Seriously though, what were the power dynamics in your M 104 situations. At work I wear a badge that identifies me as an authority figure in that space. It's part of my job to tell people to take their cell phone conversation outside and turn their music down. The majority of people respect even that small measure of…

Your phone can correctly send texts to specific strangers on the bus?! Nice! Is that a iPhone thing? Cause I don't have an iPhone. My LG can only send texts to people on my contact list complaining about said stranger on the bus.

I was OBSESSED with the Kirsten series as a child but my family was too poor to ever even think about buying me one of the dolls. The closest I ever got to one was wistfully looking at the catalogs. I was so SO happy when I read that the New York Public Library was lending out the dolls. I live on the west coast but…

Sorry. I misread the tone of your comment and, indeed, got confused by the second person tense. Ugh. I need more coffee...or a nap...possibly a hug. It's been a long week. I'm watching the clock tick down to the weekend and, yes, hoping my bus ride home is a quiet one before I pick up the boy-o who is turning two next…

I'm repressed, huh? *Snort* I think you may have hit the wrong reply button. Either that or I really hit a nerve by mentioning I don't like having to listen in on stranger's cell phone converstaions as an example of annoying things I put up with in public because that's just part of coexisting in society. (btw, as a…

First, Nordstrom Rack is NOT an upscale adult establishment. That's the venue being discussed, not a high end fancy pants restaurant or a black tie gala at The Met. There ARE adult only venues where everyone agrees young children are unwelcome but the vast majority of retail establishments aren't in that category so…

I'm genuinely perplexed by people who believe that getting to stay in their own personal bubble where they don't have to see, hear, or experience anything outside of their comfort zone while out it public is a "Right" that they have. It's such bullshit. I don't like smelling secondhand smoke, being forced to listen to…

HaHaHaaaaah. No. I lived very briefly with friends who had three kids ages six, four, and almost two. The six year old was by far The Worst when it came to throwing full blown screaming violent tantrums both in public and at home. The four year old was an emotionally sensitive cryer and the toddler was totally chill.…

Media can also play a HUGE role in getting people interested in politics and that's half the battle right there. When I was in college, watching The West Wing got me more fired up about the political process than any poli-sci class I took. These days, while I love watching Parks and Rec and the Daily Show/Colbert…

I know this will be hidden in the greys but I really want to add to the conversation that losing interest in doing things for yourself that you used to enjoy and take pride in (like doing your hair and dressing well every morning) can be one of the most tell-tale symptoms of post partum depression. Yes, the first few…

Exactly. We're repeating history. The next step will be the institution of State run Mother and Baby homes where the girls will be sent to live until they can give birth. Because having forced the teenager to carry to term an unwanted pregnancy by deeming her mentally 'unfit' to make her own decisions, the State must…

He claimed to have told her but I don't really believe him. I think if she knew I would have heard directly from her at some point to either cuss me out or to compare stories. We're completely estranged from him now and that's exactly how I want it.

When I was four months pregnant I found out that my boyfriend of two years had neglected to tell me he had left a wife and children waiting for him back home when he moved to my college town to pursue a graduate degree. I was devastated and PISSED. I barely spoke to him the rest of the pregnancy while I did what I…

I've heard mothers say it out load on a crowded bus with their kids sitting right next to them. "I'd give anything to be child free again!" It hurt just to hear it, knowing that those kids where listening in and internalizing the idea that their mother wished they had never been born. I'm all for anonymous blogs and…

Nice! I wish we had something like that! It's probably out of our price range though. (We're a small community college in the throes of yet another major budget crisis.) Which is a shame because there's a pretty significant segment of our student body that doesn't think twice about bringing their kids to campus with…

From water breaking to vaginal birth took 29 hours for me. Five hours of labor with an emergency C-section sounds like the lady's body was too stressed from the mugging to relax enough to do what it needed to do. Evolution has us programmed to delay labor if we're in a dangerous situation by reacting to high stress…

Totally. It's the same issue at work. We're an academic library so we are sworn to protect our patrons from censorship. They have the right to freely access any information they choose, even if it is disagreeable to us. However we also "know" that for some people it's the element of forcing others to participate in…

I'm pretty sure it's a felony to show porn to minors, actually. I work in a library and the never-ending debate on what should be done when patrons use our computers for their viewing pleasure always includes a lot of hand wringing about freedom of information and speech vs legal issues from a pissed off third party.

Early Childhood Education curriculum has gotten solidly on board the Emotional Intelligence bandwagon but it's been slow to get picked up by parents. More people do it with girls because "we're so emotional" and boys grow up still only knowing "happy" or "mad" as the two emotions they know how to express.

My little man (he's almost two) informed me this weekend in no uncertain terms that pants and shorts that went below his knee were no longer acceptable attire. His knees needed complete freedom of movement for life to be worth living. It was cold outside. I made him wear soft sweatpants. He cried for ten whole…