The Most Active Threads Since Friday

The most active thread since my last post was the thread about the closing of Nottingham school that I discussed last week. I'll skip that one and start with the next most active thread which was titled, "Kate Middleton looks really happy lately" and posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum. The original poster started the thread by posting a series of photos in which the Princess of Wales is smiling. Started on Friday, the thread has only reached 14 pages which means that, despite a few efforts, the thread has not been taken over by posts about Meghan Markle. Had that been the case, this thread would be at least 50 pages and likely have been locked by now. As a rule, I avoid reading Royal Family threads so there is not much that I will be able to say about the responses. From skimming, it looks like many posters are not convinced that the Princess is truly happy. Others think that she is happy, but only because the scheming and conniving in which they believe she has engaged has paid off. To be sure, a few agree with the original poster and think that she does seem happy and not for nefarious reasons. The thread also seems to have veered off into a general discussion about the British Royal Family in general and the pros and cons of the family in the current day.

The next most active thread was also posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum. Titled, "Brittney Spears Slapped", the original poster links to a TMZ story involving Brittney Spears and NBA star Victor Wembanyama. Wembanyama, accompanied by a body guard, was outside a Las Vegas restaurant when Spears approached him from behing and either "tapped" or "grabbed" him depending on who is telling the story. According to Spears, Wembanyama's bodyguard then backhanded her in the face. The original poster accepts Spears' story as true, criticizes the bodyguard, and supports Spears' pressing charges. The resulting discussion is divided between those who agree with the original poster and those who think that the bodyguard was simply doing his job and preventing anyone from physically touching his client. This is intermixed with posts suggesting that Spears is no longer much of a celebrity and probably wasn't recognized by the young French athlete. Several of those responding don't seem to know basic facts about this incident and believe that Wembanyama himself slapped Spears. As a result, he is criticized as a "punk" and a profane term for a bodypart. Things changed somewhat on page 6 of the 13-page thread when the Las Vegas police revealed that, according to security video, the bodyguard had brushed Spears' arm away and she had slapped herself in the face. As a result, no charges were pressed against the bodyguard. This was not enough to change the minds of several diehard Spears fans who continued to insist that she was the victim in this incident. Others were more disturbed by the British accent in which she can be heard speaking on video of the scene.

The next most active thread was an old one about Montgomery County Public Schools that was revived over the weekend. I had almost forgotten about discussing it back in May. But, since I've already written about it, I'll go on to the next thread which was titled, "DH’s therapist refused to talk to our marriage therapist" and posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum. The original poster is upset because, as the title says, her husband's therapist refuses to have any discussions with their marriage therapist. The original poster says that her husband has given his consent to his therapist and signed a release. But, his therapist refuses to talk to the other therapist without a court order. The original poster is also upset with her husband who she doesn't think is doing enough to get his therapist to cooperate. Several posters ask the original poster what she hopes to accomplish by having the two therapists talk to each other. Her response is that she hopes her husband's therapist has information that might speed up their treatment plan. Posters suggest that her husband doesn't really want his therapist to talk to the marriage therapist, an idea to which the original poster is open to accepting. The original poster's husband's therapist bases her refusal to have discussions on the fact that she is "old school". The original poster's main interest is in understanding whether or not this is really an "old school" practice or something her husband's therapist invented. A couple of posters are convinced that this issue is evidence that the marriage therapy is not working and probably won't work. As such, one poster suggests that they stop spending money on a therapist and, instead, put it toward a mediator.

The final thread at which I'll look today was posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum. Titled, "Open Marriage with kids", the original poster simply asks, "If you’re in an open marriage, do your kids know?" If there was ever a thread that had "likely dumpster fire" written all over it, it was this one. The entire topic of open marriages is very controversial in the forum and adding kids to the mix is simply throwing gasoline on a fire. Most of those responding don't believe this is the sort of thing about which children should know. One poster warns that they found out about another couple's open marriage when their kids talked about it at school. Others simply think it would be confusing or troubling to the kids. I haven't read many posts in this thread but based upon what I have read, it seems much of the thread is more a debate about open marriages and not really responsive to the original poster's question. One poster who says she grew up in an area with lots of alternative marriage arrangements said the kids from those families mostly didn't have an issue with it. Instead, it was kids whose parents were workaholics or divorced that tended to have problems.