:bigear:

My son is 6 and says he wants to play cello. I'm curious what others pay per month for lessons. We've gotten quite a wide range of quotes in our area.

What time does your 6 year old go to bed and wake up?

I'm curious to hear from you all on the issue of your thoughts on your age at last childbearing. any regrets (about the timing)? thoughts on its effects on you? your marriage? your children? the goods? the bads? pros? cons? basically anything you want to share on the subject. We're thinking about a fourth child in the future (i'm 34 now) thus the thread.

Well since that long hair is a gal's glory (biblical reference), they probably pry it out of the mechanical apparatus and make some other sacred use of it --- knit a throw for the needy, etc. :001_tt2:

With real estate (rentals) you can make 8 - 12%. I think he said we were making 9% on mutual funds.

If you're EARNING an interest rate higher than your mortage rate (your mortgage rate is 3.75) then it's best to put that money where it's earning more than that 3.75 rather than pay off that mortgage. 3.75 is very low and, even in this economy, you can find investments that earn more than 3.75. (At least this is what my husband who is the financial analyst for a huge company says.)

Its me, the OP here. I was beginning to doubt my sanity after reading this thread as my experiences seem to be in the minority. This has FLOORED me how few of the responders have experienced what is so commonplace in this area. The above post is exactly the sort of stuff I hear in my area. It's as if they STILL have the 500 acre farm and need boys to hand-hew the logs, etc. I referred to a friend's interesting admission regarding her reason for dreading having a daughter. Here's what she said, "with girls you have to face your own demons and look them in the face daily.....you will want her to avoid the areas in your life that caused you pain and to steer her away from them you have to think of them often and see where she's heading down that path and you have to rehash/relive your own pain at times to get her to avoid the pitfalls you landed in....I anticipate that it will be like you're trying to teach her to avoid becoming you and that hurts....." (FWIW, this friend has suffered with an eating disorder for years.) I thought her words were interesting and wondered if anyone else felt that way. Thanks to all.....now I'm off to read more posts......

4 pieces of background (FWIW) info that may be pertinent to this post: I have three sons. I am one of three daughters. Before I was a SAHM, I was an ultrasonographer at an ObGyn office. I live in Birmingham, AL for the past 3 years, but experienced the same when I lived in Ohio for 18 years before our move to AL. ____________________ Disclaimer: I realize that this post is FULL of generalizations and that there are certainly EXCEPTIONS to my observations, but this post is about my generalizations -- that as a GENERAL rule -- this is what I observe and seek to understand. It's about my desire to find out, with your help, why this is so GENERALLY/UNIVERSALLY true. ____________________ For 4 years before I had my first child, I was an ultrasonographer, so it was my JOB (in part) to find the genitals of curious couples' in utero babies. So, naturally I heard a few bazillion responses to the announcment of gender. It is clear without a doubt that even now in the 20th and 21st centuries that male children are still by far the preferred. It was the rare exception when a couple was thrilled about having a baby girl. The rare times when I saw a couple truly happy about having a girl child was when she was the caboose (they had two sons and wanted a daughter). I could count on one hand the times a couple rejoiced that their FIRSTBORN was female. I always thought this was odd since growing up my parents never conveyed any sense of disappointment that we were females, so this "epidemic" was new to me once I began in ObGyn. In 2004 when I was first pregnant, we opted to be surprised and I found out by accident at 34 weeks that he was a boy (I was looking at my own ultrasound and saw the penis by accident). With that first pregnancy, since we had had intercourse 5 days before my egg (won't go into this) -- I was fairly sure I was having a girl. I bought pink stuff galore. My husband swore then (and I believe him completely) that he truly had no preference for one gender or the other. (everyone in his family has males.......there's like 24 male first cousins and 2 females). So throughout my pregnancy, I personally got the comments about how, "Oh I hope you have a boy." and the like. to which I'd respond, "Well, we know that whatever God has decided to send us will be the perfect one, so we can't go wrong either way." I made a point of saying such in response as this "epidemic" had always repulsed me. One lady came up to me with her three children (her daughters were probably 19, 17, and son 14) standing beside her and she said, "I remember when I was newly pregnant with BobbyJoe that I told my husband, 'I just don't know how I can stand it if it's another girl." (I made up the name to protect ID), but there her own daughters were standing and hearing her say this!!! When we found out our son's gender (at 34 weeks) and we'd tell people (if they ASKED) I heard "Well you can't go wrong with a little boy," or "Yes! Yes! Yes!" as if I had won the gender lottery. My sister in law has two daughters and I overheard the responses to her gender announcement and they weren't at all like those I got. [And, lest one think it's because I have an "all boy" husband (hunting, fishing, four-wheeler, sports etc.) --- Not at all ---- thus, I didn't get those comments as others' just GUESSED what my spouse preferred. He NEVER verbalized any preference as he had none.] I've noticed that when MOST women tell me/others that they're having a girl, it's with a tone of dread/disappointment. Even among my many (several are highly educated!) friends, of my 6 closest girl friends, I noticed this preference as well. My best friend had a daughter first and is pregnant again ---- and when she was on my answering machine telling me, "Hey..give me a call; we found out gender today, so I was going to call and tell you; call me back." I knew BY THE TONE in her voice that it was a boy. I was right. Since this is newly on my mind, I went back on facebook pages and noted the differences in how gender was announced/received (even by grandparents!). And, the distinction is obvious. I honestly cannot think of ONE example of a woman I have known (and I know many women) of where she DESIRED to bear a girl. Now.....A MAJOR POINT: Of all my friends and acquaintances, once they HAVE the daughter, not a one of them regret her and wouldn't take a thing for her. One of my close friends has 3 boys and just had a baby girl two months ago. Throughout that last pregnancy (before she knew gender as she did homebirths/didn't have ultrasounds), since it was a different pregnancy, she suspected it was girl and expressed something like, "I just asked God not to send me a girl." I asked her why she felt this way and her response intriqued me so much that it prompted me to post this thread as I'm interested in hearing from others on the subject. She was very forthright and I'm curious to see if others share her thoughts surrounding her own fear of having a girl. It's interesting to me that most men WANT a little repeat of themselves (same gender child). Why don't women WANT this in the same numbers? (Meaning that if I had to guess I'd say 8 out of 10 men want a male and maybe 2 out of 10 women want a female). Why is this the case? Anyone else on here experience a sense of dread over having a daughter? Maybe it's just before they get here (while they're in utero)....but I'd love to hear your thoughts/experiences. My friend's explanation (which I haven't shared here as I don't want to bias the responses....I'll share it later on here) was very interesting and I wondered if it was shared by others. Why do you think that so many AMERICAN women feel this way? This isn't to JUDGE you in any way, but I truly want to understand the psychology behind this. Seeking to Understand, Beth

Thanks all. This is reassuring. Thanks for the encouragment.

After my 3rd child, I gained a good bit of extra weight and now that I'm up for it I've started a healthier lifestyle. I'm not longer breastfeeding, and I'm eating 1600 calories a day and I've started walking an hour every morning and doing toning exercises (situps, squats, etc.) for about 20 minutes every evening. Since doing this, I've lost 5 lbs. a week and I feel better than ever. I'm not hungry. I started out weighing 220 lbs. I've been doing this new lifestyle for 9 weeks now. And, I've averaged 5 lbs a week. (It's been 6/wk twice and 4/wk a few times, but usually it's around 4.7 to 5.2 ish). BTW, I have no health problems/conditions. I'm 34 years old and 5 ft. 9inches. At first, the friends and family just complimented me on the losses and just said that I'd loose that rapidly in the first two weeks but then that I'd slow down to 2 a week. But, that hasn't happened. I'm still at 5/wk and they're worried and driving my batty with the comments. What's the big deal? Did anyone on hear sustain that rate of weight loss with any bad effects?

thanks all

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My google search wasn't too specific -- actually it kept taking me to the same individual's report on common symptoms, so thought I'd ask the Hive. I gave up sugar completely 3 days ago .... and I've been soooooo sleepy, sluggish, and tired. I thought I was supposed to have more energy ---- :glare:..guess it hasn't been enough time. I've had a mild on and off headache for these 3 days also. BTW, I gave up caffeine also. Can anyone share what they know about sugar/caffeine withdrawal? When will I feel better?

What are your thoughts on the pros/cons of being or having an only child?

A friend showed me the www.brainpopjr.com website and it looks cool but I'm concerned about how it fits/doesn't fit with the classical model of education --- namely that a kid should avoid VISUAL learning over the written language as the brain has to work less in the visual/computer learning than it would acquiring info via the written language. (esp in the early elementary yrs). Concerned that our written stuff will seem comparitively boring after use of something like that. Any thoughts?

My son is ready for the Saxon math 1 but isn't ready for the writing of the numerals. I have heretofore completely neglected teaching him to write numbers, so do I not start it until he's writing the numbers easily or do we start with the handwriting hold-up issue? (BTW, we have just recently begun Miquon Math so we're doing MATH, but my goal is to do Saxon and Miquon).

They don't give Parlodel (aka bromocriptine) shot anymore, and I doubt docs precribe the bromocriptine tablets either. They used to but no more. This drug dries milk up by targeting the pituitary glands which kick the whole process off. Frankly, even if my doc WOULD prescribe it, I wouldn't take bromocriptine as it's excreted in milk and I wouldn't risk my baby's new/nacent pituitary being affected by it as it could have some serious consequences.

Haven't put my hands on MM yet, thus this question. Is it fairly true to grade level, or can you start 1A in kindergarten?

Anyone doing two math programs for elementary? (Since I can't decide, I think I'm going to try two and see how it goes for my mathy kid).... If you do this, which ones? How's it going? Why are you doing both? How much time does it take you?

Thanks ALL. I ended up ordering the gore tex shoes. (thanks Kalmia!)

Walking around your yard. It's what I have to do as I live in a rural area; we don't have sidewalks on our road thus walking on the road is too busy/unsafe.

How do you deal with the wet dew?!?!?! Do you just walk with wet toes? Any strategies? Any dew-management shoes out there? HELP!!!! The Dew's do'in me in!!!

Thanks for this link. Per this review, Singapore did not make their "cut". However, this same site/review on Saxon Math K-3, the report said that it was proven successful FWIW. http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Topic.aspx?sid=9

This is what I was getting at. If Singapore Math is a good program in and of itself -- then that's fine, but to say that it is b/c of the Asian work ethic/drive is not a good reason. Take any kid, with ANY program, and have them put in the hours/time that an Singaporian child does and you'll have fabulous results in all likelihood.