We recently dealt with this as well. My son's newest friend was using language we didn't care for. But instead of correcting him I asked my ds to do it next time the friend came over. He is old enough now to stand up for what he believes so I think it is an important skill. The next time his friend came over and used bad language my ds said "Please don't use that kind of language around me." His friend looked startled but agreed. I was so proud of my ds!

:party: Happy anniversary!!!! I am so glad your daughter has not had to deal with the seizures and I pray for continued relief from them.

I wouldn't worry. At 24 months my ds wasn't doing anything except babble. I took him to a speech therapist who told me to stop worrying. He started talking at 3yo and he hasn't stopped since...I mean he NEVER stops talking! :D

Yes it was...big, universal type questions...questions that are helping me form my new worldview... not silly "how much should I pay my ahma?" questions. And the "pearls" I took with me are those who answered the big universal questions about life and poverty, etc with big picture answers... answers that touched my heart and really made me think... not those who chose to focus on how much my ahma makes in a week.

Down time... it doesn't have to be all evening but I know when I am stressed out from work the best thing for me is an hour of quiet to myself to decompress...take a hot shower, a nap, whatever. But chaos when I walk in the door just makes me worse. After a little down time I am ready for some fun and silliness. And our family is VERY silly! :D

Well my little girl is just a baby but I have two boys so I know what you mean by the "difference". I was also the only girl and I can tell you that the days I spent having "girl time" with my mom are some of my most cherished memories. We would go shopping and out to lunch and my mom would let me do all my own ordering and act like a "big girl" and we would get pedicures or go to the movies....just the two of us. Kudos to you for seeing the need and doing something to make your daughter feel special. ;)

My ds is pretty obsessed as well. He is now limited to one day a week. He can play video/computer games on Saturday only.

What a doll! All of our pets have come from "the pound".... they make great pets. Congrats!

I totally agree! :lol::lol::lol:

Storming heaven's gates for you.... :grouphug:

awwww..... I love babies. :grouphug:

It is heaven in a spoon. Enough said.

Awww, Nakia. I love you too. No worries. I have very thick skin and I learned a long time ago that this is all just pretend. It's not real life. I don't lose sleep over posts on this board. There were so many great replies to this thread by people who actually got the point of it and it has given me lots to think about and others too. It's funny to me that I get lambasted for not "heeding advice" when I never actually asked anyone on here "what do you all think I should pay my ahma?" And yet I receive all kinds of unsolicited opinions on it and then I am arrogant for not following those unsolicited opinions. :lol: Ah, such is life on the boards. The point of the thread was so much larger than that one tiny issue and so I just sift through it all and take the pearls with me and leave the rest. Yes I am opinonated and I do a lot of things people say "can't" be done or "shouldn't" be done that way and I will continue to do what God shows me is the right thing to do even if it upsets some people. I only have to answer for my own actions and I can live with that. ;) But Nakia if you EVER get a chance to come to Malaysia will you PLEASE photograph my children? Your pics are amazing. In fact, I think you could do a whole collection of "faces" photography here. There are so many interesting faces...so diverse. But I suppose that's another topic....

How about a funny story to ease your anxiety? About 10 years ago (after a long hiatus) dh and I decided it was time to start attending church. He was raised catholic. I was raised pentecostal. There really is no middle ground on those two! :D And since neither of us were practicing we decided to go with a non-denominational church. We were both very hesitant for all the reasons you listed so we went on the website of the church we were interested in and noticed that there was a christian music concert coming up (it was a big church). I thought PERFECT! A big crowded concert means we can slip in, blend in, and check the place out in a very non-threatening way. So I bought tickets and we went. Well, little did we know the group playing that night was the christian equivalent of NSync or some other boy band. The place was FULL of screamng 12yo girls...a few thousand of them... and us. We were SO EMBARASSED. And we laughed SO HARD as we stood there surrounded by all these pre-teen girls. But in the end we did end up attending the church for a few years. So pick a service and just go. It can't possibly be worse than THAT can it? :lol:

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Yep... he was a associate pastor and close friend of our family. My parents had no clue. I am sorry you have to deal with this. :grouphug:

OMG...remember Kasey Kasem and the top 40 countdown? My very first concert was to go see Motley Crue in 1985. It was so awesome! And Duran Duran....oh how I loved Duran Duran...

"Shot through the heart and you're to blame...." :D

I should be grocery shopping...otherwise it is cereal for dinner!

Wow. Does it ever! My carefully stacked applecart is in shambles....

Well I didn't originally offer up every detail of my ahma's employment situation because I didn't realize this thread would end being so specifically about her. It wasn't supposed to be. It was really just the ramblings of a girl from a blue collar family who has never been better off or worse off than anyone else around her suddenly thrust into a situation where she is the HAVE and she is living with and loving people that are the HAVE-NOTS and that has made her both uncomfortable and motivated to do something at the same time. What will she do with this crazy new life? Stay tuned....

Amen. Class of '88. Decade of decadence. Big hair, eye shadow, lip gloss, and shoulder pads. Best movies and music of ALL TIME. All the fun we had before the world found out that fun could kill you. What a bummer the 90s were after that. Here's one for you... I did my student teaching at a high school in 1993. I remember being absolutely MORTIFIED and how AWFUL the kids looked. It was the "pearl-jam-grunge" era. They all looked filthy and homeless (and this was in an upscale neighborhood). It was cool to look grubby back then. It was such a shock to me since when we were in high school we got up early to have enough time to curl, rat and hair spray our hair and put on all our make-up. School was a fashion show for us! :lol:

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Well yes, that's true. I guess I don't understand what you mean by teaching "normally" and then switching to what will be on the test. In my school now and in the district I left teachers had a list of what they were to teach that year and all of it was game for the test. There weren't two different lists of what to teach....one of things that will be on the test and one of things that won't. And the test is designed around the list of things they are to teach. So if they are teaching their assigned curriculum then teaching "normally" and "teaching to the test" are the same thing.

I got a job in an inner city school and my sole purpose was to get these 16yo students ready for the big state test. These kids could not put a coherent sentence together at 16 years old. I spent 6 months teaching them how to write good essays so they could pass the test and guess what? They PASSED but you know what else? They passed because they learned to write a good essay. I taught to the test. They learned to write an essay. We did not have time for fancy projects or movies or very many field trips. I understand that but they DID learn how to write a good essay so I feel it was successful. This was more towards the beginning if the whole NCLB thing and up until then those kids had just been passed through the system which is why at age 16 they could NOT write sentences. But the pressure to pass this test motivated them and me. We saw it as a challenge and we met it head-on and those kids were high-fiving each other as they left the testing room because they were so proud of themselves. It can work.