I feel confident that this class is not the beginner class I need, and I don't have the time to devote to it right now. I signed up for 8 weeks, but you did have the option of signing up for a 4 weeks which was more per week but less overall. Since we're only on week 3, and there are 10-12 other people in the class I asked if I could switch to a 4 week session and get the difference refunded to me. I explained that I felt like the class wasn't beginner enough for me, and that I really wasn't made aware beforehand of how much extra time I had to put into it. I'm not asking for all my money back, and the class will clearly be held without me so I feel like it's a reasonable request. They can say no, but I at least don't feel out of line asking. Thanks for your objective thoughts, it helped!

This is some good perspective. And I hate stuff on my hands too!

This is what I was hoping for, and expected. The teacher went through the whole process, at once, and it was just too much. In his defense he's gone through it with me, two times, and came around to help me a lot last week, but I really need one step at a time. The teacher is nice and I like him, but I feel like there is some sort of lack of understanding of just how much hand holding true beginners need. I was extremely clear about being a total novice when I signed up, and on my first day. There are no other options anywhere near me, this place is a solid 25 minute drive as it is. It's possible I am just dense when it comes to pottery, it just doesn't seem remotely intuitive to me. I feel like if I had a wheel at home I could just keep trying and watching youtube videos until I figured it out, but obviously that is not going to happen.

I could use some perspective from anyone who has BTDT. I have wanted to take a pottery class for years, and I finally felt like I could try an 8 week class this fall. My expectations were pretty realistic going in. I expected to not make anything for awhile, I expected it to be hard and frustrating. What I didn't expect was to be completely lost, really hate it, and not want to go back. I am complete and total beginner. The classes are combined levels, and I am literally the only beginner. The classes are 3 hours long. The first day we spent two hours going over other people's work, and then I got a studio tour and a presentation on making a basic bowl. That left me less than an hour to try to do something, and clean up. My mind went completely blank when I was finally sitting at the wheel and had maybe 20 minutes to try something. It didn't go well and then it was time for me to clean up so I could leave on time. The teacher seemed surprised that I wasn't able to stay after, and told me I really needed to spend extra time to get the most out of the class. I have no doubt he is right, but I have no extra time for this right now. 3 hours a week is a stretch for me right now. They didn't tell me a lot of things before the class started, and this was one of them. There should be a FAQ somewhere. Week 2 it took 90 minutes to look at student pieces, a lesson on trimming, and then another bowl demonstration just for me. I haven't even made anything yet, so trimming was really lost on me. Again, it was a good demonstration but it was just so much at once. I tried to do some stuff, and the teacher kept coming over to help, and some classmates were nice to offer suggestions too, but again it was pretty frustrating. I still do not have a firm grasp on what I should be doing. I expected a beginner class where the teacher would be at the front saying, "Everyone, this is step 1....." and everyone would do that ONE thing. And then the next step. Then after you get to a certain point you can move up to a combined or intermediate class. I got a video on pottery throwing out at the library, and the instructor assigned specific tasks. His point was that you need to learn the technique before you can expect to make something, and that just really resonated with me. Like Karate Kid washing the car! What I am trying to figure out is, is this class just not handled well for a beginner? Or, do I have to wait and try this again when I have more time and mental space? Or, do I just hate making potttery :lol: ? Because I got myself to go last week by PROMISING myself I could quit if I hated it again.... :laugh: :leaving: .

OP here. Just FYI, we aren't going to Disney. We are going to be in the area for another reason, and have 1, possibly 2 days to spend at Universal. We also won't be staying in a Universal hotel. I'm just trying to figure out if people as boring as we are should go at all, if we should do 1 or 2 days, and if we should do the park hopper (or whatever it's called) or not! :laugh:

We are planning a trip to Florida. I would love any advice from any fellow boring/pukers out there who have been to Universal :lol: ! I can barely tolerate the back seat of a car nausea wise. FWIW, I've been to Disney, all the parks. I lived through Star Tours, but made the mistake of going on it a second time and was sick the rest of the day. I can handle something like Soarin' or Kali River Rapids, but no roller coasters or very shaky things. DH and DD loved Star Tours and went on it a bunch of times, but they aren't into roller coasters either or anything super exciting or scary. Universal seems to have a lot scarier and more "exciting" rides than Disney. Anyway, my DD is 14 and we'd like to go to the Harry Potter stuff. I know you need admission to both parks to ride the train, which seems like something you would really want to do. What I am wondering is, will we find enough to do at Universal to even go? Aside from the cost, which is a whole other discussion. If we go, should we do 1 day, 1 park? Or 1 day 2 parks? Or 2 days 2 parks? We're planning on going during a down time, so there shouldn't be huge crowds. Any BTDT advice is appreciated!

This. You learn about healthy boundaries and you think, "Oh, if I just say the correct thing we will be able to work through this situation like adults" but that does not work if the other party has beyond normal problems. My guess is that you are at an impasse. You are going to homeschool, your parents are going to oppose it. So, you can either stop homeschooling or severely limit contact with them. Hopefully I am wrong.

I don't understand why human beings who have a fear of dogs, a dog allergy or simply don't like dogs are given absolutely no consideration. Their feelings or needs are completely disregarded. FWIW, service dogs should always without exception be well trained. I don't think that is asking too much. Emotional support animals should have to be trained just like dogs for the blind.

If you want a dog free house I don't understand why you aren't allowed that in your own home. Someone who actually wants a relationship with you with respect that. If they don't respect that, I feel like the relationship isn't that important to them.

I was suffering with very dramatic rashes. It was't just, I'm a little bit uncomfortable :lol: ! And I was heartbroken about the cats. I love cats. I know it's not a very popular opinion, but I think a lot of times being allergic to an animal that lives in your house makes you "low-level" sick all the time. Not always, and drugs work for some people. But this doesn't seem to be a thing that people are aware of. Also, I must rinse off after I swim in chlorine. I can't ever let that one go. OP, I think you're going to have to try a bunch of stuff and find out what works for you!

I can tell you that I have been there and it is super frustrating. First of all, for me it was a "build up" effect and a lot of factors. I am highly allergic to cats, and I just cannot live with them. Drugs, creams, whatever do not work for me. I have tried EVERYTHING, and after much drama I realized the cats were just inflaming my skin further. So, if you have any kind of allergies that may be contributing. People always equate nose/eye/throat symptoms with allergies, but in my case they affect my skin as well. Beyond that, when things got really bad for me, I had to stop taking hot showers. I also had to soak daily in oatmeal baths. I also had to diligently slather on body lotion twice a day(Aveeno daily moisturizing with soothing oatmeal). I can't use any products from Bath&Body works for instance, or most soaps out there, but for some reason this specific Aveeno lotion works for me. You'll have to find what works for you. With my skin it was all these things together, and I had to take some time to "heal" my skin. And now I don't have to slather on body lotion so diligently, or avoid hot showers entirely. I think when you have sensitive or dry skin it can be a lot of contributing factors, and it can take some time to feel any progress.

I have been doing this for years, using dry noodles. I buy the special "no need to boil" noodles you can find in the pasta aisle. I don't know if they are just labelled differently or a different product than regular noodles. To make no boil lasagna you have to use more sauce, and bake it longer. But, it is so much easier! My (meatless) recipe is: ricotta mixture (2 c ricotta/ 1/2 c parm/ 1 egg/ italian blend spices) 48 oz of sauce 16 lasagna noodles shredded mozz/parm for the top In a 13x9 ish pan, layer sauce,noodles, ricotta (probably 3 layers of this?) and sprinkle with mozz on the very top. Bake at 350, for 40 minutes covered, then 15 uncovered, then let it sit for 10 minutes before serving. This is one of those things that I have to eyeball and adjust the amount of sauce and noodles, depending on how big the noodles seem. Also, it's very easy to put together earlier in the day and leave covered in the fridge until you are ready to bake it.

I appreciate all the answers so far! I want to reiterate that that there are NO other options for us. I'm not against competition studios or ballet studios or whatever. I only mentioned the non-competition thing because people told me locally that they tend to be less "saucy". Which I actually think may be true based on other things I have seen. We are on our fifth studio at this point. We tried 2, almost gave up, found Goldilocks and spent 5 years there. Last summer I was devastated, because I knew we weren't going to find a good fit. I went on a massive hunt, I posted on boards and contacted people and everyone I talked to who know about our previous studio told us there wasn't anything like it around. That we weren't going to find that situation again. And I am not looking for that magic scenario again, I just don't want over the top butt-shaking type stuff. There were 2 studios I didn't try, one because it was too far away and I am not convinced it's any better than ours. It costs half as much so it is tempting. And the second studio I ruled out because you have to do competition team, and we just can't handle that schedule. So, I tried another competition studio that was closer to us before the one we are at now. I was wary for several reasons. But, they couldn't even get enough kids together to run ANY of the classes my daughter wanted to take. No modern, contemporaray, jazz or tap. So, we went with our last option. It hasn't been horrible, there have been good points. But. There is not a "Christian" studio anywhere near here, it's actually a laughable thought in this area. I am not looking for a "Christian" studio but I would have tried it by now. The ballet school only does ballet classes. If dd just wanted to do ballet, we would probably be all set. I've actually looked into the local, "go to high school part time/do dance part time program". Which is also not an option for us. I have exhaustively googled, talked to people, prayed, pulled my hair out, done a rain dance.....there are no other options. We are currently going to a studio that is the most expensive in the area and that is a pain for us to get to. I wasn't going to explain all this, but I don't want people to think I haven't bent over backwards, and that I am not trying. Or that there are some magical options out there I haven't considered :lol: !

We have no other options, that part of what makes this situation so frustrating.

The Amish would not approve of the costumes my dd wore for the recital, but I thought they were fine :laugh: . One was basically a really tight short sparkly dress with an open back, and the other was a gold leotard with a see through black thing over it. DD wore bright red lipstick and blush, and her tap class danced to a Run DMC song. The naughty bits of the song were omitted. That was all fine with me. I don't feel like I am overly conservative about this stuff, although who knows. It's really some of the moves that bothered me, not the costumes as much. When I saw jazz as a class I thought, "Oh that's like tap, dd will like that" and maybe the problem is that jazz is a bit "saucier" than I thought. We are thinking of switching her from jazz to contemporary next year. The other funny thing is, the modern she took this year seemed more like ballet to me, whereas contemporary we saw at the recital as more like the modern we are used to. It's all very confusing :confused1: .

I am having a bit of an internal struggle with my 13 year old dd's dance classes after seeing her recital. It wasn't her classes necessarily, but the older classes. There were some, for us, cringe-worthy costumes and moves. It was disheartening and kind of upsetting to me. Not because the dances weren't good, or because I think kids shouldn't be dancing like that. Only because I do not want MY dd moving up into those classes and dancing/wearing costumes like what I saw. I mean no judgment to other parents who have different opinions and comfort levels from mine when it comes to dance. The background is, from ages 8-12 my daughter was doing modern and tap at a lovely studio, and we had absolutely no objections to anything. The costumes were great, the dances were great, the recital was wonderful every year. The studio closed, and we moved on to a bigger and different studio. We specifically went with a non-competition studio, and I knew things would be different from what we were used to. There were good and bad changes. I knew enough to avoid hip-hop classes because of our personal views, and we signed dd up for modern, tap and jazz. At the recital, my feelings about hip-hop were confirmed. The dances were great, honestly. High energy, they looked fun, the kids did a great job, but just NOT for us. There was one song that kept repeating, "touch my body" and the dancers kept, running their hands up and down their bodies. I am just not comfortable with things like that. But, I expected that from hip-hop classes. However, the jazz dances surprised me. Some of the jazz stuff seemed, outright s*xy to me. Really short tight outfits, and some real, I can't even adequately describe them, moves I am very uncomfortable with. It looked very burlesque-y to me. I guess my question is, are there certain styles of dance that tend to be more "objectionable" if have concerns about modesty (or however you want to phrase it). Or is it really more the studio that dictates the flavor of what's acceptable?

Have you tried the Via Instant Starbucks Mocha Latte? You can buy them at Target or a grocery store. They have both Kerig ones and "add hot water" ones. To me, they taste very similar to what you get at Starbucks and they are easier and much cheaper. I switched when my Starbucks Mocha Latte habit got out of control.

I have been in this position before. I was going a little crazy, so I asked DH and he said, "Just pick the least expensive one." If they are honestly all the same to you, and you don't know which one to choose, then just pick the cheapest one and be done with it.

Teaching Textbooks is a standard math program, with a normal scope and sequence. There is nothing inherently wrong with it. Whether it is good or bad is going to literally come down to what you are looking for in a math program, and how you use it.

This is exactly how I wanted to say it.

I think it's equally ridiculous to feel like you have to stand there and take some stranger touching you. At what point does it become "threatening"? Sure, going up to someone and talking about your ovaries is hilariously WEIRD. BUT, touching someone is over the line. We all know this, do not touch strangers without permission. Basic social skills 101. And yes, many people who do this are probably harmless, but many are not. Taking a step back and very firmly saying, "Excuse me!" is completely acceptable. Yet, people would think you were overreacting if you did even that, and that is what galls me.

I must be tired, because this is giving me the giggles! I know exactly what you are saying. Inside the danger signals are going off, and outside I am acting POLITE. Because I am a GOOD GIRL. The guy was a little gross, IMHO. He could have said something to you (even though I think it's none of his business), without touching you. Imagine if you went up to him in the parking lot and said, "You can park in THAT spot, but the one next to it is handicapped. So, you will get a ticket if you park in the other spot." And then you slapped him on the butt. Just an excuse to be pervy.

Just. Don't. Even with a normal person, the third attempt to hand over presents is a bit weird. Tell her to mail them, and move on with your life no matter how she reacts. File "quick" and "brilliant, clever" way to deal with an NPD under "unicorns and pots of gold".

My experience with WAH has been similar to the above. We tried an 8 week course last year, and are using a full year course for 8th grade. I feel like the coach is pushing my dd the exact right amount, and the feedback has been perfect. I have absolutely no complaints, and I don't say that lightly!

When DH got home he told me that he thought I was possibly "enhancing" the wording to make it sound funnier. But, I wasn't! :lol: I can't believe they did this on purpose, but who knows. I did find someone named Rachel who posted her letter online. So I am not the only one.