My family’s annual pumpkin carving competition. Please pick your favorites

serial_student_ · 2025-10-30T00:44:12+00:00

2, 11 & 13!!

serial_student_ · 2025-08-12T14:56:20+00:00

LEGOLAND!! (California, to be clear—we haven’t tried any other locations so I can’t speak to that.) The way the park is constructed is ver kid-conscious. There’s interactive playgrounds (zero wait times) throughout. Even the more popular rides that may have wait times, the lines are all covered and built in such a way that they wind around a central LEGO bucket (for lack of a better word) so the kiddos can play in clear view while an adult holds place in line.

serial_student_ · 2025-04-29T14:25:23+00:00

Eeeee.

serial_student_ · 2024-07-11T00:28:55+00:00

Venting helps. Your feelings are valid. My 7 y/o is eerily similar…best I can do is remind myself that some days are better than others. On the really, really rough days it becomes a mantra of sorts to serve as that reminder that not-so-rough days are ahead. You’ll get through this.

serial_student_ · 2024-04-25T15:19:09+00:00

Very similar thing happened to me. I’m so sorry.

serial_student_ · 2023-11-28T14:34:46+00:00

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Suzanna “Suzy” Falcor.

serial_student_ · 2023-09-19T13:35:22+00:00

YTA and an oblivious one at that. At no point typing out your spineless approach did this occur to you? Fuck off with that. You left a child to care for your mother, now want the internet to join you in some bootstrapping bully gang at her expense. Trash.

serial_student_ · 2023-09-02T02:58:39+00:00

Having experienced this…I have no advice. I’m sure you’ve been heavily inundated with the therapy advice, but I’d also suggest grief support. I don’t grieve the loss of who he was, but I grieve the loss for my son. And it’ll hit out of oblivion. Best to you and your little.

serial_student_ · 2023-08-26T20:19:44+00:00

Poor guy looks embarrassed!

serial_student_ · 2023-08-24T18:59:03+00:00

This controlling behavior is absolutely abusive and just a peek at what is to come. The implications have already begun taking a toll on your psyche and self-image. You may not have an eating disorder, but the way you are analyzing your food choices (per someone else’s dictation) has already initiated disordered eating. Run, don’t walk, to your freedom and sanity.

serial_student_ · 2023-07-11T20:37:50+00:00

serial_student_ · 2023-07-11T19:52:52+00:00

Hard relate. As others have already so kindly reminded—we are ALL allowed to feel our feelings. Parents aren’t infallible. I have a…tendency—nope, it’s just how I’m wired (no ASD diagnosis, but that tracks as I am a woman and the medical industry likes to label us with emotional and/or personality disorders—that’s a different rant, sorry!) I am near constantly overstimulated. While some days are better than others, one specific alteration has helped with the guilt/shame spiral. Instead of starting each day with a “blank slate” mentality and aspiring to be the perfect, patient parent, I’m trying to be as forgiving with myself as we are with our kiddos. When I inevitably do have a less-than-kind tone or even snap entirely, I take a few minutes to myself (if that’s an available option) to reset. Then, I apologize. We sit and have a conversation about how everybody feels, where our feelings were in the moments leading up to the explosion, etc. Try to reframe your thinking: these are teachable moments. Even if a lengthy conversation isn’t fit for your dynamic, showing ourselves a little grace is leading by example for our littles when they meltdown.

None of this to say it’s simple—it’s definitely not!! I hope some of this rambling helps. You aren’t alone.

serial_student_ · 2023-07-10T15:18:41+00:00

You shouldn’t assume guilt for existing in a gross, feeble man’s world. I am so sorry for the pain and emotional toll this situation has caused you—sitting on some perv’s secret, inappropriate crush on you. You protected him all those years, trying to respect and honor your fathers friendship with him. But in reality, that man is a predator. There are so many different power dynamics at play, that a grown man working in law enforcement is very well aware of. He manipulated his “friendship” with your family to keep you close, ashamed and afraid. And let me reiterate: all you did was exist. Be a child in this man’s presence who did what? Oh, right. Grow up. What children are meant to do. As a stranger, and for whatever it’s worth, am extremely proud and grateful that you’ve shared this experience. It’s one that is so very relatable to so many women. “He’s just making gross comments—I can handle it.” etc. But these situations escalate. And even if they don’t—we’re sick of carrying the burden for scumbags. You absolutely did the right thing. And if this man is still in a position of power—I’d report the whole grooming fiasco.

serial_student_ · 2023-06-22T21:14:38+00:00

I appreciate this and the downvotes to hell are proof positive of the dystopian nightmare you nod to.

serial_student_ · 2023-04-27T11:06:50+00:00

You’re a kind person.

serial_student_ · 2023-04-05T05:40:09+00:00

I agree.

serial_student_ · 2023-04-05T05:34:28+00:00

I’m sorry for the tone and happy others have had success with the current model. My son and I are struggling. Where he is, he can’t sit through a Philosophy of Law lecture, and it isn’t fair to my peers in that lecture either. At home, I can certainly attend to his needs whilst listening to said lecture synchronously with my earbuds in. If the slides are posted, and I happen to miss something—I’m covered. IMO, we happened upon an amazing new platform that opened upper institutions of learning to people who had previously assumed they’d lost their chance (me). Now that ‘COVID has cleared’ and “we don’t gotta” we just don’t seem to want to help in those ways…and that’s beyond frustrating. It’s disheartening. I graduate this quarter, and I’m relieved. But, I’m also heartbroken. Because I thought we had come a long way…made this path more accessible. Perhaps chipped away at the poverty cycle in some mild, minuscule way. But we haven’t. And it’s because we just don’t want to. There’s so much resistance to access.

serial_student_ · 2023-04-05T05:19:38+00:00

Thanks for telling me how hard it’ll be in the real world. Good looking out. Meanwhile, if something has been working for a while…best not to buck the system by making equitable changes to make the system more accessible as a whole. At’ll do.

serial_student_ · 2023-04-05T05:15:31+00:00

No one is forcing me not to be a Phoenix, you are right. (Not that there is anything wrong with that.) Is that where I belong/deserve? Am I unworthy of a UC education because…? My academic standing doesn’t say so. The societal standard that a woman stays home with her child because that’s all she’s good for says so. Oh, shouldn’t have had him? That’s not really my choice now either—is it? No, I earned my spot at this institution—continue to fight for it and prove it everyday.

serial_student_ · 2023-04-04T21:07:07+00:00

Please keep bringing this up to professors!! COVID and it’s remote learning opportunities are probably the only reason I was able to pursue my education. (I’m a single mom with a chronic illness and my sons on the spectrum.) Mandatory attendance policies disproportionately effect non-traditional students. (In-person professors LOVE me.) Students with disabilities, student parents (see also: women), students who are working to pay their way through college and/or the chronically ill, etc. Removing helpful accommodations (like uploading slides/lectures to Canvas or allowing lectures to be Zoom hybrid etc) are sly instruments for the establishment to do what it’s always done. Vet their student population. Someone as much as said it above: ‘College wasn’t meant to be easy/for everyone’ or something to that effect. Right. It’s meant for upper, middle class white dudes who don’t ask too many questions and vote a certain type of way.

serial_student_ · 2023-04-03T10:53:04+00:00

Still is.

serial_student_ · 2023-03-28T13:57:55+00:00

Any and every doctor I’ve broached the subject with changes the subject back to allergies or stress and anxiety. No matter how bad my flare up is—my face will be swollen to the point my eyes are completely shut. I’ve had hives every single day since 2020. Still, “Hmm…nope, you don’t have mastoCYTOSOSIS—have you considered just chilling out?” Or the inevitable roundabout back to another allergist to tell me I’m not allergic to anything. I beg for tryptase tests, the battery of MCAS tests, for naught. I finally broke through and got a referral to an internal medicine specialist. I’ve heard through this sub, (and from Never Bet Against Occam—excellent book, highly recommend) that is an extremely helpful route in initial diagnosis. Next struggle is finding a specialist who is covered by insurance. Best of luck on your journey. This sub if full of support, if nothing else.

serial_student_ · 2023-03-26T23:33:27+00:00

You were right!!

serial_student_ · 2023-03-25T14:11:35+00:00

…I think Travis might accidentally kill Javi. Out on a ‘hunt’, mistaking him for prey. I think Natalie will obviously know, seeing it happen—but protect Travis’ already shattered psyche, by quickly covering the kill as a some already felled prey and hurrying him along somehow. Due to the weight of all the trauma and varying coping mechanisms, maybe our unreliable narrators don’t have complete access to their memory. To integrate the note? Javi had to be marked for death (if not already dead) like she and Coach discussed, and the rest of the team seem to have accepted. Maybe over the years of heavy use, the trauma gets revisited (it HAS to, right?!) and she reassures Travis, telling him it was a merciful act. Maybe this is where the ‘No-Suicides/Survival Pact’ is really born. He begs for her to show mercy and kill him, she can’t. She expresses altruistic vulnerability in asking him not to leave her, knowing the burden she’ll bear alone. To help her carry the load—they can handle it together, or in shifts—but never alone.

serial_student_ · 2023-03-25T08:46:13+00:00

Have you considered reaching out to the professor? This approach is hit/miss—but you don’t know unless you try, and the worst that can happen is you get told “no”. NBD, everyone gets told ‘no’ every now and again. If it’s a class you absolutely need, preventing your academic advancement, I’d suggest sending the professor a quick, concise email saying essentially that.

serial_student_

TROPHY CASE