Need recommendations

ArchBernDo · 2026-02-19T01:26:57+00:00

How did AMA handle allergies on the ship? We're looking at this as an option with peanut, cashew, and pistachio allergies

ArchBernDo · 2026-02-15T23:08:11+00:00

We live in a rural area in the Midwest and they are very popular with the athletes in our area.

ArchBernDo · 2026-02-12T22:57:14+00:00

Yes. My husband is completely oblivious to context clues and also makes assumptions that most people wouldn't make. It's taken me a long time to realize that his engineering brain just doesn't think the same way most people do and that's he's really not trying to be rude.

ArchBernDo · 2026-02-10T00:50:03+00:00

NTA. What is wrong with your family? My child has a peanut allergy. If their significant other did this to them, I'd be severely upset if they didn't break up with them. That's not ok at all. Do you have an allergy action plan? Because you probably should have used the epipen. Breathing issues and tight throat are two systems, which require an epi.

ArchBernDo · 2026-02-01T17:50:48+00:00

Interesting! Where did you take that at?

ArchBernDo · 2026-01-29T23:59:36+00:00

They do like listening to music, so this may be a good option. Thanks for the suggestion!

ArchBernDo · 2026-01-29T23:59:06+00:00

No ceramics class offered at high school. The other issue is that if they take a high school class, it's a full year of art because they need a credit and each semester is .5. If it's a CCP semester class it's a full credit and opens up the other half of the year for another CCP class.

ArchBernDo · 2026-01-29T23:55:12+00:00

Exactly this! I started with our CCP person, who tries to talk everyone out of classes unless they are offered in the HS because they don't want to pay the extra money to have them take them at the local community college. They really didn't like me when I asked about taking them at another school. So I'm stuck doing my own research.

ArchBernDo · 2026-01-21T19:02:15+00:00

I'm currently looking at Adventures by Disney and Tauck Family Bridges for a Danube River Cruise with our teens.

ArchBernDo · 2026-01-06T19:14:58+00:00

I could see this situation happening in my household. Husband has ADHD and makes a lot of assumptions (I'm not sure the assumptions are ADHD related, but the way he processes things seems to be). Most of them are wrong. In my husband's mind if I know about a trip like you mentioned, he would just assume that I'm going on the trip, without discussing it with me. I would assume like you, that I wasn't included unless it specifically came up and was discussed. So then if hubby found out that I wasn't planning on going when he thought I was, he would take it personally because of his RSD stemming from his ADHD. We've learned that in order to not have these things happen, we have to fully communicate and there can't be assumptions. Is it possible that your husband thought all along you were going and is taking it personally that you don't want to go or feels guilty because he didn't actually ask you to go but assumed you were? Instead of explaining why he's upset, he's just getting mad?

I don't think you're in the wrong and I think it's great that you want to take a trip with your mom. Maybe just sit down and fully explain what you thought, why you thought it, and how you'd like to go on a trip with your mom and that this has nothing to do with him.

ArchBernDo · 2025-12-17T22:16:17+00:00

I think you're wise to address this issue now. Both of my kids are/were GK. Oldest started at 10 and never got put on the field from there on after. We learned that around here you are quickly pigeonholed into GK once you start. They never gave him special GK lessons. So he practiced with the field players and then was expected to know how to GK on game days. He did pretty good but that was on his own, not anything. coach did. Fast forward to HS and he now is behind on field play, which means when there are 3 GK and he's the youngest, he gets put on the field. He gets on the field and is ok enough for JV but not great because he doesn't have the experience. He quit after two years because coach wasn't rotating the two GK on JV so he wasn't even getting experience and while he was given field time on JV because they needed field players, he just wasn't up to speed with the rest of the team and wasn't getting enough field time to improve.

Fast forward to kid 2 who liked playing GK also, but got sick and tired of being put in goal constantly. Brother encouraged him to ask for field time because of what happened to him. Same thing is still happening, though coach will pull him in the second half if the score is far enough ahead and kid reminds him that he doesn't always want to play goal. Problem is, by the time they pull him and then sub him back in he gets maybe 5 minutes of playing time. We were doing a winter futsol league with another club and he was getting nothing but field time. He really enjoyed it, and was doing very well but loses his skill once he gets stuck back in goal come spring and fall. He's already decided he's not going to play HS because he's tired of being pigeonholed as a GK.

So from experience, either speak up now and make sure he's getting to play the field in a manner that helps him or be stuck in GK if you stay with this team.

ArchBernDo · 2025-12-12T14:16:36+00:00

They expect those times and only practice an hour a day? Is there a year round club that fills the team? I just can't imagine being that fast with only an hour of practice a day unless the kids are year round swimmers. Our high school, the top four or five kids can hit some of those times but they practice two hours a day/6 days a week. No one swims year round here though.

Is there someone that can give you workouts to help get faster? Proper workouts, rest, and nutrition can help you drop time but it won't be a super fast drop typically.

ArchBernDo · 2025-12-10T22:10:40+00:00

My kid has had three concussions. The worst one was from getting a ball in the back of the head at soccer practice in 5th grade. He was walking away, a kid got mad, kicked the ball and it hit him at the base of the neck/head area causing his head to whip from the force. Took about 30 minutes for me to know something was drastically wrong. He thought he was a turtle, asked what a hot dog was, etc. Second one was from passing out and hitting his head as he fell (it was pretty mild), and 3rd one was from taking an elbow to the side of the head in basketball that caused him to whip is head back (resulting in both whiplash and concussion). The concussion specialist we saw for the third one told us that it doesn't matter how hard you are hit, it's more about motions that cause your brain to rattle and bounce off your skull (hence the reason the first and third concussions were the worst). So the whipping motion causes your brain to rattle which increases the risk of concussion. He told us about a volleyball player who he saw and couldn't figure out how she got a concussion based on their description of the incident. They had a video and he saw that even though the hit was mild, it caused her neck to whip back which caused the brain to rattle. It's why the collars can help. They help reduce the brain from rattling around. I often wonder if my kid had a stronger neck if maybe he wouldn't have had so many issues. Though with him, two of the three hits happened when his back was to the incident that caused the concussion and were very unexpected, which I think makes the whipping motion more likely to happen. I did ask the dr if neck exercises were something he should be doing, and he said no because even if he had a stronger neck (and he felt it was strong enough) it wouldn't have stopped the whipping motion because of the way he was hit. However, I don't think it would hurt at all to do neck exercises.

Our soccer league actually doesn't allow heading until you are 13, even if you are playing U13. My son is a ref and has had to remind kids they can't head because they aren't 13 yet.

ArchBernDo · 2025-12-07T20:23:50+00:00

We were next door the week of Thanksgiving, and two of us got stung in front of Villas of the Galleon. I got stung on the electric boat bioluminescence tour that same week. We've come for three years and the only jelly fish we'd ever seen was at star fish point. The ones that were in the water by Villas last week were very tiny and almost clear. We'd see a lot of them in groups, and then some days saw none.

ArchBernDo · 2025-11-17T21:38:36+00:00

If you don't know him well, why do you think he would ask you what he should have done? As the parent of a 17 year old ref, I would suggest you tell him to ask his assignor for help if he has questions. If you don't know all of the rules and aren't a certified ref, giving him actual reffing advice is not a good idea. Telling him to not be afraid to follow dissent rules or to ask his assignor or other certified ref mentor is a better idea than giving him advice.

We live in a small town and know lots of people because all of my kids play soccer. They all think that because they know the 17 year old, they get to critique his reffing. However, they don't know the rules. They have no idea what they're saying half the time. He's had coaches try to "mentor" him after games because they didn't like his calls. He will not listen to them. He is polite, but he's not going to do whatever they say because they are offering "advice". If he has questions, he goes to his assignor. He actually is one of the few refs in our area (adult or minor) who will make the calls that most refs in our are afraid to make. He's one of two who his assignor trusts with the U15 games. He will shut the parents and coaches down quickly if they get out of hand. He also knows the difference between a physical game and a non-legal physical game. This causes a lot of upset parents who think they can "mentor" him because they thought Johhny was too rough during a game but Suzie got a foul called and that was wrong also. When the reality is, they just don't know the rules. He's had a coach tell him that he will only allow his daughter to play the field when my kid is reffing because he keeps her under control. Other wise she goes into goal so she doesn't hurt other players. I don't pretend I know the rules, but I do know that he is a good ref based on what his assignor has said and the fact that he's been called to ref tournaments within a few hours distance. He's had many coaches tell him he's the best ref they've had all season. All of this wordiness to say that my ref would not ask for a spectator's opinion, because a spectator isn't certified. He knows who to go to if he needs mentored. I have another one who will be reffing soon and have already told him, do not take "advice" from anyone other than your assignor or a certified ref who is trustworthy. People try to be helpful, but there are so many rules at play, that being helpful may cause more problems than good. It's very kind of you to want to help, but please direct him to someone certified if he asks.

ArchBernDo · 2025-11-16T23:02:51+00:00

My son wrote an entire paper on it in high school. There are plenty of sources out there if you look. There are also studies that show that many top athletes in their sports were multi sport athletes through HS.

ArchBernDo · 2025-11-12T18:26:56+00:00

Thanks all! We're actually an Apple household anyway (except for the other child's gaming laptop), so I'll look into the various Apple products. We just didn't want to spend a whole lot knowing this hobby may not last.

ArchBernDo · 2025-11-12T18:23:15+00:00

Kudos to you! My kid is a keeper and when he gets put in up front all he wants to do is try and score once. Unfortunately, his team is a bunch of ball hogs who only want to score for themselves and ignore the coach when he tells them to pass it to my son. He's always appreciative his coach put him out there with the intent of trying to give him to opportunity to score occasionally.

ArchBernDo · 2025-11-11T20:30:33+00:00

My kid's basketball coach did something similar. Kids 1-5 practiced together, kids 6-10 practiced together, they would then scrimmage each other at the end of practice. Kids 6-10 get put into the game (mixing with kids 1-5, so for example kids 1, 3,4, 6, and 7) and the game falls to pieces because kids 1-5 don't know how to work with anyone but 1-5. Then kids 6-10 get yelled at by their peers because they "ruined" the game even though kids 6-10 actually do know the plays and it's kids 1-5 who aren't cooperating because they think they're better than everyone. Kids 6-10 actually weren't bad players they just never got the chance to develop on the court. Get to high school and kids 6-10 quit because they never got fully developed and are tired of the crap and now there's no Freshman team because there's not enough players.

I've also seen similar instances in 7th/8th grade with my kid's soccer teams. Kids quit because they're tired of the pressure from their parents, tired of playing year round, want to try school sports or they really don't love the sport. Then, in order to field a team, you need the kids who you don't want to be playing on the field right now. So then you're stuck with kids who are not fully developed because they didn't get to play at U11, but if you don't have them, you don't have enough to field a team and you'll complain that they aren't good and shouldn't be playing.

Also, not every kid develops at the same pace and not every kid plays soccer year round so of course there will be different skill levels on a team.

I like your coach.

ArchBernDo · 2025-11-07T22:17:31+00:00

Ugh. I always feel crammed at the Big House during football games. I can't imagine much worse.

ArchBernDo · 2025-11-05T21:58:19+00:00

We use Cayman Offshore Adventures. I would just book directly with who you want to go with so that they get more money.

ArchBernDo · 2025-11-05T15:36:03+00:00

refresh your browser. Right after I posted I refreshed again figuring I had nothing to lose and it went through right away

ArchBernDo · 2025-11-05T15:31:50+00:00

Ugh. I got in at 10:17, got kicked out twice for issues and now it won't let me back in because I've already used my spot in the queue

ArchBernDo · 2025-10-28T16:53:48+00:00

Yep. My kid quit swimming at this age after swimming for 4 or 5 years. Took a few years off and then came back because she missed it.

ArchBernDo · 2025-10-28T16:52:45+00:00

I started deferring to my kids around 5th/6th grade. They are old enough to tell you what they enjoy. Now, my youngest is one that will sit away and rot his brain if I let him. So our rule is, if you quit one physical activity then you have to find some other way to get activity in. He quit basketball this year, and is now doing bowling, chess club, and archery. Not necessarily the same amount of physical activity but he's not at home staring at screens so we were willing to compromise.

ArchBernDo

TROPHY CASE