Yeah, I was in a long-term relationship once with a guy whose best friend was not only a woman, but a woman he'd once dated (many years before, she was married to someone else by then). Many of my friends were baffled, "Aren't you jealous?!" Hell no! She accompanied him to activities that I have zero interest in, and…

If you're really worried that you're gonna go off on a jealousy bender on your current bf because of your bad previous relationship (and given how he treated you, I completely understand those feelings), may I suggest you have a discussion about it with the current bf, if you haven't already? Just something like "Hey,…

Oh boy, after yesterday's Pissing Contest and now this post I'm having some fun (UGLY) memories rear up. Mainly that I've been on both sides of this issue.

Disagree. Ultimatums *can* be controlling and manipulative. If all you're doing is trying to get someone to do what you want, that's controlling and manipulative. But if they are honest reflections of your feelings—"I need you to stop drinking or I'm going to leave"—then they are fair.

It's actually from all the excessive masturbation.

And the Lord Bill Hicks did sayeth:

I'd imagine in a large portion of these cases we're dealing with children who have special needs. While I'm always thrilled when people take issues of consent and independence in special needs populations seriously, there are some other factors at play. Special needs children and adults, as well as elders with…

You absolutely can get GPS tracking devices for your kids though, like the article said. You can't microchip them, but they make them in bracelets and all sorts of other things. My mom works with special needs children and one of the kids she works with has a GPS tracking bracelet.
They might be expensive though, I…

You know Fresh Meat got a fourth (and final) season, right? It isn't in filming yet, but the writing's done. SO looking forward to it.

I have grave, grave doubts about yet another telling of the Salem story, which I have seen and heard too many times to count in my lifetime, in various formats (grew up in Massachusetts, in addition to it apparently being an endless source of general fascination). Not only was I sick to death of the tale before I was…

Questions to actually ask:

Dear potential mate,

Oh yeah, Sartre! Sorry everyone, we're shutting this blog down because Sartre already happened. It was fun while it lasted.

I'm feeling "Who am I kidding? I can't wait to be this person." MAHALO! Okay, but mahalo, right?

The shark has spoken.

My district did have gifted and SPED programs. The GAT coordinator would routinely promise to put ESL kids on the watch list and then "forget" every single time without fail. I'm not saying it isn't a complex issue, but in a small district all it takes is one asshole to fuck things up for hundreds of kids over a…

I am a middle class parent who reads parenting books and spends a privileged amount of time thinking about the best way to raise my kids. I love them to pieces and they are incredibly special to me, but I made the mistake recently of saying something to a group of moms about how my six year old is "pretty average" and…

Yah, I think most gifted children probably grow up to be entirely unremarkable adults. I learnt to read when I was two and had an adult reading age while I was still in primary school - at 27, the ability to read to an adult level is much less impressive. Sorry, childhood teachers: I grew up to be reasonably smart but…

Researchers have been emphasizing our need to praise a child's effort rather than intelligence for a while now (back in 1998 it was being framed as something that would immunize them to self-defeating behavior, not ward off narcissism, per se). And psychologists have long warned against telling a gifted child what…

This is super easy to achieve, if you're in my family. Dad will tell you how awesome and talented you are, but Mom will be indifferent and emotionally abusive so then you'll grow up doubting any of your abilities and never really thinking you're too great at anything. Success!