Question for the cat-knowledgeable: Finn and new kitty are still getting along, hanging out, playing, and generally being buds, but Finn is still barely eating. Is that normal, given the disruption in his routine?

Are you still feeding them in separate rooms? It could be that Finn just doesn't want to lose track of Spidey. Maybe try feeding them within sight of each other?

Matt, some cats just cannot bear to be held

Miss Erzabet No Biting, who will cry until I let her under the blanket on my lap, or who will herd me to a chair so she can sit on my lap and be cuddled, HATES being picked up. Picking up is VERY BAD for Erzabets, and must not ever be done.

Susan, we should grab coffee and commiserate. I swear.

I see kids of all ages with all kinds of accounts so these are my passing not parental thoughts

I think if you can monitor it, it might be ok. She deals with some 14 yr old stuff, but maybe you can make it clear to her that you are concerned about the over 18 stuff ( or over 21 ) and that will make you shut it down.

I don't know if you have any limits on screen time/computer time. if she gets an hour a day on the computer - keep that limit in place - so she has to make choices?

and if she is like a lot of the smart geeky kids i know ( and I was like ) most are pretty self censoring because there were things we didn't want to deal ( sex in stories was boring, uberviolence was unfun , etc)

maybe a few rules - like avatars are ok, but no real pictures - that sort of thing

All of my cats learn to be handled, because it has to happen. However, that is not always a painless or 100% perfect project

Man, we were all about the sex and uberviolence in our tweens.

In hindsight, we probably shouldn't have been reading and watching what we were, but hey.

PM, that is my thought too. A 12, I was reading a lot of John Jakes books. And watching Clint Eastwood. Both with my parents knowledge.

My kids are super self censoring. They didn't make it through Guardians of the Galaxy because too scary for them. Hell. There are some Odd Squads on PBS that they will only watch if we sit with them.

I read Flowers in the Attic on the bus on the way to 7th grade, which in retrospect was not a good choice. Casper hates it when I swear, so I think she's kind of self-censoring for now. Dillo (8) is scared to watch Apollo 13 at the moment because he thinks it will be scary. (But he swears like whoa, so.)

I was reading Harlequin and Silhouette romances in the 7th grade. A friend and I had a subscription where they would send us 4 books a month, so I assume Mom knew I was reading them.

I read Flowers in the Attic on the bus, too!

Flowers in the Attic (and the sequels) and Judy Blume's Forever were the major bus books. And The Thorn Birds, because Catholic school.

I think the thing that really messed me up was watching The Exorcist too young, and that was the edited for TV version. I think I was nine. WAY too scary. And reading The Shining when I was ten. That was a bad idea. My parents didn't know about any of that.

I remember in fourth or fifth grade, our Barbies sometimes got divorced and often had dramatic arguments, because we all watched soaps (or least absorbed them while they were on) with our moms. I think one of the Barbies got "raped," as well, which we seemed to think was just a very demanding seduction.

Sara has email, but she can only check it when I let her use the computer, and she forgets about it for weeks at a time. When she's online, she likes YouTube and Instagram, but Instagram is only for looking at her friends' accounts, since she doesn't have a way to take or upload pictures. The day of her needing a phone is coming, though, especially if I'm working full-time.