I love Genevieve also but my husband said no. He said no to Sage too. :(

Costco has Disney tickets, if you're a member.

If it's a molester? No way. Never. I don't care how old he is or how long ago it was.

Wow. Honestly, that's beyond rude. Good for you for calling her out on her bad manners.

The same amount of say as you let him have about your hair. If he prefers long hair but you wear it short because you like it better, then put up with the beard. If you keep your hair in a way that he likes because he likes it, then tell him that and that you would appreciate if he consider what you find attractive as well. And if he won't, cut your hair. :lol:

If you are truly worried for your nephew's safety and well-being, why not involve CPS/social services who can place him with you or other family the legal way? Otherwise, I think the demand to give up her child is a little over-the-top. And yes, that's basically what that was, good intentions or not.

In my family, stockings were put into our room at the foot of our bed. We could sit in our room and go through our stockings until our parents said we could go downstairs. This is partly because there were 6 of us and someone always woke up at 5am or some insane hour like that! It gave us something to do until everyone else was up and ready to open the other gifts. Last year my husband and I kept our daughter's stocking in our room and when she woke up we all sat on the bed together and helped her look through it. It was so much fun and a great family moment. Then we did presents after that. eta: Even if it is a zombie thread, it was fun to read everyone's ideas!

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: I had an ectopic before I had my daughter, so I know how hard it can be. I hope all is well with the baby and your family.

If a 16 year old is dressed up and has good manners, why not? Halloween is for kids, and 16 is still a kid. I didn't go as a teenager, but I don't see why it would be an issue unless they're rude. And I didn't take my daughter trick-or-treating as an infant, I could just spend 5 bucks myself if I wanted candy. I started taking her at 2, when she could actually have the candy, rationed though it was. eta: I don't get giving kids with a store-bought costume less candy. Some parents don't sew well (like me), don't have time to sew (like many full-time workers), or have kids who are too young to make their own costumes. Do you give a 4 year old less candy because he has a store-bought costume? Why punish a child because his/her parents can't make a costume?

If she makes a big production when she delivers a late gift, it may not be attention-seeking. I could see someone trying to cover feeling guilty/embarrassed about being late with extreme behavior.

I just want to say as an adoptive child myself, that if your sister loves her daughter she is as "real" a parent as it is possible to be. :grouphug: I didn't always get along with my adoptive parents, but they loved me and they ARE my parents. Many adopted kids have emotional, psychological and physical issues that can manifest as time goes by. It sounds like your sister and your niece could each benefit immensely from individual counseling. And the remark from your BIL that this is normal 3 year old behavior makes it sound like full family counseling would be helpful as well. A good counselor and/or psychologist will be able to help them find out what is wrong and how they can help her. If your niece is adopted, mental health care should be included as part of her Medicaid coverage. It was for me, I hope that is still the case. A 3 year old child lashing out like that is experiencing pain of some kind. She needs help. And your sister needs support too. I went for counseling four years after my adoption because I needed that support. There's nothing wrong with reaching out for help. It doesn't mean your sister has failed in any way, just that she took on a child she didn't fully create herself. That is a wonderful but often difficult thing.

Dangerous is not the word I would use. Just awakening to their sexuality, yes. Feeling peer pressure constantly, yes. Wanting to try new things and often things that aren't good for them, yes. And this is coming from a kid who didn't smoke, drink, hold a boy's hand or anything questionable at all aside from back-talking occasionally as a teenager. I think we all know that there are really good teens out there. There are also teens who are easily influenced by peers, teens who have no adult supervision normally and don't even know what that means realistically, teens who are looking for every chance to rebel or be independent, and teens who are chafing against parents who are too strict. I think that what you posted about your church having required training, signing a contract listing expected behaviors and outcomes, and the background training is a wonderful thing. It sounds like you have a very conscientious and aware leadership and your youth group will be helped by that tremendously. Sadly, however, most groups do not have anything like that kind of leadership.

I agree with you, it's not necessary. Sorry, I was just responding to something the previous poster said and didn't quote the whole thing.

I think this here is the key. You have to know the parents and leaders involved. Not just know them by name and talk in church here and there, but really know what kind of people they are and what kind of limits they set. Sadly, there are too many parents who don't know and don't care. And there are many teens who attend youth group functions who have no parental involvement at all. At least half of the teens in the youth group I assisted with had parents that I never met in six years of helping out. No one else ever met them either. You also have to be realistic about the parents. Are the other parent supervisors the type who think their kids never do anything wrong? Because I think we all know those parents exist, and they can be youth group leaders/volunteers too. I agree with you that youth activities like lock-ins could be beneficial with proper supervision. But proper supervision seems so rare, from my experience and from others' experiences that I have heard. Also, how common is training about teen behavior in youth group leaders? They're usually volunteers with no pastoral training of any kind. I've never heard of training like that and I've been involved in a number of youth groups over the years, as a teen and a volunteer.

My name is Beverly. I hate "Bev" with a passion. The only people who can say it that I will answer to are my family, because it's habit and I love them enough to overlook it. I always introduce myself as Beverly and tell people I don't like Bev. Anyway, I say that to say I used to work with a woman who would only call me Bev, no matter what I said. What made it crazy was that we had another co-worker named Susie and this woman only ever called her Susan. She would NOT say Susie or Beverly. It was quite clear she did it on purpose. Some people are just crazy.

When I was a youth group volunteer a few years ago, I helped chaperone at two lock-ins, one HUGE and one small. The huge one was held at a local college and there were hundreds, maybe as much as a thousand kids there. It was nearly impossible to keep track of our own teens, let alone know what was going on with all the rest that we didn't even know. It was sheer chaos. There is NO WAY I would let my daughter go to something like that unless I was there myself and I knew where she was at every moment, which I'm sure she wouldn't want anyway, so I doubt it will happen at all. The small one was just at our little church, maybe 15 teens altogether, with 6 adults. The problem with the small ones is that they are often led by youth group leaders who have no children (and who often think more of the teens than their parents) or by parents of the teens who would not in a million years believe that their kid would ever do wrong. Many of the leaders are just not realistic about teens' decision-making abilities, peer pressure, and hormones gone wild. I can't count the number of times my husband and I were alone with 15 kids and there's no way I can keep track of that many kids.

If the father has custody, the mother probably has issues of some kind (drugs, no job, mental health) that keep her from having custody. If she can't take care of him, I doubt he would call her for help. I don't think 15 is too young to be home alone for a night or two, but he's not home alone if he's locked out of his house. And a father who thinks it's no big deal to lock a kid out of his own house doesn't sound like the type to make sure he's got plenty of food to eat does he? It doesn't sound like he thought or cared much about his kid. The kid says "I'll stay at a friend's house" and the dad goes right along with that because he now has an excuse to abdicate responsibility, at least enough to tell himself it's all fine. I'd call social services. If they've already been involved, they know the full story with the father and mother and they ought to know when/if something needs to be done.

I want to get my daughter her own tablet for Christmas since she is always using my Nook Tablet or my phone but neither is really set up all that well for her. I've been looking at the Nabi 2, which is built and intended for kids. I'm just wondering if anyone here has one, what do you think about it, and how well is it set up for kids? And does it work well with some of the online sites for kids like Starfall or Reading Eggs?

:iagree: I agree that a short amount of time to decompress is reasonable. I would also expect, however, that he give you the same courtesy if you do this. Let him have his 30min to an hour, then you take 30min to an hour for yourself where he has full care for your daughter.

Full episodes are all up on the CBS website. I like the show, and I like Watson as a woman, but I've always liked Lucy Liu anyway.

The issue with the nanny isn't that she ignored your concern though. It's that you are PAYING HER and she isn't doing what you told her to do for that pay. This would be like me surfing the internet all day at a job instead of doing my work. Totally different from a husband/wife conflict, IMO.

Well, others may disagree, but my personal feeling is that the primary caregiver has the right to make most decisions for daily activities, which includes screen time. Screen time is not a moral or religious concern (as far as I'm aware), so it isn't the same as something like whether they go to church. It is a "how do we spend our time" question, and those are for the person with the child. ESPECIALLY if the other parent chooses not to engage with and entertain the child himself when he is capable of it.

I'm probably a little more blunt than some people, but given this above, I would tell him that as long as I'm the primary caretaker, I'll make the decisions about what she does with her time, and when he's ready to share fully in responsibility (meaning actually doing what he ought to, not ignoring her, and being a good example by stopping the bad habit himself) then we'll talk about his opinion of screen time. And yes, I've actually had a version of this conversation with my husband, so it can be done.

I think the biggest difference from Target to Wal-Mart is that Target is so much less crowded (at least in my area) that even if people were rude, I wouldn't notice. On average, in the middle of the day, only one or two checkers are at the registers at Target. At Wal-Mart, there's only two in the middle of the night. I love Target because I can shop in peace, any time of day.

When my daughter's behavior changes like this it's usually either she's getting sick with a cold or not getting enough sleep. I'll usually adjust bedtime a little earlier when this happens. This can also sometimes happen when she's feeling a little stir-crazy and needs to get out of the house. If she's irritable and I realize we haven't done much in a few days (a common thing for a homebody like me), I'll make sure we get out to the park or the zoo or something.