# Twenty Days Has October Rants - The Rest Are On Furlough **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 1, 2013, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074 "2013-10-01T07:23:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 17
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/321 "2013-10-15T14:53:29Z")
> [@](#): > > blondebear who are the “they”? Can you get revenge on them? What was wrong with the poor trees? “They” is the apartment manager, who really is one of the resident Nuns who took over when the “real” manager died. It’s not her fault; there were some broken/damaged branches that needed to be taken down, but the tree dudes didn’t stop with just those. I don’t know what the protocol is on trimming large Canary Island Pines, but I estimate they removed a good 70% of the foliage. They botched a trimming job on the tree in front of my place a couple of years ago and ended up having to cut it down. Now this…ugh. I guess it wouldn’t bother some people, but losing those trees is kind of a big deal to me. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/322 "2013-10-15T15:14:04Z")
Do I dare for the title of Meanest Mom Ever and cancel Halloween on my eldest child? She’s bright as bright can be but I got a call from her English and social studies teachers. She has a 94 average on tests and 77 overall because she isn’t fucking doing her homework. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/323 "2013-10-15T15:40:00Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > Do I dare for the title of Meanest Mom Ever and cancel Halloween on my eldest child? She’s bright as bright can be but I got a call from her English and social studies teachers. She has a 94 average on tests and 77 overall because she isn’t fucking doing her homework. Not sure if you’re actually looking for advice, but I wouldn’t outright cancel Halloween at this point, unless you have already warned her that would be the punishment for not doing homework. I would tell her that unless she turns in every single homework assignment, complete and on time between now and the 31st, Halloween is cancelled. My son has this problem off and on. Brilliant kid, lazy to do homework in certain subjects, therefore mediocre grades in those subjects. We had to set down some very specific rules. I don’t like micromanaging him in high school, but better to learn this type of discipline now than later. We have Power School and we can check stuff like this online. He has to maintain certain grades in certain subjects. Example, he has struggled all along in Chemistry, so as long as he’s turning in all his work and studying hard, I am Ok with him maintain the low B he’s had all along. On the other hand, he’s completely capable of an A in Spanish. The only reason he doesn’t have one is failure to do homework. He’s off video games until he’s gone two weeks without missing homework and his grade is back to an A. He knew the consequences all along, yet still found himself in this position. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/324 "2013-10-15T15:47:53Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > Not sure if you’re actually looking for advice, but I wouldn’t outright cancel Halloween at this point, unless you have already warned her that would be the punishment for not doing homework. I would tell her that unless she turns in every single homework assignment, complete and on time between now and the 31st, Halloween is cancelled. > > My son has this problem off and on. Brilliant kid, lazy to do homework in certain subjects, therefore mediocre grades in those subjects. We had to set down some very specific rules. I don’t like micromanaging him in high school, but better to learn this type of discipline now than later. We have Power School and we can check stuff like this online. He has to maintain certain grades in certain subjects. Example, he has struggled all along in Chemistry, so as long as he’s turning in all his work and studying hard, I am Ok with him maintain the low B he’s had all along. On the other hand, he’s completely capable of an A in Spanish. The only reason he doesn’t have one is failure to do homework. He’s off video games until he’s gone two weeks without missing homework and his grade is back to an A. He knew the consequences all along, yet still found himself in this position. My daughter has some of the same problems your son has. Very bright but lazy with homework. She’s in the gifted and talented program and reads constantly. I may have to resort to some serious micromanaging on her end. I warned her about not doing her homework. She’s already had one issue this year with it. I’m very mad at her right now and trying to figure out what to do. She has two weeks to improve her first marking period. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/325 "2013-10-15T16:33:51Z")
{{ **Kalea** }} Best of luck to you. **flatlined** , I enjoy hearing about your and Buttercup’s new friend. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/326 "2013-10-15T16:39:17Z")
Hope your husband AND your imminent baby are both OK, **Silver Fire**. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/327 "2013-10-15T17:56:35Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > Do I dare for the title of Meanest Mom Ever and cancel Halloween on my eldest child? She’s bright as bright can be but I got a call from her English and social studies teachers. She has a 94 average on tests and 77 overall because she isn’t fucking doing her homework. Do you have enough backup kids NOT getting Halloween canceled so there will be sufficient pilferable fun-sized Snickers bars to get you through to Thanksgiving? If so, proceed with the threats and be prepared to follow up on them. Otherwise, you might want to find something else to take away. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/328 "2013-10-15T17:57:46Z")
> [@Kalea](#): > > Fuck skin cancer. I’m not 40 yet, and just found out I have a Stage 1A melanoma on my left ear. Yeah, caught it early, not very deep, blah blah blah. The doctor said it’s probably from the sunburns I got as a kid. > > Please force your kids to wear sunscreen, and make them reapply regularly. > > Fuck. Totally ruined my day. I had a biopsy taken last week on a chunk of skin under my right eye. Still waiting to find out if it is basal cell carcinoma or not. Meanwhile I have a couple of stitches on my face where they took the biopsy which are driving me crazy. On the plus side, chicks dig facial scars, right? ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/329 "2013-10-15T18:31:14Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > Do I dare for the title of Meanest Mom Ever and cancel Halloween on my eldest child? She’s bright as bright can be but I got a call from her English and social studies teachers. She has a 94 average on tests and 77 overall because she isn’t fucking doing her homework. Depending on how old she is, you might try removing the door to her bedroom. This worked wonders on my daughter. However, my daughter likes her privacy, and she was old enough that this was effective. She had to change in the bathroom. She also had to get her teachers to send notes back and forth to us, telling us what homework she had and whether she’d done the previous day’s homework or not. She was also grounded from TV and video games during that time, as well. This was very hard on my husband, because he couldn’t watch anything she would be remotely interested in. It’s very hard to do this, but learning how to just get the shitwork done is a valuable skill. I wish that I’d learned how to do it while I was still in junior high…I used to just bluff my way through things, and the teachers were busy concentrating on the kids who hadn’t mastered the material, so this quite frequently worked. Most of the homework and even the classwork was just busywork in my schools. I was content to get a B or even a C instead of an A in most classes. Of course, this bit me in the ass when I went to college, because I hadn’t learned how to buckle down and study and grind out papers. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/330 "2013-10-15T18:31:15Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Do you have enough backup kids NOT getting Halloween canceled so there will be sufficient pilferable fun-sized Snickers bars to get you through to Thanksgiving? > > If so, proceed with the threats and be prepared to follow up on them. Otherwise, you might want to find something else to take away. I have a two year old. She’s cute. One look and people shower candy at her. Which mommy gets to eat in her stead. The Halloween cancellation is seriously under discussion right now. Ironically last year Halloween was cancelled because of hurricane Sandy. It was cancelled the year before because of a freak October snowstorm and downed power lines. So there’s ample precedent from mother nature. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Silver\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Fire)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/331 "2013-10-15T19:18:51Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Hope your husband AND your imminent baby are both OK, **Silver Fire**. Thank you. Husband has a (seemingly benign, at least for now) heart defect that is probably related to the septal defect he was born with and was later discovered about half his life ago. A few follow ups but he’ll be okay, it seems. Baby tomorrow. I’m bummed it’s not happening today but I didn’t get a thing done yesterday and didn’t sleep worth a damn last night so it’s probably best to wait. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/332 "2013-10-15T19:23:37Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > Grrrrrrrr. So we’ve been trying to have a second baby for 17 months, and I’m now pregnant for the fifth time, but the damn betas aren’t increasing as fast as the doctor would like. 66 hour doubling time. My doctor told me to stop taking progesterone supplements and wait to miscarry. You know… I’m kind of all for quitting the progesterone because I don’t think that’s the problem here. I’m fucking pissed off that the doctor is such a sourpuss about it though. And pissed off that I’m in limbo. Grrrrrrrr. > > Also, I FUCKING HATE PREGNANT WOMEN. Bunch of stupid silly selfish hens. Damn them all. Thinking of you **Sattua**. My mini-rants - fucking arrogant drivers who decide to turn onto the lane I’m halfway across (as a pedestrian with a stroller), then take the huff at being called on it. Fucking rude old women who come out with insults and socially unacceptable shit just because they’re old, and yet I’d look the bad guy if I take the huff. Fucking fellow local mums who name their newborn son the same not-that-common name they knew I’d called my firstborn (who’s now passed). ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/333 "2013-10-15T20:10:31Z")
We had a family Thanksgiving dinner yesterday with my in-laws; this is definitely mini, but kind of irritating. My mother-in-law gives us a hard time regularly for not visiting them more often, but while we were there yesterday, she spent nearly the whole time somewhere else, doing stuff with the daughter and grandson she sees a couple times a week. You can’t have it both ways, Mom-in-Law. If you’re going to go off and watch tv in the basement while we’re visiting, I don’t see us being motivated to come over more often. Families, eh? Can’t live with 'em, can’t shoot 'em. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/334 "2013-10-15T21:44:04Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Depending on how old she is, you might try removing the door to her bedroom. This worked wonders on my daughter. However, my daughter likes her privacy, and she was old enough that this was effective. She had to change in the bathroom. I don’t understand this as a punishment for not doing homework. I understand it as a punishment for privacy/trust related issues. I take away TV and video games because that is what my son is doing instead of his homework. I’m not sure how taking away privacy would combat that. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/335 "2013-10-15T23:41:55Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Well, those who are a forever child are a real big one… when a 50yo, 90kg man throws a floor-stomping, windmilling, things-throwing tantrum because he doesn’t want his pacemaker checked, he’s as bad at reasoning as a 3yo but you can’t just sit him down in the corner until he calms down. You can, it just takes 25 mg thorazine to do it. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/336 "2013-10-16T00:39:33Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > I’m kinda confused about this. He’s a nice kid and he knows that he’s big and strong, so he’s very gentle and careful, even if he is a little clumbsy. How could anyone not love a forever child? I know you mean well, but people with development disabilities are not just big toddlers. They can have adult thoughts and feelings, including sexual development in most cases, so just be aware of that. And as **Nava** pointed out, when that level of mental reasoning is combined with stubbornness and tantrums, it can be less sweet and cute and more frightening and frustrating. Are you sure he has Down Syndrome? That kind of height is [rare in that population](http://www.dsmig.org.uk/library/articles/guideline%20growth%20revision%202012.pdf). ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/337 "2013-10-16T00:45:44Z")
My Facebook is full of the dumbest teabagging fox news loving mother fuckers (I went to high school in suburban St Louis). They are on fire about Obama’s shutdown, and how everyone - even those with employer-provided insurance - need to sign up through the website in three months or be fined. It’s not about healthcare, it’s about centralizing power in a move towards Communism! Which is weird because most all the time Obama is a Socialist. (Of course the actual meanings of these words doesn’t matter. They just mean really bad anti American things.) My children understand current events far better than this collection of howling buffoons. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/338 "2013-10-16T00:51:31Z")
There’s an NJ senate election tomorrow. A Tuesday is bad enough but fuck Gov Christie for going full crazy and putting the damned thing on a Weds. Lonegan the Loon and Booker the Brat are the candidates and they can both go fuck off. EIGHT calls in two hours from the two of them. Lonegan’s staff was really rude to me today after I asked them to cut it out. I’m going to call his campaign tomorrow and taunt them about their loss. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/339 "2013-10-16T01:00:31Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > I had a biopsy taken last week on a chunk of skin under my right eye. Still waiting to find out if it is basal cell carcinoma or not. Meanwhile I have a couple of stitches on my face where they took the biopsy which are driving me crazy. On the plus side, chicks dig facial scars, right? If it’s a real _scar_, one that looks like you could have received it at Heidelberg in lieu of an honorary doctorate or something, sure. One on a tiny part of your lower eyelid that makes your eye look like Peter Lorre caught you doing something shocking? Not so much. Maybe you could ask the surgeon to extend the incision down [del]half an i[/del] an inch toward your cheekbone. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074/340 "2013-10-16T01:04:25Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > I have a two year old. She’s cute. One look and people shower candy at her. > > Which mommy gets to eat in her stead. The Halloween cancellation is seriously under discussion right now. Ironically last year Halloween was cancelled because of hurricane Sandy. It was cancelled the year before because of a freak October snowstorm and downed power lines. So there’s ample precedent from mother nature. Wow. What had she been doing to piss HER off? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074.md?page=16) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twenty-days-has-october-rants-the-rest-are-on-furlough/670074.md?page=18)