@krzyriver and @pumpkinpancake in my area it's common for people to use religious exemptions to get around having to vaccinate their kids. I'm in a holistic fb group for my area and people are constantly complaining about vaccines and trying to come up with creative ways to get around "the system." I guess it depends on your area...
@britvahok A few years ago CA passed a law requiring all kids in public school to be vaccinated unless medically necessary and signed off by a doctor. No more religious exemption allowed. Unfortunately, people have just found the few doctors here and there who are willing to lie and to sign all the forms. At least it’s better than nothing? Maybe gets a few more kids vaccinated?
@krzyriver lol at rotating toys. I do that with my dog and it totally works. Every few months a 'new' toy comes out and he loses his mind!
+274637846 on vaccinations
My UO is that I don't think religious organizations should be tax exempt. Things like scientology and weird ass cults get out of paying literally millions of dollars when they are actually just a business. So many megachurches take in BANK and their leaders live fatter than a Kardashian and since church and state are *supposed* to be separate in this country, I think they should pay taxes like all other corporations.
@chyvie@chopchop25 Maybe my UO is that if getting a company name on a list gets them to donate I’m all for it. If publicity is what it takes to get funds donated and without the publicity, then there wouldn’t be a donation, then by all means, publish away. The charity isn’t going to care why a company donates, just that they donate.
@purplegoldfish2 The issue I have is the go fund me page is set up for the victims and families of a tragic accident which killed 16 people. It isn't a charity or going to impact a community at whole, it is for those families expenses at this time of need for them. I would think most of them likely have life insurance and our health care is free in Canada so they don't have out of pocked expenses. So what is $9.8 million dollars going to and is THAT much really required? Especially when there are starving and less fortunate people in this world.
The companies are only donating to make a feel good story for the media and to get some publicity, which is fine if it WAS a charity to benefit many people who need it, but I don't feel like it is the case in this situation..
Me 33 DH 41 TTC since 2016 Due: October 12, 2018 Location: Ontario, Canada
I absolutely agree that you should be required to vaccinate your kids unless you have a medical exemption. What religions have something against vaccines? That’s silly.
@jemmerjams I’m with you that most old schools chivalry things are just annoying. I’m fully capable of opening my own car door. I don’t need to stand there and wait for you to walk all the way around the car to open my door then sit in the car waiting for you to walk back around to your side. Waste of everyone’s time.
I hate when someone holds the door for me when I'm still 20 feet away. I feel like they are trying to be nice but now I have to rush and run to get there in a reasonable amount of time or I look ungrateful. Half the time I'm in heels or holding a bunch of things and can't run. and then I feel pressured to look like I'm trying lol.
Me: 33 DH: 31 Location: Castle Rock, CO DD: 10.13.18 baby #2 due: 7.14.20
I absolutely agree that you should be required to vaccinate your kids unless you have a medical exemption. What religions have something against vaccines? That’s silly.
I don’t remember which denomination, but one of my best friend’s mother worked at a church when he was a child. His parents never took him to church because he had terrible asthma, and the denomination wouldn’t allow him to use his rescue inhaler.
Also, big +1 for waiting until a kid is old enough to understand what's happening until you pierce their ears. I'm also a big believer in taking them to a professional piercer. I got my ears pierced at Claire's when was a teenager and it was crazy painful, not to mention they we're crooked and the back kept rubbing against the skin behind my ear and it scabbed up. I had to take them out and let them heal. I had my ears and nose done at a tattoo shop when I was 18 and it was way less painful and I was much happier with the results.
hell yeah to this! I wanted my ears pierced soooo badly in elementary school. After 2 years of begging, I ended up negotiating them as my reward for making straight As in 4th grade. I think it made it all the more worthwhile because I had to work for it. Plus I was old enough to be responsible for my own cleaning/disinfecting and was more thankful when my mom bought me pretty earrings because of how badly I wanted my ears pierced.
Me: 33 DH: 31 Location: Castle Rock, CO DD: 10.13.18 baby #2 due: 7.14.20
@cdepperschmidt The Church of Christian Science, some Jehovahs Witness are two big ones. There are many other 'religions' that also are against them for various reasons. The Family Research Council (I will try to keep my political beliefs about them out of it) are against requiring the HPV vaccine as they think it increases sexual activity outside of marriage and while the FRC is not affiliated with any one religion, overarchingly it is a Christian Religious Belief based lobbying group so the people that listen to them tend to be socially conservative Christians of many different sects.
+1 on piercing a baby’s ears. They couldn’t care less. I think it’s dumb but hey lady in the mall with a screaming 3 mo old, you do you! My UO is I think it’s completely unnecessary for a 5 yr old to have a phone. Unless there’s a specific reason (medical etc). And even then I think it should be taken away when the kid is at home. Same if you want your child to have one when they ride the bus or whatever. They don’t need it at home. Go play outside with sticks and rocks.
Re: ear piercing— I definitely get the opposition and am probably not going to do it even though I wish I had baby pics of myself with pierced ears as a cultural identifier. Instead my parents waited until I was a little older. But I think the argument that “the baby doesn’t care” is ridiculous. The baby doesn’t care about half the stuff we are going to buy or do on it’s behalf. If we waited till baby had a say in everything we wouldn’t ever use gender pronouns until baby was old enough to tell us, we wouldn’t dress baby in half the stuff we are going to buy, people wouldn’t choose to baptize baby. That’s not why people do it.
I think the big questions are harm and pain. Both of which are pretty minimal with ear piercing but not absent entirely. Again I don’t think it’s something I’m ultimately going to do but there is value to it to many people and I I don’t think there is value in being dismissive.
ETA: lots of respect for anyone who doesn’t try to impose anything on baby before they can articulate their desire. I just think it’s very difficult.
Every six months or so we fill a box with toys and put it in the alley, someone picks it up almost instantly. We are also not a fan of too many toys. I also bring all the Halloween and Easter candy to work and use it to bribe teenagers to read poetry out loud to the class because I think sugar should be consumed very sparingly by young children. Also agree with the vaccinations, people are just too privileged, they don't understand that children are still dying of these diseases in countries that lack access to such medical care. I can imagine all those parent who lost children thinking on in horror about another parent that could access those vaccines denying them. Also, Goodnight Moon is boring, I prefer "Go the Fuck to Sleep." Now that's a great book!
So I agree with everything, should we call this thread "popular opinions"?! And I had never even heard of a push present before the bump...very strange. We don't even do presents for wedding anniversaries!
Somewhat on the topic of toys: noise making toys. I cannot stand them. My niece and nephew had a lot and when they didnt clean their toys up sometimes youd step on one and it wouldn't shut up. Sometimes they also went off for no reason whatsoever, in a room nobody was in at the time. Creepy as hell. I won't be buying any, though I know owning some at some point in time is almost inevitable. If gifted I'll probably put them up and gives them to toys 4 tots around Christmas time. I do not want to be near them lol
- ear piercing. I'm kinda back and forth on this one. I don't really care either way, although I'm not sure what I'd do if we had a girl. I had mine pierced around 4 or 5. All I remember was that I was with my step-dad, we got in a minor fender bender, my left earring got caught in my hair and ripped out. We tried to keep it in for a while, but it also got infected. I still have very clear holes 20+ years later. I did try to re-pierce them on my own around 11 or 12, but they were lopsided. Now I don't want to deal with the pain.
-vaccines. totally agree with requiring children to get vaccines unless medically necessary. The fact that measles was almost gone and now has come back because of anti-vaxxers irritates me. I'd be pissed if my baby got a disease before they could be vaccinated because some mom had a stupid reason for not giving Timmy his vaccines.
Also- I plan to raise Blast by exposing them to all sorts of religious and areligious thoughts and philosophies. I don’t mind if they are a different religion than I am, just that they choose their belief system for themselves.
@knottieamusements honestly...boys clothes suck too. They may be standard cuts, but I want my son to wear red and blue and green and yellow and all colors. All of the onesie sets for boys are either a) all various shades of blue and green and have rockets or trucks or 'boy' things on them or b) they are a set of 4 with 3 of them being white or grey and one being a different color like red or yellow.
I just want my damn kid to wear all kinds of colors and have clothes that arent covered in tractors. Is that so hard to ask?
@knottieamusements in a similar vein - who thinks it’s a good idea to have off the shoulder maternity tops?? I can’t imagine trying to wear a strapless bra all day with pregnancy breasts
I am obsessed with dinosaurs, so DD definitely has some "boy" clothing because I liked it and girl clothes with dinosaurs are almost impossible to find.
ETA - I'm so happy that companies like Princess Awesome are starting to realize that and make girl clothing with traditionally boy stuff on them. They just tend to be more expensive than I'm willing to spend. I'm cheap.
Also- I plan to raise Blast by exposing them to all sorts of religious and areligious thoughts and philosophies. I don’t mind if they are a different religion than I am, just that they choose their belief system for themselves.
SS's mom and nana are very religious (Nana is one of those pushy Christians which drives me crazy and his mom became super religious after her divorce). I'm Christian, but really more spiritual. DH is agnostic for the most part. I think it's great for SS because he gets to have different viewpoints from us all. When he asks DH about God and Jesus, DH tells him his opinion but often tells him to ask me. DH leans more pagan, which is totally fine with me.
I think it's great to teach children about all religions. It helps them figure out who they are and what they believe in.
Yeah I agree that both “boys” and “girls” clothes are messed up in their own ways. I hate all the camo I see on little boys especially- like they are being raised to be soldiers. It creeps me out. And yeah frilly and sexualized styles for girls is seriously disturbing.
I do think there are increasingly more gender neutral options which I appreciate. And when the kid is old enough to articulate what they want to wear I look forward to supporting their style and choices!
@rc-cola you make a good point about babies not caring about most things we do. The reason I bring it up about earrings is there’s an obvious downside for baby- the pain. And I also get the feeling that every time I see a baby in earrings they’re annoyed about them, kinda like a poodle in a tutu.
@knottieamusements yeah it’s bananas. I just about had a fit the first time I went to buy DD1 swimsuits. Half of the time the little mannequin wearing it in the picture had an hourglass waist. I also found that a lot of the swimsuits were cut as if they were meant to show off cleavage. Which... just gross. She’s a baby. With normal clothes I’ve had a much better time finding silhouettes that seems appropriate. I particularly like baby boden and primary for that reason. You hardly ever see that shit from them.
@knottieamusements another UO I’m sure, but I think people who follow a faith that doesn’t support basic life saving mechanism like an inhaler are not smart.
@kiwi2628 I should have known. Although, my mother and father are super conservative Catholics and my mother had both of my sisters and I get HPV as teens. She said you never know who you’ll end up with. Sadly and ironically he sister died from cervical cancer when I was 25.
Also, while we are ranting about boys clothes. WHY IS IT SO FUCKING HARD TO FIND BOY TODDLER DRESS CLOTHES? Every holiday there are a million pretty dresses and one eh boys outfit that’s not even that nice. I can always find things online, but I just want to walk into Target a get something...
@cdepperschmidt I love shopping for boy toddler dress clothes! There was so much cute stuff at Buy Buy Baby today! Collared shirts and suspenders and khakis and hats! Boy shopping is a lot of fun now that DS is older. Baby boy clothes are boring.
@DunkinDecaf so interestingly one of the reasons a lot of people choose to pierce so early is that the hospitals in communities where that is the norm will often do it in house (so you know it’s sterile) and the thought that better to get it over with since there is a little pain.
Amyway my point wasn’t to advocate for ear piercing— it was to push back against the idea that there isn’t thought and intention behind it. It’s about tradition and giving a child a piece of culture — that can be really important for immigrant communities especially.
@rc-cola for sure. I definitely get that it’s an important cultural thing for a lot of people. Just personally not a fan of the look.
@kiwi2628 haha he doesn’t look nearly as annoyed as most dogs in clothes, at least! And while we’re on the subject I should confess to trying to make my dog wear an eeyore costume to fit in with our Pooh Bear family Halloween last year. He kept trying to bite it though so that only lasted 5 mins. Sigh.
Re: UO 4/12
+274637846 on vaccinations
My UO is that I don't think religious organizations should be tax exempt. Things like scientology and weird ass cults get out of paying literally millions of dollars when they are actually just a business. So many megachurches take in BANK and their leaders live fatter than a Kardashian and since church and state are *supposed* to be separate in this country, I think they should pay taxes like all other corporations.
The companies are only donating to make a feel good story for the media and to get some publicity, which is fine if it WAS a charity to benefit many people who need it, but I don't feel like it is the case in this situation..
TTC since 2016
Due: October 12, 2018
Location: Ontario, Canada
I hate when someone holds the door for me when I'm still 20 feet away. I feel like they are trying to be nice but now I have to rush and run to get there in a reasonable amount of time or I look ungrateful. Half the time I'm in heels or holding a bunch of things and can't run. and then I feel pressured to look like I'm trying lol.
Me: 33 DH: 31
Location: Castle Rock, CO
DD: 10.13.18
baby #2 due: 7.14.20
hell yeah to this! I wanted my ears pierced soooo badly in elementary school. After 2 years of begging, I ended up negotiating them as my reward for making straight As in 4th grade. I think it made it all the more worthwhile because I had to work for it. Plus I was old enough to be responsible for my own cleaning/disinfecting and was more thankful when my mom bought me pretty earrings because of how badly I wanted my ears pierced.
Me: 33 DH: 31
Location: Castle Rock, CO
DD: 10.13.18
baby #2 due: 7.14.20
My UO is I think it’s completely unnecessary for a 5 yr old to have a phone. Unless there’s a specific reason (medical etc). And even then I think it should be taken away when the kid is at home. Same if you want your child to have one when they ride the bus or whatever. They don’t need it at home. Go play outside with sticks and rocks.
I think the big questions are harm and pain. Both of which are pretty minimal with ear piercing but not absent entirely. Again I don’t think it’s something I’m ultimately going to do but there is value to it to many people and I I don’t think there is value in being dismissive.
ETA: lots of respect for anyone who doesn’t try to impose anything on baby before they can articulate their desire. I just think it’s very difficult.
Also agree with the vaccinations, people are just too privileged, they don't understand that children are still dying of these diseases in countries that lack access to such medical care. I can imagine all those parent who lost children thinking on in horror about another parent that could access those vaccines denying them.
Also, Goodnight Moon is boring, I prefer "Go the Fuck to Sleep." Now that's a great book!
So I agree with everything, should we call this thread "popular opinions"?! And I had never even heard of a push present before the bump...very strange. We don't even do presents for wedding anniversaries!
Seriously- all the boy clothes are standard t-shirts, but the girl clothes are sleeveless, or strappy, or cold shoulders, etc.
I get that girl clothes are more frilly, but do the cuts actually have to mimic adult cuts?
Not even interested in that shit.
- ear piercing. I'm kinda back and forth on this one. I don't really care either way, although I'm not sure what I'd do if we had a girl. I had mine pierced around 4 or 5. All I remember was that I was with my step-dad, we got in a minor fender bender, my left earring got caught in my hair and ripped out. We tried to keep it in for a while, but it also got infected. I still have very clear holes 20+ years later. I did try to re-pierce them on my own around 11 or 12, but they were lopsided. Now I don't want to deal with the pain.
-vaccines. totally agree with requiring children to get vaccines unless medically necessary. The fact that measles was almost gone and now has come back because of anti-vaxxers irritates me. I'd be pissed if my baby got a disease before they could be vaccinated because some mom had a stupid reason for not giving Timmy his vaccines.
I just want my damn kid to wear all kinds of colors and have clothes that arent covered in tractors. Is that so hard to ask?
ETA - I'm so happy that companies like Princess Awesome are starting to realize that and make girl clothing with traditionally boy stuff on them. They just tend to be more expensive than I'm willing to spend. I'm cheap.
I think it's great to teach children about all religions. It helps them figure out who they are and what they believe in.
I do think there are increasingly more gender neutral options which I appreciate. And when the kid is old enough to articulate what they want to wear I look forward to supporting their style and choices!
@knottieamusements yeah it’s bananas. I just about had a fit the first time I went to buy DD1 swimsuits. Half of the time the little mannequin wearing it in the picture had an hourglass waist. I also found that a lot of the swimsuits were cut as if they were meant to show off cleavage. Which... just gross. She’s a baby. With normal clothes I’ve had a much better time finding silhouettes that seems appropriate. I particularly like baby boden and primary for that reason. You hardly ever see that shit from them.
@kiwi2628 I should have known. Although, my mother and father are super conservative Catholics and my mother had both of my sisters and I get HPV as teens. She said you never know who you’ll end up with. Sadly and ironically he sister died from cervical cancer when I was 25.
Also, while we are ranting about boys clothes. WHY IS IT SO FUCKING HARD TO FIND BOY TODDLER DRESS CLOTHES? Every holiday there are a million pretty dresses and one eh boys outfit that’s not even that nice. I can always find things online, but I just want to walk into Target a get something...
He didn't mind the tutu or gentlemanly bow-tie, but he hates hats
I should also mention he has about 12 winter sweaters and when we do our breast cancer walk he gets his mohawk dyed pink. He is pretty bad ass.
Amyway my point wasn’t to advocate for ear piercing— it was to push back against the idea that there isn’t thought and intention behind it. It’s about tradition and giving a child a piece of culture — that can be really important for immigrant communities especially.
@kiwi2628 haha he doesn’t look nearly as annoyed as most dogs in clothes, at least! And while we’re on the subject I should confess to trying to make my dog wear an eeyore costume to fit in with our Pooh Bear family Halloween last year. He kept trying to bite it though so that only lasted 5 mins. Sigh.
Me: 33 DH: 31
Location: Castle Rock, CO
DD: 10.13.18
baby #2 due: 7.14.20