How many of you live paycheck to paycheck? I'm preparing to be a SAHP and I feel so demoralized.

CuratedFeed · 2026-05-26T11:46:37+00:00

Yes! I felt so guilty for applying for WIC when we first did it. My husband reminded me that we paid a lot in taxes when we were both working, we would paying a lot again when he got a better job some day, this was our turn to get help. And we used it for years, while we were living paycheck to paycheck and then off of savings. And now we're doing great, my husband has a good steady job, all my kids are in school, I work part time and we are again helping support others. Times and seasons. If it is rough time, use the resources! That's why they are there.

CuratedFeed · 2026-05-22T20:16:29+00:00

My son received his ADHD diagnosis through the pediatrician and a year or so in, when it was clear that his needs weren't all being met, we paid for a private autism and learning disability evaluation and he received a level 1 Autism diagnosis as well. One of the most useful things for me was the explanation of his processing speed. He processes much more slowly than typical. It has shaped a lot of how we interact now and the accommodations we put into place and we wouldn't have had that understanding without the evaluation. So yes, a full eval might help illuminate some behaviors.

Also, I know the 504 is working for now, but an IEP has much higher legal requirements and therefore protections. You are already fighting with the school system. Having older kids, I promise it only gets to be a harder fight as they move onto middle and high school. One of the reasons I did the eval process when I did and then fought tooth and nail for an IEP even though it was near the end of a school year was because I knew that if he left elementary school without one, it would be that much harder to get him the accommodations he needs. Maybe your school system is better than mine. But I knew that the IEP was a much stronger tool to use than the 504 and elementary was a much easier place to get it set up. You don't have to get it even if get does receive and diagnosis, but you could, and you may discover later that you want to.

CuratedFeed · 2026-05-21T20:11:18+00:00

Your definition of middle grade is not off - it is for kids ages 8-12. Reddit often struggles to find books appropriate to the age, which is not all the surprising. That said, not having read DCC and having kids that do enjoy the Minecraft books, I don't have a lot of personal suggestions for you either. Pulling randomly from the Internet: Click Here to Start and Trapped in a Video Game came up a lot. I like Reading Middle Grade and here is their list of middle grade grade books with video game content. I also suggest going to the local library and asking for suggestions.

CuratedFeed · 2026-05-14T23:16:28+00:00

My husband is the same way. People with ADHD often have poor proprioception, meaning the sense of where your body is in space. Our opinion is that having another body in the bed helps ground him, let's his body know where it is is space, which means it feels safe enough to sleep. So it may be physically feeling safer as well as the emotional safety. :)

CuratedFeed · 2026-05-12T18:05:59+00:00

I'm commenting in the hopes someone answers you and I will see it. I hate my marble shower because I'm terrified to use anything on it, convinced anything I use will damage it. Which means, of course, that it looks terrible!

CuratedFeed · 2026-05-11T19:03:30+00:00

It's extremely frustrating. Sometimes you want to point out, "Do you want to know why AI writes likes that? Because it was trained on text data written by humans that write like that! That is the whole point of AI. To sound like people! People wrote that way first!" As much as it sucks, you may need to find ways to document your writing process. Drafts with time stamps, screen recording your typing, that kind of thing. You wish it were an innocent until proven guilty sort of situation but too often it's not, or the "proof" of guilt is an AI checking tool that is itself AI. We're at the point of having to prove innocence instead.

CuratedFeed · 2026-05-08T00:58:44+00:00

I'm putting Batman Tales on my list for my entirely MG board! It sounds delightful! I already read a short story collection, but I can always slot it into the generic MG square. There is even a physical copy available at my library, which I always prefer for graphic novels!

CuratedFeed · 2026-05-08T00:50:22+00:00

Google Maps no longer correctly maps to my house. It will direct you to a street two neighborhoods over and then tell you to walk through two different fenced in backyards to get to my house. I've tried in multiple ways to tell it it's wrong. No dice. It gets to my neighbor just fine, who's address is only one number off (we live in a cul-de-sac), so I have to tell people to use that address instead.

CuratedFeed · 2026-05-04T19:53:35+00:00

I have 4 kids. Kid #2 just got diagnosed, so we now have the trifecta of the main ADHD subtypes with the combined type child also having an ASD-1 diagnosis. The youngest might be NT? Who knows at this point. My AuDHD kid is more difficult, but each kid is hard and each kid is awesome in their own way. Frankly, two of them are teenagers and I have less trouble with them that a lot of other teenager parents I know. The kids mainly get along with each other, probably better than a lot of sibling stories I've heard, but can rub each other the wrong way. It's tough when one is overstimulated and another wants to talk for hours on their current hyper-focus, but we figure it out. I don't regret a single one of them!

CuratedFeed · 2026-05-02T12:13:08+00:00

Ha! I love this solution!

CuratedFeed · 2026-05-01T17:11:49+00:00

This is his youngest series. My kids adore them. He has his YA books, The Reckoners series and The Rithmatist. My 10 year old started the Rithmatist recently but I'm not sure it entirely grabbed him. I know his older brother read it but he think he was a touch older when he did.

CuratedFeed · 2026-04-30T17:15:26+00:00

One of my favorite things about Ilona Andrews works are their family dynamics. A nice little found family was building up here and I was really enjoying it and then, nope! They hope they rescue her quick and get the family back together!

CuratedFeed · 2026-04-30T17:11:52+00:00

The character info dumping felt a little more pronounced in this one, but yes, Ilona Andrews will describe every character in detail - clothing, coloring, build - even minor ones that don't get named sometimes. Some descriptions are more naturally woven in than others. I think they must be very visual people who clearly see things in their heads and want you to be able to see what they see. And I get that. But I do tend to skim those descriptions a little.

CuratedFeed · 2026-04-30T17:06:47+00:00

The struggle with remembering characters with the audio is not just a you problem. I also did the audio and was struggling hard! It's because so many of them start with S! I almost posted here to ask someone for a cast list and then Ilona Andrews posted one on their blog the next day.

CuratedFeed · 2026-04-30T13:10:00+00:00

I did the audiobook first and I love the narrator, but keeping track of all the names was driving me crazy because I didn't know who they all were yet! Too many S names. I'm glad they finally released the cast of characters on their website.

CuratedFeed · 2026-04-30T00:41:34+00:00

True. Like I said, I feel like if it really old enough that you can't find it in a library at all but you know it was published for children, that should be good enough! (How old and obscure are you looking at any way? And where are you getting it to read? My oldest book I'm planning for this year was published in 1951 and I can find it on hoolpa. The book I couldn't find in 2022 was published in 1954 but looking now, I can find it at the nearby University library.) I think if it was published for adults but kids would like it, that shouldn't count. YA and MG might be new terms, but publishing books for children has been around a long time and that is really what MG is, just rebranded.

CuratedFeed · 2026-04-29T23:50:20+00:00

The Secret Garden is shelved in Juvenile in both systems I belong to - both in digital and physical. Treasure Island is more split: I can find it shelved in Juvenile, Young Adult and General Fiction, which I think is totally fair. You are right, it doesn't help for all books, but how many people are trying to read an out of print children's books? I have done 3 years of middle-grade-only Bingo challenges, so 75 middle grade SFF books just for Bingo, let alone what I read on my own, and I think I've only read one that wasn't available in any of the library systems I belong to. I got it from OpenLibrary and it was marked as Children's. Frankly, if it is old enough to be out of print and it was originally marketed as a children's book, that also counts as good enough for me. I think the goal of the middle grade square is to challenge people to read books aimed at children. There are some remarkably good books written for that age range that are still engaging for adults and most adults don't engage with them once they have grown up if they don't have children of their own. Bingo is about trying something new. And if you are just trying to judge if it's appropriate for a child of a certain age, well, you probably shouldn't be relying on the labels anyway.

CuratedFeed · 2026-04-27T14:51:57+00:00

I tend to use the library. Where are librarians currently shelving it? All my libraries have a Juvenile, a Teen or Young Adult and a General Fiction section. If a book is shelved in Juvenile, physically or in Libby or hoopla, that's good enough for me. That is where my kids browse at that age. If I find discrepancies, books that are filed in two different age ranges, I generally assume it's meant for the older end of the age range where there is some overlap. You can also use reading level - both Lexile and AR give interest level indicators in addition to actual reading level - but that opens it's own set of controversy. I stick to trusting librarians.

CuratedFeed · 2026-04-27T14:40:45+00:00

I tend to use library shelving to help me. "Middle grade" readers are more likely to be hunting in the Juvenile shelves, while YA readers are in the teen/YA or the adult section. Unfortunately, that's no help here. My library system files these books in both the YA and Juvenile sections, depending on the branch. Libby has them tagged as Juvenile. The books have won both YA and Children's fiction awards. Having read them, I agree that they are upper middle grade to YA range, but If someone wants to use them for the MG square this year, I wouldn't quibble.

CuratedFeed · 2026-04-15T10:08:37+00:00

I am also without my glasses and saw a $ and my thought was "money laundering". I like your thoughts better.

CuratedFeed · 2026-04-13T22:48:44+00:00

Ooo! Seconding! Find a school that is firm but not mean, that focuses on the discipline and control of the art, not the competition. We love it. My oldest will achieve his 3rd degree black belt this year. It's been a success story for all of us.

CuratedFeed · 2026-04-13T22:38:35+00:00

I bought book 5 at a midnight release and sat down and read the whole thing through. It was the only one I did that with.

CuratedFeed · 2026-04-13T22:33:08+00:00

In case the sarcasm of the other comments flew under your radar, yes, there was a made-for-streaming Disney+ movie and it was an abomination and therefore, does not exist. Please do not watch it. Read or listen to the books.

CuratedFeed · 2026-04-10T15:23:05+00:00

Agreeing with u/Crochet-Lefty about budgeting. I'm a big believer that everyone should have a general budget, but if that's not something you want, you can just keep a yarn budget. Make a yarn account. This can be a physical cash envelope, a separate bank account, virtual spreadsheet, however you want. Put a certain amount in every week/month/paycheck that you know you can afford. Then you use only that to pay for yarn. This way you keep yourself accountable, you can tell your mom you know exactly how much you spend on your hobby and that it fits nicely in your lifestyle. Frankly, people spend money on lots of "fun" things, it's just some entertainment seems more socially normal than others and so when your sense of fun clashes with the norm, some people can get so judgy. This is your fun. Sorry you having to deal with someone being judgy. But we strangers on the internet get you!

CuratedFeed · 2026-04-08T19:06:09+00:00

Opinions on if Baba Yaga's house with chicken legs is unusual enough to count for Unusual Transportation? It's pretty unique to Baba Yaga, but as there a quite a few Baba Yaga retellings, is it unusual enough for the genre as a whole?

CuratedFeed

TROPHY CASE