In case you can’t tell, I’m passionate about rationality and critical thinking.
Hey man, I appreciate your post for setting an amazing example of what being a father is. Some young men are reading this and seeing all these supportive comments, and that’s going to inform how they behave if they become fathers someday. So, thank you for posting your question. It’ll probably end up helping a lot more people than just your son.
I remember showering with my little brother. We would pretend we were puppies, taking turns “playing in the rain.” (It was a shower-tub combo, so the shower stream only covered one half of the tub.)
Contrast this to my mom, who taught me how to shave my legs but who forbid me from “shaving above the knee.”
That ended when I went to school in shorts and the bullies saw my thigh hair glistening in the sun.
It ended two years later, when I met a cool girl who didn’t shave if she didn’t feel like it, rocking her hairy legs without a care.
I’m still not that bold, but I found a balance that works for me. Nobody else’s opinion matters.
My god, that sounds freeing.
Seriously. “Excuse me, Mom. You put what into where?!”
If your son came to you asking for help, don’t overthink. Do the right thing and help him out, regardless of what he wants to shave.
This should be stitched into a throw pillow. The first sentence on one side, the second sentence on the other side.
It could work for so many occasions.
Or the buzzing of the vibration. At least, that’s what I listen for in this scenario. The only time I put the sound on for my phone is when I know there’s a call coming that I have to listen for.
This is why my parents dismissed my childhood diagnosis of ADHD. My older brother has the hyperactive type, but I am more of the inattentive type.
The outside is calm, but the inside is a tornado of thoughts that doesn’t cease.
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Is it okay for someone agender to join in this discussion?
I relate to some of these, but I don’t experience dysphoria. I was raised female but I feel zero attachment to any particular gender expression.
Some things that come to mind:
My appearance is unequivocally female today, but it’s not something I care hard enough about to change. It would require significant top surgery. If I lost my breasts I think others would be more upset than I would be - I’d just double-down on the androgynous look I had before these puppies grew so much. I have told friends (both trans and cis female alike) that I’d happily donate breast tissue to them if I could.
Anyway, so that’s an agendered woman’s experiences.
Never shaving my beard, because I don’t want to see what’s underneath. Using it as a mask to hide behind.
This is very interesting. I have two MtF friends who both went through a period of having handlebar mustaches prior to transitioning. One of them hated looking in the mirror, and experimented with facial hair as a way to distract from her adam’s apple.
Some kids ask “why” because they understand the question and want to know more, but that isn’t the only reason.
Asking “why” tends to result in people talking to you. Ever hear a kid ask “why” over and over again without caring about the answer? They may have been asking the question because it provides them with attention. It’s a single word that nearly guarantees an adult will talk to you, and sometimes that’s all a kid really wants.
(I lived.)
Phew Thank you for that closure.
To any prospective and new parents stumbling onto this thread: Turn back. NOW.
This thread will give you nightmare fuel. You have been warned.
I accidentally slammed my picky toe into a corner once and I’m pretty sure I broke it. But I was scared to tell my parents, so I just wore socks around the house until it healed.
I don’t think it healed properly either. If I feel the edges of my picky toes, I can feel a difference between my right and left. Using standard anatomical terms of location for clarity, the toe that got injured has a pointier joint on the medial edge, with the distal bone of the pinky turning slightly more laterally than the uninjured toe bone does. It doesn’t hurt today and doesn’t cause me any issues, as far as I can tell.
It still sucks that I’m not the only one who felt the need to hide an injury as a child.
Oof, this happened when my family went tubing down the Delaware River. It was the first time in my life that I was grateful women’s bathing suits include a top, as I got burnt horribly, but I didn’t end up with as much burn as the guys in my party all did. My poor, Canadian boyfriend looked like a tomato at the end.
Cost to dispose of it is greater than zero.
I was looking for a comment mentioning this. If it’s a rural area, the local waste management facility might take a trek to get to. If you have to make multiple trips, or rent/hire a vehicle to get rid of something (like having to tow an old car), the time and cost can add up.
So if it’s not accepted with a typical trash pick-up, it’s still gotta be somewhere, even if you don’t want it anymore. Keeping it on your own property is at least more ethical than dumping it in the woods somewhere (though you’ll find plenty of that in some areas, too.)
I’m starting to think of writing down the specific things job recruiters tell me, and bringing it to the interview. The last recruiter that reached out (and succeeded in hiring me) told me things that didn’t end up being true. When I got hired and was told contradictory information, the company said, “Oh, that is still true, but this particular case is an exception. We can get you a different case where that is true,” and then they didn’t get back to me for weeks. In that time, I’d applied, interviewed, and accepted a job elsewhere. Fuck lying employers.
The last time a job drug-tested me, I was honest. I told the management about my weed use. Their response? “I don’t think the test even looks for that.”
It was a saliva test, btw. Instead of peeing in a cup, I had to hold this weird test stick in my mouth for a minute. I passed.
Damn, Uncle for the win!