parents out there … clue me in, but isn’t this the pinnacle of irresponsibility, even on a cool day?

What she did is reprehensible, irresponsible, disgusting. That said, letting your baby finish their nap in a climate controlled car used to be very common. You could park down your driveway, leave the car on, bring in your groceries (and even put them away), and then get the baby out, but now able to give him your full attention. It’s not acceptable to do that today. I have spent so many many hours in my driveway letting my baby finish their nap. Apparently if you remove the car seat from the base the angle is more dangerous for them to rest at, but unbuckling her means the end of a nap. I have wished it was safe to leave her in there alone every time and if I was a slightly less informed mother, I probably would. I would say if the car is climate controlled it’s probably the same amount or less dangerous than co sleeping and like half of parents do that (I do not). Parents make a lot of choices.

Yeah, student loans, rent, and healthcare eat up the majority of a lot of people’s income here

A parent shouldn’t be letting their single digit aged child have unsupervised access to the Internet. Agreed that they shouldn’t be publicizing it, but this idea that parents should be letting their kids have secrets when they’re so little is one way dangerous adults take advantage of kids.

I mean the fascination is with money. People are looking for ways to pay their rent.

And The 2K is gone pretty quick purely from adding the baby to your insurance. Boo.

I mean that’s tough. Unless you have an unemployed family member who can take on the care, and even then it has to be a physically strong and frankly mentally strong person to do the kind of care elderly folks require. It’s just not feasible for most families.

My grandmother is physically disabled and has dimentia. Some weeks are hell taking care of her, and she’s one of the gentlest people with dimentia I have ever met. ( I used to work in a memory care facility, which is a big reason she’s at home with us)

They actually already have a thing that basically turns the people on camera to stick figures. You can turn it off if you need to, but a quick check can see that they’re up and moving around vs fallen down without invading their privacy too much at least

Yeah, she “begrudgingly” voted for Trump, just like the people you’re talking about. My parents on the other hand, lifelong Republicans, voted Harris. Sure “not all Republicans” but it is all the ones who voted for Trump. There’s no excuse for them to have voted for him the second time. I am sympathetic to Republicans who held their nose and voted red the first time, but it’s a different party now.

All Republicans. My idiot sister. She’s like “I watched it” as if that’s proof it wasn’t? If the white superiority groups are applauding your actions, you’re in the wrong. That quieted her down but it didn’t change her mind. She thinks we’re all over reacting.

Regular boiling is pretty good! The micrplastics end up sticking to the calcium deposits left behind. Never been so happy for that stupid white buildup in my kettle!

“As reported in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters, boiling and filtering calcium-containing tap water could help remove nearly 90% of the nano- and microplastics present.”

https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/2024/february/want-fewer-microplastics-in-your-tap-water.html#:~:text=As reported in ACS’%20Environmental,the%20nano%2D%20and%20microplastics%20present.

I hear you but after my husband was laid off (along with thousands in his field in our area) he looked for months and months for a new job. Unfortunately so did the other thousands, so sometimes even with 6 or 8 interviews he wouldn’t get the job. One place ghosted him after THEY made an offer.

He’s an apprentice now in a trade. These two years are really tight with money, but we wish he had started up in the trade immediately instead of wasting all that time looking. We’d be surviving better on this low pay if we hadn’t had so many months of zero pay for him.

You know, I was not at all. I guess I figured if fast food wasn’t on your direct path (or only very slightly out of the way) it wouldn’t even be considered as an option.

I agree we’re better off to cut out fast food, but…

How long are the drive thrus you get stuck in? I think the worst I’ve ever had was 20 minutes and it was because their registers were acting up. The simplest meal at home is definitely 20 minutes unless you’re literally only eating plain ramen or cereal. I mean I guess you can make an egg in less than 20 minutes, but that doesn’t count the time in the grocery store or dishes?

I think it’s fun for other people to dog pile on the “Americans are just lazy” idea and they refuse to consider that if they lived here they too would be forced into some of our grotesque and lazy ways. You said no backpacks allowed, they’re like here neither! We had to use heavy backpacks! Completely ignoring your point and all their arguments were like that. Bless you for sticking with it until they finally understood.

Yeah, the skinniest couple I know eats candy and taco bell all day long (they’re approaching 30 so that teen metabolism is long gone). They’re not unusually active or anything, just thin. My husband is thin and has basically zero regard for his diet. Southern amounts of butter on everything. I’m much more careful than him, I enjoy plain veggies as snacks (as opposed to his pastries) and I’m ten pounds more than him at 7 inches shorter than him.

I have friends with mortgages. They can’t have kids though because it takes two incomes and then they can’t afford childcare AND a mortgage

It’s my bodily autonomy. I’m a woman of child-bearing age. I even want to make a child sometime in the next four years. I’m risking my health. I can’t move. I will end up broke with zero resources in another state, with no job, and my husband will need to start his career from scratch if we move. We just can’t afford it. Plus wherever we move, we’ll be separated from both our families who are local here. And again, even if we move, wherever we start over could just be red in two election cycles anyway. Moving isn’t the answer.

Fleeing my state isn’t an option. Besides, my state didn’t used to be red. A lot of states flipped or at least went from purple to red. So it’s not even a guarantee if you uproot your entire family and life that you get to stay blue.

I feel so demoralized when this comes up, as if it’s my own fault I’m living somewhere with terrible laws. I voted. I got other people to vote. I changed a few minds on abortion (not easy to do!). I don’t have the money or resources to start somewhere else, and we’re all about to have less money.

I think the appropriate accountability here would be to for those administrators to have to enroll their children in public school. If they think that’s a problem it’s up to them to make the schools better. The administrators obviously think public school students don’t need extra access to culture or expensive things, they’re doing just fine.

Thank you OP!