I know someone who left an Instant Pot a little too close to a pressure canner, and it got what could best be described as saggy. Expensive lesson learned.
I am divorced. My ex-wife and kids live separately from me but no too far, around 45 minutes drive.
My kids go to school in the small village area where my ex-wife lives.
They are 8 and 6. They are super-excited about Halloween. All their school friends are super-excited about Halloween.
There is almost certainly to be a guided, supervised “trick or treat” walk. It is a small commumity. I’d donate “treats” if I knew to whom I was giving.
As wife is planning to go away on the last day of the month, a weekend. So I told her, I will rent an AirBnB in that tiny village, if only she can tell me about the (inevitable) Halloween parentally supervised walk.
I have no contact with that community. My kids need my supervision as this is “my” time, but also I too need to donate to the kind people who do open their doors, most of which is arranged before.
She has not given me any details.
And then the door-to-door, as I stand back watching the voracious appetites of my kids (granted, they have some idea of “what is fair”) with a bunch of adults who I have never met, but know my kids.
It’s so frustrating dealing with separate parenting.
On the positive side, I guess I get to meet my children’s friends’ parents.
For a dissenting view, I recently had to get a new computer. I got a Mac laptop to replace the previous Mac laptop, and I found that the process of switching my files and such from the old to the new was anything but easy, anything but straightforward, and anything but intuitive.
It might’ve helped, to be fair, if the guy at the Apple store had warned me that both laptops needed to be upgraded to the latest operating system before the transfer would work.
On the other hand, it might’ve also helped if, when I tried to transfer the files, the computer had told me “Oh, you can’t do this until the operating systems have been upgraded” instead of just giving me the Spinning Wheel o’ Death.
There were a few other issues as well, but I have blonked them out.
As I said, not easy, not straightforward, and not intuitive, despite the assurances from the guy at the store. I’m really not a big Apple fan.
Huh, I guess I don’t feel quite so bad.
Gods help my soul, but I sniggered.
I also have an ex-wife and a child with her so I know exactly what you mean.
Though we live on opposite coasts. Actually, almost diagonal corners.
Also, on the subject of transferring stuff, I bought a new Samsung tablet to replace my old one and the data moved pretty seamlessly. Apple isn’t the only company who figured this out.
It’s possible the info is posted to Facebook or Nextdoor … lots of smaller communities advertise their public activities this way.
I am unfamiliar, however, with the concept of a guided/supervised walk.
Don’t most parents supervise their own kids for trick or treating? Who’s doing the supervising in this case?
And what’s a “walk” if it’s not going door to door and ringing the bell? Is it like a parade or something?
Now I’m even more confused. It’s less than an hour away … why do you need to spend the night there? Is it so you can stay with your kids?
If so, then, since your wife will be gone, can you just stay there? Guest room or something, so it’s less disruptive for the kiddos than shuffling to an AirBnB especially when they’reon a sugar high?
I admit to being utterly confused by so many details.
Well, ok. The “walk” is a mass of kids supported by parents, going to specific houses, normally parents, who have volunteered to “host”. Usually the parents club together and donate treats which are then distributed amongst each “host”.
Trick or treat is not really a thing in this country, so an unexpected door-bell ring is unlikely to be fruitful.
Plus… this country (South Africa) has a fairly large income disparity (I think the highest Gini index in the world, or it was in 2021) so crime is a big worry. Thats why the pre-organised walk, with multiple parents supporting multiple kids.
I want nothing to do with the ex, so I am not staying in her house. And I have no idea, seeing as she is unable or unwilling to tell me, how late this will go on. And, even though they will stuff themselves with horrendous amounts of sugar, I need to feed them before they sleep - hence an AirBnB.
I probably don’t need the AirBnB, but because of the paucity of information I am getting, I need to plan for all contingencies.
I have asked for phone numbers of other parents involved, so I can organise with them… but no response.
Ah, okay. Thank you for providing some much-needed context.
In that case, shame on your ex for making being a parent even more difficult. I hope the details get ironed out soon - there’s still time.
Can you talk on the phone to the 8 year old? Maybe they could give you an idea which other parents you might talk to?
That was the way I handled things when my kids were that age. My daughter would keep me updated about school things, band performances, etc. My son would remind me when his birthday was coming up.
(general divorce advice) I never said a negative word about my ex to my kids. Never. And if she made a decision that they did not like, I’d explain to them that they had to what she told them to do.
Over the years, my ex would repeatedly say negative things about me to my kids. They saw right through that though. I took my daughter to see Cyndi Lauper in a small venue. My daughter loved it. She told me her mom was shocked, that Lauper’s following was all gay men! My daughter was laughing hysterically when she told me this.
I am tired of being a responsible adult. Dealing with my parents passing, cleaning out the apartment, trying to deal with other issues of their estate while working my full time job, I feel like i am drowning.
Same here. I remember my daughter once crying that her mom was “a witch” and I told her that her mom loves her and was trying her best to take care of her, and that she had to listen to her even when she made her do things she didn’t want to. She had to respect her.
My ex and I get along relatively well, though, and as far as I know she never badmouthed me to our daughter. She has even called me a good dad on more than one occasion (to reassure me). We are partners in raising our daughter as much as we can be. I’m pretty lucky.
Adulting legit sucks sometimes. In the aftermath of a death, it seems like some people are so busy getting things done they aren’t allowed any space to grieve. I hope you have some support to get through all this.
I slipped and fell this morning walking the dogs up on the ski area in the rain. My right leg folded under me and there was quite the pop. 911, ambulance, ER. Tore my quadriceps right off. The good news is I’m on a first name basis with my ortho (and his brother was the ER doc!) and I’m seeing him in an hour and surgery Friday. More adventures in medicine!
AAAAaaaaahhhhhh!
WTF, you sound like you’re made of Legos. 
I fucking hate Medicare Open Enrollment time. Phone starts ringing fairly early in the morning and goes all day. We don’t bother answering since Caller ID shows “Unavailable” as the caller, but it’s still disruptive. Calls do seem to be tapering off, thankfully – only 3 so far today. Early on we were getting 12-15 calls per day.
As much as I hate Medicare Open Enrollment sales calls, that hatred is nothing to what I feel for Medicare scam calls. Early one morning we got a call from what was identified as “ Medical Group.” Husband’s PCP is a part of that group, so he answered. He hadn’t yet had his Coca Cola (his preferred caffeine delivery medium) so it didn’t occur to him until after he hung up that his doctor’s practice really wouldn’t care about whether he had received his new plastic Medicare card and in any event didn’t need for him to provide his Medicare number.
He did call Medicare and reported the scam. They were not surprised, having already fielded similar reports.
A couple days later, we get a call identified as being from our local hospital and the number purportedly calling was that hospital’s Central Scheduling department. Since husband was trying to schedule a medical procedure, I handed the phone to him. You will perhaps not be shocked to hear that the person calling wanted to know if he’d gotten his new Medicare card yet.
These people are scum.
(BTW, the next time he talked with Central Scheduling about setting an appointment, he did tell them they were being spoofed by scammers. I’m not sure what if anything they can do about ti.)
uff da. yowch!