I completely understand where getting announcements or grad party invites from very distant friends and family could feel like a fishing expedition for gifts. I assume positive intent when someone sends me an invitation to come to their home or a venue they are renting out to celebrate their child’s hard work and next adventure, whatever that is. I bring whatever gift or card or acknowledgement feels right to me and works with our family financials. I’m going to take a step back from this thread because 1. having an imminent second hs grad means my emotions are all over the board and the perspective that an invite to a grad party could land as a gift grab makes me feel incredibly sad, 2. almost every response except my original response in this thread received positive reactions. I’m really not sure why my perspective landed different.

@Katy not that you have to explain your opinion, but curious if you mean “all these invitations are a gift grab” is relative to 8th grad parties or any grad party, hs or 8th grade?

I think $10 or just a card for the 8th graders is absolutely fine. For the high school graduation parties you go to, I would definitely give a gift. For the parties you don’t go to, that is up to you and your feelings of closeness with the child / family. In our area, when attending the HS grad parties, most people give $50-$100. If that doesn’t work, you could always do $24 as a nod to 2024.

I’m so sorry you are navigating so much loss and having to do all kinds of legal work too. Big hugs.

If you think you will return to the area to live, I would rent it out. If you don’t see a scenario where you would return, I would sell. Many people, ourselves included, don’t love the general area where we live. But we can’t afford to sell, move and ever try to live here again. YMMV

I can overlook a lot these days as long as the coffee drink I just paid $6+ is made correctly 🙃

I agree it was a violation. If I envisioned my child continuing in the league, I would approach the board more from an opportunity for future planning / game planning perspective rather than expecting discipline action based on what has already taken place. Unless drunken behavior at the event led to inaccurate score keeping or unruly behavior that impacted the game play.

Sending prayers and wishes of peace to you and yours. That is a heavy load on you.

Could you tell that you truly care about her and want to spend time with her, you really enjoyed your coffee date, but when she stayed for the weekend it brought up some feelings for you that you realized you need to work through and non overnight visits are what you can offer right now.

Wegman’s doesn’t have “loss leaders” like the other grocery stores in my area. I used to just do my entire weekly shop at Wegman’s because I was getting better quality for about the same as I would pay at the other stores after shopping loss leaders, plus saving time having only one stop. It made sense. Now, Wegman’s prices have gone up significantly and the quality is not as great. My store also seems to have issues getting things in stock that the other stores have. I leave feeling frustrated that I will have more stops to make to fill in.

Something about this job is pulling at your heartstrings. I firmly believe things that are meant for us come together. There is no downside to applying.

Our Wegman’s is decent but I have to pass several other grocery stores to get there and their prices are now just as expensive / more expensive than other grocery stores so it doesn’t make as much sense to shop there every week. I was okay with their modest sales / deals when I felt like I could save time and money overall doing our weekly big haul there. I have a Trader Joe’s equidistant to Wegman’s so that’s been more “worth it” to me because typically their prices are much much better. Whole Foods isn’t much further and we get some favorites from there, too.

Oldest got their passport at 15, is now over 18 and current passport expires end of May. Since the passport was issued at under 16, required to apply for a “new” passport. Will the new passport be processed any faster if the current passport is not expired? Trying to figure out timing since end of semester exams are coming up.

I’m incredibly sad about this too. The world lost a true gem today.

Praying!

My oldest two are close in age and then a 5 year age gap between the youngest and the middle. The youngest has friends and activities but does feel like the older two had each other and youngest feels left out while they’ve stretched their wings.

Is she looking to adjust their meals to include healthier foods or are you hoping you can encourage her to make adjustments? My kids aren’t young like that anymore but I do have a high stress full time job and lots of emotional labor with my family. Yesterday I “made” grilled brats, corn, cantelope and sautéed peppers and was ready to nominate myself for the cover of Martha Stewart Living. It is hard being physically and emotionally drained at the end of the day and needing to rally to do more caregiving like getting dinner on the table.

Goodness, what a great thread with so many book memories from the days of littles! My eyes are a little misty

I would be super frustrated over the culture and the negative assumptions that you are just blowing off the meetings. It sounds like you really don’t need to be there because you document the information the other counselors need to have. What are the pros to staying at this school? Are you able to let this roll off your back because you did all the right things and you really don’t need to attend these meetings? Or would you be happier at another school with presumably better culture and collaboration?

What about a journal or sketchbook?

Our dentist has done wisdom teeth removal for my older kids - one kid had 2 impacted and the other kid had all 4 impacted. Both were back in action less than 36 hours later. The one who had 4 impacted did alternate Motrin and Tylenol for 3 or 4 days after. We have pretty “good” dental insurance and the out of pocket was about $1700. The IV sedation wasn’t covered by dental or medical so that was a big part of the cost.

If only I had kept up with scrapbooking, I would have so much physical proof of all the things I have been accused of not doing. With my most stubborn / selective remembering teen kid, I have started to tell him I’m videoing our agreements before it’s considered a legally binding discussion due to his selective memory 😉

I would divide it by whatever number drove the booking of that AirBnB. Meaning, if I had to book it with a certain number of bedrooms for people the have the sleeping arrangements they wanted, I would divide it per room. If the place had more than the bedrooms needed, I guess I would divide the cost per person. That’s an off the cuff answer and haven’t been in this situation yet.

Ring security is adorable! Do you need drinks and something for toasts? For the food, I agree to go with a food truck, mediocre BBQ or find a great sub shop in town and do party subs. Or could bbq wings from a wings place get her closer to the bbq menu she wants?

It definitely sounds like an abrupt text but I would give grace and chalk it up to being super busy or distracted when she sent it. And I would own up to the block not working for you “Thanks for sharing time that works for you. I would love to see you, but I’m working when you’re available. Let’s get together the next time you’re in town”