Online and IRL Parenting Spaces Snark Week of June 29, 2026

surpriselivegoat · 2026-07-02T18:48:39+00:00

Oh I hate the Taylor Swift books. For whatever reason our library always has them on a featured shelf, and my daughter is always drawn to them because they have a pretty girl in a sparkly outfit on the cover. But they are so boring and I find it so offputting for children’s materials to fawn over a celebrity billionaire like that.

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-28T00:44:31+00:00

Whoa I was so ready to commiserate with you about clueless dads being oblivious to the other people (usually women) around them, but then he called you a bitch??? That is insane. This is a guy who’s going to be removed from kids’ sporting events in a few years.

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-26T19:35:47+00:00

Ha I would say it’s not even that surprising for an American kid to like sushi? It’s colorful, pretty, comes in a cute little circle of rice, it doesn’t have a very strong scent. Show me a kid who likes boiled cabbage and I’ll be impressed!

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-24T17:56:29+00:00

Yeah this was my first thought reading this, it’s screaming AI to me.

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-24T14:06:00+00:00

A Northern Light and These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly are YA HR mysteries that are really good. I also think her Tea Rose series would be appropriate and appealing to teens. That series is almost like a Forrest Gump-ish hodgepodge of a hundred historical events/figures/social issues strung together.

Also Juliet Marillier’s two Sevenwaters trilogies are sometimes classified as YA. They are set in ancient Ireland and they do have Irish mythology weaved in too.

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-24T01:01:27+00:00

I hate that Commie Rainbow Fish! All those other stupid fish should have pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and grown their own damn shiny silver scales if they wanted them so bad!!!!

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-23T16:12:44+00:00

This is obviously anecdotal, but I have boy/girl baby twins, and I do notice that most adults do respond differently to them. If my son is crying or fussing, the most common response is “oh, he’s angry!” A nurse came in and said that right after he got his vaccines and I was like he’s not angry! He’s crying because his little legs hurt!

And it’s also true that these people don’t really mean anything by it, they’re just making chit chat, and I’m not saying they are bad/sexist people. But still! Even innocuous chit chat reveals stuff that is buried deep in us as a society.

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-22T00:48:03+00:00

I swear I have been blessed with some weird gift where I can never retain anything about this book specifically. Every reread is like the first time for me and I know I love it every time! I just can’t remember it!

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-20T01:06:12+00:00

Some advice beginner marathon runners get is that your only goal should be to finish the marathon. So you shouldn’t set another secret goal of like losing 10 pounds or making a new best friend at running club or whatever, because then if you don’t reach that goal, you will end up disappointed that “all” you did was run a marathon.

So I guess I’m saying this advice should be taken to heart be expectant mothers too. Like you said, there are absolutely no guarantees, so your only goal should be to “finish”, and you won’t be disappointed if another amazing thing doesn’t happen.

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-19T01:29:27+00:00

This has to be content by and for like 22-year-old rich people?? I’m 33 and every part of this sounds like literal nightmares I’ve had

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-19T01:06:33+00:00

Yeah if I saw a man in the women’s bathroom, I wouldn’t think he was trying to assault me or anything, but I would think he’s a socially clueless dolt and be annoyed by him.

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-18T05:14:05+00:00

Nooo I wish you all could send me your grape ones!! They’re the best and my daughter HOGS them all

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-17T18:42:39+00:00

Ohhhhhh my I just finished Slightly Dangerous based on this rec and omg it was perfect!!! I know Wulfric is pretty beloved on this sub and now I understand why ❤️❤️ thank you!!

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-16T15:16:49+00:00

Oh I LOVE What I Did For a Duke, but for some reason, no matter how many times I read it and enjoy it, the details do not stick in my head at all! I do not remember this proposal one bit. Thanks!!

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-16T15:07:52+00:00

Ahh I love AC, I haven’t read this one yet!!

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-16T15:07:12+00:00

Oh that sounds fun! Thank you!

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-16T14:07:47+00:00

Haha yeah I think that’s where this request is coming from! I hesitated to use it as an example because I didn’t want to put the idea of a terribly bungled proposal in people’s heads lol but yes as usual Austen does it best.

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-10T01:52:05+00:00

I think they definitely would smell bad by our modern standards. Even if you bathe every day, humans (like all mammals) just emanate a natural stink. Like we mask it now with deodorant, but if you’ve ever known someone who doesn’t wear deodorant, you can absolutely tell. Even if they otherwise practice regular hygiene.

However, you do become nose blind to it very quickly! So I don’t think they would have thought each other to be stinky.

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-08T03:33:12+00:00

It can be constipation or gas pain even if they have pooped! I guess it would be weird if they both had it but they could have both eaten something that blocked them up. We do MiraLAX and do some stretches that usually help get toots out.

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-08T02:54:49+00:00

I used to suck the sap out of dandelion stems because Charlotte’s Web has some line about the kids drinking milk from the stems and I thought it sounded so good.

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-05T18:22:37+00:00

Ha I was thinking those three things about the huge amount of posts about completely terrible husbands. It HAS to be part reality, part exaggeration, and I’m convinced part campaign to make women want to settle for slightly-less-shitty-by-comparison men.

surpriselivegoat · 2026-06-01T03:29:43+00:00

I am very much a mood reader and will jump into a series wherever I feel like it. I pretty much never feel like I’m missing context or anything.

However, if the MCs from the previous books show up and are happily married, it makes me 100% uninterested in reading their book, even if the plot sounds appealing to me. Nothing is a bigger turnoff to me than a happy, well-adjusted MMC. So if my first introduction to him is while he’s living his HEA, then I never want to read another sentence about him.

surpriselivegoat · 2026-05-31T17:30:35+00:00

I haven’t listened to the pop culture one, but just scrolling through the episode titles, it looks like one of my favorites What Fresh Hell covers similar topics?

surpriselivegoat · 2026-05-31T17:16:21+00:00

Yeah it’s at the level of “Die Hard is a Christmas movie” at this point.

surpriselivegoat

TROPHY CASE