Wednesday's Most Active Threads

The most active thread yesterday continued to be the Gaza war thread but the next most active thread was titled, "White flight from MCPS" and posted in the "Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)" forum. Posters in almost all of the public school forums seemed completely convinced that their school systems are collapsing. There is thread after thread complaining about one aspect or another of schools. This thread is another of that genre. The original poster, after three tries, managed to embed a graphic that was taken from a Board of Education presentation that showed trendlines of enrollment by race and ethnicity. The graphic clearly showed a decline in White, Non-Hispanic enrollment and an increase in Hispanic enrollment. Universally, this seems to be considered a bad thing, though exactly why is never quite explained. Several posters offer various explanations for the enrollment trends. One poster blames segregation of schools and suggests boundary changes might fix it. Others say that educated or affluent families are choosing private schools. Some posters don't think White families are fleeing, but rather fewer White families are having children and the ones that do are having fewer children. In their view, the number of White students is decreasing because the number of White children is decreasing, not because White families are leaving MCPS. A number of posters blame the changes on immigration. Along with this were a number of posts blaming Hispanics for a number of ills that plague the schools. Before too long, the thread completely lost its focus on enrollment trends and, instead, simply became a litany of complaints about MCPS. A huge number of posters appear concerned with vaping which has apparently taken over every bathroom in middle and high schools. The most recent posts in the thread are debating which ethnicity has committed the most gruesome crime.

The next most active thread was posted in the "General Parenting Discussion" forum and is an actual parenting post. Given dominance of political posts lately, it is nice to discuss parenting for a change. Titled, "Lack of independent play is creating mental health crisis among kids today -- and overprotective parenting is to blame", the original poster linked to an NPR article that she has apparently summarized in the thread's title. The original poster adds that kids don't become "very capable adults because they aren't allowed to just GO OUT AND PLAY!" Most of those replying agree that kids these days are overly programmed and have too many structured activities. Some say that, with both parents working, kids are enrolled in daycare and preschool and don't have time for independent play. But, I am not sure that daycare and preschool-aged kids are the ones you'd expect to run around unsupervised in the neighborhood anyway. Some parents say that where they live, it isn't safe or traffic is too dangerous for kids to be outside alone. Of course, many posters blame too much screen time. I didn't read very many posts in this thread but skimming through it I came across a post about a man and his wife's OnlyFans page. I don't know what that has to do with this topic, but it could add a completely new dimension to free-range parenting. There appear to be a lot of posters commenting on how different things were when they were kids. Related to that are a number of posts about how families are smaller these days so kids don't have as many relatives with which to play. Generally, I'd attribute less independence of kids to the fact that an entire generation of parents, or more, had been programmed to believe that their children will be kidnapped the minute they step out of the door without a parent hovering over them. There are a significant number of DCUM posters who seem to believe they are personally in danger of being seized by human traffickers every time they go to Target. Do you think they are going to let their children go outside without supervision?

Next was a thread titled, "Predict DW's response when I tell her I would like her to lose some weight" and posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum. The original poster says his wife has gained about 20-25% more weight over the past couple of years. He says that he has stayed fit. Of course the original poster was immediately called a troll which either he is or he may as well be. Obviously, this type of post is not going to go over well with our users. Most of those responding advise him not to have this discussion and, if he does, have plans for medical treatment. Posters assure him that no woman needs to be told that she has gained weight and none of them are happy about it. Many posters try to explain why his wife might have gained weight and why it may be difficult for her to do anything about it. Somehow the thread got diverted to discussions of foreign wives who, some posters appear to believe, don't gain weight. As far as I could tell, the original poster's only subsequent contribution to the thread was to say that exercise doesn't help with weight loss. According to him, only eating less makes a difference. That, of course, is an endless debate in itself. Basically, this thread was absurd from the get go and doesn't seem to have improved from there.

The final thread for today was posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum. Titled, "Love DH but he’s low sex drive…considering a business trip affair", the original poster says she has been married for 25 years and her husband is great in most respects. However, he has a low sex drive and she is not satisfied in that department. She is attracted to a man that she met on a business trip and is considering having an affair which might lead to twice a year get-togethers. She asks what others would do. The male posters in this forum often complain about a double standard and I suspect that if the original poster were male, the responses would have been significantly different. I've seen any number of threads in which men propose affairs and are roundly castigated and called any number of names. The original poster of this thread doesn't exactly get a warm and fuzzy reaction, but even those responses that are critical are pretty gentle. Several posters offer advice regarding her husband that might improve their relationship and remove the motivation for an affair. Others are fairly encouraging about it and don't object to an affair at all. There is considerable discussion about open marriages and other arrangements, but the original poster mostly seems interested in keeping her husband in the dark and having her own little secret. She says that her husband would be hurt if he found out about an affair, so apparently she just doesn't want him to find out. From what I read, it looks like the original poster already had her mind pretty much made up and was simply looking for a bit more encouragement. Towards the end of the thread, it seemed that she received exactly the response for which she was hoping.