Wednesday's Most Active Threads

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Handling fancy destination wedding with small kids" and posted in the "Family Relationships" forum. The original poster is thinking about how to handle her brother-in-law's wedding which will be held next year in an expensive tourist town located two time zones away. Her main concern is what to do about her two young children. In past blog posts, I've discussed threads about destination weddings and threads about children and weddings. So, I expected a wedding that both involves children and a destination wedding would be full of challenges. But, it turned out to be almost completely to the contrary. In contrast to past threads in which children were not invited, the original poster's children are not only invited, one of them has been asked to be the ring bearer. Where in previous cases finding childcare at the location of the destination wedding seemed all but impossible, the original poster has a nanny that they could bring along and her own parents, who are also invited to the wedding, have offered to provide childcare. The original poster is reluctant to bring the nanny due to the added expense. She originally forgot to mention her parent's offer and, after bringing it up, still seemed hesitant to turn to them. Those responding simply don't see many hurdles in this situation, but instead, see many readily available solutions. They recommend renting an Airbnb instead of staying in a hotel and then bringing the nanny. Alternatively, they suggest missing a couple of the planed events in order to handle childcare. After it is revealed that the original poster's parents have already offered to help with childcare, that becomes the obvious solution. Many posters actually appear exasperated that solutions are so easily available and are frustrated with the original poster for not recognizing it.

Next was a thread posted in the "Tweens and Teens" forum. Titled, "Mother surprised DD with tickets to a concert she doesn’t want to go to", the original poster says that her mother bought her 14-year-old daughter tickets to a concert — which later turns out to be Taylor Swift — but her daughter does not want to go to the show and the original poster wants to know if she should force her to attend. The daughter would have to travel to the concert which will be in Miami next year and the original poster's mother is planning to attend with her. The original poster appears to be trolling. Last week she started a thread in which she said that her mother had died the previous week. That, of course, could explain why her daughter doesn't want to attend a concert with her, but it also makes it easy to decline the gift. Moreover, a couple of times the original poster, without mentioning that she was the original poster, bashed Taylor Swift fans. Regardless of her daughter's feelings about Taylor Swift, the original poster clearly has no interest in the artist or her fans. The original poster also follows a pattern of adding more details as the thread goes along which increases the drama. In the initial post, very little information about the concert was provided. Then it turned out to be a Taylor Swift show. Then, it is in Miami, and on a school night, presumably requiring missing at least a day of school. On page three, the original poster adds that her daughter is on the autism spectrum, but then spends the rest of the thread emphasizing that she is "high functioning" and that it barely affects her. I really don't know what is going on here, but I sort of feel that the original poster is dealing with a real issue, it is just not the issue that she is describing. But, maybe she could find some solace in the lyrics of a Taylor Swift song?

Next was a thread was titled, "Homeless(?) young guy who hangs out at Turtle Park?" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. For those who are not familiar with "Turtle Park", it is officially known as "Friendship Recreation Center" and is located in the heart of upper northwest DC. Because there are several turtle play structures, it is normally referred to as "Turtle Park". The original poster asks about a young man that she has seen sleeping at various times in the park. She has also noticed him wandering around the neighborhood. While he doesn't appear to have been harassing or otherwise bothering anyone, the original poster asks who can be called to get help for him. It doesn't escape anyone's notice that the original poster is likely a middle-aged White woman, who might even have a bob haircut, who is asking to speak to the manager. This significantly affects the nature of many of the responses which suggest that the original poster does not actually care about this guy's needs, but only wants him removed from the park. Another poster responds to say that the man's parents live in the neighborhood and that this behavior has gone on for years. Moreover, she claims that he has exposed himself while urinating in the park. She says that police and social services have been contacted, but the behavior continues. A number of posters latch on to the public urination allegation to justify their desire that the man be removed from the park. Several posters speculate that he is a drug addict or has mental health issues. One even suggests he might be a sexual predator. There is considerable discussion about the difficulties of addressing the needs of adults with mental health issues. Despite the apparent wishes of several posters, they can't simply be rounded up and forced into shelters. One poster blamed the young man's parents for his behavior, which provoked many objections. Somehow the thread got diverted into a debate about defunding the police. I removed those posts since they were off-topic and, as a result, the thread was not only no longer the third most active yesterday, it was not even in the top ten anymore.

The final thread at which I'll look today was posted in the "Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)" forum. Titled, "Republicans Handing Out LIES at BTSN", the original poster explains that she accepted handouts from both Democratic and Republican volunteers at a back to school night that she attended. She says that the Republican literature was "just lies about local school testing scores". She checked the test results online and not a single data point from the Republican paper was accurate. As a result, she says that she will not vote for Republicans in the upcoming school board elections. Reaction to this post is basically what you would expect in today's partisan environment. Those who side with Democrats agreed that the Republicans lied and claimed that this was simply normal behavior for them. Republican-leaning posters claimed that even if the Republican-provided data was wrong, they were at least specific and their general point was still correct. A number of posters took the "pox on both their houses" approach and brushed the whole thing off because "politicians of both parties always lie". Many Republicans wanted to relitigate the school closures that occurred during the Covid pandemic. Time has passed and several posters no longer remember exactly what happened during that time. This resulted in several debates about the closures and their length. One of the favorite arguments of Republicans is that Democrats closed schools and children's education suffered as a result. Undoubtedly, there is some truth to this, but it ignores that alternatives were likely worse. Moreover, it appears that in order to demonstrate the harm done to education, Republicans are now relying on out-dated data. At least that is true in the case highlighted by the original poster.