But yeah, I'm also kinda concerned with missing some of the good and bad that comes from the regular school.

And she's missing the good and bad that comes from an office (or whatever) job, too.

Victoria's Secret no longer carries my size, but I can get it online, says them. I said fuck that and got myself a Bali. In pink.

I feel your pain. I discovered that the stores no longer carry the type of bra I like in the stores. fuckers. I think that if they don't carry it in the store, you should get free shipping.

I'm ashamed to admit he's much better off at the school than he would be with me.

Why are you ashamed? You do mothery things better for him than a Kristin or Kat would, but they've worked long and hard to be able to do teachery things.

If I wanted to homeschool a putative child, it wouldn't be because I thought I'd be a better teacher mano a mano than many of the well-trained people out there. It would be because I was suspicious of a school system, or wanted the kid to get one on one attention.

However, I was very startled when I went from Montessori to regular school, and then from my small class-size high school to university classes that were almost as big as my entire high school.

So one on one ain't all that -- it sets up faulty expectations.

I discovered that the stores no longer carry the type of bra I like in the stores.

The satin ones? Yeah -- this prompted me to go to Nordstrom's and get measured, and now I'm cheerily Wacoal's bitch.

The satin ones?

yup. I mean, I order from the catalog as a general rule, because I'm a lazy cow, but I should have the OPTION of buying one in a store in an emergency. I found another bra at Nordy's that I love, but it was $60 on sale, so I won't be buying whole bunch of those.

So one on one ain't all that -- it sets up faulty expectations.

Actually, that's kind of funny -- you really could have spent your whole life in small-group situations. I mean, it's not that there aren't colleges like that, and as a grown-up, it's not that hard to keep your life small-scale, if you see what I'm saying.

Lots of calm-ma for Cindy and screening-ma for Christopher.

DH and I have discussed home schooling, too. But we bought our house based on the school district. It's one of the best performing in the state, so I'm not overly concerned with the quality. I'm a product of public education myself.

I also think I might be too scattered and unorganized enough to make home schooling disasterous if not crazy-making for me and my kids.

Went shopping to get a much needed bra and pants. Victoria's Secret no longer carries my size, but I can get it online, says them. I said fuck that and got myself a Bali. In pink.

Allyson, I went in to VS two weeks ago and learned they were no longer carrying 40's in ANY cup size and that I would now have to order my DD's online. The only upside of this was that the store I was at was cleaning out their inventory of my bras so I picked up 3 BbV bras at half price.

Bali is also very nice, though. I have two that are still very comfy. I need to look up the model and buy more.

An update on the Spongebob story.

[link]

When you actually read what the big objectionable thing is, it confirms that these people are actually crazy.

it's not that hard to keep your life small-scale, if you see what I'm saying

Sure, if you never have to go to the DMV or the INS. Until I left high school, I never had to contend with being utterly unimportant or anonymous. At university, it was something I could (and did) combat through actions of my own, but once out? Nope, I couldn't have done it.

My largest class in high school had thirty people. My smallest had two. No one skipped, ever, because even though attendance was only taken once a day, staff would notice if you weren't at lunch.

Getting to university with such a marked contrast in official supervision, coupled with lack of parental watching -- well, it was a transition, and those happen. But I think the shift in scale for me was way bigger a shock than the shift in countries. I didn't think it possible to learn or be of value (or be valued) in the new environment. The world afterwards would have swallowed me whole, I think, had I not learnt that then.