the woman birthing the baby.

It wouldn't surprise me if some of the girls turned out to be 18+ lying to stay with their babies. But consider...a 16 yo with a several-month-old baby was probably 15 when she got pregnant. And a 14 yo. with a baby... I see two issues here. One is the completely arbitrary age-of-consent laws in TX. You can be married at 16, but not consent to sex with a man more than 3 years older until 18 (or to same-sex relationships of any kind until 18), unless, presumably, he is your legal husband. Though TX is a common-law state, presumably common-law marriage doesn't apply to under-18yo.'s, nor to polygamists. If not for the polygamous nature of them, the "spiritual marriages" of the FLDS would certainly fall under the purview of common law marriage. Am I the only one who can see a certain amount of cultural relativism might be reasonable here? Or that it's unreasonable to have such arbitrary age-of-consent laws? Why is it okay to be sixteen with a nineteen year old, but not fifteen with an 18 yo.? And can they prove that the girls didn't get pregnant in Canada, where they CAN legally consent? And it bugs me that they can take kids without pressing any criminal charges. That's always bugged me about CPS, though.

Age of menopause varies just as much as age of puberty onset, and for some women fertility doesn't end until in the 50's. What's more, studies have found that having many children tends to delay menopause, while women who have none tend to hit menopause earlier.

None of my family have that life. I do have one friend whose sister is kind of like that, but she has her problems, too, even if she is just a touch OCD enough to have a spotless McMansion. My closest friends have the same issues (or worse) getting a grip on housework, and one struggles with major depression and has a brother who is an adult dependent to her parents; she worries a lot about what to do with him when they die. One of my sisters is bipolar and going wacky because her stupid doc took her off all meds in her 2nd trimester of her 2nd pregnancy (though I admit I'm a teensy bit jealous of the second pregnancy...but as a nearly-teen mom she had a head start) and they've got CPS breathing down their necks because of a crank report by a wal-fart employee and her inability to get her hoarding MIL to let her clean the house they share more effectively. Prior to her current marriage she was in a failed/abusive marriage and an abusive relationship with a jerk boyfriend. My other sister is in a LTR with a guy who has yet to commit to marriage let alone children (though in other respects he's a good guy), and lives up in Montana with him near his family. And my third sister struggles in her marriage and can't have any more kids even if she wanted them (also can't convince her husband to adopt). Like us they still rent, don't own a home, though they have the advantage of being back in our hometown near family. My fourth sister (foster sister) lost her dad to a quasi-vehicular homicide right before having her second baby at 19; she's got custody of two of her younger siblings now. Fortunately she seems to have landed a better guy this time around than with her first DD. I personally wouldn't like McMansion/2 kids/"perfect" life. I dream of living in a yurt with 4+ kids and raising goats. :tongue_smilie: Not gonna happen while married to my allergic-to-all-hairy-things-except-hisself hubby, but in other ways life with him is good, especially since GF joined our household. And by the time DD graduates high school, I'll get a grip on this housework thing. Really, I will.

The child learned to read at 2 and was making up spelling books for friends in K. This suggests natural gifted intelligence, not simply "being pushed". They are wealthy enough to live in Chicago AND travel a lot. It seems to me this is a case of parents with the resources to do so rising to the task of really challenging a gifted child so she'd blossom. And it worked. All any of us can do is challenge our children, keep them loving learning, and let them go as far as they are able. If we can't all afford to go on world tours, oh well. Every experience is different. Take note they can probably AFFORD those fancy schools she applied to, too.

Just another chime-in: My car, my rules. Everyone buckles and will wear their shoulder belt properly to boot. I've corrected my girlfriend and her son on this most recently, and have refused to move the car on teenaged foster sibs. What's more, I'm a meany and would make my 2nd grader niece use a booster in my car even though her mom doesn't bother in their car any more. Sorry, you're under 80 lbs and 4'10" girlie!

My athiest best friend sends her children to church with her husband despite her beliefs in large part because having grown up unchurched she was subjected to a good deal of teasing and rejection for it. She wants them to fit in more than she is concerned about what they are taught to believe. It's less of a concern here than when we were in TX, but when my niece came home with a color page of an angel from public Pre-K, it affirmed that I don't want my religiously-minority child subjected to the judgmental attitude that too often is expressed by the majority. Religion also plays a part because as Heathens an important value is self-reliance and independence. My child's education is my responsibility, not the state's.

I got my DD a cute rash-shirt style swimsuit with boyish-cut bottoms at Target. They had them in both toddlers and girls' sizes. For myself I'm contemplating a 2 piece pant and looser-cut long-sleeved rash shirt style swimsuit I found marketed to Muslim women. Quite frankly, I don't like the skirty style swimsuits, I want my shoulders covered, I usually wear long sleeves anyway, and I don't like having to put on a gallon of sunscreen. https://splas004.secure.omnis.com/store/images/uploads/Splashgear_Catalog_2007.pdf

I found this on Stefan's Florilegium Archive, a rather exhaustive SCA arts & sciences article/newslist archive : From: djheydt at uclink.berkeley.edu (Dorothy J Heydt) Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Monk's robe Date: 9 Feb 1997 02:42:43 GMT Organization: University of California at Berkeley Jo Beverley <wp823 at freenet.victoria.bc.ca> wrote: >I've still not seen my monk's robe instruction here. ... No more than you have. I thought somebody else would've posted it by now, but since they haven't here it is. "From wp823 at vifa1.freenet.victoria.bc.ca Thu Jan 30 13:19:22 1997 " "Monk's Robe " "Measure person across shoulders and down the arms about 4 inches. (This "would be for average adult male. Use common sense.) "Cut four pieces of cloth this wide, and as long as nape to heel. "Piece 1 is the back. "Pieces 2 and 3 are left and right fronts. "Piece 4 is divided in three. (Pieces will be the original width x 1/3 the "nape to heel.) "This gives two sleeves and a hood. " "The sewing together should be fairly obvious. The fronts are sewn to the "back, matching them at the shoulder, and with the fronts leaving extra "hanging loose in the middle. The sleeves are added to this body piece, "centered on the shoulder seam. The whole [here Jo's mailer appears to have hiccupped, but the logical conclusion is, "is seamed up the sides.] " "The hood piece is folded in half and seamed on one side. This is the back of "the hood and is matched to the center back. Then the bottom edge of the hood "is sewn to the loose flaps of the front. This makes a very deep hood. " "You can hem or blanket stitch the raw edges. I don't know what is authentic. " "Use cord for belt to hold it together. " "I got this years ago from an interesting book which had patterns taken from "ethnic and historical garments. There's a medieval Danish cape which is "interesting, but quite complicated to convey without graphics. It would be "worth hunting through your library.... [here Jo's mailer appears to have hiccupped again and the rest of the sentence is lost.] " "Jo Beverley, historical romance author. This pattern reminds me of a description of a monk's robe quoted in an Albert Campion whodunit, viz., Allingham, Margery, 1904-1966. The tiger in the smoke, a novel. Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1952. In which the vicar's wife has made him a dressing-gown according to the ancient pattern ...take four pieces as long as the brother is tall from the shoulder, and as wide as whatever.... and the sight of him scares the living heck out of somebody who broke in one evening trying to burgle the church. dcm

I'm going to second the suggestion of finding a local org that will pay for fixing the cats. If you simply trap and take in for euthanization, more cats will move into the empy territory (unless your pets are tough enough to defend it). It's better to have a few fixed feral cats to entertain the neighbor lady and keep stranger-cats out of the neighborhood.

This may sound a bit off the wall, but there's a great Hobbit board game out there that would be great to use as a 'study aid' for the book.

I have stuff in readily accessible ceramic jars with gasketed lock-down lids. Got most of them at Goodwill. Some are glass, too. Anything beyond what will fit in the designated jar I keep in the freezer, usually in ziploc bags around whatever original container it was in, unless I got it from the bulk bins and it's already wrapped in plastic.

He was the first person I met when I got out of boot camp. He was on shift as the barracks petty officer when I checked in to the barracks at Naval Nuclear Power Training Command in Orlando.

If you have any kind of good relationship with your niece, I think I'd talk to her about it, or have an older cousin (late teens/early twenties) with some sense talk to her about it, before going to her mother. If she's resistant to having sense talked into her, then parents absolutely need to step in. I would also have a conversation with my sibling, not about DN's page per se, but about internet security and her awareness level of what her children do on the computer.

I'd say they should go--IF they're going with an experienced hunter(s). If it was my DH and DD, I'd want to go too. (actually, given what a non-outdoorsman my DH is, DD and I going together would be more likely). Hunting licenses are issued in large part to manage the wild deer. It isn't wholesale killing, even if it is done expediently (lure to a stand and shoot). For wholesale killing, go to a CAFO/slaughterhouse sometime. If nothing else, I personally wouldn't want to ruin my first kill because I didn't know how to properly handle the carcass. It has to be drained, gutted correctly, etc. or the meat will foul. I've never done this in my life, and I'd want experienced hands along to teach me. If they don't plan on eating it, they shouldn't shoot it. I'd want to eat it and take the hide and horns for use as well.

I've seen a number of specials on this. One thing that article doesn't mention is that sterilization of institutionalized individuals was standard as well. So there were many of these young men and women who were sterilized, on top of being institutionalized, warehoused, and forgotten. Scary stuff. There are plenty of cases of the U.S. gov't ignoring Nuremburg. The Tuskegee experiments are another example, not to mention using incarcerated inviduals and experimenting on U.S. military personnel. Yes, the early Planned Parenthood was involved in eugenics. Birth control can give women control over their own reproduction--or the authorities control over it.

We've got D'Aulaire's Norse Myths. I think I ordered it from bn.com. I'm not terribly fond of the telling of the stories in it, but DD likes the illustrations, especially the front piece with all the Gods, so it's a keeper in our house.

Zinc oxide (that white stuff) is a great sun blocker. We try to stick with the age-old sunscreen known as clothing. DD wears at least knee-length everything except her swimsuit, and everything including her swimsuit covers her shoulders. We also wear sunglasses and wide brimmed hats. I myself wear 3/4 to long sleeved shirts year round, and long airy skirts in summer, all in natural fabrics (linen, cotton) as much as possible. We do use regular sunscreen, but only a little bit usually is needed. Water Babies, Aveeno, and Bullfrog are our preferred brands.

Especially if she's an early developer, I'll probably encourage my DD to wear camisoles at first. I remember getting teased for my bra at age 11. I don't like bras myself and only wear them for working out or in the leaky stages of lactation. I wear camisoles the rest of the time. I'm a lot more comfortable that way, and I firmly believe that in this day and age of casual clothing, comfortable trumps customary.