I am a little confused on why you have to follow everything a particular denomination does or you are turning your back on religion. You can mostly relate to a particular denomination but disagree with how they interpret different scriptures or rules they say member should follow. I know a lot of people in my denomination growing up who believe in the God of Christianity and a lot of the tenants of their denomination but they do not agree with all of them. Some of it may be just picking what they want to follow but it can also be honest reflection that led to a different interpretation. There are so many ways to interpret the bible if you were a bible follower. Look at all the denominations out there which show there are so many different ways interpret things. Why would you shun someone who interprets something different or has different beliefs. There are values I hope my children will have but as long as they are not hurting or harming others I can accept that they may feel differently about things I feel is very important.

I did not read the responses. The issue of kids coming out is not new at all. I think since it is out in the open more and more acceptable to a lot of people more kids are out and even religious people know that not everyone will condemn them like in the past. This is not a bad thing. Not all religious people have a problem with same sex relationships. Many religious people do not believe the scriptures and passages that are brought up are condeming homosexuality when you look at the context or time period it is referencing. Religious people can also look at all the scientific and psychological information out there on the topic and see that people who are attracted to the same sex are not making a choice about it and so they accept their children based on that. There are gay people that still are religious. Some are accepted and others are not. If a church is completely unaccepting then they will lose their gay followers. I would not worry about what kids in one 3rd grade class said. They have not even hit puberty yet and a lot of them are in that stage where they like friendships with their own sex. The issue of kids not following in religious traditions is different. The general trend for a while has been for young people to not stay in the religion they were brought up in. Over time less people do attend church. A lot of kids do grow up and become less religious. Some non religious people can become religious too though. Kids are individuals not reflections of their parents. Nature and nurture both are important and some things are not controllable. This is nothing new. I think church membership has been in an overall downtrend for a while now but the US still has a Christian majority. I was raised in a religion and am now an atheist. There is nothing my parents could have done to change that.

I would much rather live in a good neighborhood where lots of stuff was walkable then live in a big house in a run down neighborhood.

One of my kids loves the tightness and softness of the fabric and lived in silky liners worn under clothes this winter. Focus and concentration has been better since we got the liners. I have looked into getting the very discounted althleisure stuff for the summer since it has a similar texture and tightness. It has nothing to do with labels for us but if it is popular I guess that makes it easier to find at the thrift store. ;)

I had a feeling he would change his mind. I wish you luck in your journey.

I know there is a similar thread going for someone else but I did not want to take over their thread. I have a BA degree in Environmental Studies. I really wish I went into a science related field. Is it difficult to get a science related degree when you do not have a bachelors of science and you have been out of school for so long? I would eventually want a masters if I did that but I know I cannot go right into a program.

We do pajamas but the majority of my kids clothes are from thrift stores. You really cannot tell the difference anyway because new clothes become used. Around here nobody cares about stuff like that. Where I grew up people where very concious of where clothes came from and brand names and people would not admit to clothes coming from a thrift store. I am not sure if it is still like that there but it is still a more materialistic place where people care about labels. We talk about the environmental benefit to buying used and how it saves money. The only thing I do not get used is shoes.

Some providers do free exams for babies as part of a special program called infant see. http://www.infantsee.org I had my two of my babies checked as babies and they just used tools that look like toys with red dots. They used it to check tracking and for focusing when they were looking in the eyes. They looked into their eyes with another tool. They did not even use eye drops. They have machines now that can be used as a screening tool where it takes a picture of the eye and the computer analyzes it. The eye doctor who did the exam said babies are supposed to be slightly farsighted. It does sound like this baby may have vision issues that need correcting.

I studied urban planning in college too. It really is disheartening to see how this country is designed. It is not sustainable for the long run. We could have designed cities better but it did not happen. Another thing that is sad is how ghettos were formed by housing loan practices that blacklisted neighborhoods, highways that cut these neighborhoods off from jobs and middle class people and civic organizations subsequently fleeing these neighborhoods. Mixed use development where you can get around without needing a car is better planning but instead neighborhoods got planned around highway building with no broader plan on how it fit together.

Dave Ramsey cannot save the middle class. I do not know that the people in the article are the best representation of the strain on the middle class. The extreme wealth disparity and the rising cost of inflation while wages for the middle class are not going up to make up for it is the problem. There will always be middle class jobs out there in many areas where you cannot afford housing or the cost of living for the area. Sure people have more house nowadays but even smaller dwellings and rental places are expensive. The average income and average housing cost do not allow everyone to get 15% mortgages. In some areas renting costs more then owning. Not everyone can have housing costs a certain percentage of their income. Sure there are things that some individuals can do like go into certain fields and move to more affordable areas but not everyone can do that. There are lots of people who are strained and not just because they chose to buy lots of stuff or live in big houses which does occur but because jobs that used to provide a decent living no longer do.

I really wanted more kids but dh adamantly does not and there are other things too that make it a bad idea. I always will long for more but it will not happen. It is hard to go through that and I am sorry you are going through it. It does not sound hopeless in your case. It sounds like he has not shut the door on discussing it it or coming up with reasons. The space thing is actually something I do not think is bad for kids. Kids do not need a lot of space. Learning to share is not a bad thing. Much of the world has much less space and in the not so distant past people here did too. Lots of people grow up sharing rooms.

I would not judge the kids because they did nothing wrong. I would not trust the adult who did that or feel comfortable letting my kids play at that house. Not all crimes can be rehabilitated and she did not serve enough time for what she did. She should not get to change her name and go on with her life like it never happen. I hope they are keeping a close eye on how those kids are being raised and what she is up to.

That and the low phonological processing score. It just sounds like it could be processing from what you are describing.

If she is on the young side of her grade that would not surprise me. It really depends on what else is going on. What concerns me about being in school is most schools are not even looking for dyslexia and they do not start even looking into what is going on until the end of second. If I could work with this child I would work on some phonemic awareness type stuff and then do something like phonics pathways or Don Potter with them and see how she does with that. I think it is worth considering having a young for grade child that just misses the cut off especially one on the slow to mature side repeat but not otherwise. It usually does not solve the problem and statistics show that kids that are held back do not do better. I would work with the child in the summer regardless of whether or not they repeat.

Has he ever been evaluated for auditory processing issues?

I always get NJ/NY on these. I no longer have an accent but I still use or know a lot of the terms that are unique to the region like mischief night, lightning bugs, sun showers and sneakers etc. I do pronounce Mary, merry and marry differently so I guess I do have remnants of an accent but no one guesses or asks where I am from anymore. I hear an accent when I visit and it is hard to believe I used to sound like that.

I completely feel you down to a kiddo the same age who failed the Barton screening and other kids with learning challenges. I also never had to deal with learning challenges myself and had babies and toddlers that did not sleep. I am not looking foward to doing LiPs myself since I did not like how another program if theirs was organized but I think that is my only option because tutoring with a speech therapist costs too much.

I do not shield my kids from stuff like that even if they were upset which is natural. I do not keep things that are sad or dissapointing from my kids. I would rather talk through things and acknowledge their feelings.

I had friends who were on a mag crew years ago. They actually got paid ok and they were not as young as the kids described here nor was anyone on their crew. They actually enjoyed their time doing that and look back on it very positively. They trip thing makes it sound like school kids but they could earn trips based on how much they sold.

I wouldn't because of the pond and the unfenced yard. I let my kids play in my yard at that age when my youngest was 2 but I wouldn't let them play where there is a pond, a road or other hazards. 9 year olds are still kids and do not have the same level of vigilance as an adult or an older teenager that was responsible.

My kids go to a very structured school where they do phonograms. My add kids actually thrive in structure. It helps organize them and they do well in a class that is not really chaotic. One of my kids talks out of turn and gets up a lot. There is a lot less time for personal interests but they do get to do their assignments based on interests and talk about them a little. In my area we have the more open child led charters where kids can explore their interests but those classes often had open classrooms and were very loud. They also did sight word heavy reading methods and math curriculums I was not crazy about. The teachers described it as controlled chaos and that just does not work for my kids. There are pros and cons to all decisions. My kids do have less time for passions in the public school. They have less free time and it takes longer to get things done in a school setting. That is one aspect I really do not like. I feel like some of ds's passion and intensity has been lost this year to full day school. He is tired and has less time for it and had struggles. I contemplated pulling but I also struggled when I tried to do it myself and I need to go back to work soon. At the same time I do feel the teachers this year care and get to know the kids really well and the kids get to know them and my kids are doing well socially.

I have been thinking about this. I just saw a presentation and porn and sexting is widespread in teens. There are apps that the majority of teens are aware of that delete pictures right after posting that gives the feeling of it is safe to do it but screenshots make that not true. It is very common for kids as young as 12 to take pictures of themselves and then send it and the person they send it to will share it with lots of others. At 17 there is no recourse if a vindictive ex shares online. I think it becomes more important as they are older because that is when they start getting in trouble. I do think the porn that is out there now and how often kids watch it before they are even sexually active is a problem. It skews their view on what is normal. Online bullying is also very common. I do not have teens yet but I am considering monitoring when I do but being open about it. I do plan on watching things about the dangers of sexting, bullying porn etc with my kids and discussing things that can occur and I will encourage them to share with me if they hear it happening. I think being open is probably the best thing I could do and having other trusted people they can also be open with. I see a lot if icky stuff with adult friends who are dating so I can imagine what the less mature version with less frontal lobe maturity does not thinking of the long term consequences. I am not religious this is something I wam very concerned with.

I have seen several 4 year olds have that reaction over a gift. I have gotten gifts over the years that did not end up being used as much as I would like. Years later they will not remember everything they got on birthdays anyway. I am glad he really liked his cake.

I mean having them play with the kids that constantly bring up issues because of meanness and destruction of property that otherwise would not be occurring. I will talk to my kids about treating others nice and when I hear meaness but they are getting exposed to language and behavior that would not have even occurred to them otherwise.

I feel you. A few neighbor kids expose my kids to things they would never think themselves and very bad habits. They recently wrote a curse word my kids would never dare say and do not even know in my drive way and there has been lots more like that. I want to do school stuff with my kids this summer and I know these kids will be outside all summer knocking at the door and my kids will want to play. I have had lots of talks about what I hear but lately I been feeling like it is not worth it.