AliDawn

My daughter will be turning nine this year, and although her birthday isn't until early summer she has decided what she wants to do for her birthday. Instead of having a traditional birthday party she would like to do something to help the environment. Does anyone have any ideas of something she could do with a group of friends around her age that would help the environment and could incorporate into a birthday? Thanks!

My cousin and her mother have been pressuring me for almost a year now to babysit her daughter (who is now two) five days a week. I am a stay-at-home mom (I have a daughter in school and a ten-month-old son) and even since I became one they've treated me like a selfish pig because they feel that since I'm staying home anyway I should be willing to babysit for free. I already have been keeping their older daughter after school since they started sending her home on the bus with my daughter without even asking me. She is only paying $15 per day for a babysitter right now, yet they are desperate enough to pay less that they have now offered to pay me a small amount and buy a few food items if I will watch the two-year-old. I don't want to even for pay, I have a home to take care of and my own child to take care of, I didn't become a SAHM so I could run a daycare. They got free daycare from my grandparents for awhile and consistently left her there 12+ hours per day because they like to run around and see friends and such after work--sometimes not coming home at all. Am I selfish for not wanting to babysit my cousin's kids?

My grandma is, unfortunately, quite gullible in her old age. She already fell for the Publisher's Clearing House scam--was on her way to get the green dot card or whatever and wouldn't listen to us when we finally had a local police officer call her to inform her it was a common scam.

Now I found out she has bought a couple things from websites--from links she receives via e-mail. I told her those are just spam ads and she needed to delete them without even opening them. One of the things she paid for she never got, but the other one was for some kind of skin cream that I believe she did receive--the website site apparently claimed the first order was free and she says she only had to pay shipping and handling, after that it showed a balance of $0.00 owed. She even read me the fine print. Now she has gotten a call from a foreign person saying she owes $139.00 for the skin cream and since she has refused to pay she will be turned over to their collections department.

Is there anything I can do to help her in this situation? I've already told her to change all her passwords and contact her credit card company about possibly bogus charges. Should she just ignore this guy's threats? Is there an agency or something this can be reported to?

My grandma is, unfortunately, quite gullible in her old age. She already fell for the Publisher's Clearing House scam--was on her way to get the green dot card or whatever and wouldn't listen to us when we finally had a local police officer call her to inform her it was a common scam.

Now I found out she has bought a couple things from websites--from links she receives via e-mail. I told her those are just spam ads and she needed to delete them without even opening them. One of the things she paid for she never got, but the other one was for some kind of skin cream that I believe she did receive--the website site apparently claimed the first order was free and she says she only had to pay shipping and handling, after that it showed a balance of $0.00 owed. She even read me the fine print. Now she has gotten a call from a foreign person saying she owes $139.00 for the skin cream and since she has refused to pay she will be turned over to their collections department.

Is there anything I can do to help her in this situation? I've already told her to change all her passwords and contact her credit card company about possibly bogus charges. Should she just ignore this guy's threats? Is there an agency or something this can be reported to?

I had a baby when I was 23, previous relationship. I am now 31 and have a four-month-old with my now-husband. This was a surprise baby, as hubby thought he was unable to have children due to failing to have children with his ex when they tried for a long time, and due to me having PCOS. I felt my biological clock ticking and I really wanted to have more children, was already saying I wanted more during my pregnancy, but then things changed.

Pregnancy was VERY hard on me the second time, I am still having back problems from it. Labor was SO much worse this time, although I still managed it naturally. It was extremely difficult and there were some complications, ending with my son having shoulder dystocia--which was terrifying, and I was told put me at risk for having that happen with future births.

I made a comment to my husband recently about one of us getting "fixed," but now he is saying he would like to have more children--a feeling I still *sort of* share, but a large part of me no longer wants to. I told him I don't know if I can do it again--I suffered through this pregnancy, and I don't know if I am physically up to the challenge again. Plus I will admit--I am scared, I'm scared about having problems again, I'm terrified of something going wrong during delivery again. Has anyone else felt this way before? Is it possible I can get over this fear and want more children again? I feel bad for my husband.

My son is 3 1/2 months old. He is my second child; with both I wasn't able to produce enough breast milk to sustain them (due to other medical issues), but I still breastfed my first as much as I could along with formula until she self-weaned at 5 1/2 months, and I am doing the same with my son.

My son more readily and more often wants the breast than my daughter ever did. He is a bigger eater than she was, and he also prefers to nurse for comfort--especially when he's ready to go to sleep. Now he is doing something I never had a problem with when my daughter was a baby: He has no teeth yet, but he is biting down on my nipples HARD with his gums, sometimes twisting and pulling, and it is excruciating! He doesn't do this when he's hungry, he has just started doing this when he wants to nurse for comfort. Is there anything I can do short of no longer letting him comfort nurse (I would really prefer not to deny him the breast for any reason if possible)? I just cannot stand the pain.

I was just reading some comments on a website referring to this being the last year for the "Wishes" fireworks show at Magic Kingdom, and that it will be replaced with a new show next year. I read that it was cast member confirmed and one person even claimed to have seen a preview of the new show and states that it's amazing and will bring tears to your eyes. Has anyone else heard this?? I can't seem to find a reputable source anywhere for this (maybe I'm just using the wrong search terms), but I'm gonna be totally bummed if this was the last year I get to see Wishes!

Just curious what people's predictions are. I've thought about staying at Art of Animation sometime in the next couple of years, and I actually e-mailed Disney and asked them this question--the response I got was that they hadn't decided how the transportation would work yet. It just seems to make sense that they would share buses between Art of Animation and Pop because they are back-to-back, and the three All-Stars share buses. I don't WANT that to happen, but I'm sure you could see how Disney might decide to do that.