Look for LibreOffice and/or Open Office on your PC. That's what I use. If you don't have either, I'd download LibreOffice. Ahh.

Again, it's unclear if it's having an actual panic attack. Those are not the words the OP used.

Yeah, I think it was the loudness she was punishing him for. Like okay stay up but try not to disturb everyone else?

Yeah, I agree with a pp, maybe there's some aspect of the trip causing the anxiety. I know for me, it might be something embarrassing I didn't want to share with my friends like, "I don't know if I'll have to pee while I'm waiting in the long line for the roller coaster. I don't want to upset people." I was once invited to go to a water park when I was, I dunno, middle school age, with friends and I didn't want to go because I'd never been and I was kinda nervous but also because I had a monthly visitor. I felt like a freak for declining. Are you positive he wants to go? I have been diagnosed with anxiety but I've never put the phrase "anxiety freak out" together. As a child I think I internalized a lot. Oh my gosh please don't leave me in the dark. I cannot handle that method, either. I was given a surprise birthday as a child and I was so self- conscious about what I was wearing but since I didn't know it was going to happen that day I didn't plan accordingly. Planning ahead is one of the only ways I can reduce my stress/anxiety and when I can't plan ahead it makes me less likely to get involved. "Where is this event being held? What kind of parking situation are we looking at? (parallel parking sends me for the hills)" etc. wendyroo, how far in advance are you telling him? Ds has trouble with transitions, which I think is a little different than general anxiety, so I will just give him a heads up and it could be as little as 10 min. but so he has time to adjust. Log off the game, brush your teeth, get on shoes, whatever.

I would stay home because I would be a mess Lol. The tired stay home...? That might be two or three. Giving the one child a choice depending on how he feels. Yup only one day so it does not cost you extra. Seriously do not think rollercoasters would be fun on limited sleep. Ugh. Migraine?

It would be easier for me to hear someone else bought them than I decided to keep them -- but I can't really advocate lying, either. "Sorry, they are not available now" might be an easier out. Though it is a bit late for that.

I like to make it look like I spent $15-20 though I may have spent less because sales/coupons. Really a nice gift for that age could probably cost even less. If I wanted to add to it, I would add an inexpensive accessory. Multiple kids attending party --- no, do not feel obligated to being four gifts. Oh my. One nice gift, sure. Call it done lol maybe spend more than $20 but eh there's wiggle room.

Pizza sauce and marinara are very different, at least according to dh lol

I would feel something like this. OP, was your ad left open? Would rebuying them be a financial burden? I guess I'd be asking myself a few questions before deciding. Maybe compromise and sell the extra one at a discount? Since you might have to rebuy it later if you still want the spare.

I should have clarified. Dh has a homemade sauce that's semi chunky and very good. But when I tried to recreate it I didn't do a good job. It was one of those things where you ask the cook "how much of this?" and they say, "Oh a pinch" or "oh about this much" and demonstrate but don't have any actual measurements for you. I don't do well with that lol. I really like his sauce, but I was so disappointed I missed the mark that I felt like I should have just opened a jar.

I like Classico the way it is. I wouldn't even know how to doctor up sauce. I'm pretty useless in that dept. The one time I tried to make it from scratch it just didn't come out like it should and I thought, might as well have bought the Classico! lol

Talking to strangers to pass time is probably done somewhere public. A grocery store line, a waiting room, perhaps a bus stop. The bus stop, if on a busy road or near businesses, may not be in isolation. Though some may be and those I would be leery about using. You know I've heard that thing before about don't get on an elevator if your gut says no. And lots of people will do it for fear of being rude. And what do they say? Stop doing things just to be nice. Follow your gut.

I wasn't talking about children exclusively necessarily. I just can't remember the quote from the show. Besides, I don't know if a teen is filed under children. I think sometimes women get away with more touchy feely gestures, too. Not saying that men aren't still the greater percentage. I had a female boss that used to massage our shoulders as we were working and I never knew what to read into it, if anything, but it made a lot of us uncomfortable and yet I don't know if we had the b@lls to complain.

I'm not sure. I'm trying to find the quote from Kimmy Schmidt where they talked about the really high percentage of females affiliated with initiating sexual assault (not sure if that's the right word). I don't know if they took into account if it was female with female vs. male with female, though.

I personally do think a woman could set off alarms for people, too. I can't speak for others, but if my son was the one doing the cleaning and told me about some "creepy" woman that would show up when he was alone but not when dd was with him, etc. I would find it a bit odd and start asking questions. I wouldn't want him being alone with this person.

Now you sound like you're doing what you are upset with others doing... putting words into people's mouths or ascribing links that may or may not be there (the posters must be Christian. Hateful Christians). Personally I think it's irresponsible of the church if they didn't background check the guy/find out more about him (not sure we got an answer on that). I would urge the ones in charge to do that whether it was a temple or mosque or non religious school, etc. Doesn't matter. Just seems like you should know who the heck you're renting to is someone you want lurking around your property and/or friends/clients/patrons/whatever. I don't call landlords uncompassionate for routine background checks. Calling the cops might have been a "cop out" (heh) for shooing him in a way that didn't leave it up to the OP's family, not necessarily attributing a crime to him. But my initial response when I read that was it may be overboard to involve the cops. Not directed at anyone in particular... back to the locks. I don't think it's totally strange for a church to not be locked, but I think it's strange for it to not have locks. I mean, what if they need to use it as a safe zone during a storm or such? Securing doors seems important for one reason or another.

Dh is crazy, he does self checkout. He was a bagger many moons ago and he's pretty quick. Well, actually he doesn't take our bags into Sam's... which I learned when I thought I was being helpful by bringing them inside and he told me that he keeps them in the trunk and bags the items after he gets to the car. I don't know that he'd choose self check out with eight children in tow, though. WM is really bad with the registers/customers ratio. Sometimes I take my cart to the garden dept. (not usually a packed cart or necessarily with food). I once needed to buy a single greeting card and/or one or two other items and asked the lady at the jewelry counter to ring me up. We save money on some items at Sam's, but not all items. It really depends on if you eat the food before it goes bad (like the big bags of lettuce) or need that much of the same flavor of cereal, etc. You won't run out of peanut butter immediately, that's for sure. I bought 3 ring binders in a pack of 2 before and that was a pretty good deal.

I guess I'd have to be in your shoes to gauge my comfort level. I think having the sign up would be a good non verbal way of telling him not to approach to begin with so hopefully you don't have to have any confrontation.

I don't know if I'm the only one thinking this and I don't mean to sound like I think the worst of people, but I can't help but wonder, "what if he's a threat to you? Is your dd supposed to protect you?" I guess that's my biggest concern with having just one adult there and no males.

Please address the issue, even if she quits. Next it could be another teen or a child that wanders off and runs into this man. The thing is to be proactive. Full disclosure, I took a Protection of Children class at my church a few weeks ago. It's made me a little paranoid. I had to watch a video where real molesters spoke (I'm guessing part of a rehabilitation program). They earned the trust of others and took advantage. Also if it was me, I'd have DH go there in a heartbeat. You want to intimidate a creepy man? Bring another man. He'd maybe go once so she could do her last job. And to possibly tell the guy to stay away or whatever.

Oh yeah I want to add that it's not uncommon for random people to approach churches seeking money, etc. When I was a member of a parish that wasn't in a rural area I was at Adoration one night. We had a passcode to open the Adoration chapel. Usually there were two of us on duty. Thank goodness the other woman was there with me because a man approached the building asking for money or such and she gave him contact info. for the priest or whatever. I would have felt very vulnerable had I been alone despite having a code to lock the door.

I was going to say or he could be somewhere else. Like if he got involved in something that meant he was gone several hours at a time. But even that is risky because he could call in sick or whatever and still be lingering around. When I moved here and got involved in my church they gave me keys to the buildings and I had a chore to do sometimes. I am a grown woman and even I felt a little wiggy sometimes going there in the middle of the day just because of potentially having to interact with someone walking down the street or approaching the church. I would absolutely not feel good about my teenager being gone for hours at a time in a place where she couldn't even lock the doors. The church should get locks. Has anyone suggested this?? And let her give her job to the bored, lonely man. That is my solution :/

Every place you listed sounds like a standing job. I don't think it's so much that they wouldn't want to hire "middle aged woman who hasn't worked in 15 years" but that you wouldn't be able to work on your feet at those jobs. Personally I think the yogurt shop sounds appealing. I probably wouldn't have to memorize too many things... I mean they probably charge based on cup size or weight and then change flavors periodically. I don't know. There might be lifting to refill the machines in the back? But maybe you wouldn't have to do that for medical reasons. If they allowed short shifts it might work. Is there a college campus? Could you work somewhere there? Book store, child day care center, library, etc.? They may surprise you with the shifts because they are used to working around students' schedules so may not expect long shifts. Some jobs may be reserved for students, but some may not be. The substitute teacher idea sounds worth investigating. Would it be realistic to walk to work? What if it rains? What if you are running late? We actually just went through a similar thing. I got a PT job in walking distance, but I am only available a few hours a week and the pay is min. wage so I won't be making much. Would you be okay with that? Because I don't know what the jobs you are looking at would pay. On the bright side, being older than most of my coworkers just means I have more experience. So look at it that way. For some of them it's their first job.

Yeah, I had to look that up, too! We might get there, but mostly it hasn't been a thing. Ds doesn't care that much about clothes. I've tried to talk him out of mismatched outfits before and he said he didn't care. I've held up choices for him before and mostly he's like, "it doesn't matter." He still tries to put on long sleeve shirts sometimes because I think he's too lazy/spacy to think that he should locate a short sleeve shirt since it's you know, summer.

I use the arm. It requires no holding by the child. Just me holding the arm. And yes, it requires hunching over and no I can't see that as a long-term option. I'm pretty sure I heard the arm thing suggested as physically safer for them, anyway. The thing with strollers for me is that I feel I have more control with a stroller because I can point it a certain way or keep it so many inches from items to make things out of reach. With the leash any normal amount of slack I imagine would still allow the child to reach for items. I have two strollers and they have downfalls, but sometimes they are my favorite option. Just really depends. I used the umbrella stroller in a book store today, a shopping cart in another store, and a baby carrier earlier.