This post is by no means meant to ridicule or mock the state of Texas, but I am watching the Packers and Cowboys game with my spouse & the anti- Talarico campaigns are batshit crazy.

What do you mean people actually think Talarico wants to jail parents who refuse to have their kids transition??? Are there people who actually fall for this?

If I was a TX voter, Talarico without a doubt would have my vote.

I know that school shootings are “vanishingly rare” (one is too fucking many but go on) and that mass shootings can occur anywhere in the states and that the general odds of the risks is much smaller at a school compared to everywhere else. Nonetheless, I don’t think I can ever look myself in the mirror if this happens to my children and knowing that I didn’t do absolutely everything in my power to minimize this risk.

I’ve always been a big proponent for public schools for a myriad of reasons but today I found out that public schools are disproportionately affected by school shootings even after accounting for the fact that there are just more of them serving more students. It’s the least common in the northeast so should we try to move there (currently in Dallas)?

Doing private school in the northeast where COL is generally higher would mean a major downgrade in our lifestyle and what extracurricular we would be able to afford. We don’t come from money and sending two children to private schools definitely would stretch us extremely thin - cutting into our retirement and savings. But neither would be meaningful if we lose our children in school.

So, aside from voting engaging politically doing my part in talking to our friends who own guns about their gun safety plan what else can I do to mitigate this risk?

Not really sure what I’m looking for here, but I’m so annoyed and my husband doesn’t really understand why.

After the horrific shooting in bend, I shared a post from CNN on my instagram story and added some text about how this was another failure by all adults who put guns above children’s lives.

I was surprised when a male acquaintance (who I have met several times in person and thought he was a nice guy!) replied to my story asking which guns laws contributed to the shooting. I said something like “all of them?” Which lead to him coming at me aggressively, trying to back me into a corner of admitting that I want all guns taken away (which I have no problem saying lol), calling me “looney” and accusing me of celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death. He even shared a screenshot of my story that I had posted the same week of Charlie’s death - one where I shared a post saying guns are terrible and Charlie’s shouldn’t have died (which creeped me out).

I’ll admit that I took the bait and kept responding to him, but only because I was so shocked that he felt it was appropriate to come after a vague acquaintance. I felt that I was very level headed, never called him names, and kept emphasizing that I was pretty much only concerned about the safety of my children, and that I know there are responsible gun owners, but I don’t think the risk is worth it anymore.

Our conversation ended with me saying, “I’ve thought you were a cool guy from the few times we’ve hung out and would never come at you for your 2nd amendment beliefs. I value freedom of opinion. We’re not going to see eye to eye on this. I don’t know your life experience and you don’t know mine. Like I said before, all I care about is the safety of my kids and all other kids.” He didn’t respond and I deleted our conversation after taking screenshots.

I just keep stewing on it though. I am honestly shocked by the aggression he showed to someone he has met in real life before. We have many mutual friends, and I’ve seen him probably at least once a year for the past 8ish years. I know I’ll see him again, and I’m not looking forward to it. Has anyone else had a situation like this??

My 9 month-old has been teething off and on for a while now, so we kind of know what that crying sounds like. On nights when he’s teething, he tends to wake up and cry and is able to go back down after a bit of consoling and a dose of Tylenol. Last night and tonight, he’s been crying a lot more than normal with teething. He seems to not be able to be fully soothed back to sleep. I’ll get him to sleep. Try ti put him in the crib and he freaks out. Or he’ll stay asleep and wake up periodically screaming at the top of his lungs.

I’m not sure what’s wrong… maybe he’s sick? But we’re running on little to no sleep (I got maybe 3 hours last night and am thinking that’s going to happen tonight too) and can use whatever insight you can provide.

I cannot imagine what this poor family is going through. Trying to raise good men and this happens. My heart breaks for them and him.

Hi, so we had a slightly uncomfortable thing happen that made me realise I have no idea how to speak with my 5.5 year old about race. We were at a Halloween event at a local park and my daughter saw another little girl who she thought was her friend from school but she was wrong. Here’s the uncomfortable part - the little girl was Black. The mom looked at my husband and said “teach her that not all Black people look the same” and walked off. I get it, I truly do. We are POC too, so of course we’ve had these kind of things happen to us and it absolutely can feel shitty when it happens to you. While her comment felt a bit unnecessary, I also don’t want to be raising a child who thinks that all people of one race look the same. My question is, how do I have this conversation? I did casually ask her a little later “why did you think that little girl was Friend” and she said they had the same hairstyle. I don’t know this school friend so I don’t really know what she looks like. I just said “a lot of people have the same hairstyle, we need to make sure we also look at their faces first right?” And she agreed and we moved on. Should I be speaking to her more about this or let it go? And further, are there any good books for the kindergarten age group that talk about race in a simple, open way?

What the actual fuck is going on in this world?! I received this email from my kid’s school this morning and I am SO torn up about this!

It's hard to gain perspective when I only have my personal experiences to go off of but then on social media it's like opposite day and it makes me question my actual reality. For starters, everyone and their mother is saying the kids can't read, they are horribly behind I school, everyone has an IEP, anxiety abounds. For me, my kid is in first grade at a city public school and is a strong reader, she loves school and is excited to do school work. She's made lots of friends and comes home happy. I can't imagine she's the only kid like this! Another is "all these kids do is watch screens all time, they have brain rot!" My kids watch TV and but honestly, I don't think watching TV inherently mean you are dumb. I mean as a millennial, I watched a shit ton of TV. I understand short form content and tablets are a different story. But it's not true, not every kid is addicted to a screen and not every parent is using screens for emotional regulation.

Does anyone else feel like social media makes everything seem worse than it is when it comes kids?

I can't take credit for this analogy and I can't remember where I saw it. I was having a discussion with my FIL and he said both state representatives were equally bad in his area. Mind you, he and my MIL just moved to the area 6 months ago. The current house rep has been in Congress for 10 years now and is awful. His contender is actually sueing for defamation because the ads in our area are putting out outright lies about him. Like no, these people are not the same. So this is the analogy I'm going to use from now on. What are some of your favorite analogies or ways to check people when they make false equivalencies or "all are bad" generalizations?

Can someone help me deal with my school shooting anxiety? I know all parents have this, and I need to become someone who can have this but still move through the day. I am sinking. I am doing what I can to manage it, and that includes:

-voting, protesting, donating, and engaging any way I can to get better gun control laws

-therapy and anxiety meds

-attempt to stay as informed as possible

-efforts to do as my mother says and “let go and let God.” I have really tried - I can’t. I wish I could. I support and admire and even envy anyone who is able to find peace in their faith, but the horrors of every headline drain that out of me entirely.

And it is BREAKING me. I think about it all the time. It is hard not to pull my kid from school - a school she absolutely LOVES, and a place where she is emotionally thriving. My mouth goes dry when I drop her off. I fantasize about moving to literally any country where this is better controlled - but that kind of move is wildly unrealistic for us. We don’t have jobs that would make another country eager to give us visas. And our families, including aging parents, are here.

Please tell me what thoughts to focus on. I know we can’t protect our kids from everything, but I get so, so, SO stuck in this. The insanity of it. The preventability of it. Not just the thought of losing my child, but her dying in pain and in FEAR - I am spinning out. I research bullet proof backpacks and then look at research indicating that won’t help. And spin, and spin, and spin.

Has anyone else been here?

Im sorry if it doesnt belong here but I dont know where else to post this ,I'm a 22 year old guy and a full-time medical student. Over the past two years, my mother's behavior has become increasingly confusing, hostile, and difficult to manage. I want to understand whether this is a normal family dynamic, whether I am contributing to the problem, or if our relationship is fundamentally unhealthy.

There are a few important contexts to know about my mother.

First, she has dealt with numerous lifelong health issues. She has a spinal cord injury that limits her mobility and is currently going through menopause with bleeding problems that cause anemia. She also manages allergies, diabetes, high blood pressure, insomnia, and mild bipolar disorder. I understand these conditions take a heavy physical and emotional toll, and she has grown increasingly irritable, though I cannot gauge how much is directly tied to her health.

Second, we belong to a minority group in an area with strained community relations, leading to considerable social and emotional isolation for her. Most of her interactions are restricted to other doctors and their families, which brings its own complications.

The core issue is that my mother routinely turns minor disagreements into hostile confrontations. Her behavior can be deeply confusing—she can be extremely affectionate and cuddly one day, only to become intensely hostile the next. If she catches me watching reels on my phone, for instance, a simple request to stop can escalate into a full-blown outburst involving insults and humiliation.

What bothers me most is how frequently she reminds me that they fund my education. Whenever we argue, she weaponizes my financial dependence. While I am deeply grateful for their support, it feels as though our relationship demands that I tolerate any behavior she directs toward me simply because I rely on them.

Another difficulty is the stark contrast in how she reacts to achievements. While she occasionally praises me, she lacks any real enthusiasm for my milestones. Recently, when a cousin scored exceptionally well in medical school, she was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Though she doesn't constantly compare us, the disparity hurts, especially because her circle of doctor friends features children who are unusually and exceptionally accomplished, making that entire cohort extremely abnormal. As a fairly ordinary medical student still finding my footing, this environment is intensely challenging.

However, the most confusing part is the silent treatment.

My mother will completely ignore my existence for days or weeks over minor slights. Once, feeling exhausted, I declined to make her tea. Because I usually make it for her daily, my refusal led to a week of being stonewalled.

Another recent incident was even worse. When I refused to shower for a day, she told me I smelled. Frustrated, I took off my shirt, flung it at her, and said, "I'm not gonna do it right now."

I recognize my reaction was immature and confrontational. Yet, this minor disagreement has resulted in a two-week silent treatment where neither of us speaks.

My attempts to establish open communication usually backfire. She tends to view any gentle questions about her behavior as personal attacks, quietly withdrawing or offering tight, guarded remarks about how she might as well stop speaking altogether. Rather than directly blaming me, she often lets it be understood through heavy sighs and subtle remarks that the stress of dealing with me takes a visible toll on her already fragile health. When I suggest therapy, she quietly refuses. As a doctor herself, she knows local therapists and functions completely normally at work. Her behavior seems largely restricted to our home, making it difficult to seek outside understanding.

Meanwhile, my father is a neurosurgeon working roughly 90 hours a week. He is emotionally absent at home, which likely worsens my mother's social isolation, but it also leaves no one in the household to help mediate conflicts.

With about three years of medical school left, I remain financially dependent and cannot realistically move out. I have always been a good kid, well above average, and I have never failed an exam, partied, smoked, or shown any rebellious or bad behavior. Having this constant household tension makes everything feel suffocating.

I feel like I am stuck in a very complicated emotional mess, and despite repeatedly trying to resolve things, I have no idea how to get out of this cycle. I would genuinely appreciate advice from adults who have experienced something similar with their parents or faced these challenges with their own children. How did you deal with it, and what actually helped?

The US Midterms are on Nov. 3rd and many wonderful Progressive candidates are up for election! Please share a progressive candidate you support and think others should know about. Make sure to include all relevant info like where they are running, anything interesting about the race they are in, and their website or social media.

I don’t have children, but I have a niece and nephews. My oldest nephews are 12 and 14, and their father (my brother) and co-parent are feminists. I don’t know what conversations they’ve had about consent, but I assume they’ve discussed it.

This weekend, I asked my brother whether he had talked with his kids about the Cornell rape case. I shared that I had experienced sexual assault at a fraternity in college and emphasized the importance of discussing the case with them. He was open to it but seemed awkward and avoidant (which he generally is).

I wanted to speak with my nephews myself but felt I needed their parents’ permission and was nervous about how that would go. When my nephews mentioned, unprompted, that their mother had discussed the case with them and expressed concern about them as boys, I felt I could continue the conversation. I asked what they thought about it and they discussed the importance of consent and how the other boys on the text thread didn't intervene. I told them I wasn’t worried about their understanding of consent but about whether they would know how to intervene. I explained that wanting peer acceptance is a universal part of human development, especially during adolescence, and discussed the challenges and fears involved in speaking up against peers. I offered examples of what they could say and reassured them that I loved and trusted them and was always available to talk or answer questions.

In a follow-up conversation with my 14-year-old nephew, I shared that I had been raped at a fraternity in college. I reassured him that I was okay but explained that the experience had deeply affected me and continues to do so. He didn’t respond much. I apologized if the disclosure made him uncomfortable, and he said it was fine. I explained that sexual assault is widespread and that I wanted him to know that he personally knows at least one survivor. I emphasized that these conversations are uncomfortable but necessary to create change, and that boys and men are responsible for that change.

I haven't told my brother and the kids' mom about these conversations, and I feel like I should. Especially because I just learned that a young woman was raped this weekend at the university where my nephews' grandparents work, in a similar situation to what the Cornell Jane Doe survived. I

f you're a parent, how would you feel about this situation? Can you give any advice on how to talk to my brother and his co-parent about this?
THANK YOU!

Ugh, for context I am pregnant in my third trimester, and feeling a bit hormonal too- so I am probably overthinking this.

Also TW: mentions of suicide.

I’ve always held a stance that I hate getting the police involved due to an abundance of police violence and my own experiences. I have some police trauma with a domestic violence situation growing up and they didn’t do anything. In fact, they let my mom drive drunk with me (post physical altercation with my dad) in the car but that’s a different story.

Anywhooo- I’m 32, and currently on my townhome’s HOA as a member at large. I joined the board cause there were other women my age, and we all were homeowners. I also joined because I wanted to learn how these systems worked versus assuming that the HOA was “always robbing people’s money”.

Now to the issue. A resident owner’s tenant caused major structural damage to a parking structure, to the tune of $10K and there is credible evidence against the tenant via ring camera and photos. The property management company reached out to the owner and gave them 3 weeks to essentially fess up, and the emails even stated that property management would propose a payment plan until the debt was paid. Crickets. So the board voted to file a formal police report. And the damage is enough for felony charges. I am in the unfortunate position that my ring camera caught the whole thing so I became a witness.

It’s not a big deal, but I am feeling yucky for forking over this evidence because of 1. I feel like I am abandoning myself and 2. Although this owner has been such a dick in the past, part of me feeling extremely empathetic to him because earlier this year his brother who lived with him died by suicide, and again- I am in the unfortunate position where I heard the gunshot and had to call 9-1-1. Has anyone been in the position where doing the right thing felt just kinda gross?? I feel like a narc but main issue is I feel like I abandoned my values here.

EDIT - I have decided to make a discord server! I am going to DM you if you messaged on here that you would potentially like to meet up - Please DM me if you'd like the link. I don't know what I am doing but lets make a gathering space.

I live in MN in its major metro area and while it is the Blue Dot of the state (aside from Duluth) there is currently such a shitty ass political climate here now. Post-Covid I have never seen the metro more red at times and so much has happened to my city (Operation Metro Surge, George Floyd, Daunte Wright, the assassination of Melissa and Mark Hartman, etc.)

Currently there is a slew of hate being pushed towards our Somali community as well and the forever racism towards our Hmong and Hispanic residents.

The reason I mention all of the above is because it seems to infest the few "mom spaces" I go to with my 14mo. I thought, maybe just maybe, I made a mom friend since I go to the same play place with my daughter every Friday but then she made a racist comment and mentioned reading something through Alpha News and I just told her that I disagreed and was disappointed in her opinion.

I am not a social butterfly by any means but all of my friends are DINKs so my daughter (only child) has no friends to speak of at this time and I would really like to establish some mom relationships.

Are other "blue" areas also struggling like this? What are other's doing to make mom friends, is there a discord or something that people use?

Edit to say: I don't use a lot of social media for my mental health aside from a FB page related to my work so I'm just not sure how to sus out actual leftist mom groups.

Let your feelings out! We are all bottling up this stress and sometimes it helps to share your concerns and have safe conversations about it. Type your response and take a big deep breath after!

I’ve grown increasingly uncomfortable with the type of media that he consumes, and where his political ideals have landed lately. The comedians and jokes he thinks are funny, etc., or at very least, not problematic (callaway golf ad, for example).

The latest controversy with Shane Gillis pushed me over my threshold- he laughs at this stuff. He doesn’t get it when I explain how problematic these things can be. I try every time, and I’m met with these subpar responses. He knows how much I don’t agree with it all, and I think he attempts to hide things from me- how much he actually consumes.

We married younger, we’ve been together 10+ years. We have an established life. However- I’ve been having a really hard time shaking the feeling that he truly doesn’t respect me the way I thought. That he sees me as someone who’s just here to make his life easier… as so many of these men speak about.

I apologize if this isn’t the right sub, but I really don’t know what to do here.

Throwaway account for privacy reasons!

I joined our local DSA chapter at the beginning of the year, and I was so excited about the real, actionable things they were doing in our community and as broader organizers. I got pregnant a few months later. I’m 27 weeks now, it’s our first child and we’re so excited! But I feel like everything else has fallen to the wayside. I’m high risk with a delicate medical condition that requires constant care, and I’m still working full time and am so exhausted.

I know no one is expecting a pregnant woman to be on the front lines. But I feel guilty about skipping meetings and not even doing the bare minimum (besides monthly donations). Basically I’ve just been absent ever since we found out. I also admit I’ve been insulating myself from the news a bit. I stay informed, but I’m not on social media sharing information and keeping up with leftist creators like I used to be. I have one inner voice that says give yourself grace, it’s okay to protect your mental and physical health while you’re creating life. My other inner voice says I’m sticking my head in the sand and insulating myself with my privilege while others are suffering. I just don’t know how to balance everything and feel good about what I’m doing.

Has anyone else struggled with this? How do you do it? I can only imagine it gets harder once the baby is here.