u/SS_from_1990s

Mankeeping describes the emotional labor women end up doing in heterosexual relationships. It goes beyond remembering birthdays or coordinating social plans. It means being your partner’s one-man support system. Managing his stress. Interpreting his moods. Holding his hand through feelings he won’t share with anyone else. All of it unpaid, unacknowledged, and often unreciprocated.

Many of the posts on women’s subreddits boil down to this.

I definitely experience this. There is no amount of talking in the world that’ll change my husband.

And therapy? Forget it. He says no way.

Anyone else relate?

She had her hair pulled back out of her face, and she looked so different.

Marina is an example of a child slipping through the cracks. She never lived with her mom, dad is out of the picture. She briefly lived with her maternal grandparents; loved by the grandma, but beaten and ridiculed by the grandfather.

She was in and out of orphanages. And she can’t write Japanese :-(

I paused when they showed the letter she wrote to Tai-Chan. It was almost all hiragana. She admitted she can’t write kanji.

She’s still young, but she’s an adult. Japan doesn’t really have good programs for illiterate adults. But they are going to have to soon. There are more and more immigrants now.

I wish her the best. And pray she can get out of the cycle.

1. Daphne is from Essex, UK. A sassy but quirky bird from Essex, England. She speaks with an Essex accent and gets highly offended if she’s mistaken for being a Londoner.

2. Roz is from Texas. She grew up with brothers and makes the best damn Texas barbecue.

3. remove the whole Daphne fatso storyline. Yes Jane Leaves is pregnant. But just have Daphne wear a coat. Or stand behind the couch.

The rest is perfection. Awesome writing. awesome casting. David Hyde Pierce and Kelsey Gramar are just so awesome together.

If your birthday is in September, October, or November, and school started around September 1, and you were expected to be five years old before that date, did your parents enroll you in school anyway, even though you were technically still four years old?

Mine did! My siblings and I were all born in the fall, and my mother simply enrolled us in school. Haha!

For three of us, it was fine. However, for the one born in November, he struggled and believed he should have been in the grade below.

Nowadays, there are strict cut-off dates. But back in the 1970s, anything goes!

How did you turn out?

(Also doesn’t have to be a North American. Any country is fine. I just didn’t know the cutoff dates.)

Do you ever think what would happen if you met a new girl in town when you were fifteen. Knowing yourself and your teen daughter, do you think you’d be best friends like Alice and Kat in 1999?

Bonus question, what year was it in your 15th summer?

(I asked a similar question previously if you met your mother. But this time, it’s your daughter.)

At least this is how it was for me and my friends.

I remember asking a friend to come hang out at the movies with us. And she said, “I already saw that movie.”

And I said, “you did? With who?”

She said, “uh…John”

And we are all like, john??? What! Are you two more than just friends? (insert smile)

Yeah, maybe. I think so. (Laugh)

And sure enough the next time we saw them, they were a couple.

This was just so common. Friends hanging out in a group. And then one day a couple of them will hang out one-on-one.

And they realize they may or may not be more than just friends.

But yet I saw on another women’s forum, that this, apparently is a big no-no.

One guy posted, “I’d like to ask out my friend. How should I do it?”

And I was really flabbergasted by the responses. Everyone said, no don’t do that. “I would feel totally betrayed if my guy friend asked me out”

Am I missing something here? How are people ever going to find a partner? It happens through social engagement.

Did you ever wear the white nurse dress? Did you like it?

Do you prefer scrubs?

Just wondering. I don’t remember the white dress, but when I see it in movies and TV it always stands out.

If you look at me, you’d think my eyes were brown, but actually they are hazel. In the right light, and wearing the right color, they can look green.

I bought a cute, bright green dress online. The kind that would really bring the color out in my eyes. The model looked so pretty wearing it. I had an image of me wearing it in the summer fluttering around like a butterfly.

But when I tried it on, it just didn’t look right. But I didn’t want to give it up. I thought I just needed the right belt, or the right underwear, or to lose a few pounds. So in my closet, it stayed.

I took it out again yesterday. Tried it on. And came to the realization that it just wasn’t meant for me.

In the box it goes. Along with the pink dress that never looked right.

And as I dropped off the box at the donation shop this morning, I felt relief.

Letting those summer dresses go felt like choosing the version I actually am. Someone who can make room in her closet,and her life, for things that actually fit!

I was at a large department store the other day. It had separate floors for women’s clothes, men’s clothes, and household goods.

I was on the women’s floor, where there were dresses, swimsuits, lingerie, etc.

The fitting rooms were tucked away in a corner.

Unlike shops like Uniqlo or Old Navy, where there’s a central set of fitting rooms and staff asks you how many items you are trying on, and unlocks the door for you, these fitting rooms were completely unmanned.

I went back to try something on, but there were two men standing there. One was standing at the end in front of the trifold mirror, and the other was standing between two fitting rooms.

The department store staff came back and said to the first man. “Hi, I’m sorry, but this is the women’s fitting room,” she said.

The man just looked at her and smirked. “Oh? Uh-huh,” he replied.

She repeated herself, saying it was the women’s fitting room. He just nodded and smiled and said, “Oh ok,” without moving.

I could see that the young woman was starting to get nervous, realizing that this was going to be a confrontation.

She began to speak again when the other man, the one standing in front of the trifold mirror, started to walk out. His friend followed him.

Then, he said in a mocking voice, “Oh so it’s the women’s fitting room. Who knew, ha ha ha.”

Apparently, they were waiting for their girlfriends or female friends. There were also two chairs right outside the fitting rooms!

I felt so bad for the young woman. I know that if a man had told them, those guys would have left immediately.

I have a long, low cubby shelf in my bedroom, and it’s basically a magnet for junk. There’s so much surface area that I’ve ended up piling more stuff on top of it than inside the actual shelves.

I’m wondering what to do. Part of me wants to pull everything off, move it all into the living room, give the shelf a proper dusting and deep clean, and then start fresh. Then I could sort through everything out there, toss the junk, and only bring back what I actually want , and put it back neatly organized.

But another part of me wonders if I should just tackle it as it is.

Just looking at it fills me with dread.

Help.