Yes, I imagine most older people are spending time with relatives and/or health care workers, however, some are probably involved in groups. I don't know when she stopped being actively involved but my grandmother was in a couple of groups (bowling league was one. She was the oldest in her group). You were too vague. You didn't say, "she's trying to get pregnant but is advised to lose weight first" or anything like that. It was unclear that your thoughts were tied to pregnancy and not marriage or dating.

I don't like to think this way. I think it's unfair to imply to childless adults that their lives are less full. I mean, heck, someone could die early on in life and what does any of that future stuff matter? In fact, on the other end of the spectrum you could be saying, "I'd have to leave behind orphans."

Lol I took it as a heads up to men scanning the board to not bother with the thread once they read "women only"

To feed to someone else? I make tuna salad with hard boiled eggs sometimes. I guess if I didn't have the whites I could still throw the yolks in. I would do the same with a green salad. Or just you know, eat the whole egg ;)

I hope my post doesn't do more harm than good. My mom was sad to hear all the grandmothers around her talk about their grandchildren for years before she had any. I am the youngest child. My mom had me at 41. My older siblings have not had children and they may never. We really don't know, but it is not looking likely. I had ds when I was 25. I didn't get pregnant under the best circumstances (unmarried and unexpectedly). After my parents got over the shock and all my dad told me about the times my mom had felt left out not being a grandmother and that she was very happy about the baby. You see, where we live, people settle down early. Given my mother's age I'm sure she was quite a bit older than some of the other grandmothers. I'm telling you this to say, who really knows what will happen in time. I never thought I'd be the only child to have kids right now. I actually have two and thought my sisters might have at least one before I had a second. And my mom certainly hadn't planned on having me at age 41. I think 26 is still somewhat young to not have children, especially for a man. When we had ds, dh was 28.

For me the danger might be the darn faucet head. We used to have one of those rubber covers on it, but it got moldy and was too hard to clean. I could see a child slipping whether it was a bath or shower. I'm not saying you can't step away, but how far you go and how long you're gone would probably have a lot to do with the behavior of the individual child and the house layout, etc. Also, is the child a "just turned 4" 4 year old or a "almost 5 year old" 4 year old? lol I still remember when I went to McDonald's with a friend and they criticized me for making ds go with me to order our food and not allow him to go out to the play area alone. I think he had just turned 4 at the time. He's not particularly mature and there was also an exit to the outside of the building either connected to or very close to the playground. My comfort level was more important to me to care what she thought was appropriate or not for a 4 yr old. and she understood a bit more once I explained that he had just had a birthday.

I'm actually debating about spending the money on a test right now. Apparently in my case it would be normal for my cycle to be off or even skipped this month.

Apparently not because last pregnancy I had a choice to buy pads or a pregnancy test and I left the store with the "wrong" one lol...

nope, not at 4. We switched to showers early, but still. Washing hair, remembering to wash everything, etc. seems like it would require too much of a 4yr old. My 7yr old asks me to help him adjust the temp. It's a pain to get it just right, even for me sometimes on this shower. I also need to hang up a towel for him because he finds it too difficult and there's no where very close to the tub to place one. So maybe it's not exactly a supervision thing, but assistance is often required.

I don't know how much weight to give this, but there are lots of articles on the importance of folate as opposed to folic acid in vitamins. So if I were to start taking prenatals I would look for folate. Dd had tongue and lip tie and it is supposedly linked to lack of folate /shrug. I don't know if I could have prevented it with a different set of prenatals. It's also genetic. Just tossing this out there as something to think about. ETA: that is just one example of folate vs. folic acid reasoning. There are others. I was quite disappointed to realize my "organic" prenatals used a synthetic ingredient. Folic acid is synthetic.

OP, I have trouble making it up early for Mass. Sometimes I go in the evening. If you go to masstimes.org you find church listings. Not all the info will be updated so you have to call the parish offices to confirm, but it's a very good starting point. Between the churches around me I can make it Saturday evening, Sunday morning, or Sunday night. But not every parish has every option. You can see what is available near you. Yeah. I actually had religious OCD and read this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Doubting-Disease-Scrupulosity-Compulsions/dp/0809135531years ago.

We're behind. It's been rough getting in the swing of things. We're slowly making progress. Subjects that require reading aloud are really rough with the baby interjecting, fussing, etc. I kinda freaked the other day when I saw that we're still in part A of math. I think we'll catch up, though. I got a metal bookcase on Amazon last year. It was pretty affordable and appealed to me more than the price of real wood or the quality of fake wood. Just an idea. Good luck.

Oh I didn't mean to imply that! I just meant that it caught me off guard like I could see that being really disappointing to someone ready to sign up and then saying, "crap, I can't get this insurance because I smoke? I meet the other requirements!"

I read through the statement of faith and the requirements. Examples of requirements were non smoking and moderate (I think?) drinking allowed. That caught me off guard at first because you could be Christian and smoke.

:hurray: :thumbup: :party: Sorry this has probably been so stressful. Glad you found a dress. And maybe she can wear the dress again.

The social norm is what I was talking about. The social norm would be don't wear a Halloween costume to a non Halloween event and don't wear white to a wedding. If a group of ladies met for their Red Hat Society lunch I doubt one would wear a blue hat.

Maybe he could stay on his own insurance like now and since I have an individual plan, maybe I can apply for it on my own? I have to read more about it. I currently have a plan with BCBS and it just jumped up a lot.

I have to look into it. I don't know what this means exactly. Like attend church regularly? Only one of us does.

I don't think ds' lasted that long. He has allergies and was using a nebulizer machine. It's been a couple of years now, but I think they gave him antibiotics and told us to do the nebulizer treatments. I don't know if we even used any other medicines. Me, on the other hand, was a miserable mess for MONTHS because I didn't get medicine (I was broke and thought it would pass). ETA: I'm not familiar with pulse ox readings so I didn't have those to go by.

Thank you for starting this thread. We were freaking out about it tonight. I am not on the same ins. as dh because it didn't make sense at the time, but now we have to re-evaluate our options.

We currently have several dvds in a Merax case. http://www.amazon.com/Capacity-Blu-Ray-Storage-Aluminum-Leather/dp/B008E3EQ14 I bought these, but I haven't had time to use them. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/goodies-120-disc-cd-dvd-storage-box-clear/9752961.p?id=1218185060461 They are not sold there anymore, but I have seen them on the container store website. I don't know if this is any better than binders, but just throwing it out there as another option.

I didn't look at it that way because I didn't call people insane. I just was repeating what I thought was etiquette, which is what the OP asked. I didn't know age meant social norms go out the window. Send the kid in a Halloween costume and it's okay? ETA: I do think the age does make a difference, but I can see it either way. I like to err on the side of caution.

Then send your own kid to a wedding in a white dress but don't criticize people for answering honestly.

Don't take it personally. But maybe tell him gently that you think he's taking things out on you. He might need to hear it spelled out. Maybe you could help him arrange to do something fun to take his mind off things? Get him out of the house or whatever. Could you field calls from the hospice or nurse occasionally? I noticed visiting my parents recently that my dad has a short fuse as he is dealing with my mom's failing health. Well, sometimes we think her health is improving, other times we don't, most of the time we can't tell. I had to make a conscious effort to be positive the last few days I was in town figuring my emotions fueled others'? I'm not sure what specifically you are doing, but it sounds like you are trying really hard.

I hope that new router solves your problem. Each child is different. Ds had wooden train tracks and trains but he was not much of a play independently child, so most of his toys just sat untouched much of the time unless we played with him. He asked for the Big Hugs Elmo and got it for Christmas one year and barely touched it. I was so glad I didn't pay full price.