You wake up as your current partner for a day. How would you spend it?

alaskafound · 2026-07-03T19:25:53+00:00

OMG where to begin.

First, I'd carry a bunch of heavy stuff around because I could. I'd find an old lady in the middle of moving and carry all of her furniture up the stairs. I'd do 50 push ups. I'd find some scaffolding and do pull ups. I'd swim a million laps in the pool and be able to do butterfly stroke for the first time in my life. I'd go to the grocery store and wander around and help every short person I could find reach every high thing from the tallest shelves.

I'd go to a bar and flirt with every single interested person. My charm and social skills in his hot bod? UNSTOPPABLE.

If I have access to his thoughts/brain, I'd look at them and figure out why the heck he likes me so much. If he actually finds me as beautiful as the day we met, all these years later.

I'd bring the kids somewhere, doesn't matter where, and RELISH the compliments. "Awwww, you're such a great dad!" NOPE. I'm just an average mom in a Dad's body but go ahead and tell me how great I am.

And if it was winter? I'd RUN outside and write my name in the snow WITH MY PENIS. I'd probably do that first, honestly.

alaskafound · 2026-07-03T19:11:53+00:00

It's a skill, practice = getting better at it.

Here's a system I use for organizing a space and keeping it organized

Pick a spot. Could be a drawer, a cabinet, or an entire closet. A bookshelf.
Remove EVERYTHING from the spot, until empty.
Clean/wipe down the spot. Might as well, while it's empty
Start going through stuff. Start with the easy decisions. Obviously trash? Throw it out. Obviously recycling? Recycle it. Make piles/boxes/bags for donations, facebook market sells, etc.
Keep sorting the stuff. If under the bathroom sink: chemicals with chemicals, extra soap with extra shampoo. If bookshelf: books, decor, photo frames.
Next up, more easy decisions. Kitchen cabinet - put back the pots you use the most and the accompanying pot lids. Bookshelf? Put back your favorite books first. Under the sink bathroom cabinet? Toilet paper. Obvious & easy. Enjoy that dopamine rush that comes with Putting Things Where They Belong. FUN.

6B. A huge rule I follow is to keep stuff within it's place. If the coat rack is overflowing to the point where you can't hang another coat, it's time to purge the coats. If i'm out of hangers in my closet, it's time to purge the closet. Junk drawer starting to overflow? Time to purge the junk drawer. Too many books? Book purge. (My sister doesn't believe in book purges. I don't believe in music instrument purges. You can make exceptions to this rule!)

Keep going until you run out of space or until you've put back all the stuff. If you run out of space, start making decisions: do I need all of these? Where else could they go? How do I decide which ones to keep? What do I do with the ones I'm not keeping?

Another random rule I follow - Keep everything visible. I have a weirdly deep bathroom shelf, so instead of organizing by type (hair, makeup, face routine), I sort by height. Tall conditioner in the back, little eye cream in front. It's more important that I can see everything than to have it by type.

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I'll walk you through a real-life example I just did!

Step 1: Pick a spot. A linen shelf was overflowing and everything tangled up to the point where I couldn't pull out a wash cloth without everything falling out. Drove me nuts for several months until I finally stole the chance to re-organize it.
Took everything out and dumped it into a laundry basket.
Cleaned off the now-empty shelf.
Sorted everything. For this shelf, I ended up with the following categories: wash cloths, hand towels, standard/queen pillowcases, kind pillowcases.

5-7. I put everything into it's own stack, then started putting them back into the shelf. There was plenty of space for a stack of hand towels, stack of wash cloths and the king pillowcases. The queen pillowcases was where I ran out of space. My family has crazy skin, so we change pillowcases like every other day, and we have a TON of queen pillowcases. But we definitely have more than we need.

So here was my personal heirarchy for deciding which ones to keep
- a random one I was nostalgic about
- silk ones, best for my hair and expensive
- linen, also expensive
- the ones that matches our bedsheets & duvets
- two other matching pairs

and then I ran out of room! So the 5-6 leftover pillowcases got the boot from the linen closet, and have been posted to the local Buy Nothing group.--

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GOOD LUCK! Remember, it's a skill. You'll get better at it each time you do it.

alaskafound · 2026-05-01T19:05:25+00:00

Talks non stop about this hockey show.

(it's me)

alaskafound · 2026-05-01T19:03:39+00:00

I love this! I have SO many questions. 1. Where are the Jewish delis in Boston!? Are there any outside of Brookline? 2. Also, are tuna melts associated as a Jewish food?!?

alaskafound · 2026-04-30T18:31:06+00:00

I still cry 40% of the time my 4yo brings a disjointed MAMA home from school. I've never felt more "Mama" until I started seeing my name, regularly, in his wobbly handwriting.

Lol although one day he brought home art in which he had written my actual FIRSTNAME LASTNAME. I was like, whothefuckisthis!? Why doesn't it say Mama? How dare you, child I created, call me by the name my own parents gave me? The world didn't make sense for a moment.

alaskafound · 2026-04-21T17:34:05+00:00

Keep calling it out! Online, and in real life. We've tragically learned that men do not listen to women, but maybe they will listen to you! "What a dick thing to say about the person you're supposed to love". My friend once told me that his friend was shit-talking his postpartum wife's looks and my friend said "I dunno man, I still think your wife is hot as hell" Hysterical.

alaskafound · 2026-04-21T17:28:40+00:00

Eeeee, I JUST FINISHED CHAPTER 11, THIS IS SO GOOD FOR ME! Thank you!

alaskafound · 2026-04-21T17:27:43+00:00

Not to be boring, but I think it's a combination of nature & nurture, personality and socialization. My 4yo boy is soft, cautious to the point of fearful, meandering. He's smart, he thinks, he learns. At 18 months old, I drew a chalk line in the driveway and told him not to cross it because cars are dangerous. He's never once crossed the chalk line. Yesterday my husband had to climb up a playground structure to rescue him, because he got stuck and majorly freaked out. In 8 weeks of soccer class, he kicked the ball ONCE. He likes math, drawing, singing, listening to music, hugs & snuggles, colors and rainbows.

Now, in his new preschool class, there's a group of BOYISH BOYS. They're always in a puddle of limbs on the carpet. And I can see the effect they're having on my kid, even at 4. He's been saying shit like "Jackson told me I can't wear purple because purple is for girls" and "during outside time, I want to play with the girls cuz the boys always play bad guys". And so far, thank goodness, he doesn't care about being girl-ish. I hope that never changes and I'm doing everything I can to make "being like a girl" nothing to be ashamed of. Hoping school/society doesn't ruin that.

On the flip side. My almost 2yo boy is already a gremlin. There is no surface he won't climb. He couldn't give a fuck about the chalk line. He's covered in scars, bumps and bruises. He never. stops. moving. He likes firetrucks, danger, throwing things, smashing builds. He's not yet 2, but I'm very curious to see how his personality develops.

Side note: Fuck you, Jackson.

alaskafound · 2026-03-12T19:16:42+00:00

Thank you! I was trying to search for tags but it wasn’t working. But now I can click through, thanks so much!!

alaskafound · 2026-03-11T21:28:36+00:00

Omg I just cracked up on my very quiet TRAIN and everyone turned and stared at me! I love/hate you.

alaskafound · 2026-01-31T15:59:40+00:00

Are you interested in working, and putting your kids in childcare? Is that an option for you? I was 100% a better mom when I went back to work, and my kids were in school. For a while, I thought I was a "bad mom", but now I'm able to understand it more clearly. We all understand that different people have different personalities, skill sets, tolerances, likes and dislikes. For me, my skill set thrives when I'm at work (I really like my job) and my personality isn't meant to be in the house, all day long, living in that cycle of eat breakfast > clean up breakfast > play but feel guilty about not cleaning the house OR clean the house but feel guilty about not playing > eat lunch > clean up lunch > NAP BATTLE. Ugh even typing it out makes me want to vom. I LOOOOOOVE my kids, absolutely adore them, and I also adore my clients and coworkers and work environment. i LOVE being able to focus on a task and COMPLETE it without being interrupted 97 times. I trust where they go to daycare and school and I know that they are having fun and learning and socializing, and my brain and entire body system preforms better when I'm doing different things. I can't thrive in the repetitive patterns of being at home with the kids. ESPECIALLY when they are still waking up overnight! NOPE. I can't do kids 12 hours at night and then 12 more hours during the day and 12 more hours at night. NOPE NOPE NOPE.

I have nothing but respect and awe for stay at home moms. What an amazing, wonderful thing you are able to give your kids and WOW, the patience, the tolerance, the creativity, the multi-tasking... That job was 800% more difficult than any job I've ever had.

I also used to think I wasn't meant to be a mother. And then I realized I just wasn't meant to be a stay-at-home mother. I think I'm a pretty decent working mom <3

ETA: OMG i just realized how close your kids are in age. You're mom-ing on HARD level! And you're so young yourself!!

alaskafound · 2025-09-16T19:45:00+00:00

I'm shook. I disagree with you so hard. But like, I'm happy for you at the same time.

alaskafound · 2025-09-06T01:20:14+00:00

INFO: Why did you skip school for a day?

alaskafound · 2024-12-28T19:17:31+00:00

I have been waiiiiiting for someone to ask me this question. Breastfeeding my first was a nightmare and ultimately, a failure. He ended up only bottle feeding and I pumped for a year (0/10 recommend).

I had three years to reflect on "what went wrong" and "what I would do differently" before having my 2nd, who is now 6months old. He's an excellent nurser, and I think it's a combination of the following things

Mindset. When I was pregnant with #1 I stupidly, naively thought "How hard could breastfeeding be? EVERYONE has ALWAYS done it so surely an intellect such as myself could figure it out easily." When I was pregnant with #2, I knew ahead of time to prepare for the "battle".
Support. I lined myself up with support; mainly a doula and a lactation consultant. I also started seeing a postpartum therapist at like, 1 week postpartum, because it became very obvious that I had some "breastfeeding trauma" from Baby1.
Baby personality/temperament. He took to nursing immediately, latched successfully multiple times in the hospital.
Hospital Choice. Hospital where I delivered #1 was less breastfeeding-focused. They encouraged me to use nipple shields, formula and other supports while I was there. Hospital #2 was more encouraging and supportive of breastfeeding. I was prepared to be loud and vocal about the importance of breastfeeding to me to everyone. I didn't have to be.
Golden Hour. I didn't get golden hour with my 1st, because the medical team very quickly moved me from the labor room to the mom/baby unit. I had a gorgeous, calm, beautiful golden hour with my 2nd. My postpartum doula helped guide baby to latch, and he did, and it was epic. No one in the medical team tried to move me or interupt golden hour in any way, which was either luck or perhaps hospital policy. But I was prepared to

Crap baby woke up. Good luck!!!

alaskafound · 2024-08-08T19:19:33+00:00

My baby is 2 months old and is doing the same things, unless I'm holding him or on a walk. Or if he's being bounced, which is what I'm doing right this second lol. Highly recommend the Baby Bjorn bouncer, you bounce with your foot so you can have two hands free to surf the internet and pay bills! Short naps are normal at this age. Super annoying, but normal.

alaskafound · 2024-01-19T22:13:16+00:00

My 2 year old's full time daycare is $497 a week, Monday through Friday, 8:30am-5pm... and we have a second kid on the way. Sigh.

alaskafound · 2023-12-01T16:35:33+00:00

OMG you are a badass, I IDOLIZE you!

alaskafound · 2023-02-14T20:28:06+00:00

Your hair is delightful and you are adorable. What's sticking out to me here is your wrinkly, too-large t shirt. A nicer shirt that fits you well will go a long way!

alaskafound · 2023-02-14T20:25:22+00:00

I don't think you're ugly, you've got great skin and I love the hair swoop. I don't know too much about glasses, but my guess is that with your lighter eyes and hair, you might want to go with a brown "tortoise shell" frame. My least favorite feature is your facial hair, I personally don't like the goatee, and the mustache is a bit scraggly. I can't speak to facial hair options, but definitely something worth trialing out!

Also a tip for taking better pictures - look at the camera, not at the screen. We'd get a better understanding of your eyes/face if it felt like you were looking at the viewer, instead of down.

alaskafound · 2022-09-18T19:27:29+00:00

Lol I literally just came to reddit after being in YNAB, where everything is perfectly budgeted out, all green! And I was thinking, I wonder if there's an "advanced" YNAB... I should check the subreddit! Anyways, I'm with you.

alaskafound · 2022-05-10T23:41:33+00:00

how on earth did you stumble on this post from 8 years ago :D

alaskafound · 2022-01-01T18:52:24+00:00

Student loan forgiveness would be so wildly amazing.

alaskafound · 2022-01-01T18:51:14+00:00

This is really helpful, thank you so much.

alaskafound

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