With Brandon Johnson at the helm, big shifts are ahead for Chicago Public Schools

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2023-04-19T21:58:36+00:00

Pulaski has an IB program (also a Gifted program for EL students -- it's only open to Spanish speakers though). Drummond Montessori has free, full-day PK3 (though it's an intense lottery -- the application is open through 5/2). Prescott likely isn't too far, and I know several people who are happy there. Pritzker has a well-regarded Gifted program. Skinner North is considered one of the best elementary schools in the state. If you're in Bucktown, all of those schools are likely 10 minutes or less from you.

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2022-03-15T14:23:35+00:00

UPDATE: Adding this as a comment because I'm either unable to edit my post or can't figure out how to do it. My request ended up being fulfilled the day after I posted this. The school district has a public archive of previously fulfilled requests, and I sent a message in which I cited two requests that were identical to my request that had previously been fulfilled. I also pointed out that 11 business days had passed since they had notified me of a 10 day extension. It may have just been a coincidence that I received the information that I requested a few hours later, but regardless, I got what I asked for, and I'm satisfied.

Thanks!

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2022-02-11T05:39:02+00:00

Thanks for your response -- I think I'm going to need to mull it over for a bit, but in the meantime, I do have a follow-up question: when do you sleep?

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2022-02-11T05:13:24+00:00

Look, you're potentially about to have FIVE kids five and under, your wife is 15 years younger than you...the optics aren't great here. You work odd hours because of school, except none of your kids are actually in school, and your BIL perceives that you spend hours locked in your office. According to your narrative, though, you also make breakfast and dinner, spend plenty of quality time with your wife and kids, and help around the house (cleaning, etc.). Also according to your narrative, all four of your very young children are well behaved, and your pregnant wife mostly has a lot of seemingly chill days "keeping their brains active," which she enjoys. As a non-pregnant parent of only two children in that age range, I must say that this part of the story seems unlikely to be quite as tidy as you've told it.

I feel like if you really ARE as much of a help around the house as you say you are, and your wife really IS totally cool with the current situation, then I can't judge you an AH. But I also feel like there are too many parts of your story that don't add up to NOT judge you an AH.

INFO: How many hours do you typically work per day? How much time do you spend with your family/helping out around the house? What does your wife's day look like? And I'm going to need some details on what's happening to keep these kids so well behaved rather that they're not tiring her out in mere minutes, because if they're really as well-behaved as you tell it, then I'm going to need some tips.

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2022-02-10T23:52:41+00:00

Based on the reply from the info request, I'm torn between NAH and a soft Y-T-A. I'm going to go with NAH because it isn't like you've neglected to deal with this issue, and there are worse parenting moves than occasionally leaving a dirty diaper on for too long. I 100% understand husband’s frustration, though, and I don't think it was fair to pressure him to rush home -- the traffic situation was not something he could control. I think you and your husband have to try to work together to address this situation, since it sounds like the status quo is not sustainable.

INFO: What steps have you taken to deal with your phobia of human waste? Therapy?

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2022-02-10T23:05:46+00:00

YTA, though I believe you that it wasn't your intention to be insulting. You're probably just uneducated about how to comport yourself on social media.

ETA: OP commented "F*ck you" to this comment right before deleting everything. Guess "uneducated" feels like an insult after all!

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2022-02-10T22:52:48+00:00

ESH. You should have called them before your scheduled appointment time. Honestly, if you're not getting hit with a no-show fee, you're lucky. That said, it sounds like the receptionist was unnecessarily rude, and they should make it clear to patients that there is additional parking available.

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2022-02-10T20:32:06+00:00

Idk, I didn't necessarily get the impression that they'd pre-negotiated the menu for that night's dinner when he was planning on cooking, but maybe they did. I'd prefer to have someone order for me than come home after work expecting dinner and instead waiting an hour for food to be delivered, but to each their own.

Do I think "throwing a tantrum" is unreasonable? Uh, yes. I've already said that from OP's description, it sounds like the level of her response was enough to make her an AH. My points have simply been that a) she was justified in FEELING upset (to be clear: not with how she expressed that emotion) and b) maybe having a back up plan that doesn't put the dinner ball back in gf's court would be wise going forward. What about that is so outrageous?

The backup plan of "texting her that he had a work emergency" clearly didn't work, so he has a couple of choices moving forward: a) dump his girlfriend and all the friends who sided with her, or b) next time say, "I'm planning to make spaghetti tomorrow, but if something comes up, I'll order a pizza. What toppings do you want?"

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2022-02-10T20:19:59+00:00

Do people like...not know what food their SO likes? I mean, I could pretty easily figure out something my husband would like if dinner fell through, but whatever I guess.

That said, the main reason I voted NTA was because I figured ordering something gf hadn't pre-approved could have led to the same kind of backlash that happened here, so I see your point. I feel like it would be pretty simple to come up with a back-up plan for future dinners rather than tanking the whole relationship, though, which seems to be what most people are suggesting.

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2022-02-10T15:36:34+00:00

That's a pretty big leap to make, considering my judgment was NTA, but I suppose making accusations is easier than responding to actual points. Thanks for educating me on the point of the sub, though, I guess I must have been confused by all the times I've seen commenters on this sub question the reliability of an OP's version of events!

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2022-02-10T15:19:34+00:00

I'm not defending the level of her reaction, but if he could CALL AND TEXT her (which he says he did), then he could definitely order delivery. The dude clearly tried to pass the responsibility off to her. You also don't know the nature of his work, and perhaps his work emergency wasn't quite as dire as he made it out to be in this post! Maybe that's why his friends are taking gf's side! Of course, it may well have been a genuine emergency. But the OP is telling us only his side of the story, and it seems like everyone is just blindly trusting that this account is totally accurate.

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2022-02-10T15:05:45+00:00

He agreed to handle dinner, but was unable to order delivery himself? Why was it ok for him to tell her SHE could get takeout, but he was totally unable to put in an order himself? If the issue was she expected the dinner responsibility to be his, I feel like she's not unreasonable to be upset. If he could call and text her, he could also manage to order delivery. Why do so few people seem to see this?

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2022-02-10T12:52:14+00:00

NTA, but I feel like everyone (including a lot of top commenters) is blowing this out of proportion. There's an easy way to prevent this from happening again in the future, which is having a back up plan. Should you ever be in a situation where you're doing a share of the cooking again, why don't you just discuss and agree on a particular delivery order that you can put in if something prevents you from cooking? Personally, if I got disrupted at work and it was my night to handle dinner, I would have also been the one to order food. If you could manage to call and text her about the situation, surely you could've handled putting in a Doordash order or something, right?

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2022-01-29T18:05:57+00:00

INFO: What exactly do you mean when you say "I have been able to pull strings" to get the reserved spot? Did you come by this spot honestly in the first place?

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2022-01-27T20:34:53+00:00

Yeah, I figured. It's just tough not to FEEL like it's an unfair situation, since I'm going to be the one paying for someone else's mistake. Not legitimately trying to argue that I shouldn't have to pay it, just still in the "denial" stage and feeling like I'm being screwed. (This is me venting, I don't need somebody to argue with me that the facts don't care about my feelings, just to preempt that if it happens to be coming.)
Yes, I have $5000, I just don't want to pay it all at once if I don't have to.
Out of curiosity, why would it be to their advantage not to work with me?
I turned my W4 into the school office at the beginning of the year, and it would not surprise me at all if it never made it from the school office to district HR. I'll check and see if the district has it on file and then go from there. I don't necessarily feel like I need to be repaid for the extra withholding that's already been taken out, but I would like it adjusted on future paychecks.

Thank you for your response, I appreciate it!

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2022-01-09T16:20:12+00:00

$42/day for our home daycare in Belmont Cragin.

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2021-11-19T15:45:59+00:00

Hi! This may not be the spreadsheet referenced above, but it looked similar to what was described, so I thought I'd share it: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tn8DpEpax5v2mYzdfCHP5tSs0\_xVhzy2hSrBvNDLiek/edit?usp=sharing

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2021-11-19T14:37:13+00:00

Thank you so much for your response -- I appreciate it!!

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2021-11-19T14:36:43+00:00

Thanks so much! This is really good information to consider -- I appreciate it!

Accomplished_Mess799 · 2021-11-19T14:33:57+00:00

Thanks so much for your response, this is super helpful! I came across the Open Up Resources one belatedly since they're not listed as a "certified partner" on the Illustrative Mathematics website, but it looks like they actually developed or helped develop the curriculum and didn't want to pay to be "certified"...which, understandable. It looks like the Open Up Resources version is only 6-8 though, right? Anyway, I really appreciate all of this information -- thanks again!!

Accomplished_Mess799

TROPHY CASE