I’m in my 30s and caught whooping cough as a child. I’d been vaccinated for it and the strain I caught was considered mild. It sure as hell didn’t feel mild to me so as soon as my daughter was physically able, she got her vaccine. The thought of her coughing so much she vomited or going through the terror of not being…

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl

Thanks! I discovered a treasure trove of super grim comics at my library and need something a smidge lighter to cleanse the palette. I've been debating picking up The Pulse, so thanks for the recommendation!

What is this from? I'm looking for something new and JJ+LC look so cute together!

I assume your response is meant to counter the wave of "No don't do it, bearing crotch-fruit will ruin your life!!!11!". I love parenting too, but I can admit that it isn't for everyone. Just look at earlier generations when bearing children was an expectation and not a choice. I don't feel that it is selfish to…

Recently at a party, someone asked me to try to convince her to have a kid. My first thought was “If I have to convince you to have a kid, you shouldn’t have one”. I desperately wanted to be a parent. I knew that my life would now involve sleepless night, some missed adventures and copious amounts of body fluids, and…

I totally wanted "Home" but my husband campaigned hard for "Sea of Love". Sea of Love won due to its short length.

So dark and yet I still use it as a lullaby for my daughter (it's easy to sing and I know all the words). I'm just lucky my kidlet likes sad bastard music just like her mom.

I tend to sing "The Girl" by City and Colour and "Follow you into the dark" by Death Cab For Cutie. And one particularly sleep-deprived night I started singing Backstreet Boys. I wasn't even a fan in the 90s but somehow the lyrics were etched into my mind.

Ugh. Parent-child songs are really tough to come by. Wait, make that appropriate parent-child songs. My initial pick was going to be “Somewhere out there” from Fievel Goes West. My dad and I watched the crap out of that movie when I was a kid. Then we decided to combine the dances during one song to keep the…

You can certainly dress for the cold, but for me it’s the length of Montreal winters that got me down. It felt like the gray slush phase lasted FOREVER. But you are right that Montreal summers are suffocatingly humid. I don’t miss those either.

True, but the weather is milder. I do not recommend Montreal winters.

First off, I’m really sorry you had your heartbroken. It sucks to lose not only your partner, but the future you saw with that person. However, I’m not sure that it is entirely fair to criticize fondu process for not mentioning her ex’s feelings in her post. I’ve been her. I know it was tough for my ex, but it was…

Smartset, Jacob, why did you leave me?

From what I understand, you save money by avoiding impulse purchases. There’s less temptation to incorporate random new pieces to your wardrobe (like that random top you bought on sale but never wear) since you are going with a one-in, one-out mentality, and it needs to fit with your current pieces.

I’m sorry you went through that, too. I also was regaled with a lot of relationship/personal information that I should NOT have been privy to. I think part of the reason I resent her so much was that she let people treat her (and me) like such crap but never took any responsibility.

Every mother’s day, I read stories about people who have severed their relationships with their mothers. I think these are important stories to tell. There is a lot of stigma against children who do not “value” their parents so reading stories like this reassure children that self-protection is justified. We aren’t…

Agreed. I think another good thing to do is look around your life for examples of parenting you would like to emulate. I think part of the reason destructive patterns get past on is because children of toxic parents don’t know a better way to respond to their kids. For me anyways, it wasn’t enough to know what not to…

I’m an only child, too and had this same dynamic. My mother would need me with this frightening intensity one day and then disappear into her new relationship the next. I still remember her mourning a past relationship (with the love of her life!) over a bottle of wine and blaming me for the guy bailing. He’d told her…

Exactly! Sometimes, whatever the optics, you don't know the truth.
Case in point, I saw my ex at a friend's wedding awhile ago, and he "forgave me" for cheating on him while we were together. He also blamed our break up entirely on my fiance. I explained to him that he was wrong, nothing EVER happened (we were just…