I would have been weirded out if a guest had brought friends I didn’t know to our baby shower. And I would have felt bad if someone I didn’t know felt obligated to get a gift. I think you did the right thing by declining.

We had this exact same situation. My BF at the time (now husband) moved in and we were both at work all day and worried that my cat would get lonely (especially since my attention was now divided between him and the new BF). So we went to every humane society in a 50 mile radius, looked at tons of cats, finally chose…

I gained 25 lbs, pushed for 4 hours (yeah that’s not a typo) and had a 2nd degree tear. I couldn’t sit or walk comfortably for a long time after my daughter was born, exercise was NOT happening. If anyone had commented to me about losing weight at that point I seriously would have murdered them.

It really has nothing to do with Mike Pence’s marriage- that’s just a convenient excuse to brown nose his ultra Christian, Duggar-loving base. The real reason he won’t dine with a woman is because he doesn’t believe women have a place in business or politics, given that the majority of business and political deals…

I hated GWB (and even more so the evil puppet-master Dick Cheney). He was a terrible president. But the thing is, he still acted like a President. He was polite and respectful, even when meeting people with whom he disagreed, he was able to at least read a teleprompter and muster up an appropriate somber tone to…

I wouldn’t say I’ve hung out with (or even really worked with) Hillary, but I interacted with her several times back when I was working for the Children’s Defense Fund, and I found her to be a very warm, down-to-earth person. At the time she was a Senator and the former First Lady, so she would have been well within…

I work in a high school and (unfortunately) we’ve had to do several active shooter trainings. In fact, we were shown the same video as the one in the article. The interesting difference though, is that for the school setting we are taught more to look for kids who don’t fit in, seem depressed, isolated, etc. and then…

No, you’re right. Babies should start solids by 6 months. by 9 months they should be somewhat feeding themselves solids, even. I really hope this is just not written very clearly and she’s not exclusively breastfeeding still, otherwise that baby could very well be malnourished. You can breastfeed as long as you want…

Go with Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby by Marc Weissbluth. Several people (including our pediatrician) recommended it to us after our attempts at “sleep training” failed miserably and we were going on several awful awful weeks of no sleep. We were desperate. That book was AMAZING- I only wish we’d read it sooner…

I just assumed it was a variation on “Uffda”- the Scandinavian/upper midwestern “exclamation of bafflement, surprise, or dismay.”

As an alum of MSU, I’m horrified and disappointed in my alma mater.

I wish I could star this a million times.

So...essentially the plot of Billy Madison? I guess that makes sense- I mean, he is figuratively leaving flaming bags of poop on America’s front porch....

Well, I’m a social worker (I don’t work for CPS, though) and I don’t know that it’s abuse per se, but it’s a terrible “discipline technique.” If it’s with an object like a belt or a switch, it’s absolutely abuse.

That was exactly my problem! The epidural was way too high, AND the stupid labor nurse kept making my lie on my back and wouldn’t let me sit up. Then they (the hospital staff) all treated me like I was “wimping out” for being too exhausted to push anymore and needing them to use the vacuum to get the baby out. After…

Yeah, for me it was 4 hours of pushing while staring at a clock that did nothing but remind me how terrible I apparently am at birthing babies (in hindsight, there was some medical mismanagement that may have contributed). I was too exhausted to be stressed. That came the second night when we were faced with a baby…

I had my daughter at 36 and I already feel like the oldest parent around. I don’t know if it’s any easier when you’re younger and have more energy, but I couldn’t imagine doing it when you’re 50!

Ha ha I was having lustful dreams about cinnamon rolls! My daughter was born at 5:22 pm and by 5:50 pm I was ordering mac and cheese for dinner. It was hospital cafeteria mac and cheese, but after months of no carbs and 4 hours of pushing it tasted delicious to me!

You can eat cheeses as long as they’re pasteurized. I ate lots of goat cheese while pregnant and it was fine. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes at 12 weeks though (had to test early due to family history of diabetes) so for most of my pregnancy I couldn’t have carbs. No bread, pasta, ice cream, chocolate,…

Yup, I can say the only good thing that happened in 2016 was the birth of my daughter (though the actual birthing process kind of sucked). My boobs got HUGE, but much to my husband’s disappointment, the baby pretty much owns them. And I know once I stop breastfeeding, there’s going to be some sad sad deflation…