NotSoEasyGoing

I have nothing for my children for Christmas this year. I work full-time. This year is the most depressing yet. My oldest is 17 and my youngest is 4. I have always been able to pull something magical off. Until this year.

I have seen so many posts about parents who bought "too many toys" or whose kids have "too much" and so they dont know what give them this year.

My kids' clothes are falling apart and too small. Our food comes from food pantries.

My rent and bills literally eats up all of my income. This was not the case a few years ago.

I applied for assistance through the school one of my kids goes to. The counselor followed up with my abusive ex husband. Including my child that we

Were you impatient with the staff at the concession stands? Did our slow service "ruin your night," as someone said to me?

Well, just a few hours before we all arrived to work last night, we learned that one of our coworkers and friends wasn't going to make it to work. She had been brutally murdered; stabbed to death in her own home. We all still went to work and tried to give you the best service possible regardless. I'm sorry if you felt that we let you down.

Maybe try to give people a little more grace sometime. We're only human.

I'm using gender neutral terms to protect my child's privacy, but they do identify as the gender of their sex assigned at birth... My 16 year is having a hard time with one of their same-sex friends. They really enjoy each other, but then the relationship often causes them a lot of distress. The kind of distress I used to feel with my first teenaged romance. They don't really want to talk about it with me. They are a great kid. I love them. I'm proud of them. I support them unconditionally.

I just wish they felt like they could come to me. Talk to me. Ask me questions. I've been through a lot of this and I might be able to offer solidarity or even insight.

It kind of just hit me. I asked

I'll start with mine.

First and foremost, I want to say that each of the individual staff members that I met were professional and kind. My complaints stem from the hospital policies and the aggregate care that I received.

Last weekend, I slipped on black ice and suffered a severe injury. I get dropped off at Mission Hospital. My visit at the ER was fine. The first thing in the morning, I received surgery. Before the surgery, the anesthelogist comes in and asks me some questions. He asked if I had any history of drug and alcohol abuse.

Now, I assume that I'm asked these questions because it might be pertinent to how he decides to anesthetize me for the surgery. I'm honest. I tell him tha

I have a 15 (soon to be 16) year old son. He asked me last summer if we could have him evaluated for Autism.

While he does have some particular challenges that would indicate he might have some neurodivergency, it never occurred to me that he might have autism. He has some issues with sensory processing. He hates loud noises, bright lights, large crowds, itchy clothes and seams, and has a very restrictive diet. He basically likes plain foods. Unseasoned rice and pasta, and fish. He likes fruits and broccoli. He decided at age 4 that he was vegetarian (pescatarian). He doesnt care for the texture of foods like hummus and he HATES dried beans. Adequate protein is a constant concern.

He likes

I live in a community that was hit pretty hard by the flood. All the nearby businesses were destroyed. The business where I was unemployed has found a new location to operate out of while they continue to make repairs to the damaged site, which still has an unknown timeline.

They called me to talk about returning to work. Shortened hours, shortened week. Finally, they absolutely will not be hiring ANYONE back at pre-flood wages. They are offering me a rate of $7/hour less than I was making. So 2/3 of my previous hourly wage and about 1/3 of the total hours available to work.

I do have part-time gig work in Asheville, but it's too much of a drive for it to be feasible for me to pursue a fu

Why do drivers come to a dead stop at yield signs when there isn't even any traffic to yield to. Even when there is a car coming, modulate your speed and ease in behind them. For the love of God, just keep rolling!

I have what feels like the pettiest relationship problem. My (38 F) boyfriend (52 M) of five years will sing along to almost every song that we listen to. This includes music that he never listened to before he was with me (musicians and genres that I introduced to him). It doesn't matter if he knows the lyrics or not. He'll just hum along if he doesn't. Or sing the few words that he knows and kind of drop in and out.

This is annoying enough, as is. My biggest complaint, though, is that he is just not musical. He doesn't understand keys/scale. He can't hold a melody. He has zero rhythm. He is always off beat.

I really love music. As in, I pay a subscription for and watch live streamed conc