The literature that comes with the Mirena is hilarious because it straight up just says "How does Mirena work? We don't actually know for sure! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ " It's something like partly the hormones can keep you from ovulating (they sure as shit have kept me from ovulating—no period since 10 months before my son was…

My son pooped like crazy while still in the process of being born (which wasn't great for his lungs when he aspirated it and he had to be suctioned a lot once he was out, but thanks to modern medicine he was good after a few minutes), so he arrived landside completely empty. We didn't have a dirty diaper to deal with…

Co. Signed.

YASSSS! Trust me on this, for I have Been To China And Know Whereof I Speak, Szechuan Express has the vital ingredients that make Chinese food delicious: filth and styrofoam.

Have you accepted Szechuan Express as your personal lord and savior?

My parents are hardcore libertarian Objectivists. I have done nothing for the past 40 years of my life but get more liberal. The needle is currently at European-style Social Democrat with shades of anarcho-syndicalist when I'm feeling feisty.

You definitely get an advantage by being white. The gender pay gap doesn't even come close to the disparity seen in the racial pay gap.

I suspect this is in large part because men are more likely to go into lucrative specialties than women. Pursuing a specialty requires a much greater outlay of resources—both time and money (especially time). Women are less likely to have those resources because of the other demands on their time such as caring for…

A big reason women tend to not negotiate as much as men is because a woman playing hardball is a bitch while a man playing hardball is just looking out for number 1. Being assertive is much more likely to backfire for a woman than for a man. Have that happen enough times in your life, and you'll stop asking.

Hi back! How is the terrifying (to me) world of caring for multiple children at once?

Is my child missing out on an important developmental milestone because I do not myself paint my nails and have no nailpolish in the house y/n?

Netflix giveth, Netflix taketh away. My w-year-old son is currently obsessed with Pee Wee because, I, in a fit of nostalgia and being The Cool Parent, found it on Netflix and put it on for him. He was immediately hearts-in-eyes. I have now watched every episode of all 5 seasons over the span of the last three weeks…

I believe it is plan-specific. My employer took out an STD plan for all employees at the time of employment, specifically because the STD plan was their maternity leave plan. (It was offered for free, I didn't have to pay for it at any point.) But I have a friend who is a teacher, and she had to take out a STD plan…

If you plan on working from home at any point in your transition back to work, here is what I learned: it works out pretty well for the first 6 or so months. Babies that young sleep a lot, and they're not mobile so you can stick them somewhere with a toy, and they stay there. After 6 months, it gets increasingly…

If you can break up leave, that can work really well. My husband got 8 weeks (!!!!—enormous multinational firm with European roots, all parents regardless of gender get 8 weeks paid leave in the US) and split it up. He took 4 weeks when I first had our son, and we got to spend that time learning how to be parents…

Yes. Someone with a kid my son's same age once told me they didn't like Daniel Tiger because it was too goody-goody. Um. Goody-goody is what you want for a toddler, because in their natural state they are sociopathic little anarchists. You may not enjoy it because you already know that grown-ups come back and that…

It's because the thing that makes their margins so thin isn't the food, it's the rent and the staff and the equipment. The food is an afterthought in that equation. And since Americans have been sort of trained to see quantity and "value" as positive attributes for meals, serving large portions will keep customers…

Oh lawd.

Yes. Two billion lifetimes. My husband was going to take his parental leave beginning the day I actually had the baby but instead opted to stay home with me the last few days of my eternal pregnancy because he was concerned for my mental health. DID I MENTION IT WAS JULY??? We scheduled the induction for Monday…

I said to many, many people that if someone could just apparate the baby out of me, that would really be the most preferable. (Just so you know, you also get needle-in-the-spine for most c-sections. General anesthesia is only used when there is a crash emergency or there something else highly unusual contraindicating…