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I lived peacefully had with no knowledge that this book existed until I had a kid and a friend-auntie cursed delighted us with a copy. Along the lines of The Giving Tree and Love You Forever, it is a primer in unhealthy parent-child boundaries. A more overbearing mother you will never find. The baby bunny just cannot…

Presumably had I dropped a deuce in any pushes leading up to the actual birth they'd have scooped it right up, but yeah, totally. There is almost nothing about birth that is not gross.

I know!

I'll take "bland" or "smug" or "does this hippie ass potluck have any real food, anywhere?" in relation to quinoa, but "earnest" makes no sense.

You know they don't do twilight sleep for births anymore, right? I was there and conscious. I wouldn't have found it particularly embarrassing anyway, because I'm gross like that, and also because when you are in the process of ejecting a fully-formed human being from your vaginahole you cease to give any fucks…

Not inevitable; didn't happen. But, to satisfy the spirit of this post: I had a little net, like you use to clean your fish tank, in case it did.

It's going to get negative in here quickly, so I want to say that I thought it was nice that you recognized that the women talking to you were genuine in their reactions and weren't looking to make you feel bad. This all goes so much better if we just cut one another some slack.

I hadn't seen her act since early episodes of 7th Heaven, but when she popped up in The New Girl recently the lack of roles made total sense. There is something.. blank about her, like total dead eyes, that was so disconcerting to watch. I can't imagine relying on her to sell a film or show. (That feels like a gallon…

I feel bad for him. Even more so because getting back into sex god shape, if he's even able to get there 15 years later, is not going to remove the scrutiny- it would probably make it worse, because then everybody wants to interview him about how he lost the weight. But I think it's as much about his own crippling…

If it helps, the song is "It's Not Unusual". Tom Jones AND Carlton.

Seconded/thirded/fourthed/whatever. This is some of the best writing I've seen here anytime recently, and I would love to have more of the thoughtful work to balance out the HuffPo direction some of the other articles have been taking.

I bet you could make internet contact with others going between now and then. As for the rest of it, the "damage" has already been done; not only would you following through on your plans not hurt anybody in the congregation, but failing to do so would be worse in my eyes.

This is my story, except that my employment situation hasn't allowed for the divorce to happen yet. We were fine as two adults caring for ourselves, but had never been tested in anything close to the circumstances brought about by becoming parents. When the going got tough I was.. not okay with the response on his…

...it ignores the fact that modern parenting requires more hovering because we have fewer other people — aka, the village — to do some hovering for us.

Is it possible you were followed by one of the writers that left and they lost their power to anoint?

I love my neti pot! It made a huge difference with allergies for me. Hopefully you'll get used to the sensation- give it at least a week? Having the right temperature for the water and balance for the salt is really important (water is trial and error, and I buy the premeasured salt packets so that part is idiot…

YES. This is the other angle I'm talking about. My brother was the utterly crushed feelings-haver in a situation like this late last year/early this year and I felt so angry with his ex for indulging her desire to have his friendship when the truly caring thing to do would be to take a giant step back and let him have…

It may not surprise you, given my avatar, that I am a great fan of "entopomorphic" AND corny humor, and have been waiting all night for someone to make this joke. I thank you.

Sorry. :\ I am a migraine sufferer and have had major exposure to a cold virus today so probably have that coming.. My offering is- you know the day when it all clears up, after you've been in pain or otherwise sidelined long enough to feel disconnected from life without that stuff? That day is AWESOME. You have that…