That sounds like a gift he'll really enjoy. Hope retirement is good, also!

Merry Christmas!

@Baseballandhockey, I don't think you did anything wrong. You gave people information about a sensible alternative. They get to make their own decisions about it.

The way I'm reading it, her husband is the BIL who preferred for his/their kids to attend the outdoor service.

I'm so sorry. I hope 2022 brings healing and relief for you. This is such a hard time of year when things aren't going well.

Holding you in my thoughts

I have dealt with this when we were homeschooling. My kid was younger than yours at the time, so the solutions might look different. For us, what worked best was starting very small with what I asked: for example, 2-3 math problems (eta: this was our daily total at first) at a difficulty level well below what dd could actually do. Every success was rewarded, no matter how small. You'd need to find an age-appropriate reward, since I doubt an M&M would be a compelling prize for a teen, but you get the idea. I sat with dd the whole time, and monitored her mood closely, adding incentives or reducing work depending on what she needed to keep her going. The key was consistent expectations of *work*, but flexibility on my part about *what work* and especially *how much work.* And, then, rewarding everything she did, and * s l o w l y * and steadily increasing my demands, always paying attention to her mood and ability *right at that moment.* As we got past the "do three math problems and call it good" stage, I'd selectively cross off assorted problems on her lesson, sometimes as a reward for doing another section she had just finished, sometimes because I knew she understood those, sometimes just for the heck of it. The point became that compliance and success were rewarded with less work. Eventually I could look at the lesson, cross off several problems, and she'd happily go do the rest on her own. I don't know if any of this will help, but maybe it will. We just needed to reduce the anxiety associated with perceiving a mountain of work, and make sure she had successes more often than failures. I hope you can find something that works for you.

That's scary. I hope she recovers quickly!

I'm sorry things are so hard! Do you have a thrift shop nearby, perhaps? Over the years I've found some fantastic presents for kids there. How old is your dd?

No hesitation at all. I do that on purpose to soften it.

It's clearly a very refined, slender monolith, from skilled stonemasons.

How very sad. I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry. Yes, you're doing the right thing, though it's always hard. Sending hugs.

Sending lots of hugs, @Baseballandhockey. It sounds like this would be a good time to step back from big decisions for a bit. Can you give yourself permission and a little time to just grieve and rest? I wish we could offer help and support in person. But I think you're a phenomenal parent in an incredibly difficult place. Anyone would be having trouble in your place, and anyone would be struggling.

I'm so sorry. Yes, it stinks.

This is just really sad. Yesterday and today I've been spending hours in a hospital visiting a patient, and masking has been almost universal. So far I've seen one teenaged boy with his mask drooping below his nose, and one employee pulling it down briefly to talk. Otherwise, everyone is properly masked. This is a big hospital, with hundreds of people moving around-- all masked. The regional variations continue to be huge.

You're right, and I wish I had worded my answer more carefully. Developing polls that answer the questions you intend is exceedingly difficult. Professionals often don't get it right, never mind high school students!

Similarly to the responses above, I found the choices too black and white. Neither option really represents my views, especially about guns and politicians. People, even politicians, aren't monolithic, and some are more focused on themselves than others. Generalizations don't really work for me. Agreeing that polls are hard.

Yep. I know a (now former) nurse from Tennessee who falls into this category.

Ditto this. One teen got a booster yesterday, other is under 18, so the booster just got approved and scheduling it is one of my top priorities today. We'll get whatever updated boosters become available when they're available.

I'm so sorry.

I'd guess this would depend on the model. Ours (an Oster, at least five years old) turns off automatically after about 25 minutes unless you set the timer. I could see that causing problems, though it's also probably a safety feature.

Thanks for this, I'll check it out.

This is the specialist she's talked with, at a good teaching hospital. Do you know for sure that the procedure suggested for you was the same?

Thanks for your thoughts! This is concerning, though. My peep who has this issue has had physical therapy, but due to the knee's morphology, has been told that can't resolve the situation. Yes, it's a birth defect. Atm she's an active young person who must use a brace all the time. Even lying in certain positions in bed makes her feel like the patella is going to slip out of position. She needs to be able to be active for professional reasons. She's far from overweight. She was told that now, her knee has sustained some damage, but not so much that the surgery and recovery would be particularly hard for her as an individual-- everyone does say it's major surgery. If she waits, there will be more damage, making surgery and recovery harder. A knee replacement hasn't been mentioned.