It's time to leave

Talk about favoritism

"I only went on this trip to spend time with my family who I rarely see."

This was bound to happen

When you're staying at someone's house , you don't get much say in what they do with their space. They're doing you a huge favor, so you don't get to chime in about what they're doing or not doing. You're a guest in their space, and what they say goes. You may not love that Urban Outfitters tapestry they have hanging in their living room, but it's not your living room. You might hate the fact that they only keep one-ply toilet paper in their bathroom, but it's not your bathroom. And you might n…

He's got to learn

Everyone needs rest, it's a non-negotiable . You need time to sleep, absolutely. That's a given. But you also need time to rest your mind from work. You need days where nobody outside of your family asks anything of you, and you can just spend time doing things you enjoy doing. Perhaps you're into needlepoint, or perhaps you're in a flag football league. Whatever it is, you need unstructured time to feed those parts of yourself. And work isn't allowed to swoop in and take that away from you. Th…

This rule feels targeted

So unacceptable.

Favoritism is not something you want to get accused of as a parent. If you have more than one kid, you should do your best to love them and support them equally, since they're all your kids. And it's just a good example to set for them. But it's also incredibly common that parenting styles change from kid to kid. When you're on your first kid, everything is new and untested, and you have basically no idea what you're doing. By the time the second kid rolls around you're more of an expert, you'v…

"Now sister in law can only use the place if she gets confirmation that none of us will be there, so basically never. She’s still freaking out..."

Good for her

An obvious ploy

What's the magic word?

She's got a point, but the delivery is off

The self-esteem of a 14-year-old girl is always in flux , and usually in a bad way. It's around the age when you start developing insecurities about what you look like since your body is changing and the attention you get is changing along with it. You become more aware of your clothing choices, the way you wear your hair, and how others perceive you. And those insecurities can be very hard to shake, even into adulthood. What happens to us as children can shape who we become as adults, and if t…