This. According to BMI standards, I’m in the obese category by about 5lbs. My doctor doesn’t really care, because I don’t look obese and my physical health is fine. He pretty much just told me to watch out for weight gain, keep active, and if I want to lose weight, I shouldn’t do anything stupid.

I can imagine, but it’s a luxury that I’ve never experienced. The first (and so far only) time I flew with the kidlet, they announced that there would be no early boarding for families with children because 80% of our flight was families with children (the sole exception being small kids with carseats). Plus, she’s…

I’m convinced that 90% of the time, people want to board early so they can cram their slightly oversized/overpacked carry-ons into the overhead bins and take up all of the space without anyone noticing.

Livonia is the absolute last place I would think of when pondering Sharia Law. I grew up there. I still live next door to it and drive through on a regular basis. It is the most suburban white bread city you’ll ever see. At one point (early 2000s), it was the Whitest City in America with a population over 100,000.

Not only would I take vacation days to visit, I would spend a lot of money at that gift shop.

I can’t do the board shorts. They just feel weird to me when swimming, the wet clinging to my thighs just drives me batty.

I will celebrate the day that the stupid cold shoulder look dies. That and the strange grandma flowery, boxy-yet-sexy dress style dies. “My body has no shape but the flowers assure that I’m feminine!”

Huh, LLBean never crossed my mind. I just took a peek and, while pricey, the one pieces look like something I might like. Thanks!

I’ve lost quite a bit of weight since I last bought a swimsuit, so right now I’m in a strange limbo of having no clue what works for me compared to the before time, but I also want something cute as a reward to myself for the weight loss. Something slightly beyond utilitarian, but not by much. Give me a solid one…

Recently, my husband asked why it takes me so long to find a swimsuit, as we’re going on a trip in a month and I need a new one. Instead of answering him, I asked him if he wanted to come out and swimsuit shop with me after dinner. We did, and the pattern went like this: he would hold up something he thought would be…

Yup, my husband struggled with dyslexia and he was lucky enough to get early help. I am ADHD and have dyspraxia, never got help but was lucky enough to be able to “cope through it” and it definitely made things harder.

Completely agree, I cannot imaging freaking out over a single test for kids who are still learning how to sit still. Personally, I was far more concerned when I got a letter saying that there are some signs of what looks like dyslexia, and that the Mini would be spending some time with the school specialist to help…

I think the only reason that there is a standardized test in this kindergarten class is that it really isn’t a “test” in a classical sense of the word. It’s really just a measurement tool for the teacher to see where the children are in ability when the year starts and the “scores” are given to parents as a guide. As…

Sure, and I would never begrudge them that. My story was just a small snapshot example, perhaps not the greatest on its own, but a part of the picture. A couple of these moms believe that allowing a child to ride the schoolbus or walk to school is equivalent to child neglect. For a girlscout activity last week, my…

She was five when I dropped her off. I mean, I walked her into the building, chatted with the party mom for a moment, confirmed pick-up time, and then left. I think it takes some discretion, but this party was at a play gym. The biggest “danger” was a small climbing wall with instructors and a harness. I had…

Curiously, when we hosted my daughter’s birthday party, nearly all of the parents took us up on just dropping off their kid. Maybe because it was a boardgame place so there was no bouncy house danger, but maybe because of my husband. He has a weird respect/authority thing with the helicopter parents. He’s very direct,…

I kid you not, my kid’s teacher sighed with relief and thanked me at the first parent teacher conference, when I said that test scores aren’t something I’m likely to freak out about. My kid is in kindergarten and it was their first standardized test. Most kids at that age are still getting used to sitting still, let…

I live in a suburb that is ground-zero for high income helicopter parents. The last birthday party that my child attended came with a speech from the birthday kid’s mom about how safe the place was (it was at a play gym thing), I could stay if I wanted to, it was totally safe, I shouldn’t worry, if I need to stay I…

That is a helpful article, thanks!

Once again, thank you! That Atlantic article was long, but an especially interesting read. I grew up in a household with cognitive dissonance as the default setting of life, as well as other issues. It resulted in an extreme unease when it comes to any sort of debates, conversations, or even disagreeing on hot button…