She says she was aware of the cheating. So this isn’t a perfect relationship suddenly turning tarnished, this is a questionable relationship turning darker. Defending a loved one is one thing, but if she knew about the drugging, the “scholarships”, etc she’s very nearly an accomplice.

Regardless of how they came to feel unsafe around their father, the fact exists that they don’t feel safe around him. If a relationship is going to be established, you have to start by making them feel safe.

I just hope the kids were too young to understand the reference.

I have to admit I’m surprised there are no friends or family members stepping in to get the kids out of the situation — in my family someone would have invited the kids over for a few weeks of sleepovers, movies and s’mores. Because you protect kids from shit like that.

Parents are not owed the love of their children. The judge is treating the children’s affection as if it were a asset to be awarded in the divorce.

Especially considering that Dad had them move to a foreign-to-them country, far from friends and school, multiple different languages, where portions of the country are definitively war zones. Mom is the one who brought them back to the country where they are comfortable making sure they had a stable environment with…

They can read for the set of genetic diseases for which tests are established, so you can find out whether you have a sickle cell anemia gene, whether you have risk factors for breast cancer or heart disease, Huntington’s disease . . . basically an assortment of rare conditions and known contributing factors. A friend…

“It can’t develop into a pony!”

Any particular embryo is more likely to be naturally lost (most within the first two months) than finish developing into a child. So really an embryo, if left alone, is most likely to become a non-viable bundle of cells expelled from the mother’s body. It’s an exception that it develops all the way into a person.

I think that’s where the “you can’t get pregnant via rape or incest” thing comes in. If you refuse to believe that any embryos are produced via violence, then you can agree to the death of the embryos you don’t think exist.

I think it’s the puritan ethic sneaking through — if something bad happens, you must have been a bad person to deserve it. You don’t have to look hard to see that ugly, old idea bleeding through every discussion of poverty, health care and ‘entitlement’.

Potential life is apparently more valuable than actual life.

Nope, our ability to read DNA isn’t quite that advanced yet. You can’t get a sample of an embryo and find out it’s a blond, left-handed pianist with a fondness for avocado. You can’t even tell if the embryo will necessarily develop correctly instead of miscarrying (half of all embryos are naturally lost in the first…

Oh, gods. I need to foster again. Right now. It’s still kitten season, I’m sure the shelter has a litter I can steal, er, borrow for a while. My husband will never notice. Sure.

So the father saw the judge threatening and verbally abusing his children, knew that they would be essentially sent to jail for not wanting to see him (regardless of the reason), and at no point stopped this train wreck in order to make sure the kids were okay?

I'm never trusting a normal looking person again.

My sister, living in Sweden, gave birth with the help of a licensed midwife (doula? Not sure.). Apparently in her part of the world it is uncommon for birth to be treated as a medical emergency unless there is some sign of unusual risk.

You wouldn't happen to have been in Grand Prairie, Alberta for that? It sounds exactly how my mom described my birth. Indifferent medical staff, unnecessary procedures — basically treating pregnancy as a self inflicted illness.

Yes, I think this is the same impulse that makes teens join gangs, political parties, religious groups or even fraternities and sororities. I would imagine some band groupies and sports fans are under the same influence.

It seems like there are no mediocre librarians. There are only heroic, intelligent, enthusiastic librarians who fight off book bans with one hand while daring readers to reach for new and different materials. And there are the grouchy, old, guardians of knowledge who are pretty sure that everyone is going to start…