I wish I were wearing that right now. It would be vastly preferable to the monkey suit I am wearing.

I'm a big fan of Land's End and Hanna Anderson, preferably 2nd hand via children's resale shops or ebay. They are gender neutral (but come in lots of pinks & purples and flowers, which I have to resist buying because I have a little boy) and they wear like iron, so there's lots of life in them even when you buy them…

Grandpa wisdom is the best! I always hesitate about warm v cold water wash, but you've resolved that dilemma.

Based upon my experience with unwanted guests standing on my front porch, here's what I'd do: go down to your local PD, introduce yourself, let them know you're having this problem (you can describe it as 'gone on a few dates, now he won't leave me alone'), and tell them that you plan to call them if he shows up at…

Preach. My son has some medical issues, and we are adamant that it cannot be a get out of jail free card. I know so many parents who let their fears keep their kids tied to them or terrified of the world beyond their home.

As a parent, allow me to say: F*ck that noise. The parents are conditioned to believe the kids need the ipad. The kids would be fine without it, but the parents would have to entertain them or work harder to ignore them.

My son's birth mother is heroin addict. I'm dreading that call, but at the same time, almost hoping we find out when she has overdosed. I'd rather be able to give her a proper burial than leave her in the city morgue. She matters to us, even if she is convinced she doesn't matter to anyone.

That would worry me too. Rooting for you all!

That's fair enough. In my experience, parent chaperones who are unfamiliar with a kid's issues really, really don't want to be in charge of a kid with a heart condition or a severe allergy, so the kids are placed in the teacher's group or their parent comes along.

Poor kiddo, is there a chance that her allergies will return with puberty?

Totally a legit concern. I worried about that when I bought one for my kid. Ultimately, my kid needed the info available to caregivers in the event of an emergency, so I sucked it up and bought it. I figured that most kids in Kindergarten wouldn't be able to read PACEMAKER off my kid's wrist and know what it was.

It's a hard balance - you want the bracelet to be cool enough that the kid will wear it, but not so cool that other kids will want to take it off and borrow it. Those are going to attract other kids because they scream fun and they seem to have snaps, which are relatively easy to undo.

Totally agree about the bracelets. Temporary tattoos are impractical for kids who need the info on them every day.

I like the cut of your jib.

Please, vent. I understand. We lost our foster baby back into the system very, very suddenly last month, and I find myself vomiting out my story in the most unusual of places.

We gave my son a middle name that is my (much adored) grandmother's maiden name. He had my husband's last name and I wanted to give him something that linked him to my family. When he was younger, he'd point to her and say 'you're Smith*, just like me!'

This American Life covered this issue so very well: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives…

Sometimes the name your birth parents gave you is also the name they screamed while they were beating you. Sometimes you were named after someone you don't ever, ever want to be like. There are times in foster care adoption when a name change is a chance to lose a name that carries with it so much trauma.

It's hard, because so many kids in the system have something that puts them into the 'special needs' category, whether it's drug exposure, asthma or a developmental delay or something that might not be a big deal once you figure out how to handle it. I say that as someone who didn't know my foster (now adopted) son…

I'm a foster and an adoptive mom and I'm wondering if you hired your own attorney to represent you at TPR? Is that what the attorneys' fees are for?