kidsthesedays

Can you elaborate on the Christmas thing? I have a very different view than you on Christmas "magic" than you, I believe.

There's no parts of Connecticut that are part of "the Boston area" nor is the southern part of Rhode island.

Story time!

I once wore a glitter sweatshirt through airport security. It made the backscanner machine go crazy and mark my entire shirt area as suspect, back and front. TSA was like "oh, it's the glitter on your shirt." As a result I was subjected to the most ineffective "pat down" ever. The TSA agent ran her hands across my shoulders and clavicle area and that's it. I could have hidden a small arsenal of weapons inside my bra, strapped to my arms, or strapped to my belly. It would be funny if we weren't paying millions for that "security."

I'm a menstrual cup user. It's not gross cause you're gonna be dealing with those body fluids one way or another.

Not sure why you are putting down menstrual cup users. I use one and it really is great. I also told my sister about it and she got one too and likes it. I also use cloth pads on light days. Both beat disposables by a wide margin in comfort.

Everyone has their own preferences.

My bank's security is a password that is a maximum of 8 characters, no symbols allowed. Seems rigorous.

Speaking as a woman here -

>Are scenarios like this really common?

Very common.

>have not heard of them dealing with such harassment

Doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Opening up about harassment opens you up to more problems than it solves sometimes. You get labeled as a trouble maker or people don't believe you or say you made it up or whatever.

The supermarket "bakery" is such a scam - what they do can hardly be considered "baking."

Maybe you gotta live in a low income area. I went to the YMCA, YWCA, Boys and Girls Club, some place that is run by a couple nuns and sponsored by a charity... I think we may have gotten subsidies from somewhere though? Honestly I am not sure, I just know that they were cheap and that's where all the poor kids went (including me).

These places were pretty friggin boring though, just a bunch of sitting around doing not much of anything except playing with yarn with minimal supervision.

The "free camp" (as we called it) was especially boring.

I do wonder sometimes if men give up primary custody on purpose because they are afraid society won't think they are manly enough or something like that? I mean, pure hypothesis on my part.

>The contention is society's automatic assumption that it's better to give custody of children to the mother, as opposed to the father.

1) That's 100% incorrect

2) That isn't even what was said.

>women end up with the kids the vast majority of the time, and the only time they don't is when there's seriously wrong with them (e.g. abusive, mentally ill, etc.).

Once again, completely and totally incorrect. The "vast majority" of people that I personally know about don't have the woman ending up with the kids. I know of one guy whose ex-wife took off halfway across the country and left him with the kids.

I also know (and hate) someone who is male and did the same - took off halfway across the country and left his ex (girlfriend) with the kid.

I would say that women can tend to be unfair with the kids. Insisting "I'm going to get my way" and the father just giving it to her rather than fight in court over it.

My sister in law isn't abusive or mentally ill.

This is what confuses me, when I was growing up there was poor kids childcare that I went to that was dirt cheap. Don't they exist anymore? Our (lower income) city offered free summer camp and I went to a variety of after school programs. Sure you can't do that with babies though (I don't think).

The vast majority of my clothes were hand-me-downs or thrift store or sometimes sales rack stuff. My mom and her sisters and brothers passed around garbage bags full of their kids' old clothes for the smaller kids and clothes were passed on to coworkers and friends. Several kids all wore clothes until they fell apart. I was allowed to have one pair of shoes (only from Payless) and I wore them either until they didn't fit or until the next schoolyear came. My parents didn't spend hardly anything at all on clothes.

Medical costs obviously are high (unless you are in the military)

I never even felt deprived or anything either. Not being able to pick out my clothes wasn't even a big issue for me.

Which was exactly my point. :)

You'd have to basically be homeless to save enough to be able to retire very early on a modest income such as $30,000.