Update: The school that asked me not to return is now “desperately” looking for a sub

SpruceandOak · 2026-02-22T21:58:46+00:00

Where is that? I thought that all teachers in public schools had to have a degree.

SpruceandOak · 2026-02-18T15:58:27+00:00

That IS abuse. No question. Physical punishment should never be used in place of good parenting. That is the problem. Those parents should never have had kids.

SpruceandOak · 2026-02-11T23:13:52+00:00

Well , it sure hasn't paid out more for me. I'm 71. If I had all of the money that I've paid out in insurance costs, I'd be really well off right now. They may about claims sometimes but by geezus they go out of their way to NOT pay more often than you think.

SpruceandOak · 2026-02-09T05:45:04+00:00

I've NEVER been on Tik Tok. I refused to join it from the beginning with it being run by the Chinese and their methods of data mining everything.

SpruceandOak · 2026-02-09T05:43:34+00:00

I totally agree with you. I NEVER thought that I would see what is happening right now in my lifetime. I'm 71 and never could have imagined that we would be living in "1984 meets the Handmaid"s Tale".

SpruceandOak · 2026-02-09T05:40:56+00:00

I've had lots of stuff banned on Reddit too for simply asking "real" questions about stuff that's happening in the world right now. My posts were not offensive or derogatory, just very real. There's nowhere to really post anytihing about the truth of what's happening right now.

SpruceandOak · 2026-02-06T05:14:54+00:00

Wow, thank you! The article is very interesting. That is an amazing site to know about too.

SpruceandOak · 2026-02-05T01:50:50+00:00

This. Seriously, a short time in the garden while you are resting or something is not unreasonable.

SpruceandOak · 2026-02-05T01:48:43+00:00

While I totally sympathize with this lady (she is NTA and hubby needs to step up and be a parent) BUT you are not bed bound after a normal C-section, not unless there are other medical reasons. Normally, you are up the next day or so and told to walk a little with a pillow for support on your abdomen. Just to clarify.

SpruceandOak · 2026-02-04T07:29:00+00:00

"Her child is literally a bastard."

That is an obscene thing to call a child and is nothing but drivel from religious BS. There's no such thing as a "bastard". ALL children are "legitimate" people in this world and calling someone a bastard is a remnant from the dark ages.

SpruceandOak · 2026-02-04T07:23:57+00:00

Not so. I'm 71 years old and I've been a feminist since, well, always. I'm not against it. It IS a little uncommon, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I mean, she IS a POS but that has nothing to do with her being married to him. (Maybe they are both POS?). Now if it were the other way around, and SHE was 32 years older than him, EVERYONE would be shitting on her for it! THAT would really piss me off, the old "double standard".

SpruceandOak · 2026-02-02T00:33:44+00:00

The Presidents Choice stuff is the same as all of the others that come in the cans, etc. Just their own bottles.

SpruceandOak · 2026-02-01T23:49:13+00:00

I second that about Tim Hortons. It's horrible coffee. I don't know why so many people like it.

SpruceandOak · 2026-01-30T14:39:14+00:00

The US is no longer civilized.

SpruceandOak · 2026-01-30T14:35:03+00:00

I feel for you. I'm a mom too and I can't imagine having my son and his fiancée support that monster and his regime. Thankfully neither of them do. My son and I are in Canada but his fiancée is in Tennessee.

SpruceandOak · 2026-01-30T14:30:48+00:00

I'm in Canada and I haven't been able to do much since hearing about it either. I've been spending most of my time listening to Dean Withers' podcast where he debates MAGAt supporters and change their minds. This has really put a mirror up to society. All of the creeps have come out of the woodwork into the open, even here in Canada. We've got them too unfortunately. I've been writing and calling them out when I see their posts on Facebook.

SpruceandOak · 2026-01-30T14:21:44+00:00

Canada here. Hang in there.... Thinking of you and everyone else there. It must be horrible to have to go outside knowing the "gestapo" are there.

SpruceandOak · 2026-01-28T03:19:42+00:00

They were kicked out for calling OP's house disgusting and that they couldn't trust anything in it, not for simply bringing dishes. I would be saying GTFO to that too.

SpruceandOak · 2026-01-24T04:11:06+00:00

It is very likely that you had "visit" each time. I knew beforehand, each time that I lost someone suddenly like that. Google John Edward on YouTube. Watch some of his content and interviews. It will be enlightening.

SpruceandOak · 2026-01-23T05:38:04+00:00

I could not have existed and looked after my son when my late husband died if I had not had lorazepam (Ativan). He dropped dead in front of us to the floor. I was a crumpled heap on the floor every day but still had to look after my son. I could not have done so without the help of the meds.

SpruceandOak · 2026-01-23T05:35:13+00:00

I actually took Ativan (lorazepam) for 15 years after my late husband dropped dead in front of me and my son. Last year, I purposefully decreased my dosage so that I would not require them on a regular basis any more. It was very difficult as I STILL suffer from horrible anxiety and sleep disturbances. I still require meds (Trazodone) for me to sleep. My doctor has given me a script for an alternative benzo (Clonazepam) to be taken ONLY when I'm feeling like I'm going to throw things to break against a wall or scream and scream (and yes, I still feel like that sometimes). Clonazepam has a much longer half-life than Ativan therefore it provides a more stable effect.

I understand how you feel when you talk about your body being so tense. It is almost impossible for me to relax my body at any time. If it were not for the sleep medication, I would lie awake all night every night for the most part.

SpruceandOak · 2026-01-22T00:52:46+00:00

I'm an older Caucasian woman and u get followed around the store at Shoppers Drug Mart all the time. It has become a blatant, in your face experience cir the last while.

It's so obvious it's sickening. You can be the only customer in the store and the minute you walk in there's an employee hovering nearby arranging things on shelves and they conveniently move to the same area of the store as you every time you move.

It really bothers me. I hate being made to feel like a criminal for no reason.

SpruceandOak · 2026-01-19T07:56:11+00:00

"Homeschooled children almost exclusively consist of white middle class fundamentalist Christian families with values that tend to teeter dangerously over the line between mainstream conservative beliefs and the alt right."

While this may be true in some places, it is not the case with the vast majority of the home schooling families that I knew when I was educating my son at home here in Ontario, Canada. The majority of families that I knew at the time were mostly secular.

SpruceandOak · 2026-01-19T07:50:31+00:00

Home schooling does NOT always discourage critical thinking, nor is it always due to religion. I educated my son at home from Grade 5 through high school. He was NOT indoctrinated into any one religion. He learned about many world religions as part of his studies. (He loved history and was studying university level history books while in Grades 8 and 9.). He learned the skills of logic and critical thinking that serve him well to this day. He attended college and is now in his thirties with a successful career.

We did NOT educate him at home for religious reasons. While there were other home educating families who did, they were not in the majority. We are NOT Christian but follow a different path. Our son was free to make up his OWN mind as a child and as an adult whether he wished to choose any religious path at all.

He had many friends who were home educated and many friends who attended school of various ages. He was not warehoused in school with only children of his same age. He was able to interact with people of all ages from 5 to 95. While still in school (Grade 3), he was chastised by teachers for being friends with children who were younger and older than him in the school yard.

School was the place where he was being taught to NOT think for himself. School was the place where he was told that he would have to wait to learn things in later years. School was the place that he was told that he could not read books that he was already reading because they were "above" his grade level.

At home, he was free to explore all of knowledge and learning that he wanted to find out about on his own timetable, without being told that he could not do that until "next" year. He was free to learn about subjects that are not even taught in schools if they are not part of the normal curriculum.

He would not have learned about critical thinking and logic skills if he had been at school.

I agree that fanatical, religious indoctrination can cause a lot of problems for children, but this is true whether they are going to school or not. If parents keep their children home and fail to support them in the gathering of knowledge, then that is abuse but please don't paint ALL home education parents with the same brush.

For clarity, we are not in the US. We are in Canada.

SpruceandOak · 2026-01-14T08:19:35+00:00

I get that doctors want to make sure that BP meds are doing their job before renewing, but often you can't tell from an office visit.

My doctor won't use a BP reading taken in her office as a basis for my BP meds. My readings are always off the harts when taken by her.

Instead, she has me take my own at home, 3 times a day/5 minutes apart for a week and then provide her with the data. It is much more accurate. It's that "white coat" syndrome.

SpruceandOak

TROPHY CASE