Organizing Thursday: Triangle Pendant Scarf Organizer

Spinoff of the car seat thread. For those who are trained as mandatory reporters, what kind of discretion are you supposed to exercise when deciding what’s reportable? Hypothetical: A kid has a scratch. Day care worker asks how they got it. Kid says mom did it. What factors do you consider when deciding whether it needs to be reported?

Would you travel to a state for vacation while pregnant (20-28 weeks range) that is unfavorable to women’s health and/or tough, really tough, abortion stances? Assume there’s nothing else remarkable about the pregnancy.

Leave the, “I wouldn’t want to contribute to an economy that takes that stance” out of it for the moment. Just from a sheer medical perspective.

It’s not something I’d considered before. We did a babymoon before my first to a foreign country that, upon further review far after the fact, wasn’t all that favorable and honestly probably didn’t have the medical professionals to assist in a true, dire emergency, but this line of thinking neverrr crossed our minds. We were only watching out for Zika tbh. We’re torn on what to do with #2. It would be ideal to travel with our 5 year old to Florida, South Carolina or some other southern, warm state that we’ve otherwise typically frequented for a 4-5 day trip (would be by air).

Further, 100% of my in-laws are in GA and AL and expect a visit while we can prebaby. So I suppose the same question applies to those trips.

Advice? Commiseration? My marriage with my husband has always been rocky — he’s just not an easy person to run a family with — something I clearly did not weigh enough before signing on for this lifetime project. We did counseling in the past, things got good for a long stretch and then rocky once more. Years later we’re now in counseling again and I find myself wary. How long do I give it? How much can he change? I feel like I owe my two young kids to give it shot but what does giving it a shot look like? How long? How much effort? He swears changing is the most important thing to him etc., but don’t they all? Our counselor is fantastic but I’m skeptical on this huge change thing.

There seems to be at least one (maybe multiple??) families at my kids’ daycare who are not putting their kids in car seats. Apparently parents noticed and complained to the day care, who sent out an email a month ago. At pickup yesterday, my husband parked next to one of the offenders and supposedly my son noticed and was shocked over it. Thinking about it, I’m not sure what I would do if I witnessed that. Maybe knock on their window and offer to buy them one, though I’m pretty sure these people can afford one. What would you do or say, if anything?

We are considering a move to another city/state for a job opportunity. We have a kid in daycare and one in 2nd. I don’t think it’d be a big deal for the younger one but the 2nd grader is very emotional/dramatic and I’m worried about how she’d take it. She loves her school, neighbors, and friends. Any advice on how others who have made this move have helped their kids through it? A potential complication is that we aren’t sure that we’d be able to move in time for the new school year. Would it be a huge mistake to move her half way through the year?

Ugh — about a month ago, we were at my parent’s house, and my daughter lost her most special blanket while there. My parents live on a 30 acre farm with a creek and lots of hiding places in the forest. We are sure it was lost at the house and have turned the inside of the home (which isn’t very large) upside down, so we are at this point pretty confident that she had it outside, put it down to run off with the other kids, forgot it, and it was left outside somewhere (this is consistent with past behavior).

I feel a tremendous sense of loss and guilt that I’m struggling to manage — she still asks for it and cries regularly that she misses it. She also is our third child, and I have carefully tucked away her big brothers’ lovies in keepsake boxes with the outfits they came home from the hospital wearing. We give everything away as soon as they outgrow it bc we don’t have room to store stuff, so these boxes are really all they will have in terms of mementos from their childhood. We have also carried all three lovies across continents and on numerous camping trips, and then lost this one in a familiar place totally randomly. I also hate that hers both feels gone forever, but also there is still a chance we find it.

At this point, we have exhausted the likely places it would have been left outside – so it has either been carried off by an animal (unlikely) or washed down the stream after a big rain (possible) or just put down where it absolutely blends into the leaves/dead grass (the dang blanket is as small as a washcloth and the exact color of dead grass or leaves), which is most likely. My parent’s house is my special place, but I feel like if I just look “one more time” at the creek or in the woods, I’ll find it – so I’m constantly walking the property looking for it. In some ways, I wish we had the finality of never going back because I feel tremendous hope whenever we go out there and then sadness when we – again – crisscross the property and it remains missing. I also feel guilt b/c the night she lost it was a total random rush trip out there – my husband didn’t want to go because we had to rush back to our house that evening. Typically I’d check to make sure she had this blanket when she came in from outside, but we were in such a rush, I didn’t think to check. I guess I’m not sure what I’m looking for here, but just ugh, I feel like I let her down. I’ve got some sadness from other stuff going on in my life that I’m sure I’m channeling into this, but any tips to help me manage this? We are headed out there for the long weekend, and I’d like to enjoy my family – not be hyperfocused on finding this little guy.