If you look at stats it is hard to change social standing especially more then one rung and the extremes of wealth are a lot more then most people imagine. It is not good to have such inequality. It can be hard yo just get by when you are stretched financially. We are in a catagory where we do not qualify for help but things are very tight. We do the best we can and go without things that would help and hope the kids will find their way into the world so they can at least get by comfortably.

I have seen several articles from parents of kids who have physical limitations issues that are obvious say they much rather kids asks questions they have so it can be explained then to be hushed or said that it is not nice to ask questions.

Thanks. I went and looked through all the swim suits we had and two of the ones dd claimed did not fit did fit so at least swim suits are something I can look for as I find more deals now. It was hard with just one. I will try just rinsing out the suits. Maybe I can hang their robes and towels too. I do really like the shampoo. Their hair was really smelling like chlorine all the time even with rinsing it out right away in the shower and even my son with really short hair was showing signs of damage. Now it does not smell and the haircut place that always tries to sell their shampoo did not because it looked good. They were losing the goggles so I ask all the time now before we leave if they have them and put them up right away when we get home. I do feel like they could use a spare.

We do not have a Marshall's here unfortunately and the Costco goggles did not fit well and had leaks. I am trying to find places to get them more affordably. I got charged shipping at swimoutlet even when I spent enough and I usually will not have orders big enough. They did have good deals on goggles.

I was going to say animals with human traits but I am not sure about super why because my kids never watched that.

We are starting regular lessons which are 4 days a week in the summer and 2 days in the fall and also have started taking the kids to the pool on a regular basis. My oldest wants to do swim team when she passes all the swim lesson levels. I have discovered ultra swim shampoo which keeps their hair from being damaged by the chlorine but it is expensive. How many goggles and swim suits do you have? Do you wash the swim every time they are worn? I do right now because of the chlorine smell. How much swim shampoo do you go through? Any other advice for going to the pool regularly.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/panama-city-beach-strangers-human-chain-rescue-swimmers-florida/ This story warms my heart how all these strangers linked together to save 9 people caught in a rip current. It shows there is some good in the world. Steer clear of the comments though.

I am not sure what the local term is. I am not hip to what it is called here. Hooning does describe it and that would be a good term to adopt but stunting is probably the more likely term. I do want to try to get a video if he comes back. We finally caught the owner of the property and it was the on again off again boyfriend of her dd who is living there now. She asked right away what did he do and she is not impressed with this guy. He was not suppose to be staying there and she will talk to the dd.

There is a teen or very young adult who is staying at the house across the street. He drives a truck and revs it down the residential street at very high speeds. My husband caught him twice now and confronted him and told him there are lots of kids on the street but he completely ignored him and has continued every time he comes down the street. There are lots of kids in the neighborhood including my own and this is making it unsafe. My kids usually would be able to play with friends and ride their bikes.

I like it for grammar and I heard good things about other components but I do feel my kids need more explicit writing instruction. My child loved it so I am sticking with it for that reason. I have not used the literature component of it because I do like how Mosdos literature sounds.

My kids are very important and to me they are the most important thing to me. At the same time I do not think it is good for them to be the center of the world all the time and have things solely focused on them all the time. Kids need to learn that other people have needs too and they are not the center of the universe. They have times where they want to be by themselves with a friend and I allow that by sending a sibling away. There are times where they need to learn they cannot always send a certain sibling away who is not bothering them and busy with something themselves. There are times you do things for them but doing things just for yourself is good too. As far as the topic at hand there are times when I send my kids away and there are times where I do not. Recently I got together with a friend I barely see any more and I have been spending a lot less time around other adults and I did want some time without kids around to discuss certain things. One of my kids was bored and wanted to hang nearby the entire time. I did tell him to play sometimes but he did not want to. When I get together with close friends there are times we discuss stuff that I want to keep personal while the kids are playing and through the years that has been so restoring. If kids come in sometimes that is fine but other times we do tell them to play. I personally would not want a kid in the room if a conversation is going on about libido.

I will be using both but I do not have personal experience yet. I have starting using MCT and I would not use it alone.

I do not know anyone who will not use their garages in the winter because the floor might get dirty. People who do not have garages wish they did. Why else would they have automatic door openers. Not many people get their car washed every day especially in the winter. It would be futile. I definitely say that is nutty.

I start parking in the garage when it is cold enough to frost at night. In the summer there is more stuff in the garage like bikes and camping equipment actively being used but we clear everything out of the main floor and put them away once the weather starts getting colder to park in the garage. The garage is much warmer so the car starts right away and is warm already and there are no windows to scrape or snow to clear off. I do it for snow, slush, frost and cold. The floor in the garage is concrete and the whole purpose it was built for is to have cars that are in use parked in it. I never once cared about keeping the garage floors pristine. That would be silly. We take our shoes off in the house anyway but it is no dirtier then walking in from outside.

You can download movies into an iPad if you have Netflix or Amazon then each kid can pick their favorite shows or movies. I also like to get interesting audiobooks for road trips.

One local place that does Barton tutoring trains speech therapists in the Barton method to handle the kids with state insurance or private insurance that covers tutoring done by a speech therapist. So it can be covered but a lot of people with private insurance do not have coverage for it.

Fluency issues do typically occur with dyslexia but it also can be related to the eyes not converging well, tracking well or having unusual movements etc. I know practicing rapid naming can help if it is not related to the eyes. Difficulties with rapid naming is something else that can cause fluency issues.

I was like that as a teen. I think it can be in the range of normal for a teen. I do not greet people every time we pass and to me that would feel strange.

The stats are all over the place. I tried looking them up since some of the numbers for children especially the stranger seemed high and I saw websites with stats mentioned and sites with very different stats. The better referenced ones are on the lower side and more broken down. It is not rare to have experienced rape but being pulled from a hotel hall or a public bathroom or a store etc is rare. Location and circumstances does effect stats. That never makes it a victims fault though.

You cannot really improve visual acuity but you can improve certain conditions with eye exercises. Eyesight is more then just acuity. It should be with a doctor's advice though because there is different things that can cause similar symptoms. If you have no symptoms or eye conditions then you do not need eye exercises. Some people do have better visual acuity then average. You can also keep your eyesight from getting worse by spending a lot of time outdoors and if you eventually do need a prescription not wearing a full prescription full time or wearing certain kinds of contacts. Wearing a full prescription full time can keep it deterioting. I want to keep my kids eyesight from getting as bad as mine so I will seek someone out who wants to help preserve vision. Once you have myopia there are no eye exercises you can do to fix it.

I did not notice the car seat thing. Rear facing is the safest until they outgrow the limits of the seat. All my 2 year olds were rear facing still. When they outgrew rear facing they were not quite ready for a booster because they could not sit still in it which came at different ages. A 2 year old would not fit in a seatbelt meant for adults nor would it be comfortable for them and they would not sit still and not get out if position. There is debate over whether a car seat or a booster is safer because a car seat just the head whips forward but with little ones they are going to move out of position or move the seatbelt to where it is no longer keeping them in or even unbuckling it which is easier in a seatbelt. In Sweden they rear face as long as possible then move to a booster and their statistics for car accidents and injury and death for children are really good. A booster keeps the lap belt in the lap instead of the stomach where internal organs are located. If a car seat is buckled very loosely with a chest clip in the wrong spot it also may not protect in a bad accident when it is suppose to which happens a lot. Most people either install seats too loose or the straps too loose or put the chest clip in the wrong spot. A car seat does not tighten so a kid can fly out if the straps are not tight or they are in a bulky coat.

If you look at the link just posted the chances of the sterotypical kidnapping is much lower then other scenarios and that when non family addictions occur hotels and rest areas and other "risky" locations do not even register as 1 percent when combined with other places. It is a percieved risk not an actual risk. Crimes rates are not up they are down. Free range parenting is a response to the times being more overprotective not a new trend. In most places in the world and all of history kids had more freedom then what people here would describe as free range. It is easier to assess porn that is different then the kind around when we were young now and it does gave negative effects on society. I think the best way to deal with that is to be open and honest and to encourage open communication with kids. Talk to them about things and do not make sex a taboo subject. Tell them about things like sexting and porn and how to look for red flags in the behavior of people they date. Talk to them about how even in apps where things disappear the Internet is forever because things can be saved and shared with a lot more people. People who say they will not share probably will. Tell them to talk to trusted adults if needed and what secrets needs to be told. Do not force them to hug Aunt Sally or Grandpa if they do not want to so they learn they are in charge of their bodies. Keep track of internet usage and realize it is teens that get into trouble online more often then kids.

I definitely do not let my kids navigate things to be "cool". I do things with scaffolding and as they show the maturity to handle tasks. With social media the opposite is true. The "cool" (not the best term) thing to do is to be protective and it is seen as bad parenting to allow certain freedoms. Parents are often berated for letting kids play in the neighborhood or for giving them little freedoms as described. I even have seen dog piles over bad parenting kids for kids who were escape artists or kids that got lost on a hike. I do feel something is lost when percieved risk and judgement on bad parenting on things that very much is not becomes the norm at least on social media. You have to worry more about other people judging and reporting something benign then the actual risk itself.

Yes I was going to use perceived risk a few times in those other threads as a response to some posts. Neither scenario is risky at all even when people came up with these what if scenarios that are extremely unlikely. When something tragic and unlikely does happen then people blame the parent for not being next to their child every waking moment. We have cases where people got abducted in their own homes or out and about in our community with parents there. You cannot prevent everything but allowing kids increasing freedom does have positive effects on letting them feel confident and independent in the future. I am very protective around water, with car seats and boosters, with internet safeguards and not forcing hugs and teaching about how no one even people you know should touch your private parts and if they do something that makes you uncomfortable tell no matter what they say. I give my kids increasing freedom based on maturity and they really get benefits from it on the road to independence by knowing they can handle things. With people in my neighborhood and some friends I actually am more protective and wait longer to allow things but on here and other internet places I am a lot less protective based on threads like those two recent ones. We do talk about what to do for scenarios that can happen some more likely then others. Examples are no adult needs help from a child and never get in someone's car you do not know, find another mom with children or a police if you get lost, if you see a bear do not run no matter what and more details based on the type of bear, if someone does try to take you make a big ruckus and kick in weak areas and shout things more likely that get people's attention. We also talk about internet safety.

I really do not like Dr. Pepper and I do not like Coke or Sprite or Pepsi or any other soda.