!Yes, please!

I raised my kids to be independent and was not very controlling - they think I was pretty hands off because they don’t remember the earliest years - but I can’t imagine doing that without literally teaching them what was reasonable behavior for different spaces. We did restaurant training, sit in your chair, use the utensils, don’t yell. In stores, “put your hands behind” was the cue, not “don’t touch” because it’s easier to tell them to do something than to not do something.

At the park though? My only rule was don’t show off, don’t do anything to show off. If you want to climb the tree because you want to climb the tree, go for it but no “look at me I’m in the tree” because then you will probably go past what’s safe for you. When they fell down while running ask “you gonna be ok?” not “are you ok?”

Compared to their friends’ parents, the younger ones think I’m nearly neglectful but it’s more than my mom did, parenting right now while there are fewer kids around us so weird. So many parents are so controlling even of their high schoolers. You are trying to raise competent adults, they have to have the space to make decisions and mistakes to do that.

Ooh I want to do a guava and cream cheese croissant now.

I’ve lived on the streets, in a car, in a house with 10 people so we could cover rent, in slums and have crawled up to solidly middle class. I think it used to be easier to do that than it is now, like every year it gets more stratified with more slipping below average (meaning the mean) but also harder to dig out. Not impossible, but it was hard enough as person of able body and mind back then - I can’t imagine how hard now.

At work in my department only one of us has never been very poor, I do think there is some social mobility but for each of us there must be hundreds who did the same things and it didn’t work.

I was a wasp agnostic until I saw them pollinating the flowers in my yard. They aren’t all assholes. Some hornets are aggressive but most wasps are chill and helpful. Everyone loves bats though, don’t they?

I can believe it. Physical inactivity, less creative play for children, distraction all the time.

Mind you, in some ways I don’t buy it - the two of my kids who were very academically motivated both learned much more in school than I did (I went during a conservative time when the schools were doing “back to basics” which didn’t help, but simple research before the Internet was so difficult that I didn’t have access to as much as they did, it took more effort to learn less) and those two are whip-smart. So I think the potential to be smart is higher now. Also maybe we have included more people in the measurements now that it’s easier to get the data.

But physical inactivity does harm brain health, plastic probably does, the dumbing down again in the schools here (is this some 40-50 year cycle?) certainly does. I do, like @[email protected] work at maintaining my thinking by trying to learn new things, not just get good at what I am good at already; and do a lot to maintain physical health, meditate, and try to guard my sleep as much as possible within the context of a normal life.

The US is too big for a single answer, but here in Florida bananas are cheap, but potatoes and apples are expensive. Sweet potatoes are often cheap though.

I grow some stuff here, that’s not free but is cheap for sure. Okra, jalapeno peppers, watermelon, purple sweet potatoes, basil in the summer. Greens, lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, fennel, cilantro in the winter. Mint all year. Have citrus trees and a fig, all dwarf trees so not a huge harvest but an easy one.

I think wine and most booze will get very expensive, grains, so flour, pasta, bagels. Good cheese. A lot of produce since it comes from Mexico and South America and our supreme leader here seems determined to piss them off. Milk will probably stay around the same, maybe domestic cheese. I would logically have said eggs, but apparently not.

Having some tepache today. So delicious, and an easy entry level fermentation project. I’ve made this dozens of times and it’s failed only once.

There are not that many adult blondes, the whole idea of that being proper hair freaks me out. I had a kid switch from gymnastics to diving, and all the clubs with dive coaches were in the suburbs. Suddenly I am sitting among all these blonde ladies, what the fuck? ALL of them got their hair bleached and blown out straight, all of them. Some fucking Stepford wife shit.

If student artwork is allowed, as the administration states, she needs to have a word with the art teacher. A sign just like hers with real student handprints would be even better than the purchased poster.

Alcohol does affect sleep, maybe it’s interfering and your sleep isn’t as good? Though having a baby is exhausting, regardless.

Personally if it’s 9pm I won’t have a drink, that’s too late for me because it will affect sleep, and yes, feel too tired the next day. Maybe something else would be better, a cup of tea, or pot/THC?

Google assistant was already a good listener, it seems to have gotten worse, but compared to anything else I’ve tried to do with voice it was & is still the best at understanding, and can be set to be bilingual.

I honestly don’t understand this but it’s very Google to push the change before the replacement is fully baked. They did that with YouTube Music too.

Yeah me too. Whoever or whatever this is, is casting a wide net.

i love spiders, they are such helpful creatures.

My thoughts:

We have it at my work (just called paid parental leave) and the guys seem to really consider it a benefit, they take it. Like you. Nobody has ever said anything but Congratulations. This is in Florida. You ARE supporting your family. I got 0 weeks paid when I gave birth, I’m really happy this is starting to change. Parenting is valuable work.

• Who says it, Spanish people?

Well, yes? It is the European colonizers that brought it here, I think Spain Spanish is “the Spanish” just like I think England English is “the English” and American English is an offshoot though it’s what I know.

I don’t do it anymore, but running or any cardio first thing in the morning does actually work to give you more energy in the day. I did it out of desperation - 0500 was the only time I had to myself and running is nearly free. I need exercise to manage my mood. So while my kids were asleep, I ran and honestly seeing the sun rise was such a beautiful hopeful feeling.

Now do am in a better situation I sleep later and exercise after work, but that early running saw me through a pretty hard time.

I live in Florida, and the number of people who seem to think Spanish is a secret code (in Florida?) never cease to amaze me. Dude. Any person here, white, black, old, young, literally anyone could be Spanish.

I could eat beans every day too, yum.

I did accounting because you can do that for any company, it’s such a flexible career. I’ve done jobs that were mostly IT and jobs that were mostly numbers in Excel, for different companies in different industries and have never had to work anywhere I think is evil, nor at any location with a long commute.

So if you enjoy that sort of work, accounting is a good degree. Technically my concentration was accounting systems, but right now I am doing more just accounting with a really good group of people.