Midterms primaries are coming up so let’s get a list going of progressive candidates running for any level of government and any location. Please make sure to include any relevant info.
Throwaway because too many people know me on my main. Coming here for advice because I’m a progressive mom and feel very complicated about this situation.
My ex husband and I have been divorced for going on 3 years. In that time he’s introduced our kids (8,6,4) to multiple partners - at least four that I know of. He and his new gf have been together since the spring, the kids first mentioned her in March I think. Genuinely I do not care about his relationships. I do care about my kids and of course look these women up on social or whatever.
Upon doing a very basic search I found new gf’s social accounts and her Reddit. To my immediate dismay I found out she and my ex are making very very adult content together. The content is clearly being made at my ex’s place. I told a friend who dug further (bc I didn’t want to see that shit) and the content includes a lot of intense kink/fetish stuff (impact, incest, CNC).
I am so sex positive. No shame in SW or making adult content here. No kink shaming here. I especially support women doing whatever feels right with their own bodies. And I genuinely don’t care my ex is doing this in his free time. Live your life dude.
I am concerned that this is content very clearly being made at my ex’s place. It’s also not hard to find. It is freely available on Reddit. Maybe they lock everything down when the kids are there but it doesn’t seem like it. This is GFs full time job.
I have receipts and have told my lawyer. My ex is extremely high conflict. How do I even begin to address my concerns with him?
Thanks for reading and for any advice 😅
My husband and I have been together for 26 years and in every location we’ve lived, and we fought over how to organize the kitchen and the pantry.
We’ve been in our house now for 21 years.
We both used to do cooking, but after Covid, my husband (a teacher) too on more of it… actually all of it.
And I attempted to be helpful. I would rearranged and clean and sort and buy things that seemed to be helpful.
My husband would patiently take whatever I bought and put it in the recycle pile or our giveaway box after a few months of moving it around and not using it. Whatever organizational system, I would try to implement, it would eventually erode it back to, however he wanted things to be arranged. I used to see this as passive aggression… but I’m too tired to care any more.
I am officially giving him total control of the kitchen. I don’t care where things go. I don’t care if I can find things… (I never will anyway…) it’s his domain.
He buys the groceries. He does the cleaning and the cooking. I will be his sous chef if needed.
Rant over
I love this country.
I know what it could be and what it should be, what it almost was a few times.
I’m mad that a concerted, decades-long effort by rich old men has co-opted religious beliefs and fear of outsiders to keep the underclass struggling, divided, and too exhausted to fight the people actually responsible for their own misery.
I’m so fucking angry that the distrust and stripping institutions was done so thoroughly that I don’t even see a way back from this ever.
It didn’t have to be this way. I’m not one for American exceptionalism, and definitely not in a Raegan way, but I know that we had and have a lot of things going for us that are just so squandered.
Maybe it’s naive, but I still feel like maybe we could some day get to a good place still, just the current administration has set us back so much.
Complicated holiday right now.
I looked up this toy maker because they make some beautiful agricultural models and found... this. I'm not angry or clutching pearls, just really REALLY bummed out that there's a market for this.
Is it really that different from toy police or soldiers? Yeah, I think it is. Riot police and their gear have ONE JOB, and it's not saving kittens from trees. Normalizing violence against your fellow civilians; making play of brutalizing and disappearing your neighbors.
Some days I despair and think we are so cooked.
Here’s what I’ve come up with off the top of my head
I want to start off by saying that I have never really considered myself "progressive" until I moved to the Deep South and became a mother. The amount of MAHA mothers here is astounding. And they are not uneducated but just so poorly misinformed. My main issue is just the complete hypocrisy of "morality".
For example, they will flip a lid over a homosexual relationship in a TV show or someone deciding to listen to their doctor and vaccinate their children; but they see no problem in ordering hordes of clothing from SHEIN and using generative AI?
It's so odd. I'm not here to shame anybody, but they have no problem shaming progressive mothers. I've known a few crunchy moms. And I can tell you there is a distinct difference between a crunchy mom and a MAHA mom.
I literally had somebody shame myself and my husband for carrying my son's water in a plastic reusable cup for his formula. My husband looked at her and asked if their water dispenser was plastic. She said yes, but that's different???
I'm truly curious about the psychology behind this. Because they seem to be so staunch and passionate about certain things like sunscreen and vaccinations, but couldn't care less about the effects of bulk consumerism and AI.
Again, I know this all sounds very judgmental, but this is just truly an observation I've seen. I wonder the thought process leading up to these opinions and are they all mean girls?
This is an update on my previous post 3 months ago, as we were looking at options. Thank you to everyone who took the time to give me feedback, their experiences,advice & just send recommendations. All the love & concern could be felt. I'm humbled but so hopeful for the world 🌎 we explored all options, took the time & at the end we went for surgery. Previously, we wanted the non surgical option, so we consulted an othotist & an orthopedic surgeon. My son had an S curve with 54 degrees top & 51 degrees bottom, so the orthopedic surgeon suggested surgery immediately. The othotist suggested bracing as he feels my son could still correct it as his in a growth sprout.He was 1.83cm tall, I know this has changed because I can see after surgery that he is taller now. We also tried a physiotherapist who specializes in the scroth method, then decided to also do a second opinion on the orthopedic to make sure we had the same prognosis. The orthopedic confirmed the same solution was surgery & also wanted to fuse T4 to L1. He is a very good surgeon, calmed our fears, answered our unnecessary questions, gave us as much information, & in that consultation room, my son committed to surgery. Not by my prompting or my asking, but because he believed,trusted the surgery & most importantly, the Dr. As I have said previously, this was what I wanted: he has free will, his old enough to understand, but also he is the one that will bring his body out of recovery. The physio session was intense, I saw my son look at me & I knew he couldn't put his body through so much work and all the time it would take from his childhood. So we decided on surgery, the events that followed supported this, his surgery was approved by my medical aid, no motivation required & as he is under age so we would have had to in general. I was able to upgrade to the right plan on time to avoid waiting periods & we received full authorization. We arrived here on Tuesday for the surgery & the hospital staff were amazing. Each Dr. who is part of the process took time to introduce themselves, answer questions, and reassure us. From the othotist who is making the support brace, the anesthesiologist & the physiotherapist, they all made their way to our room. The Dr met us before theater and he placed his hand on my sons face and asked if he remembers him & is he ready, my sons face lit up he was so happy and the walk through to the last door I can enter was so easy. I knew the man going in before him would make sure he corrected and the surgery was successful. After three hours, I received a voice note from the doctor himself, saying my son's surgery was successful and his happy with the outcome. I am elated & I know we made the right choice for us. He chose his weapon. This is our fight. It's been made easy as we have had so many people on the frontline. Including prayers, messages, and calls all that love has brought us out of that operating room. His a bit tired, little to no pain and is ready to walk, his excited and I see the smile I had when he was born ❤️ this is full circle believe,trust be relentless, ask questions be daring and most importantly take the life you deserve & make it your dream life we won!
My (very likely neurospicy - definitely sensory processing, maybe ADHD, and possibly pathological demand avoidant) 5 yo son has been experimenting with using aggressive or generally inappropriate language (think "stupid" at the least offensive and what he said to me today, "I'm going to punch you so hard in the stomach you die" at it's worst). We've been redirecting him and reminding him that "we use safe and kind words in this family" and either ignoring him or pausing activities if he continues.
He barely watches TV and when he does, it's PBS kids. He's at a very sweet school that really focuses on emotional regulation and connection. So I truly don't even know where he's coming up with this stuff.
Violence and hurting people is extremely triggering to me. I know this is developmentally typical but I'm very much at my wits end.
Especially those with neurospicy kids, how have you handled this? He's such a sweet and thoughtful kid generally, but I'm worried he's going to say something to get himself expelled from kindergarten next year. I need some fresh ideas
Going to my MAGA families house. I’d love to wear something that looks patriotic but is progressive or just isn’t nationalism.
My deck container garden is booming and has provided a lot more joy than I thought it would!
My cousin’s friend is due in September with a baby girl. She already has an older child who is fully vaccinated. However, she mentioned that she might not give her new baby any shots in the hospital. Instead, she plans to administer all the “normal ones,” such as polio, measles, and others. She expressed skepticism about certain vaccines, particularly vitamin K and hepatitis B. She cited a friend who read in a book that these vaccines are no longer necessary unless the child is exposed to a lot of people in the early stages of life.
I suggested that she should consult with her pediatrician or her OB-GYN, but she seems to trust her friend’s advice more. I’m puzzled by her reasoning. How can she trust a book more than her doctor? How can she not recognize that these claims are largely based on conspiracy theories? She also mentioned that she believes the government is trying to kill people. I responded that I don’t believe that, as the government needs more workers, so this wouldn’t make sense. It’s evident that she didn’t have any such doubts about her first child, and she had all the recommended vaccinations. So, why has her trust suddenly shifted? It’s alarming how quickly and widely misinformation is spreading, especially affecting children born in today’s world.
We are planning to try to grow our family this fall. Last time, I don't even remember the app I used (Roe v Wade was still standing). Does anyone have any recs for not-terrible fertility/period trackers?
What books have been a hit at your household? We have a 2.5yo and want to teach about feelings, kindness, self esteem… woke stuff haha.
We’ve enjoyed That All Saw A Cat, Be a Bridge, The Boy With Flowers in His Hair
Looking for recommendations from like-minded people. Hoping to find something to listen to in the car with my 18 month old that will provide more language/topic engagement than the brain numbing AI slop that's taking over music streaming.
Podcast recommendations that either 1) are light hearted but educational/interesting (topic doesn't matter) or 2) early educational/parenting (mostly for me).
The last podcast I binged was Bible Stories for Heathen Children which was great fun for cultural literacy (it's me, I'm the Heathen Children).
People are not even protesting???? My partner and I are planning a family together but these type of issues make me think do I want my kid to seee this world or is there any place where I can raise them better
I am going spend a long weekend with husband’s giant MAGA family for their family reunion. Usually my coping strategy is lots of space and time to myself but this trip is very different. It’s all the family all piled in to a small hotel next to each other. (Tiny hotel room for us). His family has an hour by hour daily itinerary that gives me anxiety just looking at it. (We’ve made it clear we won’t be there for all of it)
I have a 1.5 year old who will lend me lots of time to myself to unwind during nap time (I get to excuse myself and relax while he sleeps). But goodness I will need to dig deep down to find all the patience I have in order to spend 4 days with them. Any tips you have used to survive big family get together with lots of maga family?? mantras.. games.. breathing techniques…
My Flying University is launching a (free) Banned Book Club for folks who would like to read and discuss commonly banned books and the "dangerous" ideas inside them.
We're starting with George Orwell's Animal Farm, because it's short, it's sharp, and the list of places that have tried to suppress it is its own kind of reading list. Because attempts to ban a book reveal a lot about which perspectives, cultures, and stories are considered threatening to the dominant group.
I'm looking for suggestions for banned books that are really worth the read, especially when you know the stories behind their writing and the ban.
Hi I’m new here but my name is Sabrina, I’m the mother to two girls (5.5 and almost 2) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I am a scientist, specifically and marine biologist and my husband and I are progressive environmentalists with a huge bleeding heart for women and underrepresented communities. It’s been hard to make mom friends here.. I have my girlfriends I’ve grown up with, but our lives are busy and I am having a hard time finding like minded folks in the area who want to raise children to be compassionate and empathetic.
If you’re in the area and looking for a mom friend, let me know!
Apologies if this post isn’t allowed, it’s just so hard these days!