ION, a toy of Annabel's that's supposed to make music only when you spin a wheel or press buttons has taken to playing random snatches of music when no one is touching it. What's going on here?

1. Low batteries
2. Something's just broken/shorted out
3. The toy is alive! ALIVE! Run! Flee!
4. Annabel is controlling it with her spicy brain. Decisions about her education are irrelevant, as she will rule the world by age 5.

I was engaged for a year at 20- married at 21 after 2 months of dating, 4 months of living together and 3 years of friendship. Seems to have worked (mostly) just fine.

Man, it just hit me that not only have Mr. H and I been married longer than we've known each other- I passed that a while back. But I've known him now for over a decade.

ETA: I should make the above clearer. I've known Mr. H for a total of almost 12 years now. I'd known him for 3-4 before we dated and we've been married for almost 8.

Not all parents who homeschool do it because they're in a craxy religious group. Sometimes public schools SUCK and are actively dangerous, and private school is cost-prohibitive.

A number of my sister's musician friends were homeschooled to allow for more time/emphasis on their music. That was the first I'd really heard of people home schooling for non religious reasons.

FWIW, some of them really suffered socially and just in terms of life skills. Mostly not in irreparable ways, but sometimes... I'm thinking of one family in particular - five kids, all talented musicians, all home schooled - and with I think one exception, all pretty fucked-up adults. One is actually missing and hasn't been seen or heard from in several years.

And yeah, I know that's a way out-there example. But it does sometime seem to me that for some families, home schooling just incubates (and insulates) the craxy.

Like Hec, though, I believe in the public schools as a fundamental foundation of a the kind of society we want to have. And I think by starving and denigrating them, we're losing something so so important and I wish I had solutions instead of laments, and I have to run out now so I shouldn't have even started this without the time to put my thoughts down the way I want to, and no, this is not how they taught me to write in the public schools. Later, y'all.

I actually had a friend try to talk me out of getting married because I was betraying feminism.

"Would you like some insanity with your troll logic?"

FWIW, some of them really suffered socially and just in terms of life skills.

Well, I think I suffered socially and in terms of life skills at my particular public school. At least, I feel like I spent a good chunk of my 20's playing catch-up compared to most of my college friends. Most of whom were also products of public schools, just better ones.

3. The toy is alive! ALIVE! Run! Flee!

Yes. Only the toy might just be possessed. Either flee or grab a sword.

Yes. Only the toy might just be possessed. Either flee or grab a sword.

And some holy water if you have it.

Mr. H and I been married longer than we've known each other

Damn, how'd you work that?

I know I was really lucky in my particular public schools, but at least part of that was the fact that my parents paid (less than private school money) to send me out of my district for high school.

What Teppy said. In the next four years, DH and I know we need to either move to a place with excellent public schools or put ourselves in a position to afford private ones. But if that doesn't work out, I feel like homeschooling Annabel rather than enrolling her in a subpar school is the only responsible thing to do.

FWIW, the nephew is attending Seattle Public Schools, and isn't getting a subpar education. (He's at Coe.)

Thus far, the various district problems haven't had much of a negative effect on the product, though results vary from school to school. Historically, this has been true of the district for as long as I can remember (it's the district where Dad started his teaching career). Shoreline, however (the district where Dad finished his teaching career) has a better academic reputation, or did last I checked. The Seattle Times schools overviews are quite helpful for comparing actual results vs. reputations.

I actually had a friend try to talk me out of getting married because I was betraying feminism.

Ha! Okay, this? No. I have a list of reasons why my friend should not get married, but this is not one of them.

I also may a leetle bit be projecting my own skin-crawlingly acute fear of any kind of commitment. A bit. Maybe.