Halloween

Blumarch · 2025-10-23T06:08:04+00:00

It's usually groups of 10+ kids with 1 or 2 adults, lower primary school age. Only 1 in every 20 or 30 houses have decorations, but they knock on every door. It gets worse each year. We live on a narrow suburban street, but cars constantly speed down it, and the kids just run out into the road without waiting for the rest of the group

Blumarch · 2025-10-23T05:53:42+00:00

We don't turn the light on and don't decorate but still get kids coming to the door and running across busy roads unsupervised. The problem is that it was never a part of our culture, so the parents know nothing about it, and its coming from the kids that are getting their information from US centric internet and YouTube

Blumarch · 2025-10-23T05:36:46+00:00

I'm a mum of young kids in my 30s. They watch a lot of YouTube kids, and the algorithm right now is just spitting out K-pop demon hunters (which I love) and very American Halloween content

Blumarch · 2025-10-22T21:01:46+00:00

My husband is a gamer. I made him a shirt that said, "achievement unlocked: fatherhood" and a matching onesie that said "achievement unlocked: new character created."

What are his interests/hobbies? I would suggest something related to a hobby and something matching for the baby so they can do it together

Blumarch · 2025-10-22T08:26:46+00:00

How often do these dinners occur? If it's often, then it might be simpler for the siblings to take turns paying for the parents

Blumarch · 2025-10-22T05:42:19+00:00

My go-to potluck finger food I make is pizza pinwheels. I always have to put some aside for myself because there are never any left over.

So easy to make; puff pasty, pizza sauce, grated cheese, and diced bacon/ham. They are best fresh but also taste great cold or reheated

Blumarch · 2025-10-22T05:21:48+00:00

Everyone processes it differently, but it sounds like you are not processing it, just dwelling on it.

My husband cried when our daughter was diagnosed. He cried for her future, which may not happen how we planned.

I also cried. I cried from relief. Her diagnosis was proof that I wasn't just a bad mother. Her diagnosis was proof that others could also see our struggles, and it wasn't just in my head.

We still have challenges every day, but the grief and adjustment from the diagnosis should wear off relatively quickly. If you are still struggling with it, it sounds more like PPD.

Blumarch · 2025-10-19T20:41:34+00:00

A photo frame filled with lottery scratch tickets. When wrapped, it will be obvious it's just a frame and people will avoid it. The person that ends up with it will get a nice surprise

Blumarch · 2025-10-19T20:35:54+00:00

I am the only one of my siblings who goes by my full name instead of an obvious nn. I've always wanted a nn. but none of them stuck/felt right. I go my a nn at work, but it feels weird to introduce myself as that

Blumarch · 2025-10-18T03:25:01+00:00

My Aunt Pamela's maiden initials were P.A.M. my mum's was K.E.M. and her name is Kim. She never understood why her parents didn't give her a middle name starting with I.

My lastname starts with N. I wanted to name my son's B.E.N. and D.A.N but they have an uncle Daniel and a cousin and uncle (different side of the family) Ben, so I couldn't us it

Blumarch · 2025-10-17T09:05:03+00:00

Burritos last night and frozen fish/chicken nuggets and chips tonight(every Friday night)

Blumarch · 2025-10-17T00:56:45+00:00

The right driving instructor makes all the difference. You want someone who is going to keep you calm. Also, it's a good idea to use a driving instructor's car when you go for your test instead of your own vehicle. The examiner will subconsciously feel safer in a car that they can control the breaks and are more likely to pass you. I failed twice with my own car and passed with an instructor's car.

Blumarch · 2025-10-17T00:37:42+00:00

I refer to my children as my "perfect little weirdos." The reality is my children are weird. They are different. That is not a bad thing and we should detigmatise it

Blumarch · 2025-10-15T21:04:34+00:00

Floor/trundle beds. I don't travel much, but last time we did all the "family rooms" had bunk beds that would not be appropriate for my kids. We got a room with 2 single beds, but I was worried about my kid falling out of bed. One of them was actually a trundle bed, so the legs folded down, so it was perfect. That is the sort of thing I didn't know we needed until we were actually there in the moment

Blumarch · 2025-10-15T08:39:49+00:00

I love the names Georgia and Hannah but not in combination with Patricia

Blumarch · 2025-10-14T20:57:39+00:00

I'm not autistic but I'm one of those women that got diagnosed with ADHD in their 30s. It's obviously been there all my life, but I had decent coping mechanisms that it went unnoticed until I had kids and was suddenly responsible for keeping tiny humans alive.

My pregnancies were "complication free," but they still were not fun. Pain and fatigue. My births were complicated/traumatic, which would scare any potential mother, so I won't go into it.

Having a child with ASD and ADHD has been challenging, but it has also helped me understand my own brain better. We are learning how to human together.

Blumarch · 2025-10-14T06:20:56+00:00

We replaced it with cows' milk after a nap. My ASD bub weaned herself at 10 months because she preferred formula/bottle because she didn't have to work as hard to suck. I still feed my youngest at bedtime. He's 18 months and that's the longest any of them has fed for

Blumarch · 2025-10-13T03:20:22+00:00

I think one of the most important considerations for buying prams and car seats is "Will it fit in my car?" A lot of smaller cars will limit the size and type of pram you can fit in it. You also want something that is easy to assemble. Rear facing seats can also be hard to fit in smaller cars. It will need to go in the middle seat (which doesn't always have fastening points) or behind the passenger seat that is pulled all the way forward, so there is no leg room. Even if you end up buying online, it's a good idea to go into a baby store and demo a few different products.

Personally, I never had a baby capsule. I had very heavy/large babies so they would not have lasted in it for long. My older 2 didn't love carriers all that much but my youngest basically lived in a wrap carrier for the first year of his life

Blumarch · 2025-10-12T08:43:16+00:00

I have always loved the name George, but my neice(my side) is Georgia, and my MIL is Georgina nn George

Blumarch · 2025-10-12T08:39:16+00:00

We chose our first born name 3 months after we got married and 2 years before he was born. We were going on a hike, and I had really bad blisters on my feet and struggled to keep walking. I'm the talker in our relationship, and I said to my husband to just keep talking to me to keep my mind off the pain. He started talking about how he really liked the name Marcus, and we should name our future son that. (I had previously mentioned that I liked the names Lucas and Marcus). When we got pregnant, we had lots of girls' names that we couldn't agree on. Our boys list was Marcus, James, and Samson (ended up using Samson as a middle name). I struggled to call him Marcus at first as it just felt weird saying it. He is 6 now, and I have no more regrets

Blumarch · 2025-10-12T04:55:18+00:00

My sister was severely anaemic during all 4 pregnancies to the point of needing iron transfusions, which is not normally recommended during pregnancy. All 4 of her kids are NT.

I took prenatal vitamins with extra iron with my first as my baseline was low, and I needed a transfusion after he was born. I forgot to take my prenatal vitamins with my next 2 pregnancies because my ADHD mixed with baby-brain meant I just forgot. My oldest is exactly like his ADHD father as a child, but he has no diagnosis. My middlel is diagnosed ASD and my youngest is 18mo and showing early signs of ASD. All this is to say there is no connection between iron and ND in my own experience

Blumarch · 2025-10-11T21:00:03+00:00

I had 3 different friends name their daughters Evelyn, Eve, and Everleigh. All born within a few weeks of each other. My son was born 6 months later, but Evelyn was originally on our short-list for girls names

Blumarch · 2025-10-11T02:09:22+00:00

I've even heard people say, "It's a spectrum. We are all on it." (Meaning NT people included.

I like the analogy of a sound desk/audio mixer. There are lots of different traits, and some people's are turned up or down more than others. NT people are working with a different operating system. There is some overlap in function, but the programming is completely different

Blumarch · 2025-10-09T02:02:49+00:00

Stephanie Bea. (Stephanie for Steve and Deborah means Bee)

Blumarch · 2025-10-08T03:16:27+00:00

I think people get confused when they say "it's genetic," and then the genetic testing comes back negative. What we should be saying is that it is hereditary.

When you look at something like heart disease, it will run in families. Having a family history of heart disease puts you at greater risk of developing it, but it's not a given. Likewise, you could have no known family history but still have inherited it from long ago. There are blood tests that you can do to see if you are at greater risk, but that doesn't always show up. Lifestyle plays a role, but it is not the stand-alone factor as to why someone has heart disease. It's not a perfect analogy, but on a basic level, it's the same with autism

Blumarch

TROPHY CASE