What got me over it was a summer gymnastics class my Dad signed me up for. As part of learning tumbling they taught us how to fall and not get hurt, and it improved my confidence tremendously.

...whereas I was too scared to do one of those penny drops off the bars (where your legs are hoooked over the bar, and then you swing so you let go and end up standing?). And they suggested maybe I shouldn't come back to the next session, that gymnastics might not be my sport.

meara'ing:

On the other hand, it is kind of funny that their placebo is quite literally a sugar pill.

Okay, forget the placebo issue, who wants to give their kid a sugar pill?

But what about when it does? I'd be loathe to gamble a kid's welfare on it ("No, Timmy, give Mommy back the penicillin and take these instead!"), but my parents dosed me up with rum toddies from the git go.

Yeah, but - for a lot of things that actually does work. Hot, sugary rum (whiskey in my case, both as child and adult) - heat eases the sore throat, sugar can ease the tummy, the liquor can reduce aches and make you sleepy. I'm not advocating keeping your kids in a drunken stupor any time they get the sniffles, but I wouldn't call that a placebo.

I bought semi-blackout drapes from IKEA that have worked wonders. Of course, the newfound darkness highlighted the fact that my router's blinking lights are bright enough to light a runway. I ended up taping over the lights.

I use a sleep mask, which is a habit I picked up when I was working crazy shifts so sometimes my only real sleep would be like 11 am to 2 pm. I can sleep without it, but it really makes a difference when there's too much ambient light.

Also, I'm with meara in the baby aspirin love.

I use a sleep mask, which is a habit I picked up when I was working crazy shifts so sometimes my only real sleep would be like 11 am to 2 pm. I can sleep without it, but it really makes a difference when there's too much ambient light.

Sleep masks freak me out. I'm not entirely sure why.

I can't handle anything on my face. I've been able to pull a bandana on when sick and the light is too much, but I have to be really sick.

ION, OW. I was cleaning with bleach earlier and I may have inhaled too many fumes. I can't stop smelling bleach and my head hurts like hell (it wasn't even a strong solution, so I'm guessing I'm just being hyper-sensitive.) Sucks.

I'm not sure how I feel about intentional placebo usage. I think bandages and kisses are also placebos, just "acceptable" ones. I'm trying to figure out how old a kid would have to be for the placebo to be in demand and for them to passed off with another candy of some sort.

I do think this assertion:

Dr. David Spiegel, a psychiatrist who studies placebos at the Stanford School of Medicine, said conditioning children to reach for relief in a pill could also make them easy targets for quacks and pharmaceutical pitches later. “They used to sell candied cigarettes to kids to get them used to the idea of playing with cigarettes,” he said.

is just over the top and stupid sounding.

Aww.....a cute picture with Christina Aguilera trying to get people to Rock the Vote. Apparently it's from a video of her singing America the Beautiful to Max.

When I was a kid, my older sisters were really good at freaking me out. We moved around alot so there were always strange bedrooms to get used to. Once in a hotel they read the fire escape instructions out loud and I couldn't sleep because I was afraid of fire! I was 5!

Later that year they locked me in a closet in the attic of the old victorian we were renting in Schenectady, and I saw the devil walk across the back of the closet - the Underwood Red devil, that is.

When we first moved to San Dimas, CA we were in a one-story with wide windows. They spent the first night speculating about how large a big cat could jump through the window. Was it too small for a tiger? Big enough for a cougar?

Finally, I never slept alone in a room until I was 25 and I had to leave the light on for the first week. I couldn't get used to waking up and not hearing anyone else breathing.

Now I have blackout curtains, wear silicone earplugs, nose strips and if I have to sleep during the day, I put a stretchy hair band for a mask.

Also, maybe Jenna's not a Republican?

The Baltimore Sun is all obsessed about how she and her husband are moving into a house in South Baltimore. And she's *gasp* maybe applying for a position in a public charter school in the city. I've no love lost for her father, but damn. What an awful age to be a presidential kid. At least at teen-and-under, you are expected to be a kid and mostly allotted that space. To be making a go as an adult under that scrutiny? Uhg.

I think I don't like the placebo thing because of the deception regarding something as serious as pain. I know I'm a stoic (I haven't even taken advil for the bleach headache) but I also know I'm kinda fucked up about believing the pills will actually work when they are supposed to (see: nasty ear infections) that I'm reluctant to encourage a belief that they will when they aren't even supposed to and it's just playing mental games. I mean, GREAT if the mental games work. But I kinda don't want to play like that.

I guess the placebo doesn't bother me because I've had enough experience where the real-deal meds are supposed to work and they don't.

But I don't take a lot of meds, zyrtec not withstanding.

So there's a site called Baby Steals, which is a lot like the woot sites, where you get a deal a day. They have the zoobie giraffe for today for half the usual price. And I totally want one, except I bought two zoobie monkeys just a few days ago and can't justify the $20 when I don't have $20.

Maybe I need to stop looking at the interweb.