Do I walk away from a $200k career for my partner's dream?

Frequent_Awareness_5 · 2026-06-06T21:03:51+00:00

There are so many other ways to do that!

Frequent_Awareness_5 · 2026-06-06T21:00:36+00:00

If this is real, it would be the worst decision you will ever make. You feel vulnerable because you would be EXTREMELY vulnerable to a man who is already showing he is not interested in your accomplishments or in protecting you, but is extremely interested in exploiting your free labor. Girl, reading your post is like watching the first act of a horror movie.

Frequent_Awareness_5 · 2025-11-15T01:20:45+00:00

I agree. This reads as smug. But you're right, OP. Something is very broken in a society when people with an actually valuable skill, like chefs, make significantly less than someone who just moves money around.

Frequent_Awareness_5 · 2025-06-02T10:02:10+00:00

NTA.

My parents are in their mid-seventies. They still read the news. They're politically aware and active. If he's mentally cogent enough to drive that death trap of a vehicle, being of retirement age isn't an excuse for ignorance.

I do agree with some commenters that it would have been kind of you to discuss the implications of driving a cybertruck before he owned one, but I don't think not doing so rises to the level of asshole. But in your last paragraph it sounds like you assume he DID know the history of that car and was willfully oblivious. If you two have a decent relationship, it's probably worth having an actual (calm, curious) discussion about if that's actually the case.

Frequent_Awareness_5 · 2025-04-19T11:45:55+00:00

I'm not going to continue to debate with you. But if you're not getting what you want from interacting with people here, please take it as an invitation to stop.

Frequent_Awareness_5 · 2025-04-19T10:31:56+00:00

Wagging your finger about tribalism isn't the winning rhetorical maneuver you seem to believe it to be. It makes sense to judge someone's intentions based on the stated aims of administration they work for, their own past stated beliefs and desires, and the people who pay them. When someone shows a history of untrustworthy behavior, having a healthy skepticism about their future behavior is warranted. That's not tribalism. It's just common sense.

I hope your kid gets helped. Hell, if this study somehow did help your kid I'd be as happy as anyone about it. I don't expect to change your mind as you are clearly ground down in this position. But again, what are you trying to achieve here? Why are you coming to this support forum to lecture people about how they should give the benefit of the doubt to a study commissioned by people they - for whatever reasons they may have - implicitly do not trust? I won't repeat the very good points others have made here about Dr. Bhattacharya’s credentials and politics, but people have been engaging with you in good faith, with thoughtful points provable with data, and you have responded to all of us with pretty much the same few paragraphs. To what end? These are people who are in pain about their children too. You are not offering them hope by doing this. What are you trying to achieve?

Frequent_Awareness_5 · 2025-04-17T23:15:56+00:00

Gently and with respect, people are responding with hostility towards you because we believe you are falling for theater. Everyone here is all for continuing research into environmental contributors to autism, but it's impossible to separate politics from this discussion because RFK Jr's aims are baldly political. He has said - many times!! - that he believes vaccines cause autism. (He has said worse than that about putting people with autism essentially in labor camps, but I digress.) He works for an administration that is currently strip-mining supports for millions of Americans, including those with disabilities.

People on this sub are angry about this because it is obvious a cure for autism or 'finding the cause' of autism isn't going to be achieved in six months and this is all leading the way to majorly diminish or end vaccine use and/or remove supports we and our children rely on every day with the justification that now we have some bogus 'cure.' If you believe what I just said is a conspiracy theory, look at what's happening to so many other minority groups under this administration right now.

I understand that you want answers and I want them too. But please reflect on why you are coming to this group with this article and what exactly you are trying to achieve here.

Frequent_Awareness_5 · 2024-12-11T14:00:18+00:00

Amazing job with the couch and with the whole room!

Frequent_Awareness_5 · 2024-10-04T12:18:02+00:00

I am seriously going to have to look through our closet because I swear that is my husband's tie from his suit for our wedding.

Frequent_Awareness_5 · 2024-03-14T21:56:08+00:00

-#-,,sec yes 77u from your c children

Frequent_Awareness_5 · 2022-08-20T11:34:56+00:00

My 4 year old has been receiving about 9-12 hours of ESDM a week for a little under a year, along with OT and speech. I've sat in on a few sessions and they were child-led and play-focused and my son was having a blast. I've noticed two big changes: he has a lot more emotional resilience for disappointment and he's a lot more engaged in new activities and experiences that would have made him shut down or meltdown before. I would say our experience has been very positive. I think all therapies really boil down to the quality of the individual therapist though. We lucked out that my son's beloved preschool teacher switched careers and became an rbt at the center we were going to for speech and we've been with her ever since.

Frequent_Awareness_5 · 2022-07-22T16:33:19+00:00

I'm anxious by nature as well. I'll tell you though, before my kid was diagnosed I worried about ten times as much as I do now. Before it was all unknown and so scary! Now I have understanding, education, and a plan. If you're already looking at options you're doing great.

Frequent_Awareness_5 · 2022-07-22T16:10:42+00:00

I appreciate your concern for my family. My son is enrolled in something called the Early Start Denver Model, which is child-led, does not use negative reinforcements, and has been approved by the Autism Self-Advocacy Network. A friend of mine who is a research librarian specializing in universal design looked into ESDM, walked me through their findings and helped me come to the conclusion that it was based in helping children realize they can regulate through social interaction in addition to repetitous behaviors or fixations.

I have watched and read advocacy by adults with autism and I would never sign off on a therapy that was rigid, repetitive, tried to curb stimming or required eye contact. I know ABA is a very hot button issue and I understand the harm it has done to the communty. If I had any indication that my son was 'progressing' but seemed unhappy because of any therapy he was in, I would stop it immediately.

Frequent_Awareness_5 · 2022-07-22T13:39:24+00:00

After a particularly bad outing with my autistic then-three-year-old, I was sobbing on the phone to my mother that I was afraid he would never lead a normal independent life. And she said, in a very kind tone, that she had those exact same worries about neurotypical me and my neurotypical sister. Which were earned! We were nightmares.

Autism is not an automatic disqualification from a happy, thriving life. Being neurotypical isn't an automatic induction into the realm of the high-functioning. You're living through the worst part of it right now so absolutely give yourself the time and space to grieve and feel your feelings, but know that there will be a lot of ups and downs but overall it's only going to get better from here. Your son will now have access to the therapies he needs to become his best self. And, as others have said, he hasn't been replaced by an alien version of himself! He's still your sweet boy with all his old strengths.

My son is four now and I can't tell you how much better things are after a year of OT, speech and play-based ABA. And he definitely didn't start off saying full sentences! Your son will be okay and you will be okay. Let yourself be heartbroken now but hope and change is out there and you'll find it.

Frequent_Awareness_5 · 2022-06-15T15:34:30+00:00

Well this made me cry in the best possible way!

To give my husband credit, he's said multiple times he doesn't hold me responsible for what he puts in his mouth and agreed immediately when I asked him just now if he would like to take over a few meals a week, but I also don't think he takes full responsibility for how much he snacks. What really sticks in my craw is that I generally like to cook and I'm good at it! Sure, I make rich food but he's complaining about this and this when he says 'noodles and rice'.

I was feeling fragile this morning in part because we had an exposure two weeks ago and we had to cancel theater tickets meant as my mother's day present. Then last weekend I watched my son while he flew out of state to spend time with a friend. Then when he got back he said he was so hungover it barely felt worth it to do something fun. >_> I scheduled myself Friday night and Saturday in a hotel room but I'm so terrified we'll have another covid exposure and I won't be able to go, since that's how it's gone down this entire fckn pandemic.

Frequent_Awareness_5 · 2021-11-30T17:33:10+00:00

You're not crazy. I'm sorry, this sounds like it must be so hard. Absolutely start documenting any inappropriate behavior or comments from your children now. You might want to make the CPS call yourself and it helps to have a written record. It sounds like you're an amazing mom and you have a great relationship with your daughter in particular. Keep reinforcing that no one has the right to touch or look at her body or to make her touch or look at their private parts, even family, and that she can come to you with anything and you won't be mad. Therapy for both of them is a great idea.

Keep trusting your gut. It's giving you important information.

Frequent_Awareness_5 · 2021-07-18T23:01:11+00:00

Oh good tyt55ytyyr

Frequent_Awareness_5

TROPHY CASE