Oh boy! I got one of those too. My condolences to you. I know how exasperating it is to have to endure all those “I wish I had your mom. You are sooo Lucky she’s your mom” comments while dying inside. And yeah, smear campains are their thing when they are no longer in control of you, so they control the narrative. I lost all my maternal side of the family brcause of this, it hurt like a mofo but it worked out for the better for me and my husband and kid♥️ Right now on the road to no contact after years and years of grayrocking. Safe first✨️

Housework. Anyhing from putting away coats to doing the dishes, etc

Try using “I” statements instead of “you” statements, for example: “You make me feel so angry” is blamey, accusatory and points a finger to the other person and most people stop listening after feeling attacked.Instead use “I feel angry when: __________” And then name whatever the reason is as neutrally as possible: I feel neglected when the dishes are left out, I feel unheard when I get on my car and the tank is empty, I feel hurt when I cannot express my concerns, etc etc. In my experience this works in two ways: The other person does not feel attacked and might be willing to actually listen and work on whatever the issue you peeps are having.

Oh! Another big one is to come up with a don’t interrumpt method that works for you.Some people use the pillow turn, some people use a timer but the most creative I have seen is that whenever this couple of people needed to discuss whatever issue, they would get out a bowl of some sort of snack be it grapes, chips, etc. And the one chewing was the one listening, whenever chewing was over the talking person would stop and exchange places lol.

What I personally use with my kid and SO is to have mutual agreements before starting a serious talk, for example: " I love you and want to work together with you to solve this, we are both smart compassionate people, it is not you versus me, it is both of us against the problem."

In a not so loving enviroment, the agreement and approach would be different:

" OK I am here to talk about ______ I want us to solve this and will do my best to achieve that as I hope you do too. I will not tolerate being insulted, yelled at or patronized. If unfortunately any of those things happen during our conversation I will be leaving the room and we will have to reschedule at a better time that works for both of us"

Hope this helps, you got this!

Durum was my jam!

Absolutely.

I too have the needle fear whenever I get vaccinated or blood drawn I get super anxious and I have passed out a couple of times… then I also have several tattooes. I can’t explain why those do not bother or scare me.

I loved playing the pool party song for my kid!

Not really during gradeschool or highschool. We moved around a lot so being the New kid every time was not easy. That changed when I entered college, I had a blast and was super popular: Got invited to parties all the time, karaoke contests, barbecues, summer outings, etc.but kind of an anomally at the same time because of the fact I was a scholarship student in a private university surrounded by rich kids. I graduated top of my class and elected valedictorian. With time most of those relationships fizzled down and while I still keep in touch with some of my classmates who were closer to me, I only keep one good friend from that time. Me and him are tight as thieves and have been through many many things together over the years. Now in my mid forties I have been able to make new true friends through shared interests or some who started as clients or neighbors or other roles, that have now become friends and I feel happy and content about it.

Exactly! You said it. Just because you stick a bunch of kids together for hours on end does not mean they will become friends. Some do but many of these relationships would not happen outside of a school setting, same as friends from work enviroments I guess. Some friendships can be formed IMO if the school/work setting bond can be translated/migrate to other settings. For example, I now have friends who started as clients of teachers or whatever and our relationship has many different layers and tendrils. I like that.

I have one friend with whom I just celebrated 25 years of friendship with and we have been through ot all: Family deaths, marriages, having kids, getting jobs, losing jobs, moving countries, etc. And we could not be more different from each other if we tried lol. What I am trying to say is that making friends is not for the weak and I applaud you for putting yourself out there as scary or stupid it can feel sometimes.

Same for me.

Oooohhh Layne had such a beautiful haunting voice. I still remember the first time I listened to Jar of flies, I just stood still taking in this new sound and the lyrics were so depressing and obscure and… man! I feel 16 again just typing this up. I brcame an instant fan and would have loved to see them live.

Counting Crows Across a wire concert album was great! I loved everything about it even though I already loved the original songs and rhe original albums. Yes I am a hardcore fan, but that album was perfection!

20 years together, fourteen of them married.

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Spot on.

There are no lost causes, just struggles you don’t face.

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This is my logic too. I own my house but have been leasing a new car every year for over ten years now.

I was kind of skeptical at first but for now I think it works out for us.

I don’t but I have a dear friend who named his cars with things like “Captain stingray” for a Blue chevrolet he had, “Annoyed mother” for his mom’s van, “Stinky Pete” for his dad’s Cadillac (he was a heavy smoker) He named my first car “lil’ bit” since it was an old vw bug.

Now he drives an electric Mustang called “The beast”. Oh! He also owns a boat now named “Pretty Betty”

Story time! Many years ago I read a Maria Callas biography and I have no idea if this fact is true or not, but here it goes:

Maria was self conscious about her body image and she wanted, moren than anything, to look as thin as her idol: Audrey Hepburn. So in order to do that, she went to a famous doctor who would give his patients a pill thay contained tape worm eggs so they would hatch and live inside them making them lose weight and then this same doctor would deworm them but plot twist! María loved being thin so much that she decided to keep her tapeworm so she would not gain back any weight. This book said that when she took long baths, the worm would kind of wiggle out a bit due to the warm water and then coil back up inside her when she existed the tub. This piece of info was very disturbing for me.