Tuesday's Most Active Threads

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "what is with parents serving alcohol at parties for kids who are 15 and 16?" and posted in the "Private & Independent Schools" forum. The original poster says that she has kids in two different "Big 3" priviate schools and in the past week both kids have been invited to parties marking either the end of the school year or graduation at which alcohol has been served by parents. The kids range in age from 15 - 18. When the original poster asked one of her children about this, she was told, "it's a private school thing mom. All the parents do it." The original poster asks if this is really true and if she is just out of touch. The responses to this post are, in my opinion, odd. This is basically a "yes" or "no" question, but rather than provide such answers, posters point out that drinking by teenagers is common in Europe, that drinking occurs at public school parties also, and that Americans are puritanical. So, I guess the answer is "yes" and these kinds of parties are common. In spite of this, several posters side with the original poster in thinking these parties are not a good idea. Some are simply opposed to young people drinking, but others are more concerned about legal liability and kids possibly driving home drunk. Comparing attitudes about drinking between the US and Europe is common throughout this thread, though even some Europeans opposed these type of parties. One topic of contention is what this behavior indicates about parenting. Several posters insist that adults who serve alchohol at parties are trying to be "cool" or friends with their kids. These posters argue that kids need "parents", not "friends" and consider this to be terrible parenting. Several posters said that they no longer let their children visit homes of parents that are known to serve alcohol to those who are under-aged. I didn't read every post in this thread, but I didn't see any posts from parents saying that they actually hosted such events and offering a defense of their behavior. Generally, justifications were of the "it's common in Europe" type.

Yesterday's next most active thread was actually the thread in the political forum about Ukraine's victory over Russia being inevitable. That is an old thread that was revitalized recently. I already covered that thread some time ago, so I'll move to the next one which was posted in the "College and University Discussion". Titled, "Help me figure out which schools are realistic", the original poster describes her daughter's grade point average, test scores, and other attributes relevant to a college application and asks what colleges or universities would be realistic goals for her child. DCUM posters are deep in the weeds on this sort of topic and, if you are interested in the subject, you will find lots of opinions. The value of such opinions is debatable, but at least people sound like the know about what they are talking. There is lots of discussion of "SLACS", "ED", "RD", "T20s", "ECs" and other acronyms that can make the college forum a challenge for neophytes. Similarly, posters delve into acceptance rates, strengths and weaknesses of various majors, and the type of financial assistance available. Posters propose various strategies, but then stress that it is all a crapshoot and that, because colleges are emphasizing diversity, the original poster's White daughter won't have much of a chance anyway. This provokes considerable discussion about the various advantages different groups of applicants have or don't have. Anyone familiar with this forum will be well-versed in such discussion. Some of the more useful posts are those from parents of kids with similar stats who are able to discuss their children's experiences. Several specific schools are suggested, but the main takeaway is the need to have a plan that takes a range of factors into consideration and targets a variety of institutions. There are plenty of ideas for such a plan provided in this thread.

The next most active thread was titled, "Meta analysis of Covid Lockdowns" and posted in the "Health and Medicine" forum. I am really tired of COVID threads. The pandemic has truly left a deep mark on the psyches of some posters and, as such, these threads are little more than expressions of lived trauma that all tend to go the same way. This thread starts out with the original poster including a short excerpt from a recently-released report that contends that analysis shows that COVID lockdowns had negligible impact and, in the United States only 4,000 lives were saved. I made a good faith attempt to read this thread so that I could properly summarize it, but I just don't have it in me. If you are interested in 8 pages of the same arguments we've been hearing since the beginning of the pandemic, be my guest. I've had enough.

I normally discuss four most active threads, but the next most active thread is the one about marriage being a horrible deal for women which I discussed back in March and the most active thread after that is the thread in Website Feedback about homophobia that I discussed last week. The threads after that were, frankly, not all that active. So, I'll just mention them so that you are aware of what they are. The first of the bunch is titled, "Name the movie in less than a five world quote" and posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum. Posters are supposed to provide a short quote from a movie and other posters guess which movie the quote is from. After that is a thread titled, "I tattled on my BIL" and posted in the "Family Relationships" forum. I can't quite figure out what the original poster is explaining but it seems to have to do with her brother-in-law neglecting children for whom he is supposed to be caring and the original poster telling his mother about it. Next was a thread titled, "Best major for a kid who is interested in consulting" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. The title is self-explanatory so I don't think further explanation is necessary. And, finally, rounding out the top ten most active threads was a thread titled, "Boundaries assessment update 2023" and posted in the "Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)" forum. This thread is about the possibility of school boundary revisions in FCPS.