The questions don't personally bother me, especially if they may help keep one family out of a bad situation (loss of a child because of no access to a bicycle helmet, for example). We have an excellent GP that was just the luck of the draw, but I have no intention on changing. We didn't get a form, but he asked all these questions. I knew a lot were just to make sure parents were aware of car seat rules (a lot of people I have known, many of them college educated, actually aren't and just do what was done when they were a kid -- out of the seat by four or five years old), and to give them access to free or low-cost options when necessary. When he asked if we had a pool, I said just a smaller 4-foot deep pop-up pool. He then explained to the boys how to recognize fatigue in the water, or when they needed to get out for a muscle cramp. Medical related stuff. We don't have guns, but I grew up in a gun family, and my dad wouldn't have minded a safety lecture from the doctor. But then, he was of the mind that the more people that gave us the same safety info on anything, the more likely we were to listen and follow it. All this to say, for me the situation is more a form of bad bedside manner and a poor medical checkup. These dr's offices (especially the one's part of huge hospital networks) are losing the ability to really get to know their patients so they are streamlining the process until it is impersonal, cold, and uncomfortable. Oddly enough, that's similar to my thoughts on public schools, too!

I can only assume it isn't illegal here. Kids play in the quiet neighborhood streets all day long. There's basketball hoops and street hockey courts chalked out on most streets. On just about every street a few people have those plastic neon "children at play" things set up at the end of the driveway. The neighborhood officers that drive around and hand out stickers to the kids during the summer never say anything. Incidentally, it IS illegal for any wheeled conveyance beyond a stroller or wheelchair to be on a sidewalk here, which includes toddlers on trikes. An officer at a library bike safety event told us about it. He also said that although technically illegal, that no officer would give a citation for it and if they did, every judge in town would toss it out, unless it was an adult or older kid riding recklessly or failing to yield to pedestrians. As a rule we don't have bike lanes, and we have some very crazy, curvy, hilly roads that aren't otherwise safe for both bikes and cars to travel at the same time.

I was an impertinent, although not rude, kid that didn't have any really peers amongst other kids, and I have a kid whose intellectual peers are adults, so we have had to travel a very rocky road with him. I had friends my age when I was young, as does he, but they aren't really peers in the deeper sense. Many of the "life isn't fair and some people have to work harder to get the equal treatment they deserve" conversations have occurred over the years. He wasn't raised in a "Mr. and Mrs." culture, but a culture of adults-known-by-first-names culture. Yeah, the first time someone corrected him and said call me "Mrs. M" and he came back, very politely, with , "Okay, Mrs. M. I would prefer to be called Mr. A," I was a bit proud of his impertinence. Fortunately for him, the woman thought it was cute. Since then, we've advised that perhaps he should ask new adults their preferred form of address and that he then supply them with his preferred form. Personally, I don't think adulthood magically bestows someone with more wisdom or even life experience over every child in the world. I've met plenty of kids that deserve my respect far more than I deserve theirs. If my kids question authority genuinely and with logic, more power to them. I hope they call me out so I can check if my actions are really in line with the values I want to live by and bestow upon them. If they do it just to be defiant and see what they can get away with, then we need to have a talk to get to the root of that matter.

I got some flack on here a few years ago when I posted about kids and respect. I grew up in a regional culture where respect was demanded of kids but kids were too young to have "earned" any respect of their own. My own family was not like that and I had issues with the whole "respect your elders" position. With my kids, I went with the "be polite to everyone until they prove they deserve otherwise." I have no clue what my parenting style is. We don't spank and we rarely discipline, yet those who don't know us well think we are very strict because of how well my kids behave (in public at least :001_rolleyes: ), but I couldn't tell you the last time my kids were disciplined for anything. I guess I am a "routine" style parent. I personally need routine and rhythm to function well. I keep my own life scheduled and very organized or I will just fall apart. So I naturally kept routine with the kids. Bedtime was at a certain time and I was strict about that, but they didn't have to go to sleep. Lights, toys, books -- I didn't care as long as they were in their room and quiet at bed time. Time for a meal but not hungry? That's wonderful but you still have to sit down with the family. I wasn't ever big on the arbitrary "no." Even when young they got an explanation as to why (although it was after the fact if it was a safety issue). Just about everything in our house is open for discussion, but the kids know that the parents have final decision making authority. I'm almost a free-range parent, because my kids have a lot of freedom as long as they keep us informed at all times. We allow discussion but not arguments. We hug it out. I've been known to bribe my kids on occasion. We encourage the kids to make their own decisions with our advice. We set clear expectations and allow for the natural consequences. We mess up sometimes and we own up to it and apologize.

My oldest, about to turn 14 and whom is starting 8th/9th grade, will begin volunteering at a local art museum after his 14th birthday. He decided to do this after talking to a college recruiter for the university/program that he plans to attend. The recruiter informed him that teens with volunteer and work experience rose to the top of the program application pile compared to those with similar academic successes that did not work/volunteer. He is starting with one day, 4 hours per week because his class load comes first (a mixture of homeschool and outside classes through a public high school program for homeschoolers). We may allow him to bump it up to twice per week if his school work won't suffer. My son also hopes that having two years of volunteer service will help him get a job when he's 16 if he chooses to, although there is always a chance he could get a paid position at the museum (they often tap their volunteer pool for ticket booth or gift shop positions). So far there are still a few job options for teens in our area. For example, our local coffee shop primarily hires from the pool of neighborhood teens. Our main rule with both work and volunteering is that it can't impact your studies, and if you want to drive at 16 you must be either working or volunteering. We may relax that rule, because on his current track he will begin college at 16, so he will need a car but may need an adjustment period before he can do both work and school. On a side note, my 9 year old is already working :) He has a successful (for a 9 year old) neighborhood house sitting business and he is developing another online business idea he hopes to launch soon. But he's only happy if he is overscheduled and sorting through chaos.

I do understand the sentiment, I really do. I friend of mine lost his daughter to a genetic condition last year. He recently lashed out on FB, against all the parents complaining about their kids being on summer break, telling them to think before they speak because he would give everything to have his daughter home for summer break. It's okay to complain, it's okay to vent, but we should all make the effort to keep everything in perspective and count ourselves as fortunate that we still have the life/people/things to vent and complain about.

I work full time from home (I'm a writer), which they are very aware of because it's hands-off time when mom's working or on the phone with a client. DH and I do stuff with a local group of comic book fans, I volunteer with the astronomy society and do science outreach events for the general public (my youngest and I do this together, actually), I read, we all hike, and I have a ton of creative hobbies-sewing, paper crafts, home decor, etc. Interests outside of parenting doesn't mean outside the house or with other people. I 100 percent think reading and other solo, home-based activities qualify if they make you happy or content.

MCN was someone I never met. The house next to us was a rental when we first bought, with the owner living out of state. She had a dead tree in the front yard. A few months after we moved a heavy windstorm came through and blew down some big branches, which collapsed part of our front deck. DH was able to fix it with a drill and few new screws, but we contacted her management company to see if she could remove the dead tree. She personally wrote us back that we could remove it if we had a problem, because it wasn't causing any problems to her property so she didn't care. Fortunately, the city ruled it a hazard and she was forced to take it down. The rest of our neighbors remembered when she still lived there, and would tell us stories. I guess one time she went door-to-door with a petition to try and make it so no one would start their cars between 9 pm and 7 am because it woke up her dog. I guess she had also tried to sue another neighbor in small claims court for snowblowing her sidewalk once, but the case was thrown out. The tenants never stayed long, saying she was hell to deal with as a landlord. The inside of the house was painted horrendously -- the kitchen had red, white and blue lower cabinets, with pink floral upper cabinets and dark green and black checkerboard tile. She had put neon green crackle paint on all the baseboards. It was so bad she always had trouble renting it when tenants would finally move out. It was like a drunk unicorn had thrown up on the place. Finally she decided to sell. I caught the management company (which was handling the sale) throwing all the yard debris from the backyard over our fence and into our garden. When I confronted them about it, they said we had told the owner we were fine with that. I guess they reported back to her that we hadn't given permission for her trash to end up in our yard, because we got a nasty-gram from her threatening to sue us for trying to obstruct the sale of her property (written on Family Circle stationary circa 1983, no less)! I was so happy when the house finally sold a month later. I can only imagine what those two years would have been like if she had actually still lived there!

I'm saying this gently, but you can not force an adult child to come home for treatment without breaking the law yourself, unless you can prove they are mentally incapable of making any decisions. I don't know the details of what the parents went through or what avenues they explored. It's just really easy for those of us on the outside to think "we could have done better," when actually, maybe we couldn't have.

That is standard protocol here -- lights on, sirens only turned on for lights or if there is an obstruction. When we went on a field trip to the police station, they told the kids that studies had been done and sirens caused more accidents as people scurried to get out of the way, so that most officers were now trained to move quickly through moving traffic instead of trying to get all traffic out of the way.

I used to deliver pizzas, and then later managed a pizza hut. Pizza Hut actually tested delivery charges vs. raising prices back in 1999 or 2000, and people protested less to the delivery charge. (They also shrunk the pizza size by 1 inch at that time. Few noticed.) At my store, drivers received 50 cents a "run." Keep in mind, a run could require delivery to two, three or even four addresses depending on how busy it was. Between deliveries, the drivers are taking orders, making pizzas, and working hard. Most pizza places I knew of offered no benefits. The job was dangerous. You may live in a nice neighborhood, but I guarantee there are some scuzzy places in your delivery area. Dog bites and robberies weren't uncommon. My minimum wage primarily went toward gas, insurance and car maintenance. I lived off the tips. Most delivery people were college kids, single mom's or adults working a second job to make ends meet. All of this colors my perspective, but my general belief is if you are too tired/lazy/busy to go pick up your pizza, then tip at least 15% and preferably 20%. Our average order is $30, so I don't think a $6 tip is out of line. I feel when I order pizza that if I can afford the luxury of hot food delivered to my door, then I can afford tipping well for it. If the service from the driver is shoddy, I may not tip much (rude, pizza stuck to box lid, that sort of thing). I do not let a late delivery affect my tip because I know that delivery time is rarely in the hands of the driver, although I may call the store and complain if the delivery time is no where near what I was quoted.

My boys each have their own desks (real desks, not school desks) in two separate corners facing the wall. They each have a window to one side of them because I am a staunch supporter of daydreaming out the window. Their backs are to each other and there is a bookcase dividing them. My boys are 9 and almost 14, so well into the independent learning phase and far enough apart that they don't really share any subjects. My desk is on a different wall, so my back is usually to both of them. If one needs help, I just wheel my chair over next to them and help them side-by-side. My youngest does migrate to the living room when he is reading, but otherwise both kids prefer to work at their desks for anything involving writing or computer work. Eldest will only work at his desk. Their walls in front of them are a study of their personalities. Elder has fabric and paint swatches, inspiration boards, floor plans and other artsy, architectural stuff all over. Youngest has paper shuttle models, diagrams of planet cores and a giant white board filled with scribbles I can even begin to decipher. They made their walls their own, so they don't seem to mind staring at them! When they were younger they shared a table in the center of the room. That worked well until about two years ago when their curricula became too differentiated and the bickering bridged the age gap.

I'm in Washington, and at least in my county, there isn't much you can do. Do your neighbors own or rent? (This is often a matter of public record.) If they rent, is the landlord aware they have added another adult to the home? The landlord may be on your side and he can make it very difficult for the guy to live there, and he can do it without breaking tenant laws.

My kids have to clean up daily except for their bedrooms, so they are naturally more drawn to playing in their rooms so Legos rarely migrate to other parts of the house. Vacuuming is also a kid chore, so they have felt the pain first hand of accidentally vacuuming up a toy. They are pretty good about leaving nothing out and about. But...to be fair, they have grown up with me as their anal-retentive, type-A, possibly borderline OCD mother, so they know I actually get hives if things aren't put away properly or if things become disorganized and chaotic, and no child wants to be the cause of an itchy, irritable mom. (Yes, I'm weird. No, my mother didn't have me tested -- but she probably should have!)

Until I started homeschooling, I had never thought of the word modesty being about clothes. I wasn't raised Christian and clothing was never an issue in my house growing up. My sister and I dressed pretty weird sometimes, but my parents never mentioned it. maybe it wasn't a hill they wanted to die on? For me, modesty is an attitude thing -- be modest, don't brag or do things just to make yourself look good. When I see it used to judge the clothing a (usually) woman wears, it makes me angry. Some of us have cleavage in a turtle neck and we already had to deal with middle school and high school slut shaming just because we happened to be stacked. All this to say, modesty has nothing to do with clothing. Someone in a halter top and short-shorts may be more modest -- helping others, but not taking credit, for example -- than someone in a floor length flour sack (or denim jumper!) that's always bragging about how devout and wonderful they are. I'm well aware many people assign stereotypes to clothing choices, but I personally strive and hope I'm successful at not falling into that judgement trap.

We went no couch in our house at first, until my mom gifted us her old beautiful antique couch. We also don't have a TV in the room. We used a combination of the fireplace and low square coffee table as the focal point. The design changed a couple of times. First we had four comfy chair arranged around the table, later we switched to two chairs and a loveseat. Im not great at home decor, so I loved not having to design around a big, awkwardly shaped couch.

Our major non-negotiable beyond the three-R's is science. We will raise scientifically literate adults. Critical thinking and logic skills are a natural spin-off from truly studying the sciences. The second non-negotiable is a foreign language. They get to pick the language, but they have to learn one. Eldest is learning Chinese and excelling at it, youngest picked Latin because it's the "language of science," but we're going to encourage him to choose a living language in the next couple of years.At one point he wanted Russian because of his space goals and the ISS partnership, but with the way politics are going he might change his mind in a few years. Everything else is pretty much tailored to the child and their strengths/desires.

I cuss like a sailor. Those that know me personally and professionally are aware of this yet they still take me very, very seriously. in fact, when I drop F-bombs it usually means "this is serious business and everyone best pay attention." Why? Because an attitude with a mouth to match can be a good thing, especially when standing up to injustice. Language is a powerful tool to rock boats and affect change.

Culturally, we have been slowly moving away from formality. Doctors and college professors dress more casually so their patients and students are more comfortable with them. When I was a kid, the guy at the bank wore a suit and tie, now he's in a polo and a pair of khakis. The perfume ladies at the department store used to be all dolled up, now it's black t-shirts and expensive jeans. Overall, the cultural norm IS more casual and laid back. I'm don't buy into the whole media image thing, either. Except for in a few very rare cases, children dress like children on TV shows. A bit more stylishly and expensive than my kids, but they are still dressed like kids. When we see media personalities all dressed up "sexy", it's for a special occasion usually - -awards shows, concerts, nights on the town. Finally, who gives a rat's derriere about cultural norms? I'm one that believes the norm is something to be automatically distrusted until it's been thoroughly questioned and examined for any flaws. I do not fit the cultural norm for my social standing and age, thankfully! And honestly, as for distractions - I find the way a lot of people look distracting and it has nothing to do with their attractiveness or what they are wearing.

Reading those comments on the second blog, I'm glad we aren't part of that homeschool community. The slut shaming was ridiculous and over the top in most of the comments. My main take away is that for some unknown reasons homeschool dads are better than other dads (patently not true, I've met quite a few creepers and asses in my years of homeschooling) and that good Christian girls can't dress or act in a way that causes people to sin in thought or deed. Good on ya, blog commentators for perpetuating the belief that the female form is a shameful sexual device for sin... What the comments did reveal is that all the adults were previously against Clare (she's a bad influence, this isn't the first time, etc), so I doubt it would take much to get kicked out. I'm 38 years old, a responsible adult, and an active community leader, but you can bet your last dollar if a bunch of nit-picky, nose-in-the-air, holier-than-thou hags were always giving me disapproving looks, I would push those boundaries as far as possible just to make them squirm. At 17 I wouldn't have developed the finesse to pull it off as gracefully as I can now, though, which is what this looks like to me. Scratch that, maybe not. If someone tried that impure thoughts line on me now I'd probably consider decking them. Grace and finesse aren't really my strong suits.

Our area is still garage sale central,, but it doesn't really get going here until school is out in June. I expect to pay prices 75 percent or more off new and that seems to be the norm in pricing in this area. Those who want to make more off their old stuff take more time to sell it on line or via Craigslist around here.

Yuck. Respect is earned, not demanded, but it sounds like this teacher thinks otherwise. The wording makes it sound like the respect goes one way -- students must respect teacher but teacher doesn't have to respect the kids. It especially raises my hackles because it's an art class. I had an awful art teacher in high school who would paint over our painting if she didn't think they were good enough, or even throw them away, and we weren't allowed to argue with her because she was the "artiste."

Our situation is different. Our school district has an alternative learning program specifically designed for homeschoolers wanting enrichment from the public school. The kids go two days a week and can take up to six classes a semester. The student body is made up completely of homeschooled kids. My youngest goes for music, a cool Lego science class and an art class. My older son takes music, math and Chinese. Most classes aren't grade/age specific and they allow the kids to get high school credits early if they can handle the work, which is good because DS1 is planning on starting university two years early. It's also a good thing for us, because outside classes/tutoring to this extent isn't in our budget and this is already paid for via our school tax dollars.

Check out ting.com. They use the Sprint network but are likely less than $35 a month. DS has his smartphone through them and he rarely has a bill over $18 (and this is a kid with heavy wi-fi and texting usage on his smartphone). You have to have a Sprint phone, but they have used options and you can sell the old phones to pay for the new used phone.

For me, minimum of carbs/grains (no more than one serving a day), high protein/vegetables, moderate dairy (unless you have a dairy issue, like my eldest son), real food. DH and the kids eat more carbs/starches than me, but they have faster metabolisms and can process it better than I can. We eat fruit, but I don't have much of a sweet tooth so I'm not a huge fruit fan. The closest thing to convenience food in my house is dried pasta, and we haven't had fast food in at least six months, if not longer. I could lose some weight, but both DH and I have low cholesterol, low blood pressure, and we are healthy. In fact, when our blood work came back from our annual checkups in January, the dr. circled the cholesterol numbers and wrote "amazing! What's your secret?" next to it, lol. Personally, although we loosely follow a "Paleo-Lite" diet, I think the secret is cooking with real ingredients and avoiding fast food and processed foods. Well, that and genetics. My father had a heart condition from a childhood illness and spent much of his adult life battling his weight, but he always had low cholesterol.