Honestly, I just feel sorry for her. I'm a much happier than she can ever be, which is really heartbreaking.

True story: My mom had esophageal cancer when she about ... 62 ... and had to have her esophagus removed, and her stomach attached to her trachea. Effectively, it removed her stomach basin. The only thing she asked the surgeon during our first meeting was whether he was going to have a hard time because she was so…

I am so sorry that happened to you.

Apparently half of all women were raised by the same woman? At least according to the responses here.

Something by proxy. Anxiety, self-hatred, whatever. Poor boundaries, in any case.

She did. We never went back, not sure why. Probably because she realized it would involve a ton of work from HER. I wouldn't call my mom a bitch, just highly neurotic and misguided. And highly neurotic. Possibly skirting the edges of Borderline.

See, that's why I kind of respect the skanky clothes young people started wearing in the oughts, even though I feel uncomfortable with the overt sexualization of 12 year olds. They seem so much more confident than we were. EVERY GIRL in 1980s tried to cover her figure because she thought some part was too hideous to…

That's interesting. I remember when kids started dressing in tight and revealing clothes, I wondered who had the better self esteem: those of us obsessed with covering our asses or those who dressed for a positive result. Surely, there must be a happy medium.

Oh my god, the sacks. I spent the 1980s wearing sacks over stretch pants because we all had to hide our asses. I really really wish I had spent my formative years wearing clothes that fit.

YES. You assumed you were ugly throughout high school, despite evidence to the contrary because of your mom's freakout about your changing body during adolescence, not limited to whining to your pediatrician about why you weighed so much, telling you to always wear long sleeves because you're arms are too fat, and…

Just out of curiosity Mr. Sigman (and it is mister, not doctor, right?)... is there some kind of, I don't know, concurrent suggestion that girls should make known their opinions of boys? Or is it a given that boys that have other means of building their self-esteem, and that rating the sexual viability and general…

What's even weirder is that in middle school, it's the opinion of adult women (MOM!) and peer girls that really hit your self-esteem.

I try not to get too impatient or pushy because I'm sure I do the same thing when I'm on vacation, even though I don't mean to.

That's not limited to kids, although it is heightened in them. God forbid I should try to get a bagel in the morning before work during tourist season. People on vacation act like they've never seen a menu board, and somehow become blinded to the people walking towards (and behind them) as they saunter along a…

Ah, yes, I've been on the bottom of those piles before ;-)

I stopped going to a restaurant with delicious food because we saw on two separate owners (sister and brother) treat their (young native Mexican women) staff like SHIT. The final straw was when the very tall woman co-owner held up a rag to clean the table above her head and made the short woman who was supposed to…

Mazel tov. I sincerely wish this young couple a lifetime of love, support, compassion and happiness.

WTF man? I told the story of how my parents met in 1974 and you reply with some random hostility. I reply with sincerity and you reply with more random hostility. I'm not sure what you're upset about, but I'm not the source of it.

I am a white person who grew up in predominantly black and latino neighborhoods/blocks/buildings until my mom finished her comp sci schooling (yet I was put with the other white kids in school thanks to tracking). A lot like the kid in Jonathan Letham's Fortress of Solitude. I'm 40, so I'm not an aspiring anything,…

Serious question. WHY are there so many abandoned vehicles on the sides of highways in South Carolina? I've never seen another state like it.