Our ped listed a speech problem as a possible reason for toddlers not talking much. Dd has had two frenectomies to try to correct her tongue tie and although she was eventually able to breastfeed, the surgeries were not particularly successful (despite all our efforts the healing did not go as hoped). Dh did wonder if her tongue is affecting her ability to talk or not. But in our case, our child is frustrated. She screams and points and only says a few words and babbles. This example is one where perhaps a speech therapist could offer input that the average mom may not know.

I keep pushing back the time for ds. He is so awful to get up in the morning and I know there's a range of appropriate hours of sleep for kids his age. He's been going to bed around 8:30 but seems like he needs to go to bed closer to 7:30. He is notorious for staying up past the "go to bed" announcement for some reason or another. We leave the house a little after 7am on weekdays and about the same time on Sundays for church lately. Dd goes to bed around the same time, but I have to go to bed with her usually.

I sent you a PM. I'm not saying I know the stats on the particular circumstances surrounding the average abduction. I'm just saying that I know certain areas we go are not the safest cities and based on my child's recent eval it sounds like he isn't NT.

you know how every single child is abducted? Ok. Good to know.

Please be careful with your words. That sounds so black and white. My child is also only saying a handful of words right now and about the same age as Arctic Mama's. The ped. told me that it's not uncommon but it could potentially be a problem. It could also potentially happen within 6 months. So she put in a form with early intervention and they will be in touch to help assess the situation.

The first place was not the same city as the second. But it's not that the theater itself is necessarily the hot spot. It's just the area in general. Certain places become hubs because of the interstate structure where north/south meets east/west or such. There are articles online stating the problem, there have been notices in my church bulletin... I know there are problems here whether you take it seriously or not.

Definitely for me it's later than most people I think. Let's see, a few months back we were meeting up with people at a fast food place. Ds informed me on the way there that he had to use the restroom. He had just turned 8. I told him to go ahead and then after a min. or so of visiting I went to check on him. I normally take him into the women's room with me, but we needed to order food and greet people so I felt kind of torn. So I walk to where the line should be and see a man standing there waiting. I holler asking ds if everything is okay. I notice the door isn't completely closed (like not where you can see in, but not shut properly, either). It was one of those one person bathrooms. I thought oh crap, I leave the kid alone and the door isn't even shut. This man turns to me and informs me that he had walked in on my son. I didn't know what to say. I figured since he was admitting this to me, maybe it was a harmless accident. I later spoke to ds and I don't know if it's because I asked so he exaggerated or because it really happened, but he said that man opened the door on him and stared at him for a few seconds before closing the door. I was so upset at myself for worrying too much about what society thinks about when kids can be left alone and not listening to my gut which is that ds is not mature enough for lots of things. I felt awful. The worst part is the man asked if anyone was in there and ds said, "no" (lol) and then the man opened the door, anyway. So what if ds accidentally answered incorrectly, you don't open the door when someone is in there!! So, just go with your gut. In a co-op situation you might feel more comfortable, depending on the company there. I went to the movies with ds recently and I made him go into the restroom with me because I had to go. It wasn't crowded in the bathroom, but the area has human trafficking issues so I don't care what people think. I'm taking my kid.

I just saw this. I hope it is helpful. Just have him quit after he adds everyone to his LinkedIn account so you can avoid the driving. Joking :)

I'm kind of confused. Do we know this job is even impressive on a resumé for his desired career? I don't expect the OP to elaborate about what he does, but I'm not certain that a theme park job is necessarily relevant to theatre (it could be, just depends on the park and job). I'm with the poster that said I don't have to be 40 for that schedule to mess me up. My dad suspects my adrenals are shot, but I don't know.

I'm glad you live in a safe neighborhood. I just can't help but think of the girl that got a ride after her job and then wasn't seen for years. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20697973,00.html

Ok, so you agreed to something and regret it. But your ds should have had the foresight to think, "wow, that's really going to inconvenience Mom." Or maybe once you tell him that, he will start to think it on his own. This bothers me more than the idea of picking someone up at 1am. But that's maybe just me. I worry about college kids around me that walk late at night where there's actually campus security.

Remember that if there's a spouse in the picture it is not just the mom you have to think about. My dh is probably still upset at me for taking ds for an eval and just looked at a bill today for it (I think the paper bill is wrong, now I have to call and double check). Anyway, it may affect others, not just the mom. And it sounds like she's not in the best place to do anything with the info so I don't know when you would/should bring it up.

I know face-to-face is not the same as facetime and Skype, but I think they can settle for that if driving to/from the gf's house is an added burden. Plus, it sounds like they are already seeing each other on campus. I'm still trying to figure out why he agreed to a job with those kinds of hours if he knew he didn't have a car. I really do believe he's a bit oblivious to the burden it presents to the rest of the family.

Also, did your dd get a container to hold the retainer? If not, I would ask for one or buy one online. That way she could put the retainer in the container during meals, rather than loose on a tray, etc.

Depending on what he's trying to do with the information, he might even be able to use SpellingCity. I tried Anki on my computer and I got frustrated with it for some reason. That was a while back and might be an older version, though. I'm going to look into Quizlet.

Buy Efferdent! It's what I have always used to clean things like toothbrushes, retainers, mouth guards and tongue scrapers. They are advertised for cleaning dentures. The Efferdent tablet sits for like 15 min. in a cup of warm water (I think the box says not to use hot but I use very warm). Depending on how badly I needed my retainer and where I thought it had been, this in addition to scrubbing (as you already did) might be good enough for me and I'm a germophobe. I would clean all the items lol Like the toothbrush she just used to clean the dirty retainer... I would clean that again and then once both items were cleaned I would scrub the retainer once more maybe with a dab of toothpaste.

It's hard for me but sometimes dh tells me with certain people I should just, "smile and nod." I don't want to be fake. I don't want to nod if I disagree. So maybe just make eye contact, listen and say something non committal like, "ok" or "I see" as in, "I see that's your POV" or even a noise like "ahh" "hmm" might work lol. I hate doing it but sometimes it's best not to openly disagree with people because it just won't go well. We know someone with good intentions that was convinced something was true. I knew their personality and knew I might run into them again at a specific place I was going. I brought proof with me in my purse. I had no intention of bringing up the topic, but they did so I pulled out my proof and at some point in the conversation they agreed with me. It didn't really matter if they did or not, but I felt like they had to see something to listen to me.

I believe it. I asked ds how long his lunch is and he said it's 20 minutes (I don't know if he's exaggerating but I was a bit surprised. He takes forever to eat his food at home sometimes lol). They do make a trip to the bathroom at some point as a class I think, but I don't know if it's before/after lunch. When I worked in a daycare I asked about having the kids wash up before snack/meal. They said they didn't do it because the kids would just touch stuff after they came out of the bathroom, anyway. I was always a bit appalled.

This may seem like a no-brainer, but has he already looked into online class options? That could potentially help maybe next semester.

I know carpooling was mentioned a couple times. I don't know if the OP addressed this. Do the coworkers live too far away to drop him off? Also, did he discuss this with you in advance? If I knew that I had to be responsible for transportation at times like 1am, then I would have told my son to find another job or find another mode of transportation. Not everyone can function on such sporadic/limited sleep. I'd be a HUGE grump if nothing else. When this much of his job relies on you, you deserve to say "yay" or "nay" in advance. I don't know how this happened, but I feel like they might have told him after he was hired, "btw, for a few weeks you'll have to close late" in which case I'd say he needed to ask more questions before signing any work contracts. There's no way my parents would have agreed to be my taxi at those hours. I think you are going above and beyond. Are you being compensated in any way? Do you get part of his earnings? Money toward groceries, gas, rent, anything?

Not a movie but... what about Stranger Things on Netflix? Soooo good!! (I know you picked something but this might be an afterthought if they finish the movie and you have Netflix)

Yeah, it's a bit of a gamble for me to eat it. I have stopped eating at certain places because as I get older I think I am less tolerant (or they changed their ingredients). I will no longer eat at Dairy Queen or Sonic. McDonald's sundaes are still safe as is some store bought ice-cream in moderation. When I want to play it really safe I'll buy the lactose-free variety but flavors are limited. Side note, dh will not eat ice-cream inside an ice-cream shop LOL. It gets all over his beard and it's a disaster.

Well, I don't know you but lol I'm a germophobe and I'm fine with it. I admittedly buy misc. products and some do say antibacterial. But I know that they're not great for us. We keep some type of spray or liquid in the car to use after pumping gas. I sometimes use a "wet one" wipe or one of the other products in my car before eating. I know, this is not always logical. I might end up eating residue from the products. I have gone without as well. I feel like I can't win because I'm not going to pull over the car and unload the kids to go inside a building to use the sink before we eat our drive-thru order. And I'm not going to wait til we get home to eat because we are already an hour from the house and starving. Plus, in order to do all that I'd probably end up touching something else in the building lol. Sometimes I will try to order food that doesn't involve hand touching, though (i.e. a wrap).

This is how things with dessert usually work here We have dessert in the house already (ice-cream, cookies, etc.) We are out and about and get a dessert (doesn't have to be around a meal time. Frosties were 50 cents the other day) We are out and order dessert inside the same restaurant where we just ate a meal or swing through a drive-thru for dessert if we're adamant about it But leave the house after a home meal to get ice-cream? That would be very rare, like something I'd see myself doing if I was visiting with family and it was a nice excuse to get out of the house and socialize with just a few of the crowd. And even then, I'd have to weigh whether or not I was that hungry/interested. An actual ice-cream shop is a place I'd normally go to not immediately following a meal. I feel like I can enjoy it more if I haven't just eaten a whole meal.

Nah, not too early for me. Dd (almost 2) will probably be a black cat. We have talked about costume ideas for ds, but nothing in stone. I have always wanted to do a family costume... but it's really unlikely that will happen. I've always wanted us to go as the Munsters, but dh is a stick in the mud about it despite it being his favorite holiday. Dd would either be Marilyn or Grandpa in bat form lol. More than likely ds will do this own thing. He also likes to pick characters that aren't necessarily a grab n go costume. Last year he was a zombie. Ds was a Hogwarts student one year, but he didn't want to be Harry Potter so we didn't do the glasses or scar. I agree you might have to settle for "close enough" with the hair. I have seen Teen Titans Go but not lately. Is Jinx only in the show sometimes? I am not familiar with her. Alternatively, is there a way to buy a troll wig?? The Trolls movie comes out soon! Maybe you could score one.