Christmas night, I was walking home by myself from my boyfriend’s. I was visibly upset - because I missed my kids and Christmas is so empty without them; I needed to go home and be by myself because it was clear I needed to be sad and my boyfriend needed to spend time with his daughters. Guy pulls up next to me on the…

The irony is, this show CREATED THE SPACE for these paranoiac tinfoil-hatters. And now they can’t themselves be convincing because reality has overtaken storytelling - you literally can’t make up anything more absurd than is already in the public space. Because the X-Files made it semi-okay to think about this shit.

Thank you. This is what everyone on my support team keeps telling me. Any time there’s an “event”, I take it straight to the lawyer and the therapist.

Same situation right here, only I’m the mom. Plus a lot of other shit-show moves that I can’t criticize or the already-tenuous connection that he allows me to have with my own kid will get permanently snapped. Runs me down all the time to her and her sister, outright LIES, etc., and there is zip I can do about it.…

I think it’s because he’s very aware of iconography/symbolism. He wears that blue vest everywhere - it’s a trademark for him. Even in summer. And the phone represents the huge portion of his activism that occurs on social media.

That’s all I watch, anymore.

Saw her at Tekserve getting her Macbook repaired. Love that she chose that shop over the Apple Store, loved her flatulent bulldog. She’s super tiny in person, and very friendly.

One phrase I keep repeating to myself is “Not my circus, not my monkeys.” I really wish Jesus had said that - we’d all be happier people.

You can’t convince middle-schoolers that showers are A Thing, says the mother of two of them who grew up to be quite sanitary and nowadays wouldn’t dream of calling anyone but me “Mom”, but I can totally see this.

That would be my fear. I’ve known too many people who’ve lost kids to a mentally abusive ex-spouse.

Massively agreed; if I were the dad, I’d be FRANTIC. The moral injury to these kids is criminal.

I REMEMBER THAT ONE. I never looked at Ed McMahon the same afterwards.

Yeah, that triggered a synapse that hasn’t fired in 40 years.

You’re one of Them, aren’t you?

Explains much. I organized to be better at my job (I work from home), which is singularly undemanding right now and requires almost zero creativity.

And so ironic that the hagiography even exists, considering how they really feel about her.

Well, I live alone these days. Apparently I really get off on having control over my own environment. Meta-tidying is not for everyone, that’s for sure; and it’s not super-virtuous or anything. I think one’s environment is just a manifestation of what’s going on inside, and now that I’m an empty-nester, that’s what’s…

My parents were like that too (esp my dad), so I went overboard. Extreme Tidying. In the spirit of, “Oh yeah? Not only will I show you, I’ll do it better than YOU ever dreamed you could.”

Yeah, but then he’s going to want a glass of milk to go with it, and exhausting shenanigans ensue. We all know this story.

Exactly. Thank you so much for your supportive comments. My daughter had one therapist who tried to get her father and I back together! I walked out of that office and never came back.