Of course she can. She's Oprah!

And imagine being desperate enough to take it, not being sure what it really is. Makes me shudder!

I do try to stick with "that is not appropriate" either for a given situation or at all for a kid her age. For my daughter that is usually enough. My 14 year old niece is much more likely to keep pushing back on "why isn't it appropriate?" and at some point it's hard not to come back with "because it makes you look…

I don't think she'll be at less risk of sexual violence but I do think she will be at less risk of being hit on by a much older boy/man and less likely to receive random cat-calls on the street. Those things can be very scary to a young teen who doesn't have the maturity to deal with them.

The problem comes when they have friends whose body shape looks appropriate in a style that does not look appropriate on your kid. For example, my daughter is very tall. A skirt that looks fine on her best friend might be way too short on her. My niece has a very well developed figure for her age. An outfit that…

The family's rules do seem to be a bit much but as parents the are allowed to make whatever rules they feel are appropriate. I don't allow my 13 year old daughter to wear shorts or pants with writing across the butt. I just find that super tacky and don't want my kid wearing it. I guess that's a pretty arbitrary…

Also, not wanting your teenage daughter to wear denim underwear isn't slut shaming.

In general I agree. I've certainly vetoed some of my daughter's clothing selections. It is possible that she's allowed to wear them in certain circumstances but that wearing them on this outing wasn't OK. My daughter has clothes that she is allowed to wear around the house or around the yard/neighborhood that she…

I don't know much about him but my first thought was that he looks like a Ken doll. Then I wondered if he's smooth in front like Ken. Now I feel dirty for thinking about this strange man's genitals or possible lack thereof.

I know! Thought I was watching hockey there for a minute!!!

LOLz. I'm watching the Packers right now (reading Jez during commercials). My husband is upstairs folding laundry. Does this mean I'm actually a man and he's actually a woman?

We are people with kids who may show up uninvited in the middle of the night. I do sometimes miss my naked sleeping days.

I can't explain the bad YA fiction but I always figured that the boy band thing is because they are starting to notice boys but overly masculine men/boys are too intimidating. The boy band members are usually less masculine and therefore non threatening. (Source: observing my daughter and her friends)

Maybe "practice type" means group practice or single doc practice? I don't know. I was confused by the same thing so I'm trying to think of a way it could make sense.

Yeah, it seemed odd to me too but I think you've got it right here. I think they were trying to explain that going through this difficult time together really strengthened their relationship. In that context it makes sense when telling the story of their relationship and upcoming marriage.

I would support your nipple tassel research efforts!

If you are the type to always keep your phone with you you could set a reminder alarm. I bet there's even an app for that. :)

I'm on year 2 with my copper IUD. The first few months my period was so heavy I wasn't sure I wanted to keep the IUD but around month 3 or 4 things settled down. My periods are still heavier than before but they are manageable now. I've thought about switching to Mirena but I really like the totally hormone free…

Doesn't have to be an economically disadvantaged area for this to happen. The same thing happens in smaller schools or school districts too. When you have a smaller student population you just won't have the variety of advanced classes that a larger school can offer.

In the south eastern US, yes. I've never seem them in other regions though.