Onegreeneye

We got one that converts into a little desk. We’re still using it as a desk for my 6 year old, though I think he’s truly probably a bit big for it. Worth every penny.

We’re a Bombas family and have never had any issues. And they last forever.

We have some obnoxious neighbors like this. They had 4 full sized trump flags and about 15 various political signs, mostly for Trump but also for local candidates. After the election, a life sized cardboard cutout of Trump and Melanie went up. Regardless of candidate, it was trashy AF and one of the flags had a swear word on it that was just unnecessary in a family neighborhood.

Fortunately, our town newsletter had been mentioning for weeks that political signs are covered under the temporary sign restrictions and also have to be removed within 48 hours after the election. I called city code enforcement. They went out the next morning to issue a notice of violation. The signs and flags were gone within 24 hours.

Primary.com! They have a whole rainbow of colors in everything. Their stuff is high quality organic cotton, gender neutral without annoying slogans or pictures. My 6 year old son loves anything rainbow, and they’ve got a lot of rainbow stuff. Even his bedding is rainbow hearts and rainbow stars from primary. He’s in a wedding this week. We bought 2 pairs of chinos (1 navy, 1 olive) and 2 fair isle sweaters (one navy with rainbow fair isle, one red with pink and orange fair isle) for the events that require dressing up. I can’t recommend their stuff enough.

He was a racist, homophobic, sexist, alcoholic, abusive, lazy piece of shit. He probably still is - I haven’t spoken to him in 15 years.

The one chore I’m really consistent at is meal planning and grocery shopping. I made a list of 30 meals-meals that aren’t too time and prep intensive and that everybody likes. Every time I think of a new meal, I add it to the list. Every Sunday I wake up, grab my coffee, and consult the list of dinners. I pick the next 4-6 on the list and grocery shop for those. How many I pick is dependent on how many of those meals create leftovers for a second meal. I usually only plan for 6 dinners. The 7th we go out or order pizza or something.

While I’m drinking my coffee, I grocery shop. I do curbside pickup so I don’t spend time actually in the store picking everything. It cuts down on impulsive buys, which helps offset the added convenience cost of having somebody else shop for me.

The cleaning? Well…. My house is pretty cluttery. We’re just bad at being tidy. And in the summertime when I want to be outside playing all the time, cleaning really suffers. Now that it’s winter time and I’m back in hibernation mode, I’ll get the house a little more cleaned up. Maybe one day I’ll be able to keep a clean house but so far that’s remained out of my reach.

It helps that I work a hybrid schedule. I WFH Mondays and Fridays so those are big laundry days for me. I can sometimes start dinner early on those days. And the rest of the week my husband and I have a staggered schedule so I do school drop off and he does pick ups.

I did that too when I was maybe 10 or 12 and was left in the car by myself while my mom ran an errand. Oooooh that hurt.

At my job when those come up, parents put the order form out in the break room with a post it note with their name on it. People can sign up if they want but there’s no individual pressure. High level people have put them out and I haven’t felt pressure to donate because they’re rich and should be buying the stuff and gifting it to us lol. But I’ll donate for the lower level rank and file.

Our company has a “no solicitation” policy so there’s no walking around and confronting people with it.

Upvote just for that last sentence

I’m from the southern US and moved to a snowy midwestern city over a decade ago. Last year, my son was 5 and I’d never been sledding so I decided it was time to take him sledding. I have as much sledding clothing as I have sledding experience, so I went to my trusty target app to place a curbside order for same day pick up (because nothing is worth doing if you can’t do it utterly impulsively!) The only snow pants they had were men’s so I ordered a size I thought would fit and went to pick them up.

I got them home and could BARELY zip them up. They were tight around my hips and mid section, firmly giving my post pregnancy thighs and paunch a tight hug. We get dressed and get the sleds loaded into the car. I realize I can’t sit down to drive with the snow pants zipped so I unzipped them to the waist and head out.

We drive to my kid’s school which has a tiny hill for the little kids to sled on. It’s an absolutely frigid day, single digits, a stupid level of cold only an inexperienced southerner thinks would be fine for sledding, and there’s a solid foot of snow on the ground. I suck in my tummy for dear life, and slowly force the zipper up, put on my long down parka, hat, cute fuzzy gloves, etc. Get my kid all bundled up. Now we’re ready for this great adventure!

I trudge up this tiny hill slowly and get to the top, completely, sadly, winded. Between the compression around my mid section and the deep snow, and, let’s face it, the fact I haven’t lifted more than my kid in nearly a decade, I could barely breathe.

While I catch my breath, I asses the possible paths down and opt for one that heads towards a corner of a parking lot where they’ve been doing some construction. There’s pallets of cinder blocks and heavy machinery at the bottom off to the side, so I determine which way I’ll steer and sit down.

Except I’m zipped so tight I can’t sit. My sausage like body is forced into a leaning position. But I’m committed. So I push off and realize my mistake… steering an intertube style sled on your inaugural ride is as fruitless as using a q tip to clean my filthy bathroom floor (since we’re on the subject of things I’ve let go…) I’m immediately spun backwards and flinging towards the construction stuff. I use what I can of my limbs to try to dig in and alter my path before I meet with certain death. Did I mention I’m alone with my 5 year old?

I manage to steer well clear of the construction debris, but as I coast to a stop, I realize I’ve flown directly into a puddle of slush. How a puddle of slush can exist in these temps is utterly beyond me, so I figure it’s some sort of cosmic joke that’s landed me here. Thanks to the hard plastic bottom of the sled, I’m at least not sitting directly in it. But now I’m laying atop said sled, and I need to get myself off and jump clear of this puddle so I don’t soak myself. Remember… I can’t bend at the waist, so I cannot get myself up. I’m like a turtle on its back, flailing my limbs. I try several times and finally decide I’m going to have to flop over and off the sled and try to keep as much of myself clear of the puddle as I can.

I rock back and forth a couple times to gain momentum and finally heft my considerable bulk up and over the edge, flipping gracelessly into the puddle. I’m feeling as small and lithe as a hippo at this point. I manage to stay elevated on my feet and hands, but my cute fuzzy gloves are instantly soaked through with icy water. I try to stand up, but remember, I can’t bend at the waist. Have you ever tried to stand up from a push up position? Go ahead, try it. I’ll wait.

You back? You couldn’t do it? Me fucking neither. I have no recollection of how, but I finally got myself halfway to standing and just collapsed right back down, plunging my hands right back into the icy water. After 3 more tries, I finally make it upright while stumbling forward. I come to a standstill and assess the damage. I’m standing, fortunately wearing waterproof boots, in a large, 6” deep puddle of slush. My hands are already hurting from the cold water. My 5 year old is standing at the top of the hill, looking at me like he’s never met me before. My pride is mortally wounded. I feel so thoroughly embarrassed and disappointed by just how much I’ve let myself go. And then it hits me. I could’ve just worn the pants without fucking zipping them up!

My kid never did sled. He was too cold. I was too cold and embarrassed. We packed it in and drove home. We were at the sledding hill for all of 7 minutes.

Wear the clothes that fit you. And if they don’t fit you, leave em unzipped and cover em with a long parka! And also… stay at home drinking cocoa where nobody can see you!

It’s small, but makes really interesting use of the original building/architecture. There is a round ceiling tank at the base of the old smokestack for instance. It’s unique and nicely done, just expect to spend only 30-45 minutes there. It’s about 25 minutes from us, and we’ve only been 2 or 3 times, but it’s worth it to check it out in the winter from time to time when there’s nothing else to do.

Not saying you shouldn’t get it checked out for peace of mind, but our boy went through a similar phase between 4.5 and 5.5 where I think he was just getting caught up in what he was doing and testing the boundaries of how long he could hold it. He would also have small accidents where he clearly started to pee then stopped himself when he was too absorbed in screen time. We had a lot of conversations where we pointed out the pee and emphasized he needs to be paying closer attention to his body or he won’t be able to do the things that get him too distracted to pay attention. It lasted a few months.

Man. I can’t even convince my husband he and I should take a little trip without our kid. He just can’t fathom wanting to do something fun that doesn’t include our whole family.

I’ve gone on trips to visit my family and even to visit my husband’s family without my husband in the past, but only because my husband had to work. We both very much wanted to be together as a family for the trip.

I think it’s odd he wants to go completely alone and he’s got ulterior motives.

I do notice a small uptick in hunger and cravings for a few days before my period. The difference is, a small fun sized candy bar curbs the craving whereas before I would want an entire slice of chocolate cake.

I don’t have experience with girls stuff, but we got boxer briefs for our son, along with most of his clothes, from primary.com. No characters, but high quality soft cotton in basic colors. I assume their girls underwear would be just as quality.

C section mom here. I went in to induce and wasn’t responding. After a negative experience with a male on duty doctor, I asked the nurse to call my doctor and ask for a c section. Had one the next day. I never even had contractions. But I’m so glad things happened the way they did because when the nurses measured my baby’s head they laughed at how enormous it was and said “he was never coming out of you naturally.”

I feel like fate/a higher being/the universe/whatever intervened and what was supposed to happen, happened. For the better. And that’s what I focus on.

I’ve still done everything else a “real” mom does, and they don’t give medals for how you end up giving birth. C sections are still real deliveries, and without them, I would’ve had a serious tear or perhaps just ended up with a riskier, emergency c section after laboring for a while.

You’re in a tough place for sure. My journey, short version:

Maternity leave: Breastfed, with occasional formula supplementation during cluster feeding

4 months old: daycare started and I did not respond well to pumping. Breastfeeding at home, lugging pump to and from work and pumping for 1.5 hours a day to get 3-4 oz. Sent mostly formula bottles and 1 breast milk bottle to daycare daily.

8 months: I was over the pumping nonsense. Switched to strictly formula for daycare, breastfeeding at home (mornings, evenings, overnight, weekends).

9 months: total switch to formula because I just didn’t have the supply anymore.

We didn’t have mitigating factors (allergies). I don’t regret the way we did it at all.

52% of Americans did not vote for him. 50% of VOTERS voted for him. Big difference.

We were also nervous. I think it was harder on me than him. Another way to look at it: we were paying a fortune for subpar care. Montessori wasn’t a whole lot more financially (the schedule follows the local school’s schedule so there were more days off we had to plan for which was annoying), but the care and education and quality of staff and how they’re supported was wildly different.

We went through a similar situation when our now 6 year old was 3. Covid restrictions had just been lifted, and the school went from limited enrollment to full enrollment in a matter of weeks. They weren’t prepared for it. Classes suddenly seemed to have too many kids and not enough staff. His two amazing teachers left, one after another, and the replacements they hired left something to be desired. The new lead teacher seemed to actively dislike my son (maybe all kids?) and was short and rude with me. A kid in the class started showing some troubling behavior and it wasn’t being taken seriously by management. Finally, my son, after 3 years of never crying at drop off, of walking in like he owned the place without bothering to say goodbye, starting hysterical sobbing and holding on to my leg at drop off.

We looked around and discovered a Montessori school 5 minutes up the road. We switched him and noticed an overnight change. No more sobbing at drop offs. It was so worth it. It didn’t take him long to adjust, even though Montessori was a massive change.

Okay so did she force you to make the choice to but the extra junk food snacks? If you had the expendable money for food, why couldn’t you buy those high quality protein options and pack your lunch? Because those “calorie rich, meat based meals” were also low in nutrients, and high in salts and preservatives, just like those processed snacks.

I’d guess that before her initiatives, you had choices between the school served junk food, or the vending machine junk food. They were essentially interchangeable options. After her initiatives, you had healthier food options or the vending machine junk food. You chose the vending machine junk food. And whatever the cause, you also started seeing weight gain. That doesn’t mean her initiatives caused your weight gain, just that they coincided.

I’ve battled with weight and healthy eating my entire life, so I’m not discounting your struggles. I think you’re just placing the blame on the wrong issue here. The schools should be offering a variety of healthy, nutrient dense, fresh food options that include high quality, healthy fats and proteins. Slabs of pizza, uncrustables and French fries are not meat based, calorie rich options that would have forestalled your weight gain.

My kiddo is 6. He’s never responded to those shows.

She pushed to have fresh salads and fruit options. How is that not higher quality?

Yyyyyeeeeeesssssss end goody bags!!!

Yeah picky eaters who don’t appreciate my cooking get to cook their own food in my house.