I suppose I would discuss with her what each of her options were. These would be raising a child, placing a child for adoption, or terminating a pregnancy. I would let her know what help I felt willing and able to give her in regard to each of those options. I would talk to her about my own experiences as a teen mother. I would answer any questions that she had and listen when she wanted to talk, and I'd help her in whatever way I could to reach her decision- but it WOULD be her decision to reach in the end, and I'd try to help her through it whichever way it went.

Then there's my now 9 1/2 y/o daughter. When she was 6, we had a playdate at our house, and a 7 year old boy was one of the attendees. When he left, my daughter said: "Mommy, when Shaun is 8, I'll be 7." Me: "Yes, that's right." Alexa: "And when I'm 20, he'll be 21. And when I'm 1,000, he'll be dead." --- About a month later, the same daughter started this conversation: She: Mommy, who was born first, you or daddy? Me: I was. She: Oh. So then you were the first one to take care of me. --- When she had just turned 7 and she had an almost 2 year old brother. I asked her if she could keep an eye on him for a couple of minutes while I finished getting dinner ready. She said, referring to her doll, "I'm already taking care of my baby. I can't take care of two babies!" I joked, "Well, what if you had twins?" She quite seriously told me, "If I had twins, I'd give one to the neighbor."

My son learned early what the life of a stay-at-home-mom is like. One day, I was passing time by playing a game on my computer. My 4 1/2 y/o son was 3 1/2 at the time, and he was hanging out with me while I played. "Oh!" I commented at one point, referring to comething in the game. "I don't have enough money!" My son looked up and commented, "You can ask Daddy for money." ... A few months prior to that, the same son, who was 3 at the time, randomly said to me: "Hey, Mommy, when I was 4, I was a girl, right?" I told him he had never yet been 4, and that he was never a girl. He insisted that he was, and I insisted that he wasn't. He then asked me, "Will I be a girl soon?"

Hm I don't know! But perhaps if you can find someone who speaks both English and Spanish fluently (maybe you could even try leaving a message for the Spanish teacher at your local area high school for instance) and can talk to them, maybe you'd be able to give them a basic list of soccer terms, which they can translate into Spanish for you guys to become familiar with and try practicing a bit or something?

Your world did not end. Her world did not end. Things changed... but they did not end. Your daughter isn't dead. She's pregnant. Put things in perspective. She's not the first pregnant teenager, she won't be the last. It doesn't mean you did anything wrong or that she's fallen away from God or that God has forsaken your family or that you should hide your faces in shame and never go out into public again or anything of the sort. Pull yourself together. Be there for your daughter, as you always have been. Ignore the shallow people who DO judge, don't become so paranoid as to suspect that everyone else is judging too, and just go about your lives. Either your daughter will decide to keep the baby and raise it, or she will decide to put the baby up for adoption, either way this will shape her- and who knows, maybe it will even shape her for the better. Maybe one day she'll help other teens or go into some sort of work or volunteer service that helps families, babies, or teens, based on these experiences that shaped her. I was 17 when I got pregnant with my oldest daughter. My daughter is still here, I'm still here, my mother is still here, the world is still here... I know you're kind of in shock, but I think everything will be okay in the end.

Hey, I should have thought to mention that one to him! haha. (We aren't very religious but we DO come from a Jewish background, both of us :D)

As I have said, he does not do any tattoos or piercings on any body parts that cannot be covered by a reasonably modest bathing suit. That means no tattoos or piercings on butts, genitals or breasts, period. Also, Rentheadmommy, he was not a tattoo artist when I first met and married him. He became one after the fact. When we first married, he was working repairing and refinishing string instruments in a music shop. Then, somehow, someway, he got into a tattoo apprenticeship and from there ended up owning his own tattoo shop and that's what he does now. And to be honest with you, when it first came up, I didn't love it at all. That he'd be spending his days touching other women at all. I came to terms with it because I love him and respected HIS wishes for the direction he wanted to take in his life and career, so I had to come to terms with it and deal with it. Part of the way in which I did that was by asking him to make the rule mentioned in the first paragraph in this post. After that, I just sort of got used to it as time went on. But I still don't want him spending the bulk of his days potentially alone with a woman who isn't me!

Heh. Well we have ALWAYS had a "if it can't be covered by a bathing suit, you will not tattoo it or pierce it!" (And not a thong bathing suit, either! lol.)

Sometimes there are clients, sometimes there aren't. Sometimes he can do multiple tattoos in a day, sometimes a day can go by where no-one walks in at all, or just one person walks in. Some seasons are busier than others. The second artist is not so much because there's always a surplus of work every single day, but also because he wants someone to help with the other things that are involved in running a shop- sterilizing ink tubes, placing orders, answering phones, drawing up artwork, cleaning the shop, answering questions, being there when my husband is sick or wants a day off to do family stuff, and so on. There would be plenty of time where they would both be busy with customers, sure. There would also be plenty of time where there were no customers and they were just b.s.ing as they did other things. They'd be eating dinner together every single night because my husband is never home for dinner. And so on.

...I know. I did think about both of those things, that you just said. That it might be a little unfair to someone to be turned down because of their gender. And that having artists of both genders could be a plus. But I just envisioned it putting too much stress on me- because of my own insecurities I guess- that would transfer to our relationship, and I figured that in the end I had to put my own sanity first lol (and my relationship, of course)! Hey, where on Long Island are you? I am originally from Long Island. I spent the first half of my childhood (til about age 10 or 11) in Glen Cove, and then grew up in the Bayshore area. I moved to Pennsylvania when my now 9 year old was just a baby, though. Sometimes I miss Long Island. And then I remember how expensive it is there. :D

You don't even know how much I WISH I could feel like you do! That I could just be THAT secure. I'm just not though. And it's not that my husband has ever done anything in 10 years of marriage to cause me to think he'd ever do anything inappropriate with another woman, but I could never rid myself of that niggling little 'what if' doubt. That probably has a lot more to do with ME than it has to do with HIM. I wish I could be more like you... but I am glad to see that there are others like me lol. Thanks again for the responses! All of them are appreciated!

We will be starting our Oak Meadow curriculum up again right after Labor Day. ETA: Last year we did the same thing- started right after Labor Day. And finished sometime in May. I expect to do the same this coming year.

LOL- I feel more 'normal' already. Thanks for the replies so far! My husband is a tattoo artist who owns his own shop. He apprenticed this guy who was with him for quite a while, but who recently moved on. Now my husband is by himself at the shop again and he is trying to get somebody else in there, as he needs help, and he wants someone who he can eventually trust to be there on their own so he can take time off here and there as needed/desired without having to worry about the shop being closed. He's had a few applicants, a couple of which have been female. He has high standards for their artwork and abilities, so it's not easy for him to find somebody period, let alone somebody of only a certain gender. Recently when he forwarded me another email from a potential female applicant and asked me what I thought, I told him that while I certainly trust him, I just don't feel comfortable with him spending so much time alone with just one girl. I mean if it were a group of people working there in the shop, that's different. But just one man and one woman hanging out together all day? I don't want to start letting my imagination get away with me, or feeling like they are being a little too 'friendly,' or wondering what he's talking about alone all day with some girl while I'm home with the kids, or whether he is attracted to this girl he's spending so much time with, and so on. While any "impropriety" would surely all be in my head, if anywhere, I just don't want that sort of potential stress in my life or in my relationship! Fortunately he's understanding of that and though he really wants somebody in there ASAP, he's willing to respect my wishes and hold off til the right guy comes along. I did wonder, though, if other people would tend to think I was being ridiculous and immature and insecure and all that stuff (which I will admit is certainly possible!), or whether other people would feel the same way as I do about it, or at least understand how I feel! So thank you, because now I feel a bit less of an idiot for thinking the way I do. :)

This is what I've always heard you should use as a rule of thumb, too. It does sound like your daughter takes in plenty of fluids though! Maybe you should NOT push more water on her for now- you don't want to make her feel sick or forced!- but maybe you SHOULD pay attention to how much (exactly, or as close as possible) she IS drinking so you can give your ped a log for a few days or a week or something, and then see what he thinks based on that?

This one is actually a lot of fun, and it's cooperative! http://www.amazon.com/Grinch-Sing-Your-Heart-Out/dp/B0016LIBYO

I'm just curious about how other women would feel about this situation. If your husband owned a (very) small business- as in, it was only ever him and possibly one other apprentice/worker there with him, and he was there 5 days a week from early afternoon til a minimum of 8 PM, and sometimes much later at night with that person, sometimes with customers there, sometimes alone.... Would it bother you at all if that one other person were female? Would you have a "sure, hire/apprentice whoever seems right for the job, gender doesn't matter" attitude, knowing you trust your spouse, or would you have a "well, I do trust my spouse, but if he's going to be potentially alone with and socializing with only ONE person for so much of his time, I'd feel more comfortable if it were a guy" attitude? All responses appreciated. :)

^I agree, too. I can't even imagine taking out that many at once, and I wouldn't let my child take out so many more books than she could POSSIBLY read in a week, since that would mean those books would not be available to other children who might want to read them.

Well, since this post has resurfaced, I took a peek and didn't see "OM" (Oak Meadow) or "TT" (Teaching Textbooks) on the homeschool abbreviation list!

Are you kidding? That's me, EVERY day. I pretty much never wear makeup lol. If I'm having a night out with my husband or another couple or some such without kids I might wear a little lipgloss or something :D

Hm. Maybe you could tell them they are allowed to bring one thing each for their own use that they are permitted to keep to themselves and not be forced to 'share.' If one just wants to play on her Nintendo DS all the time, and doesn't want to worry about another kid dropping it or breaking it or misplacing it or whatever the case may be, I would consider that her prerogative. I would just tell my kids, "Look, you have belongings that you wouldn't want other people touching. So and so does, too." But there is no need for them to bring over multiple things that they won't share, especially if it's causing drama. Let them have their one personal item each, and tell them anything beyond that, only bring it if you're okay with sharing it.

My 9 y/o and I like to watch stuff like "Life," "Planet Earth," "Man Vs. Wild," "America, The Story of Us," "How The Earth Was Made," and things of that nature together. Of course, she also likes stuff like iCarly and Hannah Montanna and such things that I have zero interest in watching. My son is only four so I try to keep him to preschool friendly shows for the most part, though he's welcome to watch the nature type shows with us, too, and sometimes he ends up with things like "Sponge Bob" or "Phineas and Ferb" just because his older siblings are watching it.

We've been using Netflix since November of 2003. I've always been very happy with it- and I'm even more happy now that so many more things are available to "play now" and that I can do it right on my TV through the playstation 3! :D

For composers, you can go to this site: http://www.makingmusicfun.net/ Which is FREE, by the way :) Scroll down to "Meet The Composer" under "Music Library" and that link will bring up a list of composers, by era. And when you click on each of their names, it will give you a "mini bio" that you can read with your child. It will then give you suggestions of which song/s to listen to of theirs, which you do on Youtube. Also free. :) Sometimes they even include printable worksheets (coloring pages, word searches, and so on). I did that with my fourth grade daughter for "Music class" last year. Each week we did a different composer and listened to their music on Youtube. If you wanted to go more in depth with some of them, I'm sure you can find kid's books on some of the more 'famous' composers at your library.

My 9 y/o did this one. It's free and you just do it online: http://webinstituteforteachers.org/~gammakeys/Lesson/Lesson1.htm We did one lesson per week (and tried to do it a few times a week. 2-3 usually).

I love that idea. I REALLY, really love that idea!