Dear Abby 9-8

Andie J wrote:

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My niece, now 36, had to go home to an empty house beginning at age 6. When my sister married her current husband, my niece was about 11 or 12. She wasn't allowed in the house at all unless my sister was home from work, usually about 7PM. The idiot husband didn't work & didn't want the kid in the house. So she had to find somewhere to go for the hours between school & 7.

AngelaMN wrote:

TR, I've known moms who can't bear to hear bad news about kids even when their own kids were grown and out of the house.
Nick can't watch/read certain things. I filter out bad kid stuff ("Don't go to the Strib website today") and he does the same with animal stuff for me.

PEllen wrote:

<quoted text> Its harsh and it was wrong, but is it possible that the new husband did not want any accusations based on his being alone in the house with a pubescent girl 3 hours a day?

Terri at home wrote:

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Then he should not have married into the family. That's just idiotic to me.

Matilda77 wrote:

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I'm worse with animals than kids. I expect that'll change if I ever have a kid. I still cringe when anything bad happens to a kid, though.
Ugh, there was an obit in our local paper today for an 11 month old girl. Just found out she was the daughter of some co-workers' friends. She choked to death on a piece of popcorn.:-/
On a positive note, my co-worker's baby should be coming home from the hosptial today after almost 3 weeks in the NICU. It's still a waiting game to see if she's suffered brain damage, but she's alive and healthy otherwise. Yeah!

Jess in NJ wrote:

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I was left alone at 11 and getting paid to babysit at 12. I do think that, often, girls do mature a bit earlier than boys when it comes to things like that (both from what I have read and observed in the classrooms).
I am fortunate that my boys are very good at entertaining themselves, but I cannot imagine leaving Ry home by himself next year (he will be 5 in November). He is smart enough to know what to do in most cases, but not really capable of anticipating the consequences of his actions (grand scheme consequences - he can figure out immediate cause and effect consequences). Even most teenagers would panic if there was an emergency. There is no way I would put an elementary student in a situation where they are the primary decision maker for any longer than it takes to run out to the mailbox or go next door to borrow a cup of sugar.
This boy was the son of a former co-worker of mine. http://suburban.gmnews.com/news/2006-03-09/Fr...

AngelaMN wrote:

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My coworker's baby was in this week for a baby shower. One coworker quietly told me that the baby doesn't seem very alert/bright eyed for her age. I hope she's wrong, but in the photos I saw, it was just a blank look on the baby's face, in *every* photo. I know they don't smile at three weeks, but...
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WHen I was little, friends of the family lost a toddler who choked to death on a popped balloon. Now I"m kind of the balloon nazi.

AngelaMN wrote:

WHen I was little, friends of the family lost a toddler who choked to death on a popped balloon. Now I"m kind of the balloon nazi.

PEllen wrote:

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A few years ago, a baby partially suffocated on a balloon and was in the hospitals ICU, apparently brain dead. The father freaked with all the tubes and things, brought a gun into the ICU and did something to kill the baby. I can't remember if he shot the baby or just pulled the tubes or unplugged stuff and held the staff away with the gun.
I do not believe they charged him with anything. There was a lot of discussion about whether you can kill someone who is already brain dead.
There was a huge outcry against rubber balloons after that.

Jess in NJ wrote:

Ok, I need to share happy news. Remember my neighbor, T, who miscarried earlier this year and whose father-in-law died a few weeks ago (on the day that the baby was due to be born)? She just found out that she is pregnant again. They haven't told anyone else, except for her mother and sister, because they are waiting until she gets through the first 12 weeks.
She is 41 and they know that this might be their last chance to have another baby (their daughter is 2 months younger than Ry).

Jess in NJ wrote:

Ok, I need to share happy news. Remember my neighbor, T, who miscarried earlier this year and whose father-in-law died a few weeks ago (on the day that the baby was due to be born)? She just found out that she is pregnant again. They haven't told anyone else, except for her mother and sister, because they are waiting until she gets through the first 12 weeks.
She is 41 and they know that this might be their last chance to have another baby (their daughter is 2 months younger than Ry).