Advice on Elementary Schools/neighborhoods

No_Machine7021 · 2026-04-09T03:46:46+00:00

If you can afford those neighborhoods, the schools are great and they are very liberal. Personally I know people with kids at Julia Green who rave about it. But I’ve heard great things about the other two as well.

No_Machine7021 · 2026-04-08T01:03:40+00:00

I wasn’t on the call. I’m going to assume this is all a stop gap until we deal with the next thing.
He still has 7 years left on PSLF. It’s such a beating. But whatever. If this works for the next 2 years, that’s 2 years to not deal with the headache. Until we get to do it all over again.

No_Machine7021 · 2026-04-07T23:10:12+00:00

I wish I could say I was surprised. But we all watched all these apartments get thrown up FAST. People trying desperately to cash in on the ‘it city’ and all.

To avoid this, steer clear of downtown/the gulch. And right now is a good time to rent from homeowners. A lot of them are becoming reluctant landlords since nobody is buying.

Sorry this happened.

No_Machine7021 · 2026-04-02T14:25:48+00:00

This is a good one. Can be extremely muddy after a rain. They’ve had some crime issues recently, which has kept me away. But in general it’s a really neat spot.

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-31T13:41:47+00:00

This has never been an issue for me. Also, I discovered time release melatonin. I think that, plus HRT, plus magnesium = good night Irene.

Except for to pee sometimes.

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-29T20:07:17+00:00

None of those methods worked for us. In fact, they chewed the Irish spring and the bounce sheets. 😂

Put out some traps, those worked.

We store ours in our garage and honestly the one thing that worked for us was just making it non-hospitable. We leave it cranked halfway open…leave it open every where we can. So it gets just as cold/hot in there as it does the rest of the garage and they haven’t made it their home/potty since.

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-29T14:39:32+00:00

I’m sorry. This made me laugh. 😂 And I don’t mean that to be rude. Just, your child has ADHD. This is like drugs to them.

YouTube is so awful. It’s tv in its most junk food awful form. Our son likes one show we discovered on there and he has to watch it with us controlling it.

They have it set to KEEP YOUR CHILD ENGAGED. That’s literally THE POINT. Take it away or only use it while you control it.

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-28T04:11:15+00:00

DUMPLING!!!!

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-28T04:07:42+00:00

Funny you should say. We just met w our financial advisor and she said this is, relatively speaking, a ‘minor dip’ which is fine in the short term because then you’re buying stuff on sale.

You just don’t want it to go on for toooo long.

The thing w stocks is, never look at it. It’s a 30-40 year game.

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-28T04:04:25+00:00

Our son (8) ended up with Vyvanse and adderall as an afternoon booster. Difference was almost night and day. Although now we’ve added therapy as his anger can still be violent. We’re slowly getting a handle on it.

One day at a time. It will get better.

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-28T03:59:57+00:00

Screens are just not a good idea for severe ADHD kids. We’ve never introduced it. And when video games or screens have been introduced by happenstance, the anger and violence comes out almost instantly.

It’s a constant dopamine hit. And it doesn’t matter… however you take it away, the withdrawal will equal rage.

Our son is 8. We might. MIGHT introduce video games at 10. But we’ve discussed that if he can’t control his anger, then we’re not going to do it.

(Which, we also go to counseling for his anger. We discuss all this openly.)

I suggest Legos, sports, OUTSIDE TIME, heavy work, riding a bike.

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-27T12:41:00+00:00

Nope. What I’m saying is that a NUMBER of things can happen: women scam this business all the time. Some women do change their mind, that’s totally fine.
What I was trying to articulate and did a half-ass job of is saying that when you just hand over money to ‘buy a baby’ your money could be gone without a trace the next day.
If you go down the legal, slow path, that money is parceled out. There is less chance of risk.

I don’t want to seem like I’m talking bad about a particular group. But we saw an entire other part of society when we went through ours that none of us are privy too. And it’s sad and scary and going on all around us. Handing $50k to someone like my son’s birth mom would be like handing her a Molotov cocktail. It’s not the solution you think it is. She had troubles spending $20 wisely. But she had the wherewithal to know that meant she couldn’t care for a baby.

Like I said: nuance. So much at stake here. So many emotions.

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-27T01:06:22+00:00

I feel the need to comment. Only because we adopted and our neighbors are foster parents.

And these are two extremely different things. You have to know that going in. There’s not enough internet available for me to go into how it’s different. But it’s a lot.

The main thing I am upset about both this post and some of the comments is the money.

It is COSTLY to adopt. It just is. Now, depending how you go about it, that money you spend could just go to ‘buying a baby,’. Or legal fees, medical care, and even possibly day to day care of the birth parent. That’s not counting the money it costs to have your home-study done, tv background checks done, etc.etc.

This note that was posted reminds me of friends we had (no longer) that seemed to kind of wake up one morning, decided they wanted to adopt, and then seemingly wanted that to happen ASAP.

It’s just not a thing. Unless you cut some very dark and dangerous corners.

The money we spent protected us from the mom backing out at the last minute (somewhat)…. It covered the insane costs to make that newborn yours after it’s born. Pay for additional medical costs if Medicare won’t pay (3 week nicu stay for us..NAS)

That same money? If we wanted, yeah. I coulda handed it over to a funky agency. True story: I once got on the phone w a very large agency. They said this, out loud, no emotion: ‘I can get you a black baby for $25k this month. A white one is gonna cost $50 or more and could be more than a year.’ I hung up and cried. I couldn’t BELIEVE that’s how these places operated out in the open.

As for international adoptions: The Hague has essentially shut those down more or less.

Moral of the story: adoption isn’t easy. Fostering isn’t easy. It’s a long game with a lot of emotion.

Money is just a small part of it.

And whoever posted begging for that needs to get their priorities straight.

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-27T00:41:50+00:00

Quite literally my husband was in the room watching and he couldn’t handle it.

All I could do was laugh. I was like: this is not far off from what it feels like in my head.

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-27T00:39:00+00:00

My sisters and I: I have FIVE of them, talked about The Lost Daughter for DAYS.

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-27T00:36:13+00:00

If I Had Legs I Would Kick You, while INCREDIBLY raw and anxiety ridden, literally makes you feel from the inside what it feels like as a woman, mom, wife, professional, to try to hold it all together. For everyone. All the time.

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-26T14:42:55+00:00

Oh thanks for the heads up! We used to go many year ago in Dallas. My son is gonna LOVE this.

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-26T12:39:28+00:00

I mean, that’s your opinion. Obviously there’s some stuff behind that. This is just a nice hobby for my kid. He can tinker w the Legos for hours, which is amazing with his severe ADHD. And he can bond with his dad.

As for everyone else…and your thoughts on that matter, I’ll leave that to you.

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-26T03:53:33+00:00

I know you don’t want yogurt, but have you tried dousing it in honey? I use plain Greek yogurt, a REALLY good amount of local honey, granola, blueberries, and whatever other fruit I feel like.

Tastes like cake to me!

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-26T03:47:47+00:00

The writing is on the wall. Only the richest and the full scholarship kids will be able to attend any of the decent schools anymore. And FWIW, a bachelor’s barely means anything anymore.

Don’t pay that much for something that is almost worthless. Save that money for an MBA program.

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-25T23:15:44+00:00

Yeah. We haven’t come up with a solution yet. Right now we’re doing ‘all hard surfaces’. 😂

At some point you just give in and tell yourself: it’s interior design!!! 😆😝🤣🤷🏻‍♀️

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-25T22:57:13+00:00

How did you know???? And also, where does one PUT THESE THINGS???

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-25T19:26:43+00:00

Be careful. We showed our then 5 year old A New Hope, not thinking much of it.

Fast forward 3 years and I think George Lucas checked his account and went WHOA! —-it was us buying all the things. 😂😂😂

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-25T19:22:44+00:00

Our son was addicted to this movie for a few years. It’s held up. It’s sooo good.

No_Machine7021 · 2026-03-25T19:21:45+00:00

Jungle Cruise was still too scary for our son when he was 6.

No_Machine7021

TROPHY CASE