We have a 5 day vacation rental booked for later in the fall/winter and will have access to a standard kitchen and outdoor gas grill. So far I've come up with sheet pan meals, burgers, and lots of breakfast ideas. Hopefully, the rental will have a crockpot. If it doesn't I may purchase an inexpensive one and leave it there. Please, share your recipes and rental property meal hacks you use when traveling.

Extreme abuse is exactly what you describe, but could be physical, s@xual, mental, etc. I purposely left the definition ambiguous, because trying to define every abusive scenario is too much of a challenge. Josh Duggar has been extremely abusive to Anna. Dh and I adopted and are raising kids with fas and rad, and I absolutely agree that they have experienced extreme abuse.

True. Even functioning relationships can be messy, so I do not pretend to know everyone else's situation. I am glad that you found a solution that worked well for you and your family. Since my only life example is divorced parents, I cannot clearly see through the lens of parents that stayed together. While I value your perspective and it doesn't change my opinion, it does help me see your very valid point.

They claim to be a free, online, accredited university. Thoughts? Opinions? Scam? https://www.uopeople.edu

I would quote/like Rosie’s post if I could. Those are the main reasons I would stay together. Do and I both come from divorced parents. We are in the stay together at almost any cost camp. It is not worth it to the kids to separate outside of extreme abuse. The type where there is no question that custody will be a no go to the abusive parent. Remember that when one divorces, one has no control over what one’s prior spouse might say or do to the kids. They most definitely could paint you in a bad light, raise them much differently religiously or not at all, allow media that you don’t approve of, or even just expose them to friends or situations that are not safe or ideal.

Resealable anything like frozen vegetables and baking mix. Yes! We ran into this with a mortgage company. There was a reason several years ago that only dh's name was on the mortgage. We live in a community property state so if anything had gone south between he and I, I was more than covered financially. The company would not speak to me unless they had verbal "approval" from him first. Not only did we change companies and add me back onto the mortgage, the company ended up with a class action lawsuit due to their practices.

Yep. And a day before the hearing (deposition? trial? something like that.)

She will only be in the next town over and rooming with her sister, but I'm still struggling with the transition. We will only have teens and a tween in the house. Gone are the days of lots of little kiddos. 😢

Yes!! Good analogy!

plus a 10 year old. That is how many kids live in my house right now. Holy hormones, Batman.

I read on here (A different thread maybe?) that photographs of hand can be used to identify creeps uploading photos. As in their hands are in the photos.

When we wanted to match paint we scraped an actual piece off of the wall and took it to have it matched. The paint matched exactly. You might try that in the future.

Thank you to everyone who has responded. You all have brought up excellent things we hadn’t considered. We will definitely contact a reputable contractor and make sure we have the proper permit and ventilation.

@Indigo Bluehave you seen the video that is circling around posted by a public school teacher about elbow bandaids? She teaches k. One day she asked the class if anyone had ever hurt their elbow. Everyone in the class raised their hands. She gave one child a bandaid for their elbow. Then she asked who had ever hurt their knee, then she picked another child and gave them a bandaid for their elbow. She repeated these questions and each time gave the chosen child a bandaid for their elbow. Fair isn’t always equal. Not everyone needs the same things at the same times. I don’t feel obligated to purchase new shoes for every one in the house just because one child needs a pair badly, but I do make sure everyone gets to go clothing shopping at key points in the year. Their purchase pile may look different than their siblings due to hand me downs and current growth needs, but they all get to shop.

My first thought is of course not! I love all of my children equally and genuinely love them the same. On the outside it likely does look like we have a black sheep. We have one child in particular that has challenges from fas, early childhood trauma and rad. This child chooses scenarios that require a different level of supervision and necessary rules for safety. For those that don’t see behind closed doors, I’m sure it looks like we are tougher on said child, but the reality is we aren’t. Child is fully aware that if x behavior happens then x consequence happens. Often that means child misses out on opportunities if dh or I can’t accompany child. I’m sure on the outside it looks like child has considerably less freedom, but it isn’t the case. I was able to see Nicholeen Peck speak at a homeschool convention and got her book A House United. It was so good and has given us lots of strategies to help children who have those type of challenges, so at least we aren’t flying blind!

Yes. We haven't consulted one yet, but it is the plan. Do we need a permit?

I'm not sure.

Pocket doors! Excellent idea!!! Would it be weird to have a pocket door on one side and standard on the other?

I think so. The downstairs laundry is directly next to the downstairs half bath. I'm not sure about the flooring type and needs. We have a standard two-story house. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. No crawl space between the stories. Plumbing routed through the wall? I was hoping to add a small closet in the newly added bathroom that could double as a bedroom closet. If not, no problem calling it a bonus room. We have a five bedroom house. The egress would be two doors on either side of the bathroom into two separate bedrooms. No window, though. Now that you said it, it's obvious. Thank you for bringing this up! I think it will be able to tie into the downstairs half bath next to the laundry room.

It will be directly above our laundry room.

We are planning to take a walk-in closet and turn it into a jack and Jill style bathroom connecting to another bedroom. We may need to move a wall. One room will no longer have a closet, but the other bedroom will still have two. I’m thinking we may be able to add a small closet space to the newly installed bathroom. I don’t know where to start.

I agree. Criminals aren't usually very smart. Reptiles like Josh Duggar are especially foolish.

I am not sure. They have varying opinions, however when I was younger I felt strongly for then against having children. I now have a family 1/2 the size of the Duggars, so opinions and life circumstances can change reality drastically.

I totally agree! I did say they are being unreasonable, but was I just addressing the bulk of the post in which the daughter in law seemed to need more "me time." The son definitely needs to grow up and should be more sensitive to his own parents' health issues!

Wow! The entitlement is shocking. They are being unreasonable. I regularly took all of my children to the grocery store and anywhere else I went. There was no other option for me. None. It sounds like they need to invest in a grocery delivery service, a baby gate, and maybe a season or two of a cartoon series. TV may not be the worlds best babysitter, but occasionally setting up a baby gate in the living room with a tv show while the kiddos' parent sits at the table to paint their nails while still in view of the living room is a viable option. Even if it was weekly, no harm would be done. DIL is being selfish and needs to grow up.