What the actual hell. Confiscate her smartphone, move the tech toys to a public area of the house and limit her Internet use to school work only. Also park her ass in therapy. But hitting? Holyfuck, no.

I’m not even an American!

Yes, I grew up in Northern California and except for the very small schools, each school had a nurse that was there pretty much every day. It was her job to review vaccination records, check our vision, manage head lice outbreaks, instruct kids in brushing teeth, washing hands, covering coughs, and about health. She’d…

No aid package is complete unless Flint gets free well-run preschool for all children, and an army of child psychologists and special Ed teachers. Funded for at least a generation. Fuck that, these kids need counsellors and education programs funded for their entire education. Guaranteed. Right. Now.

God, that is so sad. :(

I can’t speak for what your BIL’s experience is, but I can say that for me, it’s really hard to go to your parents and say “I need help with these things” when they’ve gotten SO ANGRY at you for acting in irrational ways or losing your shit that they’ve turned around and spanked you for it. Because it’s basically…

Thanks! I don’t, but thanks! Ha.

I have the highest regard for good special education teachers and aides. The teacher I worked with had been doing this for several years, and was so good. She ended up quitting when she became pregnant because she said that she couldn’t handle the stress of the classroom as well as the stress of her own child.

I am an alum of Clarion (if she’s talking about the uni in PA)! And I love Octavia. She was amazing and made a girl who loved sci fi feel included when she read about people that looked like her. She left us too soon!

I just picked up one of her books at a free book exchange (shout out to Baltimore Book Thing!).

Ms. Butler is one of my favorite SF authors ever, right up there with Clifford D. Simak and Nancy Kress. I’m still sad I can’t read anymore of her work.

“So be it! See to it!” will now be what I tell myself when trying to reach my goals.

From a local Facebook group:

This is the bossest thing ever. I’ve just gotten into Olivia Butler in the last year or so. Kindred in particular gave me a profound perspective on slavery (and I’d studied slavery for years). “I’m me and I’m here and I’m writing” has to be the best mantra for a writer ever.

Safe to guess that a 14 year old sending nude pictures on the Internet may have some self-esteem issues. How do we cure that? A beating.

That poor child. First, she lives in a world that strives to sexualize every woman. I’m guessing she wasn’t sending her nudes unsolicited. So probably a bf or whoever was asking her for it...and she complied. Because again, as a teen, she wants to be sexy instead of the alternatives for women which are ‘prude’ or…

You sound like an awesome parent! I hope to establish the same type of relationship with my daughter as gets older. I know sometimes sitting down and explaining everything might be the harder route but it definitely seems like the right one. Hitting a child is easy, having a rational conversation isn't.

Good friends she had. I’m very happy they got involved.

Give the smart phones back to the adults and the hockey sticks and jump rope back to the youths. Everybody is fucking up.