I gave a presentation about "Weekly Interacting Particles" in an honors Physics class in college. The jerk professor was particularly mean. . . I can't keep entomology & etymology straight. I can't say synonym, so I go to awkward lengths to avoid using it, when I have to say synonym I divide it conspicuously into syllables.

I just finished my taxes. I love calculating sales tax for internet purchases.

We paid 20% down payment. We used saving bonds from childhood. So neither did we save it ourselves, nor did we get a loan.

My first self-weaned about 2.75 when I was pregnant with my second. I weaned my second at sometime between about 3.25. I planned to tandem nurse with my third. My third went to the NICU with a fever when he was 1 week old. I wonder if ds2 might wean, because I was living away from home. He nursed each day once or twice, when he visited me in the hospital. When I got home he was nursing constantly, at least ever hour. I figured he was just adjusting to the new baby, but he kept wanting to nurse constantly. He didn't react well when I I tried to cut back gently. After 2 or 3 months of him driving me crazy I cut him off. I played it up as a big boy thing, and made sure to give him plenty of snuggles. It coincided nicely with potty training, getting his own bed and other big kid things so he mostly okay with it. My third child is 1.5 and still nursing strong. Either he will self wean, or I will wean when it is no longer working for both of us.

I am aware. My mother was a big fan of the pinching, and she pinched hard. She also did the birthday spanking thing. I never forgot my green. I would have assumed the tradition had died out, but yesterday my eldest (7) had an activity. He wore a teal shirt (greener than blue). I thought that was adequate, but a bunch of boys said the shirt the blue and apparently pinched him over & over. He over reacted and it became a big thing. I think the whole thing is stupid. I don't begrudge others their holiday. But others' holidays shouldn't attack me.

I would suggest she get to know her neighbors. If they know her & know her normal life patterns, they will be better able to help if she does run into any trouble. People have a tendency to mind their own business, so it is good to become "their business" rather than an anonymous face. Also if she knows them she will be more comfortable asking for help if she needs it.

My family has one bathroom, it isn't a problem. My children are little (7, 4 & 1) so I do wonder if we will run into problems when older children start feeling modest around each other. As someone mentioned we often have several people need to toilet when we first come home. We have a simple system, youngest goes first and that has worked fine. I take long baths. Everyone is supposed to use the toilet first, but I still get little intruders. I treat it as a fact of life.

I have 3 children, I homeschool my 7 yo, my 4 yo attends a B&M preschool 3 mornings a week and we do phonics & math at home, and I have a 1 yo.

Disclaimer: My children are little so I am coming at this with what was effective for me as a teenager. Treat not getting his school work done, separately from his romance. Deal with it how you would if he was neglecting school work to play video video games or whatever else. I suggest a gentle conversation where you ask him what his goals are with regards to school and then work together to come up with a plan to get the school work done. Time management, prioritizing tasks, goal setting, work ethic, problem solving etc. are all skills that teens are still developing. He will make mistakes and that's okay. As far as the girlfriend is concerned. Chill. I agree with Tanaqui teen emotions are intense, that's the nature of the beast. Just keep communication open. Invite her over to spend time with your family. Encourage him to plan fun activities with a group.

My kids are little 7, 4 & 1. I don't give them birthday or Christmas presents. They have very generous grandparents (on both sides) and a spinster great aunt. I've had trouble compiling a wish list for them. Especially for the one year old. I do buy them things through out the year as appropriate. I also go all out for Easter getting all sorts of stuff as if it were Christmas. I think each family has to work out for themselves what is appropriate. I definitely didn't think I would give them nothing for Christmas, but that's how it has worked out.

I bought a deep freezer, it came with 2-day prime shipping. It looks like a lot of people are ordering appliances, maybe not so weird after all.

This was very helpful to me, as was your previous post about just striking up conversation with the attacked person & ignoring the attacker. I really appreciate that our country has liberal free speech laws, but sometimes it enables such hateful situations to develop. I am just a lurker, but I wanted to applaud your recent posts about awareness of racial issues. ETA: I rated the thread five stars. ;)

I take forever in the bathroom. It is justified "mommy time". Sometimes it is premeditated. I might take in a book with me when I go to the bathroom, or watch an adult movie on Netflix while I take a bath. Other times I go in the bathroom for a clear purpose and end up zoning out & dawdling away a embarrassing amount of time. We had to put a clock in the bathroom, because of the "bathroom time-warp". I assume your step-son is using his phone in the bathroom. I am young enough to remember being a teenager well, the need for privacy from my family was extreme. I left the house to do my homework privately. I had a boyfriend who got up early to go to Early-early morning Mass, because he wanted to worship privately. My advice: let go of the no phones in the bedroom rule. If you need to use the bathroom, hurry him along. Worry a little less about him "wasting time" as long as he is meeting his responsibilities.

Well, confession time, I feed my little ones clif bars. My only real concern with them is that they are higher sugar than I would like. They fill a definite niche in our lives: shelf-stable, no-prep, calorie dense, high protein. I kind of over-reacted to this thread and went on a quest researching nutrition bars. Everyone disagrees on which ones are healthiest. Do I think I picked the best choice? No. I will continue my research, and pick something better. Do I think they are horrible trash? No, I think the are healthy enough. As far as your 17 month old charge. I am baffled that a 17 month old could eat a whole clif bar, let alone two. They are very filling. I think the idea of previous posters of telling mom you would prefer to just feed the same snack to everyone is the best option. I wouldn't worry so much about what she does at home though.

When I was younger (and barely an A cup) I wore tight camis to bed. I started wearing sleep bras during my first pregnancy (so 24?) and have been pregnant or nursing since. I honestly can't imagine not wearing a bra when pregnant/nursing, everything is uncomfortable even with the compression. I hear a lot of women who say bras are uncomfortable, that isn't my reality. But I also wear underwire nursing bras (during the day), because I can't stand the "approved" ones.

This isn't exactly what you are asking for, but I have a recommendation: DK Children's Book of Music. It has three sections. The second section is about the orchestra & classical music. It isn't anything special. But the other two sections are the real value of the book (imo). The first section covers traditional/historical instruments. I talks about things like the didgeridoo, sitar, lyre etc. It also discusses the historical development of each musical family percussion is anything you strike or shake, early wind instruments were made from bones, that kind of thing. The third section is about modern instruments, and musical forms: jazz, blues, rock. It talks about the saxophone and electronic instruments. It covers the impact of recorded music or things like film sound tracks. The book comes with an audio CD of songs.

I also use Red Star. Admittedly I haven't tried much else. We love it on popcorn.

I definitely think the Dad should just take them down. Should she sue him, because he won't? Probably not. In the larger discussion relating to children's social media presence, I have more to say. This is one of my parenting pet peeves. I really strongly desired my children not to have a social media presence until they were older. It wouldn't set well with me if my entire childhood was posted on the internet for all time, so I have never posted anything in social media about my children. But. . . . my mother-in-law! :cursing: Soon after my first was born I found out my mother-in-law had posted an extreme amount of information about the new little guy. His entire name, all his vital statistics, hundreds of pictures of him (and horribly unflattering pictures of me & my husband.) all over the internet. And so it has gone for the past almost 7 years. Every visit has an in progress play-by-play with tons of pictures. She is a nice lady and proud to show off her grand kids, but I didn't want that for them.

I was 16. I was at school and rumors were circulating. I didn't believe them and made . . um, unwise . . . remarks. Eventually enough real information had circulated to confirm that the whole 9/11 thing had in fact happened. The school was very particular that the teachers not discuss it or show footage on TV so that our parents could handle it as they saw fit. Most people's parents picked them up over the course of the day. So I had this really surreal experience where the teachers stuck to their lesson plans and tensely pretended nothing was happening. The students passed information in whispers and then disappeared. The other element of my experience is that I lived near Offut air force base. When 9/11 happened they locked down the base, no one in or out. Many kids parents were either military or sub-contractors, so a lot of people's parents were trapped in the lock down. George Bush flew into Offut, because they have Strategic Air Command underground there. So there was also that.

In our family . . . weekends are for work. We clean the house. We do home projects. We run weird errands (anything apart from Target, grocery store & library). We do try to have the occasional adventure. We try to mix in enough rest through the week, including the weekend. But we use the weekends to keep our heads above water on work.

When my children are talking too loudly, I respond extra quietly. The child naturally lowers his voice. Sometimes I go so far as to whisper. My kids are little so ymmv.

Sorry for getting off topic but . . . No way! The things you learn on WTM. I have sat in a W all my life. I think my ds 6 & ds 3 do as well (I'll have to check tomorrow). How is it bad? I would never have thought I have been sitting wrong my whole life.

Just a quick update: We are definitely pursuing a private evaluation. You have me convinced. We had soccer practice again today. I had my husband go with me so we could both observe. We were already decided that if this practice was a disaster we would pull him from the team. Of course, the practice went okay. He was still very distractable, but he wasn't a constant disruption. We didn't even consider getting up & helping. On the one hand, I was super proud of him. On the other hand we are left wondering what made this practice so different. I did tell him that we were considering stopping soccer if it wasn't working out, but that we would find another fun activity that was a better fit. I am sure he tried his absolute best. I am not naive enough to think all of the practices will go so well. We have decided to continue soccer for the time being as long is it is on the balance working. We can always reevaluate that decision later. We have decided that this will be his last season of soccer. A lot of people have been mentioning Autism or Aspergers. I have, of course been paranoid that if ds has Autism maybe we all are one big autistic family. My husband and I are two seriously quirky people. My husband was placed in early intervention as a two year old because he didn't talk except to repeat what other people said (among other reasons). After six months he spontaneously began talking in complex sentences and was pulled from the early intervention. Autism was never mentioned again, except in the funny family anecdote about the silly people who thought dh was Autistic. I feel like a hypochondriac. Anyway, I will be sure that Autism is among the things he is evaluated for, it seems to be on the long list of the place we are considering. We will cross that bridge if we come to it. I don't care what anyone says its a scary diagnosis. ADHD adults usually manage to have relatively functional independent lives. Autistic people aren't always so fortunate. I also wanted to touch on the aggression bit mentioned above. He has never been aggressive. I mean yes, he has hit people, especially in sibling fights. I always thought that was because he was highly verbal and could "use his words." His inappropriate expressions of anger was always emotional meltdowns. Library Momma, on 18 Aug 2016 - 11:15 AM, said: Is there a TOPS soccer program near you? It is designed specifically for children with a large range of needs and delays. Each player is assigned a buddy and they run drills and play scrimmages all for fun. ---YES! actually at his soccer club has TOPS. Thanks. I will definitely keep that in mind.

When I was younger I had so many plans to be the fun, crafty mom. I never succeeded. I wasted so much money on fun stuff for plans that were never actualized. I bought tons of craft supplies that were used to make messes more than for crafting time. I mean glitter! Seriously? I bought fun toys with lots of little pieces that were scattered to the winds after being played with a few times. I imagined homeschooling to be constant projects and science experiments and carefully planned unit studies. My oldest is 6 and I have already had to face that I am not that kind of mom, and I don't have those kinds of kids. I sent my oldest to a wonderful preschool, which my 3 year old is now attending. They do art projects every day. They have all the fun toys with tiny pieces and the space and time to play with them. The teachers appear to have boundless energy and creativity. They even have weekly themes. Preschool was awesome, I wish they had something like it that my six year old could attend. At home we play with manageable toys. We color with washable markers or maybe get to use the scissors & the glue stick. We play outside and read. We go to the park, the zoo, the children's museum, the trampoline place. My children don't have a super fun exciting childhood. But they do have a happy childhood. It doesn't look anything like I planned, but it is nice. And when we do the fun things they really enjoy them, appreciate them and remember them. Baking is a major life event when you only do it a few time each year.

For me bullying is a tricky thing to define. I don't really feel I was bullied in school. I didn't think I was bullied at the time; I don't remember specific instances of being bullied. But looking back, I think I was bullied and was too social clueless to notice. I know the other kids didn't like me, I was an outsider. Knowing now that girls bully by social games & exclusion I think it was likely I was bullied. The sticky wicket for me is that I didn't feel excluded. I felt I didn't fit in. I honestly think I withdrew from others, I didn't really want to be included. I had few friends, until 8th grade. My childhood friends were all relentlessly bullied. I often stood up for them, and protected them. Surely they retaliated? I was typically one of the leftover kids when we had to pick groups. This didn't bother me because I assumed they wanted to be with their friends. Despite being oblivious to possible bullying, I do think I bear the scars of a childhood of being "other". I have made no friends since college. I am uncomfortable when participating in parent or family activities. I politely respond when people are talking to me, but they usually carry the conversation. I feel like I have no idea what other mothers are interested in. My kids are quirky, so we don't even have much in common there. I remember distinctly when some parents were discussing their toddlers tantrums. I know something about this, so I decided to participate. I said something about "You know when kids get so upset that they just let out a silent scream until they pass out?" Dead silence and shock from everyone. Then someone said, "No, did you call 911?" In that moment I realized that what I had assumed was a common parent experience, wasn't. Normal people would be able to shake that off, and continue a conversation. I felt like I was a freak. Even here I am a lurker, because I don't feel like I have anything to contribute. I'm not one of the cool kids, and the losers aren't allowed to speak. They can watch from the sidelines as long as they don't have a "staring problem." See. I must have been bullied.