My kiddo was terrified of something that played on the PBS Kids morning show called Dirt Girl World. Terrified to the point of freezing, wide-eyed, and making horrible little choking sounds before screaming and finally being able to run and hide, shrieking from his hiding place for me to TURN IT OFF NOW.

From one single mother to another, I fucking love you.

They are completely overloaded, and only do extremely limited work. They will prepare simple documents for specific situations. They almost never take on a lengthy, complicated case, especially when custody is a factor. Lawyers just can't sink their time and resources into the kind of high conflict cases domestic…

My ex took all our funds when I fled him. It didn't matter that I had no access to any money, I didn't qualify for legal assistance because my income on paper was too high.

I’m going through a parental alienation/supervised visitation nightmare myself. One huge red flag I can see in this case is that they seem to be forcing the mother to participate directly in the supervised visits, as the supervisor. My situation also included domestic violence, with me as the victim, in front of our…

I have watched two women die slowly and in agony after deciding to treat their cancers with woo, and I've watched the people who surrounded them urge them to continue with the magical thinking, all up until the end. The pain was so bad. And so unnecessary. Fuck this woman and everyone like her.

No, a man can’t sign away his parental rights and be done with child support. It’s very difficult to get someone’s parental rights terminated, even voluntarily. I’m going to put this the same blunt way my lawyer put it, “The state does not consider it in the best interests of a child to render him or her a bastard.”

I know someone with this issue who paid an artist a very small fee (just to cover materials/time) to do a “dry run.” He did a couple of patches on her leg and arm without ink to see if she had any reaction to the metal of the needle. She didn’t, by the way.

Nope. I’ve also tried natural baking-soda based deodorant creams (several brands, similar to the primal pits stuff elsewhere on this thread). Within a few days to a few weeks, every single one of them has given me hideous red rashes as well. I think it may have to do with the microbiome and pH levels.

Nope. I’ve also tried natural baking-soda based deodorant creams (several brands, similar to the primal pits stuff…

I used crystal deodorant for a few years until I suddenly sensitized to it. All the sudden, I had firepits from hell— bright, red rash and open fissures. I have no idea why, but suddenly couldn't tolerate it.

I used crystal deodorant for a few years until I suddenly sensitized to it. All the sudden, I had firepits from…

I live in Houston, Texas. I heard our mayor, Annise Parker, on NPR today talking about how we have finally cleared the backlog of rape kits in this city. There were years of untested rape kits, just sitting around. Years and years and years of them. It took major effort on the part of our mayor to push this through.…

Yeah. He is a wonderful person, and pretty much the last remaining late-term provider in my area. Google Dr. Karpen of Houston. He's a fucking hero.

I’m lucky I live in Houston and had access at all. As it was, it cost $2100 out of pocket for the procedure, which spanned three days. Oh, my provider was shot by an anti-choice nut in a parking garage, in the 90s.

I can't chill. I just can't. I had one of the last legal 20+ week abortions in Texas.

I had one at 21 weeks. Two false negative pregnancy tests. I had a toddler who was still nursing (and therefore no menstrual cycle), and had just fled my ex because of domestic violence.

You know, despite the state of public education and the multiple abuses against teachers, this makes me very proud of my workplace. My principal has hired more than one visibly pregnant (even third trimester) teachers, without hesitation. She figures (and correctly, I might add) that the best candidate is the best…

You haven’t read enough about parental alienation. I have, as I’m being accused of it. Parental alienation is not a syndrome. The man who introduced the term and fought for it to be classified as a syndrome was Gardner, a defender of NAMBLA, a misogynist, and a disturbed individual who committed suicide by slicing his…

Are you fucking kidding me? My ex didn’t pay child support for more than two years after abandoning our son and me and fleeing to another state to avoid a CPS investigation. He just started filing motions to have more access to the child he neglected and endangered, and family court is bending over backwards to give…

About #2, no. This is a common myth. Women get custody 80% of the time, but this figure is because most of the time, men don’t seek custody. However, in cases where they do, they are much more likely to get it.

Hi. I’m Appalachian. Specifically, from West Virginia. My ancestors were the earliest settlers, my more recent family members coal miners who fought in the mining wars.