I’ve been on it for years and still get the GI issues. Unfortunately it’s the only thing we’ve found, medication or diet, that helps my insulin resistance. I just deal with it at this point.

None of the class emails I’ve gotten have been BCC. Now any group emails from my son’s school counselor have been, but that is because while we know who’s in the kids classes I as a parent don’t know what other children are receiving services or counseling.

We sign waivers at the beginning of the year to allow this. I assumed it was standard practice. My kids’ teachers have always distributed a class directory sometime in October, and when I invariably lost it would give me the contact info when I asked. Maybe it’s just a regional thing then, because I know all the local school districts do it. Edited; This is also a very small town and the school only has around a thousand students K-12 and most of the schools I’m familiar with are the same. I think there’s also an underlying assumption here that we already all know each other. However I moved here when I was a teenager and was homeschooled, so I don’t know most of the parents like the others do.

To be fair, every year I find a birthday party invite in my kids’ backpacks well after the party. It’s like a black hole in there. The teacher may be able to give you contact info. It’s worth a try.

The drive is what would kill it for me. I once worked 12 hour shifts, three in a row, an hour away. By the time I drove home, took a shower, and slept for seven or eight hours, it was time to wake up and go back to work. Consider that the drive will make it 12 hour days for him.

What Alice Forgot is truly one of my favorite books.

My parents refused to shop there. They didn’t have money to spend on toys and when they did, they could get better deals elsewhere. I’ve shopped there a few times, but I buy off Amazon. We don’t have any local toy stores here either anymore, but they were around long after Toys R Us came. They were killed off by online shopping.

Also, they may actually joke about calling CPS. I’ve had CPS called on me and I am a mandatory reporter who’s seen too many cases of abuse, but we do kind of joke about it sometimes in our home. I think my kids have threatened to call more than once when they weren’t getting their way. I can’t see being shocked and appalled over that. I just hand my kids my phone and tell them to go ahead. Is it possible this family is just much more flippant and easy going about things than you? I think you’re really making a mountain out of a molehill.

I think you’re overreacting, to be honest. Is your three year old your first child? I would have been appalled when my oldest was 3 too. Now i have a 7 year old with autism and absolutely no filter. He does come across as disrespectful. Last night he told me I am just a complete ruiner of his life and he was never eating again in his life and I would go to jail. I can see where someone would think that’s disrespectful, but that’s not behavior I punish because, well, it’s just part of his disability. We talk about using nice words, but 7 year olds, even neurotypical ones, are still learning about socially appropriate words. They also talk about poop a lot. Your three year old isn’t going to pick up disrespectful behavior from these play dates. I also kind of think you were rude to correct your host’s son in front of her when his disrespect was directed at her. I would just let the Mom deal with it herself; it really was none of your business. It’s her house, it’s her son, and the comments were directed at her. My son would have told you to mind your own business as well. And then grabbing your son and leaving in a huff over it? No, just no. I would have offered to keep the other kids busy while Mom dealt with the behavior, but also recognized that there’s likely something else going on. But I don’t go around correcting other people’s kids in their own houses in front of their parents.

Granted, I only know because of Dh, but my understanding is that travel teams in our area are not part of any league. He was part of a league and then was asked to play on the travel team, which was not affiliated with any governing body. I honestly don’t know how it works other places. Baseball is completely not my thing. I relayed this conversation to him. He agreed that the cabins are simply not set up at all to allow parents to stay with their kids, and he’s completely against that. Mostly because he is now a dad who doesn’t think all unscreened parents should have access to all the kids.

I wouldn’t be okay with this either. I don’t know that any of my kids will be interested in travel sports or this sort of thing, but I do expect them to go want to go to sleepaway camp. I would NOT be okay with just letting parents roam around and have complete access to the cabins whenever they wanted. My six year old will be attending day camp this summer with an overnight Friday night. I don’t expect to have any access to her cabin and will change my mind if somehow the camp has a different policy(it’s 4-H camp, so I’m sure parents aren’t allowed to just show up and roam around).

My husband is still fascinated by baseball and loves to go to Cooperstown. I am, um, less enthused and find other things to do with the kids. We love the interactive farmer’s museum, Glimmerglass state park, and mining for diamonds in Herkimer mines(that’s about a 50 minute drive though). We’ve never wanted for things to do in the area, plus there are some nice beaches. https://www.familyvacationcritic.com/cooperstown-ny-family-vacation/dat/

There’s enough to do in the area. Could you make it a family vacation and do things other than the baseball tourney? My husband went to Cooperstown for tournaments many times as a kid/teenager. It’s some of the best memories of his life. His parents went but didn’t stay with him. He said he doesn’t remember any parents staying there, but it was a long time ago and he doesn’t remember details in general, so it could be wrong.

It was totally not love at first sight. My college roommate and I were from the same general area, and she went home most weekends to keep her private music students. One weekend I decided to go home and caught a ride, since I didn’t have a car. My mom was going to pick me up at the roommate’s parents house. So we get there and my mom is delayed. I don’t know her family at all and I was shy, and roommate had to leave to go teach. Then her parents had to leave but told me just to hang out and make myself at home. So I sat all alone really awkwardly in her living room. Her brother came in carrying textbooks from his community college class. He didn’t even say hi to me, just dumped the textbooks next to me on the couch and went out to the kitchen and got himself a drink. Came back out, sat on the couch next to me, answered any small talk questions with one word, and watched TV. Never offered me a soda or anything. I thought he was cute, but about the rudest person ever. Six years later, I was a paramedic student and was doing clinical time on the ambulance he now worked at. He was my preceptor’s partner. Then he and I became partners. Then we married. He still sits on the couch and ignores me.

We’ve recently found out that I have EDS as do two of my sisters. I have had to have multiple surgeries over the years for ruptured tendons and other issues, and now we know why. Fortunately I don’t have chronic pain anywhere but my ankle, but I took opioids for years simply due to the number of surgeries I was having to repair things. I pray they find something soon.

I actually find this all really interesting. I am 36; some of my best friendships were made on AIM(the now defunct AOL instant messenger). It was people i knew IRL, but we became friends talking on AIM. This was high school and college; MySpace and Facebook eventually took over that internet function. It was simply how people talked. I don’t see it as any different than the hours my parents spent on the phone together as teenagers, even on a party line, something that annoyed their parents. My great grandmother, born in 1912, told me stories of her teenage years dating my great grandpa in his car, something that her parents were positive would lead to her ruin. I don’t see the internet as any different. Of course screens are wiring people’s developing brand differently. I bet cars vs walking everywhere did, too. Humanity adapts. The world is tech now, even the teenage years and earlier. Teenagers I see are living their lives online and on text; I truly believe a teen who had none of that would miss out on siginificant relationship developing. People don’t call each other anymore—we don’t even have a landline and only make phone calls in emergencies. Even my grandmother has a Facebook and has learned to text. I will monitor my kids online just like I would if they hung out at the mall(which nobody seems to do anymore here either). Are there dangerous parts? Absolutely, just like they could be kidnapped at the mall. Can they do dumb things? Sure, and they probably will. Will we talk about being smart and making good choices and how things last forever? Yes. But the world has changed, as it always does, and I’m sure in five year when my oldest becomes a teen there will be something new to worry about. But I don’t think restricting completely is wise, and allowing access to build friendships is important.

I’m taking my toddler(the ex preemie) to the University of Rochester health system to begin testing for developmental delays and muscular weakness. It’s about a two hour drive. Of course he woke up with a runny nose and my husband, who took the day off to go with me, came down with a miserable sinus infection. Pray we get through the day! It’s going to be even harder with a toddler who doesn’t feel his best and now I will be on my own. But we need answers and these appointments are hard to get, so I don’t want to reschedule. I will take all good thoughts and prayers!

I’m having an incredibly stressful few weeks and really enjoyed this kerfluffle. Thank you.

This is so common here. Every team sport seems to require it, school or little league or whatever. I didn’t play sports growing up, but DH did. He said then they asked for people’s actual addresses. I don’t mind fundraising but the email thing annoys me. I don’t really consider my email address private, but I’d prefer other types of fundraising.

It sounds like we live relatively close to each other. There is just nothing here for homeschoolers unless you are a die hard CC fan, which I am not. It was a huge factor in putting my oldest back in public school in January. He was so lonely, missed his friends and was jealous of his sister getting to see other kids. I just could not find homeschool activities that worked, and after school is all taken up with his youngest sibling’s extensive therapies. I can commiserate. I think sometimes homeschoolers tend to dismiss socialization as important, but it really is.

I’m looking for one for tonight!

We’ve got around 8 inches and lots of power outages in the area, though we have electric. DH has been at the firehouse since sometime in the night dealing with downed electric lines and trees on homes. Kids and I are watching TV and cleaning. Very exciting.

Since I crashed my beloved Chrysler Aspen, I’ve been looking around. I got my pre-authorization letter from my bank, who is willing to lend me a lot more than I’m willing to spend on a vehicle. I had my eye on one older Town and Country minivan, but the mileage is too high for the bank to loan money on it, and DH would rather get something newer that isn’t going to require a whole lot of maintenance right now. He has a truck that is older and over 200,000 miles that he just rebuilt the transmission for and doesn’t want another high mileage vehicle. All that said, a newer model(2017) Dodge Journey is within my price range and will easily fit my three small children. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, like DVD entertainment systems and leather seats that I prefer, but it will work just fine for us. I want to stay under $17,000, need third row seating but tight is okay(my kids are young and small for their ages), and want reasonable gas mileage(so no huge SUVs).

It depends on the system. We have a trauma center about thirty miles away. Anyone who meets major trauma criteria goes there. We don’t have a pediatric trauma center within a two hour drive. If possible we fly those patients but it’s not always possible. Last spring we had a horrific car accident with six critically injured pediatric patients. We took them to the local hospital to stabilize and then fly to the appropriate hospital. If a patient is too unstable to go to the trauma center, such as a patient who is in cardiac arrest, has an airway we can’t control, or is rapidly bleeding out, we go local and stabilize. It’s probable that the medical director or their local protocols deem that any pediatric patients that meet major trauma criteria automatically go to the pediatric trauma center, which in this case was thirty minutes away. Also, if a hospital is overwhelmed with more patients than they have resources for, they can also divert you to a different hospital. This, however, sounds more like fifteen year olds meet their criteria for pediatric trauma whereas seventeen year olds go to the closer trauma center.

https://www.encourageplay.com/blog/superflex-rock-brain-book-review I love this series for my inflexible thinking child. He’s all about superheroes and really likes this. Some social stories and games might be worth a try. We call it “Rock Brain†and Superflex comes along to help us be flexible in our thinking.