I am pretty sure it is happening day and night. Dh has complained about it for years so night is for sure happening. I catch myself during the day. Especially because I live in a very cold climate. I catch myself clenching when out in the cold or driving on icy roads, which can be almost daily during about half of the year. I am just assuming that I can at least minimize the damage if I can prevent it while sleeping or at least prevent damage while sleeping.

I believe that I have been doing it my whole life but I am sure stress is a factor. I have been trying to reduce my stress/anxiety for years. I already exercise for at least an hour a day, do yoga, and practice relaxation techniques right before bed. If I could eliminate the stress, a lot of issues would be resolved.....

That is so cool! I am definitely going to try it!

Apparently I grind and/or clench my teeth while sleeping. This has been going on for years, if not decades, but recently my dentist has pointed out that it is now causing notable damage to my teeth. Years ago, a previous dentist recommended a splint to wear at night and I had one made. I could never get used to it. Not only was it difficult/uncomfortable to sleep while wearing it, I woke with headaches. So, I quit using it. Within months, it no longer fit anyway. Apparently my teeth move a lot..... I then tried an OTC splint with the same results. I gave up. So now that it seems to be causing damage, I am back to trying to do something to correct it. Are there any options other than the traditional splints that most people use?

My dd just turned 14 and has not yet started driver's ed. Most of her friends do not drive yet but we do allow her to ride with her 16yo boyfriend. That was a difficult leap for me but he is a very careful driver and asked for our permission first. I had witnessed his driving habits on many occasions and was not above asking around to other adults who knew him before giving permission. If it were not this particular kid, I doubt we would have allowed it. The running them back and forth between houses and the activities they both participate in was getting more than a little crazy so I am sure that was also a factor. Luckily, there are very few places to go around here where the speed limit is over 25 MPH. If the driving conditions are poor, which they frequently are here, his parents do not allow him to drive with anyone else in the car so I do not have to make that call. Dd has to ask permission before being allowed to ride with any other teens. Unless I know them well and have observed their driving habits first hand, the answer will likely be no.

I'll be the lone dissenter. This is a fashion thing with a few very-straight males I know and has been for some time. I would not assume anything based on clothing/hair/make-up styles.

Thanks for this. My goal is to keep our plans as flexible as possible because dd has some ideas of what she wants to do but they seem to be pretty scattered in preparation. One direction is STEM-leaning and another might involve delaying or forgoing college altogether, so flexibility is key. If she does pursue the STEM direction, she will not graduate early and will therefore have the fourth year to take another science class, which would likely be DE at our local university. In that case, the physical science class would not be listed. I am just trying to cover my bases in case she goes the delay/forgo route so that she has decent options should she change her mind soon after and want to attend traditional college.

We plan to stay in our current smallish house for a bit after dd moves out. It is big enough that she could live here during and/or after college, even with a spouse and/or child, if necessary. Once that ship has sailed, we hope to downsize to something even smaller. We would like the house that works for our lifestyle and have decided that planning to accommodate a future extended family is probably not wise in our case. We have seen this backfire. MIL lives in a nice large family home that her children grew up in. It is a great place to visit and she loves having the whole family there. The house is large enough to accommodate all three of her children and their families. However, it is a very large house (for one person) and a great deal of yard to maintain. I cannot even imagine how much taxes, heating costs, and other routine expenses must be. Her three children live all over the country and it is very rare that we can all gather there at one time. And even when we do, despite the space, all three families are at such different stages of life that it can be difficult to be under one roof. Really, I feel bad for MIL because living in that big house is just a constant reminder that her children cannot be there as much as she would like. My own mother lives in a retirement community but chose and is paying for a condo that is much larger than needed with the thought that her kids (and families) would stay with her when we visit. Again, this has not panned out. We are also all over the country and can visit far less often than she was envisioning. On top of that she is a hoarder (thankfully, on a minor level) so she just filled that space with stuff. She complains often that she has all of this space and doesn't understand why we insist on staying in a hotel. Somehow she does not seem to see that the space is physically filled and that there is no actual space for anyone to stay..... So, I plan to swing the other way. We will purchase or design the house that works best for our lifestyle and future plans. This will likely include a spare bedroom or at least a versatile space that could be temporarily converted into a semi-private sleeping space for guests. But if our dd has multiple children, the "home" will just have to be "where the heart is," whether that means gathering elsewhere or setting up a tent/camper in the yard or whatever it looks like based on what actually ends up happening. I think it is mentally healthier for everyone to not try to project your ideas of what "family" will look like so far in advance that it puts undue pressure or stress (not to mention financial burden) on everyone involved.

I have done both commercial and homemade. We started with Nature's Variety raw food. A local feed store carried it so it was the easiest. The store quit carrying it so for about a year I made my own by grinding up whole chickens. There was a local farm that I bought them from. I had to add some stuff to it to get the correct balance. I got sick of doing that (I am a vegetarian so it was not the most pleasant activity) so we are back to commercial. Since no one local carries it, I get it delivered from Darwin's. I have been the happiest with them. The only hassle is getting a huge cooler box every month but they send a label to send the empty box and packaging back for reuse so not a big deal.

I have been feeding my cats raw for 6 years with great success. They are elderly (15 and 18 yo) and were in very poor health when we switched them. They were on prescription food for crystals, had dull, oily fur, dull eyes, dental issues, etc.... All of their health issues resolved quickly afterwards so I am a big believer. My vet is not a believer and thinks I am nuts. Especially when I stopped having to buy the expensive prescription food from him.

That is the plan. There are other classes dd took in 8th grade that I also will not count if she completes high school on the normal timeline. It is good to know I *can* use physical science in the unlikely event that I need to.

Does anyone know if their local high schools count Physical Science (with lab) as a high school science credit? I am asking because I was under the impression (mostly from reading here) that it should not be considered a high school class. Back in my day, this is what we took for 9th grade science. I was chatting with dd's friends last weekend about how the 9th grade is going so far (they all go to school) and discovered that Physical Science is what all 9th graders take in my local district. It is a small school so most students all take the same science sequence (Physical Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics) unless they DE or choose to graduate with less than 4 credits. This surprised me. I'm just wondering if this is common. I am wondering because we are a bit undecided on dd's high school path. I have attempted to set up dd's schedule leaving open the remote possibility of graduating a year early, essentially making her 8th grade year her "9th grade" year. Everything she studied in 8th grade is high school level except for science. She took DO Physical Science. His website calls it "8th or 9th grade" level. But after reading on here, I was under the impression that I could not count this as high school level. I would like dd to have 4 full credits of science before graduating so planned to leave that off of her transcript and have her double up on science later in order to have 4 full credits should we indeed lean toward the early-graduation route at that point. I would prefer to not do this if I can count Physical Science. Thoughts?

Me too! My only is in 9th grade so far from launching but the OP's ds sounds just like my dd. I do not consider her "average" and aside from when I have been reading on here too much, I am not at all worried about her future. There is a place for most student, even truly "average" ones.

Yes. Snowball effect. And I really don't blame some parents. The kids next door sit on the bus for 45 minutes to get to a school 4 blocks away. The bus picks up each kid at their individual houses....because....no sidewalks.....and meanders all over the city. I wouldn't want my kid wasting 90 minutes a day sitting on a bus when I could drive them in literally 5 minutes. I am one of the least susceptible to irrational fear of the parents I know but I still would not want a 5, 6, or 7 yo walking 4 snowy blocks in the dark with no sidewalk....or sitting on a bus for 45 minutes. I would be more inclined to walk my kid to school but most parents are driving on to work anyway so it is what it is.

We have always just used our iPhones out of the country (Europe, Iceland, Canada, Mexico, and DR, but never Australia so YMMV). WIFI has always worked. Cell has been sketchy at times but usually works. WIFI has been so universally available wherever we have gone that cell was rarely needed anyway. We have gotten temporary international plans for some trips but have found just activating as needed turned out to be cheaper in the end.

Very few kids walk in our district even though the elementary school is in the middle of a residential neighborhood. I live 4 blocks from the school and the bus picks up the kids on my street. Almost half of the kids in our district are school of choice so they are not eligible for bus service. Between them and the parents who don't want their kids to have to take a long bus ride over a short distance, the drop off and pick up line is so long that the city is changing the roads to accommodate the lines of cars. There are a few older kids that bike but not many. Most are carrying far too much, especially those in band, to bike safely. I can see both sides. Our city has very few sidewalks, none near the schools, and they are not cleared in the winter. Winter is 6 months. And during winter, kids are going to school is pitch dark. The combo of cold, darkness, slick streets, and no sidewalks is not good for walkers. OTOH, I think the city should have been maintaining the infrastructure and clearing of sidewalks all along so that kids (and other people) can safely walk around this town. Instead of changing the road to accommodate the line of drop-off cars, they should invest in sidewalks, lighting, and crosswalks...... Heck, maybe public transit too so those school-of-choice kids do not all have to be individually driven to school. I often walk when the roads are too slick for comfortable driving (or I am too lazy to shovel the drive) but I must be on constant lookout for traffic and prepared to jump up on a snowbank if a car is out of control near me. That is not really a skill I would want to have a teach a 5yo. Chicken and egg in our area is where we are right now. I do not see the situation changing anytime soon.

I'm curious too. I don't think I have ever purchased drain cleaner. Any drain issue I've ever had could be remedied with a plunger or taking the drain neck off to clear it.

My dd did it in 8th grade. Aside from a little help with the labs and scanning, she completed the course on her own. She broke the class down into two days per week which typically did not take more than an hour each day most weeks. Dd enjoyed it but I think it may be on the light side for high school science.

14 years and still waiting. That line is still blank in her baby book. I knew I was in trouble when she only slept for a average of 9 hours a day during her first weeks. At least she has been managing her own nighttime awakeness on her own since about age 8. I think she is one of those rare people that simply does not need much sleep. I also suspect it was in her plan all along to make sure she was an only child. It worked.

Yep. Mine is 14yo and it has been constant since she was born. She is a big eater and ate adult-sized portions at meals by the time she was 4yo. And still needed snacks. All. The. Time. She is now a pretty serious athlete so the big food needs are not surprising but as a toddler and young child, I worried that she always needed so many snacks. We always have balanced meals and the snacks are not "fun." She is totally happy to eat plain yogurt, veggie sticks, fruit, nuts, etc.... We have almost no junk in the house. She genuinely needs the food. She is trim and muscular so I am not going to question her food needs. As long as you have healthy snacks on hand and it is not causing you a bunch of extra hassle. I see no reason to try to "fix" it.

Me too. Winter is more than 6 months of the year and not going out is not an option....especially since I have to go to work. But there is one thing. Cat litter. It is heavy and goes in the basement. The outside door to the basement is not accessible during those 6 months so I try to get enough to last the winter before it snows so I am not schlepping it through the house and down the rickety ladder into the basement.

Good to know there is an alternative for that lab. The only insect I can find year-round are pill bugs! Plenty of those in my basement!

For those who have past experience..... I am trying to order lab supplies. I am using the recommended site. Is there an easier way than ordering each little thing individually? For instance, I only need 4 test tubes and most come in minimum packages of 12. Or I only need 20 mL of ethanol but the smallest quantity is 500 mL. Also, we live in an area where is snows for more weeks out of the year than not. And it snows a lot with accumulations almost every day. Our snow will be here until after the class stops meeting. I understand this means ordering bugs and stuff. I have looked ahead at the labs and there are two I am concerned about. The first is the spaghetti "worm" and bird experiment. We will still be getting a great deal of snow at that time and often blizzards where everything is either going to get covered, frozen, and/or blown away. Has anyone dealt with this? The second is the Dichotomous Lab that requires "access to 16 different species of *local* organisms" with more info to be provided later. Can anyone give me a clue as to how much of a problem it might be that we are still buried in snow at that time? Pine trees, birds, plow drivers, and squirrels are about all that is alive at that time....most of which are not going to take too kindly to being caught for observation.

I am putting the finishing touches on our plans for 9th grade and racing against the clock. My dd has 5 solid academic classes she will take as a 9th grader. Her 6th credit will be violin. Dd participates in several non-classical groups on violin/fiddle as "extracurricular activities" but she will also be pursuing classical studies with a private instructor with study/practice time incorporated into her school day schedule that is not associated with any group outside of her own private study. Would this be questioned by colleges on a transcript? My assumption is no since many students have band, choir, orchestra, etc.... as actual classes in school. I'm not sure it will matter if we also list some of her other music activities as "extracurricular activities" as she spends 3+ hours a day playing between her classical studies and outside non-classical playing/practicing. Dd will be logging her practice and lesson times, which will add up to well over what would be required for a single credit. I am struggling with how to put a "grade" on this. From my own days as a student and polling the parents I know with kids in band at school, the grade is usually based solely on participation and (maybe) a practice log signed by parents but not tied to proficiency. How have others handled this at home? On what basis should I determine a grade? And what sort of records should I keep other than materials studied and a practice log?

That is good to know. Having not taken any foreign language in college myself, I worried that it was more like college-level chemistry or physics (for engineers in my case) which would have been very difficult with no previous exposure from high school chemistry or physics. That said, most everyone I knew who did take foreign language 101 in college had taken at least two years of the same language in high school. Those who had taken 3-4 years in high school might start with second or third year in college. This is what lead me to believe it might be a bad idea for a DE student to go in cold.