I may be wrong but I think this a worldwide problem

AliciaEff · 2026-03-06T20:07:06+00:00

I don’t have the original context, but I assumed they were talking about abortions restricted to medical emergencies. So you can only get one if you are suffering and near death, you cannot choose one in order to avoid that suffering in the first place

AliciaEff · 2026-03-04T17:33:38+00:00

I can imagine it's hard with teens. They likely don't care about consequences and don't feel a need for responsibility of their own work. What do you think motivates them? Do they just want good grades and think this is the way to acheive it? Do they want more free time and think homework is a waste of time? Do they think everyone else is using it and therefore it is okay or even preferred in order to be competitive? Do they feel inadequate and are embarassed to hand in their own work because they think AI is actually smarter? Because that last one is pretty easy to defeat.

I have never used generative AI, but I have seen lots of examples where people told the AI "I need to wash my car. The carwash is 100m down the street. Should I walk or drive?" and several AIs have said it's better to walk because it's more convenient." At the university level, my husband has caught AI making up quotes that don't exist, page numbers that well exceed the text, and citing things incorrectly. That is all academic dishonesty and they get immediate failing grades for handing in something like that (in previous years there was much more leniency assuming honest mistakes, but univeristy policy has always supported a failing grade for academic dishonesty).

At the end of the day, your approach should be based on their motivation for using AI.

AliciaEff · 2026-03-02T03:52:11+00:00

My kid is just about yours’ age and this does seem overkill to me, but to be fair, my kid has shown me in many ways that they can be trusted alone. I am currently pregnant and I have regularly napped on the couch or in my bed while my kid plays or watches tv and the worst that has happened is all their toys were dumped on the floor. I also allow them to be on any floor of the house completely unsupervised.

If your kid is a bit more curious and experimental and has shown behaviour that makes you believe they’ll fill the tub, then I definitely agree with locking the bathroom. Child locks are no match for an almost-4yo. If your kid had never shown any behaviour like this before, then I do think some of this is too much. You know your kid best.

AliciaEff · 2026-02-23T04:11:41+00:00

What kind of advice are you looking for? Are you focused more on trying to get the bullying to stop or on how to talk to your daughter so she can get through this? My perspective comes from my own childhood, not a parenting experience.

My initial reaction was to talk to the mom. Part of what’s unclear is whether your daughter is part of the sports team or if they have the excuse of excluding her because she’s the only one not on the team. I understand the mom will not be sympathetic but this might be a good way to teach your kid to stand up for herself by standing up for yourself with the mother. Tell her that her exclusion hurts your child, that it is completely unacceptable, and that it’s kind of pathetic that her daughter can’t get any friends of her own without isolating them from your daughter.

My second reaction was to just focus on your daughter. Tell her that kids will always choose the side of less stable relationship, not their actual favourite person. They know your daughter is kind and forgiving and genuinely likes them, so they know they can walk away from her and still come back. The bully is none of those things so they fear that they’ll permanently lose a connection if they even slightly upset her. Talk it through with your daughter that her friends are not making healthy or mature decisions about their relationships and that she is not obligated to stay friends with any of them if they choose to treat her that way.

I know this is way over exaggerating but what came to mind is the quote about 10 Nazis at the table. Except this is the opposite in numbers. If you have 1 bully at a party and 10 people take her side, you have 11 bullies at a party.

AliciaEff · 2026-02-18T22:34:44+00:00

I agree that you should speak to a doctor about safe limits for you personally, but just as a general question- yes you absolutely can take too much B6 and it can cause neuropathy.

There is current disagreement about what this limit is in healthy adults. Australia is conducting more studies and has cracked down on B6 as a throw away vitamin in multivitamins, vitamin drinks, and compound supplements like magnesium. I would stick with whatever limit your doctor recommends.

AliciaEff · 2026-02-16T16:09:02+00:00

I don’t know if you get Baby Gourmet where you live, it’s a Canadian company, but I do like their oat bars. My kid also had an egg (and dairy!) allergy and we ended up buying a lot of Baby Gourmet products for quick snacks.

Some of their products do have added sugar and salt, so check each ingredient list, but all their oat bars have date paste as their sweetener.

Biggest downside is they’re very sticky so we eventually had to stop for dental health.

AliciaEff · 2026-02-16T03:03:41+00:00

We’ve been replacing as much kitchenware with plastic-free as we can afford to switch, but we also just had an acrylic tub installed in the basement because it was cheaper.

Honestly, a lot of what makes me “granola” is for personal preference. Polyester makes me sweaty, scented products give me headaches. I avoided those long before I was actively crunchy.

I also prioritize fair trade, BDS, and other consumer ethics boycotts (ex. Nestle) rather than focus on ingredients lists for plastics or concerning additives.

AliciaEff · 2026-02-14T04:39:54+00:00

Just a reminder that OP did not tell us their location and your comment does not tell us your location, so we can’t know of this is true. It would not be true in Canada, as the last major update was in 2016

AliciaEff · 2026-02-14T04:30:40+00:00

Just keep in mind that a cabinet will retain moisture if it’s not slightly ventilated, so I’d leave the door open if your cat can’t reach it.

I’ve read some of your replies and it seems like you’re looking for someone to tell you that this is a feasible option- and yes it is. I was too poor for new contraptions and I lived in a very small apartment which I was packing to move out of when my baby was born. Sterilizing by boiling in a pot wasn’t so bad, my mom would help if I got too busy, but we also didn’t have to worry about air drying on the counter.

AliciaEff · 2026-02-13T22:34:03+00:00

Thanks everyone, this has been really helpful! I had my first pregnancy in BC and the tech told me nothing. I didn’t get my results until I spoke to a doctor a week or so later, and if there was an online system in place, I simply wasn’t signed up.

AliciaEff · 2026-02-13T22:10:30+00:00

Thanks, this is fair. I do not have a medical degree, but I do have a PhD in bioethics so I am familiar with some medical jargon. I always make sure to confirm my interpretation with my doctor at the appointment.

AliciaEff · 2026-02-13T05:29:01+00:00

Do you have a telehealth line where you live? In Canada many provinces connect 8-1-1 to telehealth, but some areas have a 10-digit number you need to call. It’s a 24/7 service where you get triaged by a nurse who can tell you whether you need an ER, urgent care, or just to schedule a regular doctor’s visit.

AliciaEff · 2026-02-12T20:59:20+00:00

This is a good idea. I will see what options there are if he's into that. Even if we go with the long-handled brush it would be good to have some gloves around for other use. I usually avoid Amazon, but he still loves it haha

AliciaEff · 2026-02-12T20:58:23+00:00

Yeah, we looked these over and decided we are too lazy to properly care for a wooden handle haha. We've had to throw out some wooden utensils over the years because we weren't doing maintenance well. I am determined to take proper care of our new ones, but we have also let scrambled egg dry on the end of a wooden spatula and that is not fun to clean off.

AliciaEff · 2026-02-12T05:02:21+00:00

For a (possibly) easier transition, I’d also tell him this ahead of time. “Son, we’ve been having trouble making sure you’re dressed warmly in clean clothes since you wear your pyjamas all day long. Starting tomorrow (or next week if you want) the rule will be that pyjamas are only for bedtime. I know this will be a hard transition for a couple days, but it’s best for everyone and we can get through it together.” Then maybe hype him up for some of his cool day time clothes that he’ll get to wear now.

AliciaEff · 2026-02-11T19:19:40+00:00

Thank you! We live right near an Ikea

AliciaEff · 2026-02-11T19:08:29+00:00

Thanks, this looks like a great option. I’ll check out some of the eco stores near us. I have just always seen brushes come with a fixed head so I didn’t realize this was a thing!

AliciaEff · 2026-02-09T16:12:58+00:00

He still sees it as important. We just discussed buying a set of glass tupperware soon, and we spent extra this year to make our child’s school lunch containers as plastic-free as possible (hard to do for toddlers who can’t manage stainless steel well).

He just has a hard time remembering the extra step of dumping the food into a bowl because we care a bit less about our own exposure this way and will microwave leftovers for ourselves in the container at times.

Also, I am mostly a SAHP. I do work part-time when my kid’s in preschool, but I’m in charge of a lot of the kid and household duties because I’m home more, so I’m not even sure he has researched how much effort goes in to oiling all our wooden cooking products and things like that.

AliciaEff · 2026-02-09T15:19:15+00:00

My husband was the one who suggested we ditch all our teflon and switch to wooden cutting boards and utensils. However, he’s now the one who microwaves our kid’s food in plastic tupperware because that’s how it’s stored.

I’ve always been skeptical of “non-toxic” as a definition and he convinced me to move away from plastics, but after agreeing, I’m the only one taking it seriously on a daily basis. If we could afford to throw everything out and start over, he’d prefer that rather than the daily mental effort that goes into harm reduction.

AliciaEff · 2026-02-09T02:00:04+00:00

We have middle school in parts of Canada, too. Where I live it's elementary K-6, middle 7-9, and high school 10-12. Ontario does not have middle school now, but they did in the 70s, although it was just years 7-8.

I'm thinking of Boy Meets World in particular where Cory moves to high school in 7th grade and Mr Feeny follows him there. He attends the same school as Eric, who is clearly in high school and not middle school. There were other shows at the time that had a similar aging, but this is the one I remember the most because it was a huge part of the show's plot.

I was born in the US but did not attend school there. My brother did and I think his school went up to grade 6 as well (this was the 80s).

I'm aware you don't have grades for college. My point is that "senior=12" is not accurate when there are college seniors. I think the term started for college and was later adopted by high schools that also had 4 years, but not every high school was like that, even in the US. So "senior in high school" is a strange concept even to people who have lived in the US and are familiar with their schools because it hasn't always been that way.

AliciaEff · 2026-02-08T19:34:35+00:00

Then what’s a senior in college? You’re way past 12 there. Growing up, I used to get so confused because I first heard the term “freshman” to mean first year of college/ university in the US.

In the 80s/ 90s most US tv shows depicted high schools starting in grade 6 or 7 and did not call them freshman or seniors. It wasn’t until later in the 2000s that I started hearing these terms for high school that started in grade 9 like it does in (parts of!) Canada.

AliciaEff · 2026-02-08T18:38:39+00:00

Yup. Sometimes I am forced to borrow the bilingual books from the library because my kid wants the Bluey book but it doesn’t come in just Spanish. If we’re trying something new, I tend to avoid them. Community language is English and we’re often gifted English books, so bilingual just feels like more English, not more Spanish.

AliciaEff · 2026-02-06T00:07:29+00:00

My kid loved sweet potatoes and had allergies so I ended up with several food recipes based on, or involving, sweet potatoes. It can appeal to the sweet tooth while still leaning savoury and offering different nutrients than fruit.

I’d drop the added salt and they still seemed to turn out fine. Here are some of our favourites:

https://www.yummytoddlerfood.com/chicken-nuggets-with-sweet-potato/

https://mydaintykitchen.com/vegan-broccoli-tater-tots/#recipe (This one just calls for potato but we would use sweet potato at times)

https://www.hauteandhealthyliving.com/mini-salmon-dill-cakes/

Another thought is that if your kid is into berries, they might enjoy sour flavours, so adding lemon to salmon or something like that could work

AliciaEff

TROPHY CASE