I've never been a fan of Sax - too anecdotal and ignores years of research for his sky is falling mentality. I, like others, don't really see an issue with young people and am really quite fed up with books and thinkpieces about how 'lazy' they are and the beating of them and their parents and ignoring wider society and its changes. I'm just in my thirties and it's very clear to me how much easier I had with basic survival in adulthood than those coming up behind me -- and I come from an abusive, neglectful home with no teaching of skills I needed for adulthood and I still have a lot of maladaptations. What I did then is not possible, or legal, because of law and policy changes -- young people are dealing with more things with fewer resources mainly because of older generations' choices and many are doing it remarkably well. Personally, I agree with Lindsey Weedston that 'lazy' has for quite some time been a political media word that has very little to do with how hard someone works. I think we need to be careful as parents in the current demonizing because the millennia-old traditions of it has gone from snarky comments from parents to 24/7 surround sound which is not helping anyone. I mean, a few weeks ago here we were discussing hookup culture when the latest research gives strong evidence that millennials are starting having sex later than their parents [with an estimated 1 in 3 20somethings having not had sex at all] and have fewer partners than their parents' generation, drinking less, smoking less, and so on, but that's not the media hype around it at all. Yes, millennials are less 'successful' than their parents, if we only consider capitalist, material ownership terms and there is a lot of concern about mental illness though I am not convinced that a large part of that is not simply we talk and work to accommodate before rather than self-medicate issues as common practice. I don't think being sensitive to our own and others needs is a bad thing. And, in terms of entitlement, I have never seen worse than older people and their mistreatment of retail and hospitality staff. I've witnessed some downright vicious displays lately of what I can only describe as people who are far too fragile and sensitive to be told no by those they're obviously looking down upon.

Met online when I was 16ish at niche writing/roleplaying group [a niche in a niche really], started online dating several months later when I was 17, he stopped it after a couple of months, started dating online again about 5 months after that, met in person weeks after becoming essentially homeless upon graduation, he asked me to marry him and not return to the US about 1.5 months after that and we eloped when I was 18 about...4 months later. We've been married almost 13 years. Yes, the first couple years were hard - immigration is a painful, scary process, we were living on so very little, J needed knee surgery when O was months old and starting having still unexplained blackouts, and so many other challenges...but I don't think being older would have helped - actually, thinking about it, it would have made it harder. I know emotional maturity and coping all that [though I lived essentially on my own since I was 14 and as a child abuse and neglect survivor my development is still really screwed up], but the day-to-day stuff would have been so much harder because any later and I don't know if we could have survived and gotten through the various law changes and policy changes of that time period. Literally, what we did was no longer legally possible a couple years later due to immigration law changes - young married people were literally kicked out of the UK from being caught up in the change where marriage visas required both partners to be 21, the government office where we were able to get Child Tax Credit that we had to live on for a couple months shut down a few years back...we couldn't really do now what we did then even with what we earn now which is substantially more because the thresholds from everything from immigration to help is so much harder to do now. With all the extra maturity in the world, I'm not sure I have the energy now to go through the system as I did then and I know as we are now we would not meet current requirements. J and I discuss this quite a bit - how the slightest thing would have utterly changed everything and how different it all is now. While it would have been great to have better self-knowledge and emotional maturity and everything back then -- I still wish more of that now. We were always going to grow and become different over time whether we married then or faced being unable to marry later, we're thankfully very good at long philosophical discussions and coping with identity and worldview changes/crisis which really helps us.

I use a hodgepodge of symbols. For maths and similar yes or no things, I usually leave blank for correct, though I sometimes put a tick or smiley if they get a whole set right. For incorrect, it depends on what is wrong... I use Xs, circles, arrows [usually if only one place value is wrong or something like that], lines [i usually draw a large line next to a number if they don't label it], question marks when I can't read it, or just write next to the problem what needs to be looked at. For writing, beyond proofreader marks, I underline anything I cannot read or is misspelled, brackets around anything that I don't think makes sense, stars over really well-written things...and margin comments.

I was in tons of things from 3-13 - my parents liked me out of the house and particularly wanted us to become 'stars' at something. I don't really recall the ages for most of it, but I know I started ballet at 3, started tap a year or two later, started jazz a year or two after that, and so on for dance and along the way I also did swimming, gymnastics, cheerleading, soccer, T-ball, musical theatre, choirs, show choir, classic vocal training... and probably a few things I've forgotten. Then there was 'church scouts' and youth groups as well (My grandfather was a pastor - as are three of my uncles - so when we lived near them it was very important...). I crashed and burned at 13. Horrendous burnout and the joint pain started - though I wouldn't be told until I was 17 and experienced excruciating knee pain and constantly clicking knees that it's common in girls who are 'overtrained' as the doctor put it. Beyond the pain, I got so fed up of doing things for an audience rather than myself or the other people around me. It was all about the audience / parents / future prospects. To this day, I still get annoyed when people tell me or the kids how great something will look on a CV as if that should be the main focus especially at their age. The only things I continued in high school was choir plus I did a year of wrestling and the school musical another year for fun. I do none of it now though I have been discussing social dance classes and piano lessons with some friends recently, two things I wasn't allowed as a kid because the other stuff was considered more important. My kids only do a HE hobby club they created with their friends and St John Ambulance youth groups. I've found SJA balances doing things for the community and working towards goals for one own betterment quite well which I felt was missing in all the things I did when I was young.

Another agreeing that it isn't normal - some people have far more sensitive mouths than others, but any good dentist should have recommendations on way to help you cope as well as be willing to make changes to the anesthetic as others have said. I have to use special soft toothbrushes and OTC painkillers when going in even for basic stuff [as recommended by my dentist as I kept crying but not talking/making any noise as strong pain makes me nonverbal - I still death grip the chair though as the pressure still hurts], I know others who wear headphones as the sound of the equipment hurts. Hopefully, your dentist will have a simple fix to make it easier for you - mouth pain is one of the worst things for me.

"Homebirth guarantees something horrible will happen" and "Homebirth will guarantee you have wonderful, caring midwives giving you their full attention." [along with a lot of the other lies others listed - so many lies around birth]. "He has speech problems because you have a foreign accent" [i have this seriously written by a pediatrician, his father having speech issues in his family and the exact same articulation quirk as well as autism running in our family were discounted] "Sending him to a preschool or playgroup will cure his speech issues" [it caused him to return to bring non-verbal for several months]. "You'll understand your parents when you're a parent" [still waiting on that...] "If you have any feelings for someone other than the person you're with, you don't really love the person you're with"

J and I met on an online writing/roleplaying group. Our characters interacted a lot so we talked via instant messengers to plan things out and things led from there. It took several months and my literally and unsubtly seducing his character for him to figure out I reciprocated his feelings. We're awkward geek that way - or rather, as J puts it himself, he takes a long time to warm up to people to figure out he likes them as he's extremely demi and it takes almost a 2 by 4 to the head for him to figure out people like him in return and I'm stubborn enough to get through that. We've now been together 13 years now. The third adult in our house, A, met J via a horror video game forum. They knew each other online for years before J introduced us via a Skype roleplaying game J was running. A moved in with us several months later. That was...just over 5 years ago now. [i was pregnant with F at the time, we had a long talk about that].

The only people I know playing it are late 20s-40somethings. My kids know it exists because they've watched our adult friends play it - after finding out they spent several hours making their own Pokemon trainer costumes to wear when they go out. My 11-year-old, who got a phone from his grandparents, doesn't have it on his phone mainly because it isn't really working well yet - it's still in hype stage and like most server based games, the servers won't cope until it gets out of this stage and hackers stop messing with them so much. Right now the kids just enjoy the idea of it and play it even without having it. I don't think it is 'enjoy a game or enjoy nature/one surroundings'. It can easily be both. Lots of museums and zoos and such have already taken advantage of it, lots of public art exhibits as well as they're counted as landmarks that people are now actively seeking out. With places with more phone usage spawn more pokemon and such, there will be plenty of pokemon-less natural places for people to enjoy just as there has been for AR games before this one. With previous outrages against technology like Ancient Greek philosopher's hate of writing and the large campaign against novel reading during the 18th century and women riding bicycles in the early 20th, I would expect people to realize tech panics and moralism typically looks foolish in hindsight. I would not allow my kids to openly mock another person's harmless fun though. It's one thing to not get it or find it dull/pointless, but getting pleasure from tearing at another person is far more harmful in my eyes than having their heads in an electronic device.

White, rather than heritage groups like Irish and such, was specifically created as an identity to oppress people and historically and presently groups gain access to the White identifier by the oppression of others. Prior to its wide usage, riots among European indentured and poor alongside the enslaved of other groups was very common - a bit of social privilege was dangled by the elites in return policing and being responsible for the behaviour of those they were then given power over and was grown and still maintained through the systems of law, education, media, and so on. The KKK and BNP and similar groups still openly recruit with the White Pride slogan and related rhetoric [and there is an anti-Neo Nazi movement called Good Night White Pride]. I find ignoring the history and current meaning of White pride and comparing it in any way to Black pride movements or LGBT+ pride movements illogical. Living within social systems that continue to dehumanize us based on these chances, being able to openly and happily call ourselves what we are is as much self care and survival as it is a push for recognition and social change. I can't recall calling myself proud, but I have had others say how happy and proud they are of how open I am to discuss who I am, that my 'pride' uplifts them by making louder what is often ignored. I am openly mixed race from a family that *hated* being mixed race - they were proud to be white passing - I had my hair bleached blonde as a child and had excuses made for my darker skin and praised when I became ill which led to me being pale and fighting that self hate ground into me by my family and wider society is an ongoing challenge. I am openly disabled. I am openly a person with PTSD that survived child abuse and neglect. I am openly bisexual and polyamorous and genderfluid. I am all of these by chance, but I choose to be open and help to build communities and support the needs and voices that are systematically told from birth that we are less human, told we shouldn't exist, told we shouldn't have kids, told to be quiet and be grateful that 'normal' people allow us to live. I've been told all of these for as long as I can remember, some of my earliest memories are being told what a burden I and people like me are and people still say these things so maybe I can forgive myself in fighting all of that to be happy in all the things that make me me and being part of a movement to help others build support so that others don't have to fight for that even if it is called pride.

Ours has for the last few years [haven't checked for this year]. Each year they do a big picture poster with white holes in the image that the kids complete by adding stickers they get when they return books they've read. At the end, they get a certificate and usually a plastic wristband or similar small colourful unmemorable prize. Last year the poster was mythological creatures which my kids quite liked and apparently really popular, the year before that was a circus scene which was liked less.

Your female issues do sound like perimenopause. I would [and did] go to the doctor just to check that isn't something else because major changes to menstruation can mean many things. Hopefully it will be smooth sailing from now on for you. How active is she? Is she having any other issues [headaches, difficulty sleeping, stiffness, UTIs, significantly more moody or forgetful]? 14 is young enough that hormonal changes could throw everything out even if she was steady before [and active athletes sometimes lose their periods, particularly young ones] but - with many bad female issues running in my family - I might push for a checkup and some blood tests. If she isn't showing any other issues and you don't have anything in your family medical history, then waiting and seeing - or maybe mentioning the oddness to your doctor when you go and seeing if they think you should bring her in - makes sense.

It would depend on if they have particular interests. One of my kids loves planes so when we were in London we took a trip out to the RAF museum which was lovely [and going up the Northern line there was still a blue police box which made my older Doctor Who fan excited], but it's quite far from the other big museums - its not central at all - so I'd only recommend it if you or they had an interest in that or you had plenty of time for travel and then walking around the place. We also really like Stonehenge, and the exhibit/visitor building is great, but you can't actually go through it or touch the stones and many tourists, particularly little ones, aren't as fond of walking around big stones and get annoyed [though not as annoyed as my partner's former colleague who used to have to repeatedly clean burnt candle wax and incense and other stuff off] so that again will depend on interests and temperament. One thing I really recommend and use for travel planning is this travel site: https://travel.sygic.com/ [used to be called Tripomatic and apparently the app is still under that name]. It shows you everything on a map, it'll give you details of everything included estimated time it takes to do something, and after you add things to your trip you can rearrange things and see travel times and distances. I love it - it really fun to just look through everything with the kids and my partner and make a big list and then see it on the map so we can see what it'll take to do things - that really helped us prioritize when we saw that two things were at the opposite sides of London and would take so much time that we really needed to choose. It helped make our trip so much better.

Not everyone can job jump and plenty of secular appearing jobs have religious employers. Hobby Lobby is an obvious example, an arts and crafts corporation, that's fought to restrict its employees access to medical care on religious grounds. There are several conditions that are managed with hormonal replacement therapy - most commonly prescribed as birth control. It's not a matter of not engaging in sex especially when some of these conditions can be life limiting and some are life threatening and never a choice. We can't frame it all as choices when both the conditions and costs are out of people's hands. I can't even take hormonal medication due to a contradicting condition and since dealing with ovarian failure, my doctor and I are desperately leap frogging and constantly testing to get ahead of further dangerous complications that come from that. One pill/device versus years of medical testing and worrying and sky high risk factors to life limiting and threatening conditions - and ovarian failure is one of the 'easier' problems in this area. It's more complicated than preventing pregnancy and just not shagging for good health. And, I've had multiple blood transfusion - at one time - and I was told afterwards that while I most likely would have survived without them [and my partner's Jehovah Witness grandmother did survive a similar ordeal without any], the risks to me during the recovery were significant enough that the blood transfusions - and all their risks - was viewed as the best option for my health. I would not want anyone to get between my doctor doing their job in using evidence to provide what is best for me rather than skirting around someone else's religion even when death is not on the table. Corporation health care insurance is compensation for work and just as they have no rights to tell someone how to spend their money within the law, they should have no rights to prevent using full insurance within the law. Compensation in many areas are pitiful enough compared to the money the employees make corporations for this.

I don't think people just say random things that weren't somehow already in their head or in their mindset when they're angry. We may exaggerate a problem or viewpoint because anger can led to making little things bigger, but the thought or concept was already there even if we wouldn't have voiced it or voiced it differently without anger. However, on the other hand, as social creatures we take in and absorb a lot of concepts even when we don't realize it - I've often heard that the first reaction is the ingrained social response, and then we get to our personal reaction after that. As anger is often on the first reaction and causes difficulty getting into deeper thought, some hurtful words and actions may be based on what we've gotten from elsewhere. Anger is one area where the harmful, toxic messages of society can really easily take root and one of the hardest to proactively challenge because the messages about how to deal with it are everywhere, are too often really bad/unhealthy, and because anger most often relies on first impulses, the kind of conscious thinking for other areas of life is harder to bring in.

I always 'co-slept' and never used a crib. I tried a bassinet with my eldest and it was just too painful for me. I like the idea of side cars cot but we never used one, though we had a leaned back rocking chair type almost bassinet-type thing next to the bed for my third after 7 or so months because she moved so much and slept better [as did we!] when she was more confined before she moved to her own bed in the kids' room at just short of a year. With my eldest, we used a mattress on the floor for the first few months but after that we just were in a normal bed. I found I'd often just roll myself over to offer the other breast rather than moving them though I had little concern with them sleeping in the middle [though my wall of a partner was a good barrier :lol: ] if I was more comfortable that way. For naps...when they were tiny, it was usually on a wrap around cushion on my waist [i almost fondly remember finishing my dissertation with M curled up against me], when they were bigger it was usually in the lean-back rocking chair all swaddled up or laying in the bed with my partner who had either a book or a laptop. My eldest had a few months where a carrier on Daddy was the only way, then laying on Daddy in bed was the only way...we would change 'shifts' by him rolling O off of him and next my chest so I could nurse O back to sleep if he was disturbed in this process. The leaned back baby rocking chair was our favourite for naps. . And, at least for my kids, they are far more likely to repeatedly smack Mummy or Daddy in the face for being asleep than roll/crawl off. The number of mornings I've been woken up being poked in the eye or having a nappy butt to the face followed by giggling when I opened my eyes...

Except it can't work both ways because systemic racism within society doesn't work both ways. Blaming Black kids for systemic racism when the structures of society are built and continue to be maintained to give White kids the advantage...I do not understand that. Music history, fashion history, and so on have for ages and continue to repackage others' cultural products in a White package. As said earlier in the thread, Elvis was specifically hired and promoted because he was a White guy who could imitate Black music and dance moves. Sam Phillips of Sun Records said, "If I can only find a white man, with a black sound, I could make a million dollars." This still happens - a lot. You can literally go through trends that were first mocked and watch them be copied and praised with a White face. Sometimes at the same time depending on who is doing/wearing it. We have musician Zendaya having people trash her locs while praising White singers for their fake-locs [of course their type 1 hair cannot actually loc like Zendaya's type 4 hair, its biologically impossible, but this has never stopped them being kinda copied]. Timberlake has repeated used and thrown black artists under the bus for his career. This twitter issue is just the latest in him ignoring people and people were venting their frustration that he, among many others, will continue to be protected while he does this because of Whiteness. We still have schools and work places that ban natural type 4 hair styles, most common about Black people, while the industries praise White imitations. It doesn't go both way in any way. Little Black girls can't wear their natural hair or puffs [equivalent to pony tails] because they're "disruptive", it doesn't go both ways. American Indigenous children cannot wear their traditional clothes to school, get fined and have their diplomas withheld over wearing an earned feather, still having their hair cut in schools for not fitting White standards, and the industries treat them as costumes, it doesn't go both ways. Whiteness, invented by elites with conditional membership to excuse mass colonialism and chattel slavery and prevent poor White people from uprising with the enslaved [which had been a huge issue which giving a little higher ranking and forcing them to control others seemed to mostly fix] and so many other things, may only be a few hundred years old, but our systems continue to maintain and build it. Acknowledging and taking the systems to task and then apart is what Jesse Williams's speech was about and the first step to dealing with a society specifically designed so it cannot go both ways. This is not an exchange of ideas, this is structurally approved theft with the imitation being praised and the original being punished. This reminds me of the Hamilton musical race controversy a few months ago, where people were calling it racist because the only guaranteed White part is King George. People were going on and on about 'if this happened the other way, people would think it was racist'. Except it is already happening. There are very few musicals that don't specifically call for White parts. Colourblind 'give it to the best person' casting *does not exist* - not in musicals, not in Hollywood, not in the music industry, not anywhere on a systemic level. Read any casting page and you see White and, ick, even 'Caucasian' in big letters next to most names. Even when study after study gives strong evidence that diversity in media makes it more popular, that diversity is more of a draw than big White names, this is still what we get, this is something people are still having to fight to get a place in, fighting to be able to make, because it's hard to fight against the systems in society that are maintained to work one way to keep the power balance as it is and blame those on the losing side of that power balance for things being as they are.

Farage said last month specifically that a 52-48 vote would mean 'unfinished business' and require another referendum. That he would only accept a 2/3rd vote remain as clear cut. Seems fair that remain fights in the same situation - and they're asking for less than that. And, in light off severe misrepresentation on Leave side on what polls show were some of the major reasons people chose to vote Leave [immigration - this won't reduce it, NHS - this won't increase funding, and that even if we do split, we wouldn't be "free" of EU rulings on human rights and several other areas.], it isn't only those who voted to remain who are petitioning. There is also the issue that those UK citizens who are greatly affected by this - those who live and work in the EU - were not allowed to vote but can sign a UK government petition and want their voice to be heard. Similarly those under 18, UK residents without citizenship, and so on which likely make up a fair few of the names on the petition. The UK is part of the international community and part of several international organizations. Saying being part of the EU means we aren't governing ourselves is like saying we're not governing ourselves because we're part of the UN - which we also pay money to and affects our laws and means we're meant to let certain people in. The big issue for many now is whether this surprise will get any at the top to see the issues that are fracturing us across lines before the fury against the governments, and the far right's use of that anger, get worse. Reports of attacks on immigrants and other minority groups has already taken an uptick and will likely get worse until someone can listen and talk to the concerns of everyone. Parapharasing Owen Jones, this vote was as much if not more against the modern world and politics as it was against the EU with spite in it on all sides.

What skills, tips, tricks, and so on would you include to help someone learn to cook and feel confident in the kitchen? What concepts do you think would be needed, or nice to have, both in cooking for oneself and for a group/family? Are there any resources you would recommend? [i've seen a few cooking courses in thegreatcourseplus which we're planning to get later this year - does anyone know if these are any good for a complete cooking beginner?]. I was never taught to cook - my parents were the epitome of ready meal/from the box cooking and neither good at teaching much. I've always been uncomfortable in the kitchen, not really much better than they were [i can mix thing together and shove it in the oven, that's about as far as I get], so my partner does the vast majority of the cooking. Learning to cook has become a goal for me, and my older 2 [11 and 9] want to learn too so I'm trying to come up with...something. A framework I guess of what I don't know, need to learn, and would be nice to know that will...make things easier, make ready meals and takeaway slightly less tempting, so we feel better? I don't know. My partner has tried before but...it's so natural to him that it's hard for him to explain the steps to me, let alone the kids, and I apparently do not learn well from just watching him cook. There was a very expensive cooking course going recently, I couldn't justify the expense for several reasons, but I wrote down it's list of main ideas as an unsure starting point: lunches [with vague promises of seeing the results in better energy] dinner permanent pantry [cooking for the week, storage containers, how to stock up for easier cooking when tired] savoury breakfasts slow cook comfort foods - set and forget meals crowd cooking knife skills grocery shopping what ingredients to buy what tools to use how to fit food into your lifestyle [not sure what this means, something about creating a system, as a house with 3 disabled adults, one who works nights, and four kids I'm not sure what kind of system will work for us].

You're right, I should have said his party lost. And now Johnson is backpedalling away with "there is no need for haste" in leaving the EU... and several Brexit politicians are admitting to lying...and people are pointing out that Farage said that in a 52-48 split there would be "unfinished business" and a need for a second referendum [he just assumed that remain would win as well]. It's all gone weird [though not as odd as Boris Johnson's hair] like no one had any plans for this.

Iceland in 2026 to watch a total solar eclipse Scotland Dark Sky Observatory in Galloway Forest Park - just want to spend a week or so there looking at the stars every night. Planning that is hard due to weather. Caves of Nottingham, which is less than an hour away but we've never done it yet. ...and a city down south that has the same name and is a sister city to a city I grew up near, so I can take a picture of myself in front of the sister city sign and post it on facebook/send it to people because the idea just really amuses me. I'm actually planning on taking my family to an amusement park in said city in a few weeks and I have it all planned out - like I've found it on google maps and figured out the route and everything. I know it will likely not be as entertaining as I've built it up to be but I want to have done it. Other than that, I really have little desire to travel.

Boris Johnson will likely make moves, if not already, for PM -- though the current mayor of London is Sadiq Khan, Johnson lost to him last month which is likely why Johnson started to be a Leave mouthpiece after previously been against leaving, he needed to be relevant and centre of attention again. It will be interesting to see how the Labour vote goes, though I find it frustrating to put it all on Corbyn particularly as so many knives have been out for him since before he was Labour leader. I know my local Labour MP is going all 'God help us all', but she did nothing other than throw barbs at the Leave camp [both halves of my city and both sides of my wider county voted out, they're usually politically opposite in local and general elections]. It's all a mess. We need better, more organized leadership but the games of Westminister seem to be against such things.

Other countries have had referendums to leave the EU and still remained, some repeatedly. Honestly, with how close it was and how torn the Tories are right now, I'm not sure what they're going to do. With Cameron leaving, we likely won't know what the government plans to do until he is replaced which, by his own account, won't be until October. I think they're waiting to see how things even out over the next few months before making a plan [and the negotiations to leave will take at least 2 years] however, the entire thing is leaving millions in a very vulnerable limbo, and millions more who are scared who the far rights next target will be if the UK leaves and their Brexit dreams don't become reality. I'm far more scared of that than us leaving the EU. That vulnerable limbo, which involves a lot of companies, plus our debts plus potential lack of EU protection on several financial issues is going to send the markets spiraling. The Remain campaign was awful and complacent and as angry as I am by the downright lies from the far right Leave campaign on this, I am far more upset at how little thought the Remain campaign and many of the big names that spoke out for them thought about the issues. It's like they thought throwing big numbers and telling those with concerns that they were xenophobic racists and comparing them all to Farrage would win people over. That never works, it makes people feel that voting the other way is 'against the establishment'. We needed a big enough voice to go through how all the big fears like housing and immigration and so on show how leaving will negatively affect all of those. We needed a more organized campaign to talk to people not leaflets with quotes - many from people without their knowledge. They were complacent, and it's going to hurt all of us except those elites that'll be fine either way.

I also doubt this will make it easier to immigrate for Commonwealth countries. Immigration is big UK business - the current chancellor proudly goes on about non-EU immigration being for-profit. They might relax the rules slightly for some places but the expense of visas and citizenship will continue to climb and will remain a major barrier for a lot of people [currently, just the application fee for citizenship is over a grand, before we get into testing or anything]. I think the Remain campaign, or at least the part not connected to the Tories, missed a big step in not pressing the point how strongly the current immigration policies favour the rich over those with skills or family. Actually, a lot of things about the Remain campaign annoys me - it really didn't actually deal with anyone concerns and coasted on thinking that the far right wasn't that convincing. I worry about the over 2 million Brits in the EU countries as well as EU citizens here. While the referendum is so close and actually not legally binding so there may be more wiggle room and reports say it will take at least 2 years to fully exit if we do, millions of people are now in a vulnerable grey area and a lot of non-EU immigrants and our families as well as vulnerable native-born populations are concerned about the backlash when the Brexit dreams that the far right promised don't become reality. And that's before getting into how divisive the campaigns on both sides have left the UK.

To me, it reads that they don't have the resources to run tracks in a proper way and this is the hacked together poor compromise to deal with that. I know in the second high school I went to, in a very posh area where it was assumed all the kids had all the resources, students who could not keep up with the accelerated integrated math program had only two options: your parents paid for one of the maths teachers to teach you separately or you took community college classes instead. There were no resources for tracks in math and their poor compromise was kids who couldn't keep up had to have their parents pay to deal with it. I think a lot of these schools are having to make poor compromises because of lack of resources and system issues, it's just a question of who will have to pay until the system issues are dealt with.

Neither my partner nor I drive so that makes it easy for us :laugh:. On the very rare occasion we've served alcohol in our home, we only serve one glass to everyone, regardless if they are driving cars, mobility scooters, or nothing at all, at the beginning of an evening where people will likely be there quite a few hours. I'm extremely sensitive/twitchy around inebriated-like behaviours and I'll happily stop anyone acting off. If my children drive, I intend to teach a zero-intoxicating-or-altering-substances policy - we have tons of taxis and friends willing to give lifts. Having been in the car with an obviously off parent at 13, it was extremely terrifying, so many near misses, and I remember then and still now get angry at the other adults [it was after a major church event, hundreds saw] who knew and did nothing.