I waited a long time to adopt because of fears that I would be my parents. I knew I wouldn’t physically abuse my kids, but I feared doing the same emotional damage unless I could heal. The first year my son was with me I had PTSD type flashbacks. That deep well of anger re-opened. But we’re making it and we’re both…

Ads like this actually do matter to families like mine because, as the reactions show, some people still think we’re an abomination. Or they treat us like a freak show that should answer all their questions. It wasn’t that long ago that walking down the street with my BF would have gotten one or both of us killed.

I know one group of people who sometimes feel that way - veterans with PTSD. It’s a manifestation of hypervigilence. Know where your weapon is at all times and have it within arms’ reach. That said, I don’t feel more safe around a person who is already in a high enough state of fight/flight arousal that they feel they…

I think your first theory is right.

No, I think he was trying to create blood spatter by making her nose bleed. That’s why he wiped his hand on the girl’s shirt - to make it look like she fired the gun and the blood sprayed back on her instead of on him. He changed his clothes before fleeing because the blood spatter from the shooting was all over them.…

Twenty years ago I and my college roommate would haul our dorky little selves to whatever obscure Cleveland club Moxy Fruvous was playing at to sing “Once I was the King of Spain” along with the band. Both of us had crushes on Jian. Thank God neither of us had the guts to actually approach him. I hope the next trial…

I’m a foster parent. Please allow me to translate a few things for the non-foster folk reading this. First, in foster care there is always the official story and the real story. ALL children placed with foster children are labeled non-adoptable and the official goal is ALWAYS to reunify with birth parents, or failing…

Baloney. Two of my brothers are military and my bf is a retired career Naval officer from a military family. All three of them will tell you the military’s record on rape is a disgrace.

I’m an adoptive mom, I don’t yell “but why? You should adopt” at my sisters-in-law when they announce a pregnancy. This is really hard to convey to people, but it is entirely possible to love your adopted children 100% and still have lots of complicated feelings about your uterus and its capacity to carry a baby. I’m…

A simple rule, properly enforced, that the elevator have a working connection to emergency services would have saved her life. That’s why American elevators have call buttons - even if the building is empty and the security guards all gone home you can still contact someone. That’s one of the things elevator…

I’d like to suggest that he’s not an idiot, but he may be suffering survivor guilt. He sounds like that Congresswoman who survived the Ruby’s Diner shooting and is now a passionate pro-gun and concealed carry activist. Every time she talks about it she comes back to the idea that her parents would still be alive if…

As a fellow teacher, I agree with you. No guns in the classroom - not in my students’ hands or mine. Mind you, I AM good under pressure and I’ve handled guns numerous times. Furthermore, I’ve survived two different incidents when an unstable teen put a gun to my head, and one where a student threatened to beat me up…

I’ve had cardiac distress that registered as a heart attack to the ER doctors - it turned out to be multiple blood clots caught in my lungs and heart. Supposedly this condition is OFF the pain scale. I had doctors gathered around my bedside asking how it was possible I hadn’t passed out from the pain.

yeah, I’m not seeing remorse there. Horror at what’s about to happen to him, but nothing like remorse.

I teach at the university level. I’d bet money this post is right on the money for what’s going on in the emotional dynamic. I see this over and over and over - helicopter parents harassing students and playing the martyr when their adult child (yes, 18 is an adult) doesn’t check in as often as they like. Freshman…

I almost died because my bc pill caused me to have a deep vein thrombosis that then broke up into smaller clots that spread through my body and lodged in my heart and lungs. I’ve been told I shouldn’t ever take an estrogen containing bc again, so I do worry that women taking bc OTC might have a similar problem without…

Scuse me while I hyperventilate with rage. I hope to God I never say anything half that awful to my son.

The Pledge of Allegiance is 1) a piece of pathetic public theater that has 0 meaning about the real values of the candidate and 2) unAmerican. No self respecting American should recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

My problem with it isn’t the sport vs non-sport aspect (I don’t care about sports in general) it’s the “you must become a stepford doll to participate” aspect of it AND the insanely dangerous stuff they do with no safety gear. If I signed my son up for circus acrobatics class (a real thing where I live) he’d be…

There’s a lot of legal and hospital procedure precedent as well as ethical codes here that your SO has to comply with. Patient accommodation trumps nurse and doctor’s ability to stand up for themselves or their beliefs. She is literally and legally not allowed to say “that won’t be tolerated here.” It will be…