Based on the NY Times article, it sounds like a lot of the neighbors are diplomats and other high-level government types who are used to the irritations that having tight security around will bring. That seems like another good reason (besides Secret Service requirements) to choose this neighborhood— less disruption…

I saw something on Facebook the other day about how breastmilk is dangerous. So there’s apparently no way to do this right. :)

The other day I told my three-year-old he could have a cookie after dinner if he was good. Ten seconds later he says “Mommy, I love you.” And I say, “You’re only saying that because you want a cookie, right?” And he’s like “Yup!” So I feel you.

I’m glad someone else said it first, but yeah. I was always so paranoid that my kids’ airways would be closed off when I was wearing them. I don’t know how old this baby is...maybe she’s old enough that it’s not as much of an issue now?

Names are the best way to bind families.

Yes. If I were rich I would totally buy a vacation compound large enough to host the extended family.

Yes! I lived in Paris during G. W. Bush’s reign and was worried how people would react to me being an American. I told anyone who asked that I was from New York and the universal reaction was “I love New York!” It was pretty nice considering how much fucking up our country was doing on the world stage at that time.

Kill him right then. It’s worse if it’s pre-meditated, right?

Exactly. I take my kid to the Science Museum because it is pretty close to our house and it is way easier to parent there. He’s distracted by all the cool stuff and therefore more compliant/less sociopathic than at home. I’m not in the running for mother of the year, I’m just trying to avoid wanting to murder my…

What?! That is nuts. Does she, like, Kinja stalk you? That is so creepy.

It is germane because if the rationale for paid parental leave is that parenthood is a societal good, then acting as if paid leave for non-parents is analogous doesn’t work. We can argue about whether parenthood being a societal good is true, but presumably that is why governments elsewhere support it financially.

My husband used his two weeks of vacation too. Then afterwards he got shit about it (fortunately not from his boss, but from another older guy at his boss’ level). WTF.

I was thinking of appealing to their racism in another way: if they don’t want to support citizens producing the next generation of tax payers/consumers/workers, maybe we should be a little more lax about immigration, let people bring their kids here from elsewhere. :)

I presume that during this paid leave you’ll be doing something that benefits society akin to producing the next generation of tax-payers/consumers/workers?

We recently had a super depressing conversation about this. We’re looking for a larger place to live and we were like, “How big do the kids’ rooms need to be when they get older? What do kids even put on their rooms these days? Is it just them, their iPhone, and a bed?” Way more important than the posters and stuff…

It looked like some kids and their moms. Very disturbing. It doesn’t seem like jumping around is the best way to use this product.

At least the Claire’s part makes sense. The only people I could imagine wanting this are 8- 10 year olds (sorry, kids).

That’s what we did with our sons’ names : FirstName Mom’sLastName Dad’sLastName. I am hoping the middle + lastname will function socially like a last name, since it is common to both and specifically identifies our branch of the family as opposed to their cousin’s. I’m sorry to hear people acted weird about it with…

It may depend on where you are, but I haven’t had a problem with school or anyplace else questioning me because I have a different last name from my sons. Once I started to explain to someone and she cut me off and was like, “It’s not an issue.”

When people asked what it was, I was always tempted to say “A puppy! I’m so excited!” Like, WTF, people? Why do you care so much?!