ION, can I say how much I loathe loathe loathe those stupid stick-figure family stickers with the names that people put on the back of their SUVs?

'Cuz guess what? Now I know the names, number and gender of all of your children. And many times, I also know your names and the name of your cat and/or dog. And I can probably find where you live from your license plate number.

"Hi, Tina. I'm a friend of your mom, Kathleen, and she sent me to pick you up from school because she had to take Fluffy to the vet. Get in the car and we'll go pick up your brothers, Tommy and Billy."

I thought the same thing the first time I saw one of those, Sean.

Yeah, Sean, now ya got me all creeped out.

Ugh, Laga. I wish peace for your family.

{{{{Miracleborns}}}}} Great new job~ma for Joe.

I thought the same thing the first time I saw one of those, Sean.

Same here. I still can't believe that those things have caught on.

It's like the first law of parenting now. You don't put your kid's name on his lunch box or backpack. You *don't* want strangers knowing his name.

People are stupid.

Those things are like begging someone to snatch your kids.

I have occasionally thought about leaving a note on cars like that, but the parents would probably just get angry/sick the police on me, so I've never done it.

Once I saw that someone had drawn an extra stick figure in the dirt at the end and captioned it "Paco". Now I want to add Paco to every minivan I see so he'll be the Kilroy of "wash me" art.

My Mom seems to be taking her "birthday present" very well. She says this only confirms that we were right about Asshat and maybe this will help my sister see that he is Not a Good Person.

None of the ones I've seen around here have the names. What I wonder is what the kids who show up after you put up the stick figures think--assuming, of course, you keep the car long enough for the new kid to count the stick figures and realize he's not there.

Your sister needs to dump the asshat, Laga. I suppose that's still too much to wish for, for the moment, isn't it?

None of the ones I've seen around here have the names.

I've seen them without names, and those don't really bother me. It's a little tacky, but without names, it doesn't really qualify as major parental idiocy to me.

Mom says sis called her and said Asshat is still willing to talk, he just wants to do it at their house and invite everybody. This is very reminiscent to me of conversations I used to have with my (now ex) husband...

"Yes of course I will do this thing that is very important to you!"

"Great! When?"

"Sometime."