Thank you! I just called them and explained what occurred.

I switched homeowner's insurance and about 7 months after the change to a very good company discovered that I had sustained hail damage during a storm that occurred during the period that I still had coverage with my original insurer. The incident happened while I had coverage with Company A. Many months after I changed to Company B, I discovered that I had sustained damage that occurred while coverage was with Company A. I filed a claim with Company A, and Company A paid the claim. (The area had been declared a disaster area due to this storm.) I am looking at changing my policy with Company B to a cheaper policy. (They are reputable but the rates I am paying have skyrocketed during the last two years.) Company B is asking me to complete a new application to get this cheaper policy. The application asks about claims during the past 5 years. Won't Company B already know about the claim with Company A? Don't they check everything when they get ready to renew your policy? Is there a chance I will be denied because I had filed a claim with Company A for damage I learned of after purchasing the Company B policy? Thank you!

Thank you for all the insightful comments and suggestions. I really appreciate it since I hadn't thought how the documentation that e-mail provides that I've established "no contact" actually would be useful, if not potentially necessary. Thank you so much again!

Sure. I'd get an OT evaluation. And I also would try not to sweat handwriting. I think the beauty of homeschooling is that you can tailor school to meet your child's needs. I started kindergarten with my twins at age 6. We didn't do any writing that year because, despite 4 1/2 and 5 years of OT respectively, my children were extremely resistant to putting pens, pencils, colors, paints, etc. in their hands AND were extremely delayed with their fine-motor skills as a result. We did all work orally and/or I wrote for my child. In 1st grade, we worked a little more on handwriting, using Handwriting Without Tears, but didn't really push handwriting. But now, at the start of 2nd grade, I marvel that my children actually are writing pretty decently. I've felt very good about my decision to delay "pushing" handwriting because I feel my children have developed those necessary skills, though a little later than most without a great deal of agony that I expect we would have had if I had pushed handwriting in K. I'll add that gross motor skills and especially shoulder strength are pivotal for handwriting. We were advised by an OT who specializes in handwriting to emphasize gross motor skills BEFORE even attempting writing. I had my children do gymnastics and swimming, and I think, especially for my son, that added strength greatly facilitated him developing his handwriting abilities. Handstrengthening (working with playdough, picking up items with chopsticks, clothes pins, etc.) are all great in aiding the development of the muscles used in writing. In short, I think I would recommend that you work on these auxiliary tasks (developing handstrength and gross motor skills and shoulder strength) and stop working on handwriting directly for now. And sure, get an OT evaluation if you wish. But especially with a 5 year-old, I don't think you need to sweat the lack of handwriting ability yet, but perhaps respect that she's signaling she's not ready. HTH

I never had her as a friend on facebook. She sends messages via FB, though.

I'm a little old-fashioned in that I don't like having very important "relationship" discussions via facebook chat or e-mail or text messages. A "friend" and I had a very serious issue arise within our relationship regarding her older child's aggressive, violent behavior toward my much smaller and much younger child. She instigated the discussion via e-mail. I responded with a very brief message simply stating that I really needed to talk to her directly and felt uncomfortable having a discussion regarding matters such as that via e-mail. She responded by sending a much longer e-mail "clarifying" the points in her earlier e-mail. I remained very uncomfortable attempting such a discussion via e-mail. We did then talk by phone and my suspicious that her e-mail contained a lot of "careful word choices" that obscured were confirmed. I have had no contact with her since. Having discussed the issue with her directly, I'm very clear in my feelings that I cannot, and do not want to, maintain a relationship with her or her son. (She told me she gave her son no consequences for his actions (which are part of a pattern of very aggressive, violent behavior toward younger children) and denies that anything happened other than my son getting accidentally hit because her son told her the "truth" that nothing happened. Now, I'm getting multiple facebook messages from this woman asking me if I want to remain friends and telling me that she understands if our friendship isn't quite the same. I do NOT want to respond to these messages that I feel are being sent in a forum I consider inappropriate (or at least that makes me feel uncomfortable). I don't like that I'm getting facebook messages (Which to me seem worse than an e-mail) after I have been so clear that this issue is one I have to address directly and not via e-mails. I guess I also don't really want to pick up the phone to directly tell her in response to her e-mails. I don't really want the drama or the energy-waste and time-waste of spelling out what I consider obvious: violent aggressive behavior toward my son that is without acknowledge, apology, and efforts to change creates a situation where we will play no part. We do both belong to a very large co-op, and I've told the kids that we say hello and aren't rude or mean, but we don't really associate with them. (And my son is never alone with them around.) WWYD? Thank you.

The responses I have received here have been so valuable in helping me to process the incident and formulate plans and actions to protect my son. I've appreciated the guidance that has been suggested. I keep feeling that it would be ill-advised for me to detail further actions I've taken, beyond those involving my family and the family of this child and mother. I can appreciate how my silence could be misunderstood as "not" taking further action, and wanted to clarify. I have. I just keep feeling like at least right now, it would be ill-advised to detail that aspect publicly.

I didn't think I could be even more sickened, but I am. I did speak with his mother, and she told me that she had told her older son that she would NOT give him any consequences for anything he did to my son, but that she did want him to tell her what occurred. Can you imagine a more effective way to communicate the irrelevance of his violence toward my son? As you might imagine, he told her little to none of what occurred. He claims they simply were clashing Star Wars sabers and gee, some times, my son might have been hit by accident. She stands by his version. The prolonged, hard sobbing, the bruises all over his body, and his rigidity about exactness and honesty tell a far different story. His younger brother was kicked in the privates after telling the older brother, "Sorry. I had to say something." He told his mother it was simply an accident, and that he never intended to kick his younger brother in the privates. She stands by his claim that it was an accident. The 5 year-old she babysits has been kicked twice in the privates by her older son, once right in front of her. She maintains that the 5 year-old, and his sister who confirmed it, are simply lying that her older son kicked the child in the privates. She told his mother that he was lying because she knew nothing like that had occurred. Funny how everybody else is lying about her son's violence. She had no response to being told that her older son had shoved my daughter against the wall. She had no response to being told that her son threw away my son's robotic toy when he lost a game. Ironically, she wants me to prod my children to see how he played with them on other occasions. (Yet, she believes only exactly what her son told her and dismisses everything my son said as a lie, by yet another child, about her son.) She told me that she doesn't want to say anything to her older son about his assault of my son because she doesn't want him to feel bad. . . . He's too dangerous for us to be around. And the parental response is so sickening that I don't know how to have any type of a relationship with that. To maintain any type of relationship would simply be to validate and agree that nothing happened to my son and to communicate and support that viciously assaulting him is permissible and to be encouraged. I'm thoroughly sickened. As horrific and chilling as this older son's behavior has been, I'm more sickened and horrified by the mother's response.

A heart-felt thank you to all the people who took the time to share their concern and ideas. I appreciate the validation. I spoke with his mother more. She promised him that he would receive no consequences for anything he had done to my son. She just wanted him to tell her. He omitted many, many details (sitting on my son, hitting after taking away my son's weapon -- a toy that when so horribly misused could have injured someone, telling my son he wanted to play this). She stands steadfast by his version that "we were just playing, and gee, I guess we might have gotten a little cared away." She doesn't want to upset him by even asking him about the details that my pathologically honest son gave -- many without even being asked (such as "who started it."). She even denied that her son weighed what he told my children that he weighed, saying last she weighed him he was 8 pounds less, though she adds that he has grown, which to me seems more minimization/denial. I'm chilled to the bone. My son, simply put, could have been killed. I'm ill that I didn't know. Raised with 3 brothers, where I felt like I had seen it all on boys being boys, it never even occurred to me that someone could or would do that to my son, let alone an appreciably older child more than double my son's size. My son is now scared of him. And I think that fear is wise. Thanks for pointing out that even if stayed eyeball to eyeball on my son if the older child was anywhere around that I could never prevent a kick to his privates, etc., because it could be done so fast. Very sad because they really like the younger child.

The aggressive child is 10, not 8 years-old.

We have somewhat known some fellow homeschoolers for a year or so, but have recently started becoming better friends, doing a few things together. She has two sons, one almost 3 years older and one same-age child. At the end of a playdate at our house, her younger child came out and said her older son and my son were hitting each other with toy weapons. We immediately went in. My son was sobbing uncontrollably, and did so for some time. Her older son then went in and kicked his younger brother in the private parts, making him cry very hard. My son told me her older son, (age 10), said he wanted my son, (age 7) and him to hit each other until someone gave up. My son is literally less than half his weight. He's teeny for his age and his weight is abnormally low. Her son is 92 pounds; mine is 43 pounds. Her older son took away my son's weapon during this game he suggested and beat him with a weapon 3 or 4 times. Her older son also sat on my son. I was told that very recently her older son kicked a 5 year-old in the privates, twice in a short time-period. I deeply regret not watching the play very, very closely. At the same time, I cannot even fathom that type of behavior. The mom just defends that her son doesn't know his own strength, and while upset over him kicking his brother in the privates, views the weapon fight as both boys just rough-housing. I view it very differently. I'm disturbed that her son would suggest that game and continue beating my son with an object after taking his weapon away, 3 or 4 times. I imagine if a boy/man 200 pounds hit her son that she might feel the chill that is going up my spine. I'm frankly scared that her son has this apparent pattern of such treatment of younger, much smaller children. I find his behavior disturbed and disturbing. I won't ever allow my son to be near him without my eyes on him. I welcome thoughts and reactions. Am I overreacting? Or is this type of behavior as scary as I feel it is? Edited to clarify age. The aggressive child is NOT 8 like some posters had understandably misunderstood before I made the ages explicit.

A big thank you! I also appreciate the validation that the OT's position that it was too late to fix the grip in a kid who has been writing less than a year is absurd.

A big thank you! Where do you find the grips? I looked at Amazon, and it looked like I had to buy like six of one type. Do you know a good place to get a large assortment of individual grips?

My 7 year-old DD had an OT evaluation today. The OT said she isn't holding a pencil properly, but it was too late to do anything about it. That really isn't sounding right to me. I thought there were grips that helped correct improper pencil holds. Any experience or thoughts about this? Thank you

My little kids had a miraculous response to supplements. But then my son became convinced he would choke if he swallowed them. I simply cannot get him to even try to swallow them with yogurt or applesauce. He suggested chewables (smart kid!). Both kids become unglued, though, at even a hint of fish smell or taste. Can anyone recommend some chewable Omega 3 without any fish taste or smell? Thank you!

My children received a fabulous opportunity to participate in a one-day, overnight space camp at the NASA Space Center. We would have to drive across the mountainous regions of Tennessee for about 3 1/2 hours to get there. NOW, SIGNIFICANT ICE is forecasted across the entire Tennessee region we would have to drive through on Friday, the day we are supposed to leave for the camp. I'm considering leaving one day early, but I'm realizing that with ice and freezing rain expected to fall all through Friday and Friday night, we likely would still have a lot of ice on the roads when we are supposed to drive home Saturday night. I'm concerned we would have to spend yet another night in a hotel before hopefully it's safe enough to drive home. That's now two weather-related nights in a hotel and possibly more. I'm a single mom on an extremely tight budget. I'm also concerned that we'll be leaving our home over a time period when a loss of power and sub-freezing temperatures are likely. I don't know how the other attendees are being impacted. I'm sure a major factor is where they are coming from! If they are driving from much further South, the ice won't impact them. What would you do? Thank you!

Thank you for the validation! I greatly appreciate it. My sense is that she become very mean and bitter after her daughter's health problems. I have met people who stutter (like I do at times!) and I cannot imagine commenting on it. You're right. It's like a hateful comment about a DISABILITY!!! Thank you for the validation that we just don't go there. I do appreciate the boundary tips, too. I always can use some nice, diplomatic, socially graceful ways to handle awkwardness. I think the bottom line is that I have a lot to think about. It's hard because the kids don't have great grandparents/family and she's kind of stepped in with that a bit. But still. At what cost? I appreciate all the insights and comments! Thank you!

There is a person who has especially generous and helpful to our family, which consists of me and the kids. I told her that I planned to take my children to see the ocean for the first time last May. She exclaimed, "Oh, I'm going to. Don't you love all I just invited myself? But I can't go until Sept." I said okay, but she pushed it until the first of Oct. She has been under enormous stress. Her two daughters, BOTH had to leave a very exclusive private school because of nebulous, perhaps in one instance stress-related conditions. Her first daughter developed debilitating, daily headaches that left her homebound and incapable of doing any school work her senior year. (The school just graduated her.) Her second daughter missed so much school at the start of her sophomore year for stomach aches and burping (with a year later no discernable medical cause despite many consultations) that the school forced her to withdraw for the year and would not allow her to return until she was sufficiently less anxious for a lengthy period so that she could regularly attend and funciton at school. Last October when we visited this friend and stayed with her for 5 days, two different types of things occurred, for which I need some guidance. First, I felt rather relentlessly dissected and character-analyzed. I'm being asked many times, so "what are you doing to take care of yourself," "what do you do just for yourself that has nothing to do with the kids." I was told in a serious tone that I am an apple-aholic because I snacked on about 3-4 apples a day. These questions about "what are you doing for you" seem intrustive to me. I'm not asking for her advice on how to live my life. I'm left feeling like I'm on Oprah. Second, and the real nub of my hurt and discomfort, is this person pointedly told me, "You know you're not very articulate. You do know that, don't you. You don't speak very well." She did this twice, and told her husband in front of me that she had told me that I'm not very articulate. She's right! I went through a very traumatic event that impacts my speech when I'm nervous and I stutter at those times and find it very difficult to find the right word when I'm nervous!!! I do feel self-conscious about it, but in 30 years not one single person has ever said anything like that to me. I felt incredibly hurt and offended. I can't imagine ever saying anything like that to anyone, let alone a "friend." I really need some good boundary and bean dip lines at the ready. Her daughter resumed her school for her junior year despite no improvement in her year-long health issues that made it nearly impossible for her to do a few online, easy classes, so I really can't imagine that she won't cancel. But I really need some good ideas on how to set some boundaries here and respond to these types of comments. Thank you.

She was really nice about it and said it was okay. I think I thought of it as insensitive because if I had made the connection that her daughter and the gymnast had the same name, then I wouldn't have talked about McKayla at all. I like the idea of dropping it.

I'm new to the area, and have a new, pretty good friend. She had a very difficult pregnancy after a decade of infertility treatments and so sadly lost her twin baby girl due to severe preeclampsia with the surviving twin delivered precariously premature. I have twins and feel exquisitely for her. Her husband was working, so our families went to dinner together after a fun playdate. I was telling her about the gymnast, McKayla Mahoney's priceless expression and the memes and videos it sparked. Her little boy looked stunned. His mom explained his (deceased) twin sister was named Michaela. I knew that was her name, but that fact didn't register when I was discussing McKayla because the names are spelled so differently. I apologized, told her that I really had not meant to be insensitve, and explained the names were spelled differently, so I hadn't realized. Would you send a note, too, or just drop it, careful not to make the same mistake? Thank you

I switched homeowner's insurance last year on my mortgage holder's orders after basically discovering my then current homeowner's insurance company was engaging in a fraudulent practice. (y mortgage holder called it the same, strong term.) My new homeowner's insurance company seemed great and far cheaper. This year, they raised my insurance rate by 20%. I plan to call and ask why. Is it industry practice to give a lowball quote the first year to get people to sign up and then escalate the rates the next year? Is there any downside to changing homeowner's insurance? For 20% more a year, I find making phone calls for quotes well worth my time. Thank you!

A huge thank you for taking the time to let a canning newbie benefit from your experience and wisdom! Love the HIVE!!!!

I'm a canning newbie. As I started canning my second batch of tomato sauce, I realized that I had forgotten to "punch out" the air bubbles from my first batch. I followed Ball's recipe for tomato sauce: 1/2 tsp. salt + 1 TBSP. lemon juice per pint jar and processed for 35 minutes. The tomatoes and lemon juice appear to have separated some. As long as the lids have sealed, will the tomato sauce be safe or do I need to re-process it? Thank you!

I need to clarify. She holds him next to a window, so he is looking out the high-rise window while suspended in her arms. He isn't held outside the window. I would have called the police, CPS, etc., for sure.

Thank you. I had terminated many weeks earlier, but with her offering to test with ins. reimbursement during that time, I wanted to seize the opportunity to get the test. I appreciate the confirmation that re-directing her to test results, refusing to respond to the other, and leaving immediately after getting them was best. My downfall is wanting to explain, to justify, to defend in order to try to keep everyone happy.