Oh my g-d. As someone who graduated with her doctorate in 2013, I read this with pain in my chest and not breathing through most of it. Such rage at that couple, and at that woman, and such horror at your husband, but such enormous credit to you and your husband for working through all of this. You are built of…

I should also add that I agree that you really need to have reasonably-priced items on the registry, too! We had a big range, with lots in the lower ranges. I was in grad school and had no income of my own when I got married and really, really can't emphasize this enough. This also made the disconnect between "I'm…

I will just say that my favorite, favorite wedding gift was a positively kickass DSLR camera that was like $1100. We were having a conversation with a friend about how we were dreaming of one day getting a really nice camera and she said, "pick one out and put it on your registry and I'll coordinate it - pick out…

Seriously - did people not read what was being asked? The whole point was that those come out on every other article, so take a break and let's hear about the others this time...

So beautiful!!!!

Thank you!!! And so much of weddings winds up being about the families - not about the couple - and the couple gets judged for it anyway. Like, I'm sorry that my parents generously paid for the wedding because they saw it as being about the whole family, not just about the bride and groom - but also (because of…

I make a scrub with coconut oil that I LOVE. It's super cheap and smells amazing. I mix together:

Ugh, I hear you. I hate stats. Just remember - you will get through this, and then it will be done. All you need is for it to be done. And you can do it. It sometimes helped me to set really small benchmarks for myself - and I mean really small, like "write one paragraph" or "organize X" - just so I could feel…

Thank you so much for this!!

Top Chef actually makes me want to cook. Watching people be so creative and come up with cool flavors makes me want to try to do that, too. My cooking is generally pretty not that exciting at all, I don't really venture into new techniques or anything like that - but it does make me want to create stuff. And it…

I LOVED that show!!!!!! I miss it.

This is troubling:

Really, your daughter is lucky to have you. Selective mutism is tricky, and to get that diagnosis early and also be aware of sensory difficulties early on, and to be so in tune with your daughter and her anxiety, and to be helping to build her confidence so kindly and consistently - I seriously want to stand up and…

Also, I have been meaning to tell you this for ages (like, every time I see you on here), but I love your name. Obsessed with The Wire. We've been wanting to get our dog a friend and my husband is dying to name a dog "Avon Barksdale." I think it'd be a hilarious name but he's such a terrible person that I kind of…

Yes, yes, yes. All together now, people: Carol Dweck. Mindset.

I think this is quite astute. Thank you for saying it.

Yeesh. I can't say I'm surprised that people went ballistic, but average isn't something horrible - in fact, by letting a kid know that they're not innately exceptional or above others, you're setting them up to be gracious and hardworking and appreciative throughout their life. Nowhere in your post did you say that…

I'm so sorry your daughter is struggling. Awesome that she's working with someone great.

I've recommended this to a couple of other people here, but if you aren't familiar with her work or you haven't read it before, check out the book Mindset, by Carol Dweck. Her work is terrific, and she makes a strong case that praising effort in kids results in building their resilience and their ability to tolerate…

I *just* wrote this comment to someone else but I am going to say it here to you, too, because it applies directly to what you wrote as well: