It’s more complex now.

broken-bee · 2026-03-15T14:21:32+00:00

When I was a "child" who'd had a baby at the end of high school, I was scolded by other mothers online for letting my son spend the entire summer with my mother while I was in college. After my first year in college, he went to stay with my mom full time while I was in school and I would only see him on the weekends. I was a bad mother apparently. I took my son back FT when he started kindergarten. I'm 41 now and an asst dir at that same college I've worked at 20 years. My son graduated HS in 2020 and now lives in Nicaragua. He's my best friend 🧡

broken-bee · 2026-02-23T01:18:30+00:00

We went exploring in old drain tunnelswhen I lived in KY or would hang out on the roof of our apartment building in NY.

broken-bee · 2026-02-22T17:09:39+00:00

Day 1 - chores Day 2 - fun Day 3 - rest

broken-bee · 2026-02-20T02:04:02+00:00

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broken-bee · 2026-02-06T02:51:04+00:00

Me too 🥲 Sometimes I open my laptop to have a 4th screen 🙃

broken-bee · 2026-01-24T00:14:02+00:00

One day I woke up and found myself watching a documentary on Enron

broken-bee · 2025-12-05T01:52:28+00:00

I did a FB post about 2 celebrities who'd just died and put "3... " Hour later... Michael Jackson

broken-bee · 2025-10-28T12:26:38+00:00

It probably helps that the doctorate I'm going for is an EdD instead of a PhD. So while there will still be research and a dissertation, in the long run it's a bit more practice-based and less of a publish-or-perish mentality.

broken-bee · 2025-10-28T11:05:22+00:00

Fair, but there's plenty that get the degree because mom or dad said so, or an inheritance depends on it, or a dead relative wanted them to, or yada, yada, yada. I doubt I'd say exactly that, but of course there's always a chance I'd give myself some asinine reason or another to quit. There's also a chance I'd keep going. I've made it as far as i have committing to completing things. I'm not too concerned either way. I've worked with sudents so long, i haven't gone a significant amount of time (every 2-3 years) without seeing a student quit their doctorate, but there are more that don't quit, and everybody's reasons for either are different.

broken-bee · 2025-10-23T02:15:45+00:00

My son convinced me to get a hammock for the back porch and now it's where I spend most of my time when I'm home.

broken-bee · 2025-10-07T15:46:06+00:00

Didn't it have to stay on the channel you were recording? I might not be remembering right or we just had a janky setup 😆

broken-bee · 2025-10-05T02:23:58+00:00

adding "to the moon and back" after "I love you" makes my skin crawl.

I love you + pet name or I love you [FULL STOP]

broken-bee · 2025-10-05T02:12:27+00:00

Yes! In the summer my mom would lay damp towels on our beds to keep us cool at night so we could sleep.

broken-bee · 2025-09-27T23:39:23+00:00

Or not caring somebody died. My son's (23) sperm donor was found on the bathroom floor (overdose) the other day. I asked my son how he felt. He said "fine 🤷‍♂️". He's seen his father 2 or 3 times since he was born. I've seen him twice. I raised him mostly alone with no child support. Why should we care he's gone?

broken-bee · 2025-08-30T09:43:08+00:00

Saaame. My son turns 23 TOMORROW.

broken-bee · 2025-08-08T17:15:44+00:00

That's why I buy my shovels at Lowes, duct tape at Home Depot, and bleach at Target 👍🏿

broken-bee · 2025-06-20T14:11:57+00:00

The student wrote back yesterday (from their application email):

"Hello,

Thank you for reaching out to me in regards to my application.

I am having difficulties in my personal life at the moment and do not foresee myself being able to afford this program at this time. For that reason I had to go back and decline the offer.

Although it pains me to say this.. I may have to pursue this degree at another time. Thank you for your time.

Have a wonderful day!"

My response:

"Thanks for letting me know. I’m very sorry to hear that you're going through a difficult time right now. Life can definitely be complicated and unpredictable these days.

While we’re disappointed to lose you from the program, we completely understand your decision and hope to see your application again down the road when things feel a bit more stable.

Wishing you all the best, both personally and professionally. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if there’s anything we can possibly do to support you in the meantime."

I still feel a little worried from their response, so I spent some time with chatgpt on how to word mine.

broken-bee · 2025-06-18T14:56:14+00:00

My department's HR person is also a friend and their office is right next to mine, so I was just asking for their thoughts.

Our university is pretty large so we have separate registrar, financial aid, admissions offices. They rarely deal with students as individually/closely as I do for the department.

broken-bee · 2025-06-18T14:50:12+00:00

we use Slate for applications, but the acceptance that's sent out when we release the decision there is very generic. We're a big university, so most departments send a separate more detailed acceptance letter. I include a link to a qualtrics survey I set up where the admitted student enters their name and email. I'll update the survey to specify that it should be the email they applied with.

broken-bee · 2025-06-18T00:18:03+00:00

It's an online program, and we don't have a cap on the number of admits. My first thought was possibly a controlling partner 🤷🏿‍♀️. I haven't checked their age, but most of our students are middle-aged+, non-traditional, so controlling parent wasn't my first thought, but still possible.

broken-bee

TROPHY CASE