That was a laugh I needed today.
My daughter had a massive meltdown over going to school today. She did not want to go and now views school as a punishment. We did not make the bus today, or even make it to the building on time. I’m sure school hates me right now. I don’t know how to make this better. I wish she didn’t hate it so much.
(She hates it because she has to do stuff she doesn’t want to do, like slightly harder math or writing)
“How to turn a Tuxedo Cat into an 8-Ball in Three Easy Feedings”
That’s my youngest daughter. Well, she goes to school (though sometimes she talks about hating to go) but she won’t do homework. Multiple times we’ve found where she has taken a week or more of homework assignments and tried to hide them somewhere in the classroom (and of course keeps lying about not having homework when she gets home). She just doesn’t want to do it. She’s 7 (almost 8) and I keep hoping that she’ll realize that it’s just not an option; it’s an obligation and you just have to do it. Get it done, move on, you can have some fun.
The really infuriating thing is that it’s not even hard for her to do. Sometimes when she does her homework, it will take her hours to do a single page because she will hum to herself, play with her pencil, fuss with her clothes, etc. Then when she finally decides to do it, she completes it within minutes and barely has to ask for help.
We’ve taken her to doctors and they haven’t diagnosed any problems. There’s just no excuse. It’s not medical or even matching any behavioral disorders they can identify. She’s just freaking stubborn.
AT&T (and by extension, pretty much ALL mobile phone carriers).
MIL, who is 83, and has limited access to transportation, has had a prepaid AT&T cell phone for years. She’d toss a few bucks at it every month or two to keep it active, but only ever used it for emergencies.
Well, it was turned off when AT&T decided to nuke its 3G service a couple months ago. MIL is… not tech savvy (and, has limited access to transportation).
We were down there this past week, getting assorted things sorted out for the parents, and one task was to take MIL to the AT&T store and get a new phone.
“mumble mumble plan no longer offered, grandfathered in, mumble mumble…”. I paid for the phone and “the first month’s service” just to finish the deal quickly, as MIL’s stamina is not the best.
Then I get them home, and set up online access, and find that nope, it IS a 30 dollar a month service. Unlimited talk and text. 5 gig of data.
On a FLIP PHONE.
This is a person who cannot figure out how to open a second tab on a computer browser. Who lost access to watching the big TV for months because someone accidentally hit the “switch input” button and it was stuck on the Roku home page. Who routinely spends an hour or more on the phone with scammers before twigging that it’s a scam, then claims (to us) that she’s proud of wasting their time. She does NOT need a data plan.
I told her, before we left town Friday, that I was going to try to get the plan straightened out, and that if I couldn’t, I’d get her a different setup and mail a new phone to her. I spent a half hour on the phone with an AT&T service rep trying to get it straightened out; she had no clue whatsoever and kept insisting that the 30/month plan was the BEST THING IN THE WORLD.
Zero clue as to whether we’re supposed to continue to pay AT&T something for the phone itself - I only shelled out 80 bucks or so for the initial transaction, and neither of us signed anything.
All in all, I don’t care if MIL and FIL have been AT&T customers in some way for 65 years. I’d pay another carrier the same amount just to screw AT&T out of the fees.
Basically, all the other carriers have gotten out of the business of providing cheap, talk/text only prepaid plans. Verizon bought TracFone, so I’m not sure what the deal is there anymore. Jitterbug / Lively still has something, and we could add a dumb phone to our Verizon plan (20 bucks a month, still cheaper than AT&T) - but there’s a niche, dammit, and the phone companies have all basically mandated that they will charge an excess amount for providing almost no service.
That’s basically rock bottom. The bargain basement no-name phone companies charge that too, like Cricket Wireless, the company who’s entire marketing strategy seems to be, “Hey, you can afford us.”
The only thing I’ve seen cheaper is Consumer Cellular (I only see their ads late at night and/or on channels with content targeted toward seniors). They have a $20 a month plan for unlimited talk and text, and 1 GB of data. If you don’t need any data at all, period, and just want talking/texting, it’s $15 a month. And they are a “bring your own phone” company. That might be what you’re looking for with your mom-in-law.
If you want less than $15 a month for a phone plan, you probably need to live in a third world country.
So, are burner phones no longer a thing?
My phone stopped working inside our building. This phone I got a yea r ago free in a parking lot. It’s free calls texts and internet free. Not bad. So I go to the corner, but a new one for 150. 60 a month. T hen I notice my old phone apparently wasn’t working because it was too low on battery. It’s fine now and I’m stuck with this payment plan even though I’m not working.
If it is an emergency-only backup phone, Get a Tracphone one year service plan for a hundred bucks. Only 400 minutes on it, but hopefully there won’t be 400 minutes worth of emergencies.
If that isn’t enough, $10 a month if you can get Tello.
If it helps, these are called work avoidance behaviors. My daughter does these things too in spades. It’s infuriating but I have no idea how to make her stop. And I guess my daughter has some excuse, being autistic and having ADHD, but I know she has the capacity to do better. We just need to figure out the supports to get her there.
Funnily enough, not a single tear was shed this morning going to school.
Just had a weird experience. I was replying to a post, and as I was about to hit REPLY the thread disappeared and I was in another thread, replying to a completely different subject.
I’m guessing all that OP’s threads got cornfielded (the original thread is nowhere to be seen), but it was strange to get teleported.
But now I have a legitimate mini-rant, so I’ll post it here:
We love Trader Joe’s salmon. It’s cheaper than at a “real” store, always fresh, has a great taste (so I can just grill it with lemon & garlic)…
… but every package is right around a pound. I really need about a pound and a half, so I’m digging through them: “15 ounces, 17, 16.5, 14.8, ooh, here’s an 18…” WHAT is the point, Joe?
I got one home and noticed it was sliced into 3 pieces. Packaging said “BBQ cut”. Kind of nice; individual portions, uniform thickness… STILL, THEY’RE ALL 15-18 OUNCES!
Thanks! Yeah, I’ve come across some of these. I’ve got to do more research on the reliability (and with TracFone, I worry that Verizon bought it with the intention of killing it).
Is your MIL on any sort of public aid? Food stamps or Medical insurance perhaps? If so, there is a government program that gives free phones to low-income folks. The so-called Obama Phones when I was working were not smart phones and from what I knew about them seemed designed for folks with limited knowledge of tech toys.
It might be worth an hour for you to look into them.
I actually found out about that just the other day.
They are not currently on any kind of aid; their Social Security is all the income they have though, and while I think that’s > 200% of the federal poverty index, they have enough medical expenses that they might be eligible for SNAP - which would qualify them for that program. We’re going to look into applying for that on their behalf.
Both my kids did this as well :(. Still do, to some extent, and they are 27 and 25. Argh.
I still do this and I’m mid 50’s!
Speaking of which I guess I need to do my taxes. Bet I can put if off for a couple more days tho…
LOL. I started ours last night. That roller-coaster of “Huge refund, woohoo!!” to “You owe, dammit” to “small refund, that’s better”, to “Huh? Why’d our refund DOUBLE?” as I entered more and more info into TurboTax. Got a couple more sets of numbers to hunt down, complicated by the fact that one of my stocks generated a spinoff company, leaving me with something like 5 shares in the spinoff company, and capital gains and losses on the order of a penny each on 3 different occasions. Yeesh.
I doubt I have ever worked in your state, AND I retired from the food stamp office just before the world ended but I might have some info for you.
Getting SNAP for medical expenses is kinda tricky. What I would suggest is that you contact their doctors and ask for printouts of their office co-pays for the last 6 months (we usually only looked at the last 90 days, but different states use different time spans for this). If they are taking any doctor prescribed supplements or vitamins ask the doctors to write them a paper script you can take with you. Contact their pharmacy and ask for print outs of their co-pays for the last six months and if they buy their supplements at the same time, you can get those listed as well. If they are making payments for past medical procedures, the amounts they pay monthly will be looked at, so bring verification of that as well. If they have any other medical expenses that I have missed, bring proof of payments and verification of medical need.
Oh, and bring lots of patience. You will need it.
RE ‘Obama Phones’
I like to call it Safe Link. I’m not on it anymore because of a long story. If you buy a SL (is it SIM card? that little rectangular chip thing with a corner missing) card and follow some steps, you can use an iPhone or other smart phone on the plan. The whole switch over took less than 5 minutes. The only frustrating part was when I asked a worker for help at Target. I was told ‘We don’t sell those. You need to go to another store.’ I did more online research when I got home. Target did sell the cards (for about $1). I had been in the right department and less than 10 feet away from them when I asked.
Too late to edit, but I forgot to mention their medical insurance. If they are paying for any medical insurance or supplement, bring verification. If they are paying for transportation to and from their doctor visits, bring verification.
Most workers are not trained on medical expenses and often won’t even know what to ask for, you are going to have to pretty much do their job for them.
If you were in my state, you could look everything up at their webpage, perhaps you can do so as well where you are.
As long as we’re ranting about taxes and Turbo Tax… I used to have them e-file my Federal return, but refused to pay $25 to have them file my State for me, especially when I could go to the state’s website and file for free. BUT that meant I had to re-enter everything I had already entered into TT, and at some point I decided it was worth the $25 to just be done with it already.
The rant part is, TT gives you the option of paying that $25 with a credit card, or they can just deduct it from your refund. But to have it deducted they want to stick you for another $40! Fuck that shit.