The "what's On Your Mind?" Thread -2021

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Willowy

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This just in our local news. And yes they really do believe this. It's not a joke. I guess if they saw the 3 baby raccoons that came up to me yesterday while I was sitting outside enjoying the weather they'd really have a field day with that.

‘Birds are not real’ rolling rally makes first stop in Missouri
I feel like most of them (and Flat Earthers) are being ironic. But there are definitely those who believe it in earnest. . .I think the collective IQ of Americans has gone way down in the past few years :/.
 

Babypinkweeb

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My friend had tremendous success getting their new dog into raw, basically from the first few tries the dog started preferring raw over kibble, completely skipping any middle stages like wet or cooked! Meanwhile my older cat still needs 2 different kinds of encouragement in order to finish 80% of his wet, which is after him being hungry for 10+ hours... :headshake:
 

mani

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I feel like most of them (and Flat Earthers) are being ironic. But there are definitely those who believe it in earnest. . .I think the collective IQ of Americans has gone way down in the past few years :/.

It's a bunch of people poking fun at Qanon-ers.
It says so in the article:
Birds Aren’t Real is a movement that relies on internet-fueled guerilla marketing to spread a silly message. Followers are poking fun at conspiracy theories like QAnon that have gone mainstream over the last few years.
 

klunick

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Week from h-e-double hockey sticks. Car broke down a mile from my work on Tuesday at 5am! Had just gotten off the Beltway and onto the road my work is on. Suddenly my car lost all power and pushing on the gas did nothing. Managed to get off the main road and onto a road that had just enough of a hill that I could get to a parking lot. Walked the mile into work and called for a tow truck. Got car towed to Toyota dealership. They said the throttle was stuck and I had ZERO oil! I was shocked because it wasn't that long ago that I got an oil change. I think they "forgot" to fill it back up completely. What is scary is that I had zero warning. The "oil light" on the dash never came on. $105 for the tow and $215 for the repair and yet another oil change and my car is back in my possession since yesterday. Thank God my mom lives near my work and let me borrow her car for a few days.
 

klunick

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Oh.. I forgot this little tidbit about a 7 1/2 foot gator being killed near our house.... IN MARYALND!!!! The experts seems to think it was someone's pet that got too big and they let it go at the beach. Some residents knew about it but I had no clue. My oldest goes kayaking near there all the time and said it's pretty swampy but never imagined there was a gator living in there.
Large Alligator Caught, Killed At Beach In The Chesapeake Ranch Estates
 

Willowy

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It's a bunch of people poking fun at Qanon-ers.
It says so in the article:
Birds Aren’t Real is a movement that relies on internet-fueled guerilla marketing to spread a silly message. Followers are poking fun at conspiracy theories like QAnon that have gone mainstream over the last few years.
I know that's how it started but I've talked to a couple of people (irl) who seemed to really believe it. That may be part of the schtick, idk, but they didn't seem smart enough to be satirical. I think a lot of conspiracy theories start out as satirical/ironic and then things get out of hand.
 

klunick

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Too bad they had to kill it and couldn't bring it to a rescue or something. 😢
Pretty sure there are no gator rescues nearby as they aren't typically in that area. Then the question becomes, where to put it until it can get transported. Best to kill it and get a tag for it so that you can use the meat and display the body. That would definitely make a cool mount for his home. I am truly impressed he got it with a bow. Kill site is the size of a quarter so you have to be pretty accurate.
 

Elphaba09

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It has been a stressful and emotional week for my family, my best friend, and me. This is a lot, so apologies in advance. (This is how you can tell I do not have many friends! Haha! I just really need to vent to someone who is not personally attached to any of this.)

My best friend, who you may remember is in prison, has three adult children. One of her daughters has been institutionalized in a state-run mental hospital for the last four years with schizophrenia, specifically Hebephrenic schizophrenia. A few months ago, my friend received mail from the hospital her daughter is in telling her that her daughter was roughly halfway through a pregnancy that resulted from a consensual relationship with another patient. (Subsequent phone conversations with her daughter confirmed this.) Because she is a ward of the State, she is not permitted to keep the baby. Her son, who has the same first name as my Hobbit, was born on my husband's birthday. She was given a couple of supervised hours with him before he was taken into care. My friend's ex-husband said he could not take the baby. (He is a bit of a jerk, anyway. He would not give her any information concerning what agency had the baby. It was not the agency of the county where her daughter is hospitalized.) Her other daughter's husband would not let them take the baby, and her son is just not able to take him. So he was placed in a foster home. (They are in CA, my friend is in OH.)

Two weeks ago, she received a letter from her cousin offering to adopt her grandson and promising that my friend and the rest of the family will be able to be a part of his life! My friend gave her my number so that we could put our heads together and figure out what to do. After a huge effort between both of us to locate the social worker who had taken over the case, she got in touch with her lawyer and arranged with the social worker for a hearing. The hearing was yesterday. I am waiting to see if she will be able to adopt him. I am sure she will want to tell my friend first and has a lot of stuff to handle at the moment.

The second part concerns my daughter and Hobbit. I may have mentioned that Hobbit's father is not really part of his life. He has seen him a few times and cancels on visitation all the time. She has a CPO against him with a clause that only lets him contact her if it involves their son. Hobbit's aunt and other grandma jump in and out of his life, too. They also have a tendency to cancel or call her a few hours after they take him for her to come and get him because he is "too much." My daughter has never tried to keep Hobbit out of their lives and is constantly asking when they (any of them) what to see Hobbit. She has, however, kept a color-coded calendar of when they see him, when they cancel, when they ignore her attempts to contact them about him, and when they call her to get him early. She also has printed out text messages pertaining to all this and more.

The nursing home is short-staffed, so my daughter has been working six days a week, often 12-hour shifts. More than once, she has had to work 16 hours. This past weekend, the aunt said she wanted to take Hobbit on Friday, and the other grandma wanted him for Saturday night. I was supposed to pick him up at 10 am on Sunday. My daughter was scheduled 2 pm to 2 am Friday and then 2 pm to 6 am Saturday. She was off Sunday, but I was going to let her pick him up after she got some sleep. She had him in the car and was halfway to the aunt's house, which is about 30 minutes from us and 45 minutes from her work, when the aunt calls and says she has to cancel because she got called into work. (She was really on her way to Cedar Point more than an hour and a half away. She decided last minute to go there instead. She posted pictures on FB and my daughter saw them on Saturday.)

On Saturday, she got a text from the other grandma saying she had to cancel because her back was hurting her so badly that she could not get off of the couch. That may or may not be true. I do not feel generous, so I say it is not. My daughter felt bad because she wanted me to have a break from keeping Hobbit so much due to her crazy current schedule, but it is fine. He really is a good boy.

That brings us to the text other grandma sent not even an hour later. She said that she thinks that my daughter should sign custody of Hobbit over to her because my daughter is "so young" and should be out having "fun." There was more to it than just that, but that is the gist of it. My daughter flipped out on her. No amount of "fun" could make her want to give up custody of her son, especially not to someone in that family. She then brought up how much my daughter works, which truly upset my daughter and had her crying. Normally, I stay out of these things other than to support my daughter, but I had enough. Despite the fact that I can count on my fingers how many times they all have seen Hobbit in the last 18 1/2 months, they have brought up fighting her for custody of her signing her rights over to one of them—usually the aunt—at least six of seven times. When she put the CPO on Hobbit's father, they called CPS on her, stating that she was a danger to her son and neglectful of him, citing the fact that he had an admittedly bad diaper rash at the time. (He was under the care of his doctor for the diaper rash when they called CPS. My daughter showed them his prescription ointment.) They claim it was not them, but only five people have ever changed his diapers. The aunt, the other grandma, my daughter, my daughter-in-law, and me. Oh, and my husband has, but that was months after CPS was called. Only two people had a motive. CPS wrote their findings as "court-related retaliation."

Anyway, I called the other grandma. She did not answer, so I left two long, profanity-laden messages. I was so angry that it brought out my West Virginia accent that I rarely slip into! I warned her that, if CPS shows up at my daughter's or my house, we will press charges against them.I also said that if her son actually paid half of Hobbit's expenses or, at the very least, his ordered child support, my daughter would not have to work as much.

Other grandma texted my daughter apologizing and saying that they never called CPS on her, then she tried to make it seem as if my daughter was not being cooperative enough with them. Two hours later, she asked if she could take Hobbit from Wednesday to Friday and then let aunt take him Friday to Sunday. My daughter said no for the first time to them. Mainly because she was afraid that they would try to kidnap Hobbit or something. I would not put it past them. Then, two days ago, other grandma texted again to ask if the aunt could have Hobbit from Friday to Sunday. My daughter told her no and said that I was just going to keep him, which angered other grandma. She said, " well thats fine ill wait til hes older when he comes looking ill tell him EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!! That his other grandma ran the show. so its all good take care."My daughter was angry, but I told her, "Well, maybe they will stop asking to see him and then canceling. It sounds as if she does not plan on seeing [Hobbit] until he is capable of and wanting to search for her and ask her why she did not see him. That might give you 10 to 20 years not to talk to her! If he ever goes 'looking' for her." Then I sent her a bunch of GIFs about how I run everything.

The next thing was the most stressful, but it will not be as long or as detailed. This is a trigger warning, but I am leaving out details.

When I called my sister about all of this, she ended up telling me about my one brother-in-law being arrested. I am sure that I have mentioned that I have not spoken to my parents in 21 years this coming October. I likely also mentioned that I do not speak to two of my sisters. That stems back to 2012 and 2013. The brother-in-law in question is married to the sister I hate the most. (Yes, I deeply and truly hate her.) While the reason for his arrest was a bit surprising and seemingly unrelated to the things that caused such a deep hatred for him and my sister, it ended up bring a wee bit of closure to my children and me. Especially my daughter. A bunch of stuff came out after his arrest that made the rest of the family finally believe the accusation of abuse my children made against my sister and her husband.

It is not that their opinion matters to us, but it was a bit cathartic for them finally to be believed. Even with that, it sent the three of us into a bit of a depression this past week. The events with other grandma had me in such a state that I came close to calling my parents and my two sisters to cuss them out. And maybe consider sending a demonic-looking clown to my sister's house with instructions to say, "Good luck with your kidneys" in a creepy, deep voice and then laugh for several minutes on her doorstep. (She is terrified of clowns and has a kidney disorder that might require her to get a transplant. I know for certain that I am her best option. Bad kidneys are a part of our family. I got two exceptional ones.)

As I said: Stressful and emotional.
 
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Elphaba09

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Parenting Pro Tip - Never let your child watch Blippi. It was cute way back when. Now, it makes me want to jump off a bridge. I guess that happens when you've seen the same thing 985,370,124 times.

Also, do everything in your power to be sure your child never discovers YouTube and Ryan's Toy Review. Sell your soul if you must! Just don't let it happen!
Haha! I refuse to let Cocomelon to be on my tv. I told my daughter if she wants to torture herself she can do it at her house! Thankfully, Hobbit likes several movies and shows that I like. His favorite is "Onward." He also likes Zootopia, How to Train Your Dragon (1 and 2), Wreck It Ralph, Ralph Breaks the Internet, The Smurfs, Shrek, Big Hero 6, and Avatar the Last Air Bender. He also likes two surprising movies: Knives Out and Logan Lucky. I do not know why. I mean, I like them, but what about them would an 18-month-old like about them? Logan Lucky is one of his new ones, but he has liked Knives Out for months!
 

Lari

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Wow, Elphaba09 Elphaba09 , it sounds like your family has been through the ringer lately. It's good your daughter is keeping such good records. If she ends up in a custody dispute, she'll have so much data on her side, though I hope it doesn't come to that.

You did a good thing Katie M Katie M , but don't get your hopes up. I've had to call DCFS several times as a teacher and it's always come back that they couldn't do anything. I've told myself at least there's a record.
 

Elphaba09

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Wow, Elphaba09 Elphaba09 , it sounds like your family has been through the ringer lately. It's good your daughter is keeping such good records. If she ends up in a custody dispute, she'll have so much data on her side, though I hope it doesn't come to that.

You did a good thing Katie M Katie M , but don't get your hopes up. I've had to call DCFS several times as a teacher and it's always come back that they couldn't do anything. I've told myself at least there's a record.
I highly doubt it will, but you are correct. Keeping good records of everything is a good idea. Even if it is never used in court, if Hobbit ever asks about them or, goodness forbid, blames my daughter for his lack of relationship with them or feels as if there is something wrong with him, she has all this stuff showing the truth of the matter.
 

Willowy

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You did a good thing Katie M Katie M Katie M Katie M , but don't get your hopes up.
Yeah I don't think ideological abuse is a legal thing. People can teach their kids that God will torture them or that females have to be submissive/mindless/uneducated or that men have to be aggressive and dominant, all sorts of psychologically damaging things, and that's unfortunately not illegal. So unless she's injuring the child if she catches her reading or something like that, there's probably nothing they can do, they may not even investigate. But at least there's a paper trail indicating that someone was concerned in case things take a turn later on.

Like I said, if the child attends public school (or even if she doesn't and isn't totally isolated) she'll be exposed to a lot of different ideas and will rebel later if her mother's ideas don't appeal to her. It's rough to see now but you can amuse yourself by imagining her in high school as a goth or butch or grunge or whatever would annoy her mom the most, lol.
 
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