When you can look at a FIVE year old and think, "I gotta get me some of that!," there is no coming back from that point. That isn't just a "bad choice," that's pedophilia for FFS!

I can't freaking stand people who defend childhood sexual abuse. How gross. Remember when you were done with this forum? I do...

Very much this. And it is clear that Josh is the golden child. Guess Jill and Jessa get to be the scapegoats :/

I don't doubt this. I would be mortified to have events from my childhood be brought forth so publicly :( This is just another way their parents have put them in a position to be victimized.

Ugh. Pepsi had better get on board! #mountaindewaddict

Walgreens replied to me: Hello Debra, In the wake of recent news, we are no longer advertising on the ‘19 Kids and Counting’ program. I hope they mean it.

Faith, where did you find this info? It's germaine to a Facebook debate I'm in, lol.

CLE

I'm trying to be more relaxed in my parenting, but I fully admit to being a helicopter parent. I think it is due partly to my own experiences, and partly due to how sick my daughter was her first few years. I *know* what kids can get up to when they aren't closely supervised, because I was one of those kids. In fact, I'm less fearful of "stranger danger" scenarios than I am of what can happen amongst her peers. I know that I can't protect her forever, but I feel less anxious for her every year she gets older and more mature. I want to help preserve her childhood as long as possible, because I pretty much lost mine from ages 8-10. What occurred during those years has had a lasting impact on the rest of my life, and has affected every relationship I have had. I am certainly not anti free range, and I fully respect a parents right to evaluate for themselves the inherent risks and benefits of allowing more freedom for their children. Unless they are passed out drunk or drugged, I'm loathe to label a parent as "neglectful" for choosing to parent in a way that im not personally comfortable doing. I get extremely angry over families that are put through the wringer with police and cps because someone, somewhere has decided that allowing children to walk to a park by themselves is negligent. That is just bullshit. Maybe once those social agencies have tackled all of the true cases of neglect and abuse that they willfully overlook, then they can start tackling the parents that are able and willing to feed, clothe, bathe, and provide medical care to their children.

I would get a big toe checked out. They are pretty important for walking, lol, and I would make sure nothing would impact that. I broke my fourth toe and just taped it to the other toe, which is pretty much what would've happened if I had it checked out.

Grateful Dead at Roosevelt.

I'm a NICU nurse, so I would love to see technology improve the outcomes for severely early preemies, by the use of an artificial environment that more closely resembles a natural environment. Ideally, I would love to see a treatment for pregnancy induced hypertension that didn't necessitate early delivery, incompetent cervixes, preterm spontaneous rupture of membranes, and infections that cause preterm labor, etc.

My dd loooooooves workbooks, so we use CLE. It gets mentioned on this board frequently, which is how I found out about it, but no one IRL has heard of it.

I attended christian school from 5th grade until graduation. I reallyreallyreally wanted to avoid all non secular curriculum options for my daughter, as a result of my "education". It was with great reluctance that I purchased CLE, but I'm soooo glad that I did. The math hasn't been too bad, but the language arts contains quite a bit of religious content. It has made me twitchy at times, because I strongly object to any YEC taught as fact. I am definitely dropping their social studies and science, but will keep the math and LA, because my daughter loves them, they get done without complaint, she is learning tons, and she tells anyone who asks, that math is her favorite subject! If there was a math program that was similar to CLE, but secular, I would be all over it. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything, so CLE it is.

Wow. I am soooo sorry. I freaking can't stand ten minutes of screaming, so I can't even imagine hours and hours of it, and more than one doing it. If you aren't heavily medicated or an alcoholic by now, you are a better woman than me, because I would be both. That is really unfortunate that you don't have much support 😥

Nope. Don't do it. Life is so much more peaceful and joyful when one doesn't go looking for reasons to be offended. Just to contribute nothing to this thread, I will add that I still, 30 years later, have a "contraband" unicorn figurine that a friend got me. I had to keep it hidden, because we weren't allowed to have unicorns, because Satan! Duh. I still have it. Clearly, the Satanic indoctrination worked, because we love us some Harry Potter over here, and if dogs don't have souls, ain't nothing has a soul!

I bought my Dyson as a refurbished basic model about 12 years ago. My mom has had her Dyson even longer. If mine died tomorrow I would save up for another Dyson. It is over your budget, but you might find a good deal on a refurbished one. I just checked, and eBay has some great deals, with free shipping. The prices on overstock.com don't look bad, either.

Yep, and yep. It was the beginning that ultimately led to my becoming an RN.

This isn't so much a "mentality," as it is a difference in values. I personally, place absolutely little value on team sports, so I'm not going to spend my time on money on such things. I also don't relate well to people that do, and that's ok, because they won't likely relate well to me based on my values. From your post, you seem to highly value church activities and more traditional ideas of "family time." I find very little value in church and traditional family activities, especially those that occur on Sundays. In fact, I purposefully schedule myself to work on weekends. That is because the activities that i do value tend to take place during the week. We all value things differently, and tend to spend our time and money on things we value highly. I think it would be safe to assume that what you and I and everyone else on this board value highly, is our children's education :) That is the common bond that brings us together on this forum, interacting with and supporting one another, as we try to provide our children with what we feel is the best for them. Understanding that most parents are trying to do what they feel is best for their family is important, whether that be sports, church, dance, cheer, drama, robotics, whatever.

Ruth, I want to be you when I grow up! Have you ever given any thought to teaching a class on evolution to the WTM crowd? I would totally pay for that! You have such a great way of explaining things, that it actually makes me feel like I have a hope of understanding it all.

Well, to be honest, I have no time to put together a post listing the vast amounts of evidence that exists. I trust that if you were so inclined, you would be as perfectly capable of searching out resources as I was. Has evolution been witnessed? Of course it has! How else do you think scientists have been able to understand the processes that have shaped biology? Evolution isn't based on a guess that some atheist came up with to do away with God. There is enough evidence for it to become an actual scientific theory, just like the theory of gravity. That is a pretty big deal!

Um, no. Evolution is a given. We have proof of this. In fact, when I began studying prehistory last year, I was BLOWN AWAY by how much evidence we have. It is really quite spectacular.

I don't know about the claim that they are reptiles, but they are definitely related to them. Why is that difficult to accept?

Is MUS working for your children? If it is, then can you just add to it to increase the challenge? I would be hesitant to do away with a program that was otherwise working. I love CLE for my daughter, but after trying mastery based programs that didn't work well for her, I made the switch to CLE for its spiral review. I find it fairly easy to accelerate, but only because I started her at the beginning and the work was easy for her. We also skip the quizzes and tests, and she will be working on math all summer. Also, the first light unit is review, so we skip that. I'm hoping she will be close to where I want her to be next year. If you are seriously considering CLE, definitely download the free placement tests.

I wouldn't allow my daughter to do it, but I sure as heck would do it for her! Life is much too short to have to deal with unwanted facial hair. I think I would be more inclined to do it at home with the prewaxed strips. That way I could premedicate with ibuprofen and use a ice pack before and after to deal with any discomfort. I think this method would last the longest, cause less pain, and minimize re growth. I don't think shaving is a good idea, and I have seen a bad reaction to Nair. Salon waxing can be pretty painful for some people. Laser hair removal is expensive and painful, and burns can happen. Their are a lot of hair removal options, but not many good ones, unfortunately.