Tuesday's Most Active Threads

The top thread in both number of replies and number of views is titled, "Why do I find it annoying when childfree people say they are tired?" and posted in the "General Parenting Discussion" forum. The original poster complains that individuals who don't have children occasionally stay out late and then complain later that they didn't get enough sleep. This bothers the original poster because, due to being the parent of young children, she hasn't had a good night's sleep in years. Having been there, done that, I am not completely unsympathetic to the original poster and I can understand the urge to vent on an anonymous parenting forum. But, I know from experience that such threads are not going to be well-received. The thread is nine pages, very few of which I will bother to read. But, based on the few posts I skimmed over, the replies seem to be lots of variations of telling the original poster to quit whining with quite a few comments about the lack of understanding of non-parents for the plight of parents sprinkled in. A common phenomenon on DCUM when a poster complains about having things more difficult than someone else, is that posters describe others who have things even worse. So, of course that happens in this thread as well. The original poster has three kids and hasn't slept well in years? Well, another poster has four children and hasn't had a good night's sleep in decades. It's the old, "I walked six miles to school in 4 feet of snow uphill both ways" routine played out in the context of parenting. And, to be sure, on DCUM no matter how bad you think your situation might be, there will be someone who is personally experiencing or knows someone who is experiencing something worse. You will never get the gold medal for suffering on this website. I suppose there is the odd poster who feels better knowing that others have it worse then them, but such posters are probably not starting this type of thread in the first place.

The thread with the second highest number of replies and fourth highest number of views yesterday was titled, "Are you getting your elem/middle school kids boosted?" and posted in the "Health and Medicine" forum. The original poster says that she felt "seriously judged" by her pediatrician when she said that she wasn't getting the Covid booster vaccine for her 12 year old son. She wants to know what others are doing for their children. Right off the bat I have to point out the irony of a poster who is apparently ignoring the advice of her child's doctor, requesting information from anonymous DCUM posters. Moreover, I am not sure that what DCUM needed is another thread about Covid vaccines. There is no need to read this thread as the numerous previous threads on similar topics provide a pretty clear indication of where this thread will go. Some posters will be adamant that each shot is extremely important, others will consider the vaccines paramount to child abuse. Some will have complicated formulas that almost require a calculus degree to understand under which circumstances they will or will not consider the vaccines. Both vaccine supporters and vaccine critics will claim that their position is based on "the science" and criticize those with different opinions of ignoring "the data". Posters on both sides of the debate will post links to supporting articles which will be completely ignored by posters with differing opinions. In the end, the only thing that will be changed by this thread are DCUM's traffic statistics which will show a slight bump as a result of the extra activity.

Yesterday's thread with the second most number of views and fifth highest number of replies was titled, "DH put hands on 8 y/o son's neck" and posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum. The original poster says that her eight year old son was sent to his room for fighting with his younger brother. When her husband entered the room, the boy started throwing punches at him and her husband responded by putting his hands on the child's neck and "throwing him on his bed". The original poster's husband defended his actions as self-defense. The original poster asks "Where do I go from here?" In subsequent posts, the original poster clarifies that her son shows no sign of injury such as marks or bruises and both the son and husband agree that no pressure was put around the child's neck (making it unclear how the husband was able to throw the child). Of course, in strict DCUM tradition, the original poster was immediately told to get a divorce. Some posters suggested therapy or anger management classes for the husband, or else divorce. A few posters argue that the child is at fault and his behavioral issues should be addressed. Quite a few posters shared stories of similar experiences. The original poster did not witness the altercation and is basing her version of events on what her husband and child have said. As a result, some posters are concerned about the accuracy of the details, especially whether the father could have influenced the son's version. In the most recent posts in the thread at the time of this writing, there is a trend toward seeing participants in the thread as overreacting. For her part, the original poster seems to have abandoned the thread last night and not yet returned.

The last thread at which I'll look today is a fairly unique situation involving Thanksgiving. Titled, "My husband wants Chinese food on Thanksgiving" and posted in the "Food, Cooking, and Restaurants" forum, the thread is more a relationship topic rather than a food issue. Coming in third in both number of replies and number of views yesterday, the thread is about the original poster's husband who traditionally cooks Thanksgiving dinner for their immediate family and both sets of parents. This year, due to being under stress from work, the original poster's husband has decided that he doesn't want to cook and prefers to order Chinese food. The original poster believes this won't go over well with either set of parents. Most of the initial responses strongly support the husband, who the original poster also supports, but continues to worry about their parents' reactions. Several posters responded with ideas for providing a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with less effort in order to appease the parents. There are also suggestions for combining traditional dishes and Chinese food. While some posters argue that Thanksgiving should only be observed with traditional dishes, others proclaim that Chinese food is a considerably better choice. While generally there is sympathy for the husband, a few posters criticized him and believe he should cook the dinner as always. There is also a side argument about whether Chinese food is more appropriate for Christmas. One poster — who proves to be the only true DCUMer in the thread — suggests getting a divorce.