u/Terrible_Put2975

Now that my beloved Pranam is closed where should I get butter chicken?? Theirs was the best I’d ever had in my life so high bar to clear

For me: s'mores, brownies and mac and cheese. The best s'more will always be a store bought graham cracker, marshmallow, and Hershey's chocolate. And the best brownies and mac & cheese will always come from a box.

What foods do you swear are best in their simplest form?

What the post says. Not the best Indian food per se… I think Pranam is the best in the neighborhood BUT I am not a huge fan of their veggie samosas. I love them to be crispy, super smooth potato filling, and I like a sweeter tamarind sauce.

I'll start by saying I have been fortunate with a lot of luck and privileges: generous maternity leave, a kid with a good temperament, financial security, and I can afford childcare. I know all of that informs what I'm about to write.

However, since my now 3 year old was born, I've felt a specific kind of loneliness around other parents, and mainly other moms, because I find parenting to be the best and easiest thing I've ever done. My job requires me to work extremely long hours, so I find any time with my kid to be an absolute vacation. I'll take an utter meltdown in public over the stresses I have to deal with at work any day. Similarly, those sleepless newborn nights were a million times easier than the all-nighters I frequently pull for my job.

I love going to playgrounds with my kid, I going to restaurants with my kid, I love taking them to museums, taking long walks, going to coffee shops and playgroups and parent-child activities. Given my and my husband's work schedules, I often solo parent and so does he. Whenever we have long stretches of solo parenting, we find ourselves saying, "I think this was the best week of my life," to each other.

But when I hang out with other parents, they often just commiserate. A friend just got back from a family vacation, and when I asked how it was, she said: "Remember, we have toddlers, they aren't vacations it's just parenting elsewhere." And I nodded and laughed but privately I just don't relate. I love vacationing with my kid and I find it to be a true vacation.

For me, everything got easier and more fun when my little one was born. I wish I could say it out loud in my community but it feels their primary way of bonding is just by venting. And I get that, too! But I'm getting sick of pretending I agree or just saying nothing when everyone else complains about "threenagers" or how difficult toddlers are. Since day 1 with my newborn, I've never related.

Anyone else?

Getting my second colonoscopy this week. I get them every 5 years. I've been dealing with a sensitive stomach for about 2 years as a result of a surgery I had, but of course now that we're in the lead up to my colonoscopy all I can think about is if I've actually been unaware of symptoms of colon cancer and that my life will change on Friday. Nothing to do but wait but I am so anxious I almost can't sleep or think about anything else.

Had dental surgery and have to be on soft foods for a long time. Mashed potatoes are the only thing that sounds good, I can't cook em right now cause I'm medicated and lazy. I realize it's a heat wave but are there any spots that do really good mashed potatoes and ideally deliver?

Perhaps asking for too much here but any recs for a "treat yourself" and/or special occasion breakfast on a weekday? Trying to surprise my wife with a breakfast date since she works late nights but has a nice, leisurely morning coming up. Looking for Astoria/LIC anything near-ish or easy to get to.

My 5yo has many wonderful qualities. One of her less wonderful qualities is near constant tattling on her sibling, cousins, friends. If they do anything even slightly wrong, or anything that she thinks is wrong (not always the same), she's quick to loudly go, "Mom! So-and-so did this!" It's not a habit I love, and I've recently learned that at school she's been given a few classroom jobs including "reporter" where she is asked to tell her teacher about any inappropriate behaviors. My son is at another school (for complicated reasons) and I actually know that his school makes a point NOT to encourage tattling. They have kids find a teacher if they have any problems or concerns, but they don't think tattling is good behavior. Am I right to think that the preschool is doing an odd thing in encouraging tattling in this way? As kindergarten approaches, should I work to sort of guide her out of this behavior? I am aware that friends and family find it annoying, btw, since my kid loudly announces any perceived infraction that their kids make, and I don't blame them. I just didn't realize she was getting so much encouragement for it at school.

I'm from Astoria, going to be stuck (happily!) in LIC next week for a leisurely lunch as I wait for an appointment. Is there a raw bar / oyster bar / great spot for a lobster roll in the area? I couldn't think of any but I do love the LIC food scene.

Ok, forgive if this is a really dumb question. But I have a kid in PreK and we love the program she's in, but we're zoned for a few great (and different) public schools in our neighborhood. Since I'm the teacher in the family, my wife obviously really values any input I can give on schools, but all open houses we had for 3K/PreK were during school hours. In our neighborhood, the tours were almost always at 8:30 or 9 am where I'd have to take a half day just to go. NYC teachers who have kids Kindergarten and older, how were you able to tour public schools? Did you send a nice email to the principal to see if you could come in at the end of the work day? Is there something I'm not thinking of?

Hey! Some guests from out of town are desperate to go to Eddie's Sweet Shop and we're stoked for a chance to take them. We wanted to grab a good dinner on Metropolitan and/or very close to it beforehand. Where should we take them? Looking for a nice spot but doesn't necessarily have to be fancy. Thanks!

ETA: I'm an Astorian who loves Forest Hills, don't know the dining scene in this part of the neighborhood as well as I do near Austin St.

Kindly asking for recs for a s’mores lover. Who does the best s’mores inspired treat in the neighborhood?

(33F just to meet the rules of Reddit)

Just saw a new OB and learned they use AthenaHealth for their portal. It appears that the doctor had been using an "ambient notes" feature to listen to our appointment and transcribe notes, which I caught because the post-visit summary had multiple hallucinations. I wasn't informed of this and I have no idea what happens to that recording (if it lives on a cloud somewhere, if my personal health experience is being used to train other AI models, if the portal is encrypted/secure, etc.) Is this the norm? Do I have any ability to be asked for consent on this for future visits? My doctor is an expert in medicine but I do not think they are well-versed in all of the many possible implications and ripple effects of incorporating AI into healthcare, and I do feel a lot of patients will have concerns about this, as I do.

Athena won't answer any questions and they seem like they outsource a lot of work overseas so not sure how widely our data is being shared.

Anyone have any intel? Can I "opt out" of this or am I out of luck if this is the portal my doctor uses? For context my child's pediatrician sent a notice to parents of patients disclosing that they do not use any AI note-taking, but none of my physicians have done anything similar.

Visited family in Somerville recently. We went out to eat a bunch and did some deliveries when weather was crummy. I’m from a HCOL area and I tip 20% minimum for just about everything. When we were settling up at the end of the trip, I looked at receipts and my Somerville family was tipping 5% on delivery orders and 10% at restaurants, max. When one delivery was late and got stuff wrong my family even said something like, “and we tipped!!” And I’m realizing now that the tip on a $70 delivery was like $4. Gratuity wasn’t automatically included or baked in anywhere. I was honestly aghast once I figured it out, but maybe there’s something I don’t know. Is my family a bunch of cheapskates or is tipping culture in Somerville or Mass in general unique?

Any suggestions for local spots that do bulk servings of hot coffee, that aren’t Dunkin? Would love to find a local equivalent of the big hot coffee box they sell for a picnic brunch I’m hosting.