I don't get paid extra to finish projects you can't or to take over what has to be done regardless of whether or not it's in my job description. If you don't do your work because you've got to see your kid in a school play, I can't do mine, so my performance evaluation and raise goes south. I'm the one who does your job when you take 6 months pregnancy leave and I don't get a pay raise for the time I'm doing two jobs.

If this is the case, don't blame parents, blame bad management at your company. In my office, everyone gets the same amount of sick, vacation and personal time. Some people use their sick time to take the kid to the pediatrician, others to stay home nursing a hangover. When someone is out on maternity or other medical leave, we get a temp to help cover.

Parents in the workplace are a fact of modern life, and smart companies will do all they can to make this equitable and workable for everyone.

Every single time I fly for the rest of my life, this will be the scenario:

I tell the officer who waves me through the metal detector that I have an artificial hip joint. He ignores, waves me through and of course I set off the detector. He then waves me into a little pen, where I get to stand for 10, 15, 20 minutes until they can locate a female security officer who isn't on a break to wand and pat me down.

The only upside to this is that I've finally convinced my husband that we really do need to arrive at the airport more than five minutes before our plane is schedule to board.

http://www.esther-williams.com/swimwear.htm

As I watch my healthy parents age, and having gone through some medical issues myself at 51, the once-appealing idea of retiring to some inexpensive rural area or a now affordable developing country has lost its allure. Compound that with having a child with special needs who will need basic care for the rest of his life, and our retirement plans will have to include living somewhere that offers services for him (which we are also saving to help fund) as well as medical care for us. We've started travelling a bit now while we still have our health, but I'd hoped to be able to do some travelling after leaving the full-time work behind. So "retirement" may be a pipe dream; I think at best we may both continue to work part time as long as our health allows.

BTW, I'm open to suggestions for any locales that are cheaper than LA, but which have good special needs services (group homes, recreational activities, therapies) available.

If you've got time to blog, you've got time for a second job.

Blogging/writing can be done at night after the kids have gone to bed without incurring additional childcare costs. Don't know many second jobs that could claim the same.

Several commenters have countered quite well the second-guessing and "bad choices" arguments, so I won't repeat, except to say those who live long enough and have a whit of sense eventually figure out that even those who have made all of the "right" choices can sometimes fall on hard times. The words "There but for the grace of God go I," seem to have fallen on hard times as well.

Here's my take:

http://www.unefemme.net/2008/07/r-word.html

You could have shared your experience, strength, and hope with suffering people in Overeaters Anonymous for fun and for free.

This is non-sensical. Geneen's approach to overcoming eating disorders is pretty much the opposite of OA's program.

Would you tell therapists that they should stand on the street corner and practice for free? Many people have found great value from her books and workshops. Why shouldn't she be able to make a living from that?

Geneen, I'm so sorry you were scammed. I know you'll be able to recover from this and move on, but it really sucks.

http://www.reuters.com/article/gc08/idUSN3036700020070402?pageNumber=1

He slipped and fell on ice.

Anorexia has the highest death rate of all mental disorders.

www.odu.edu/ao/instadv/quest/EatingDisorders.pdf

But don't pluck unless you're willing to kiss those brows goodbye forever.

I also agree that parents should be given the choice in circumstances like this. Our son was full term, but had crashed in utero due to lack of oxygen from an undetected partially detached placenta. By the time he was born via crash c-section, his heart had completely stopped, and the doctors continued to resucitate him for 19 minutes, well past the point that they knew he would have significant brain damage. Today my twelve year old boy has the mental functioning of a three year old, some hearing loss and mild cerebral palsy. He will need someone to care for him for the rest of his life, a financial prospect that keeps us up nights.

I love my son more than anything, but had the doctors given us the prognosis and a choice in that operating room, we would have let him go. My husband and I are still together and our marriage is pretty solid, but I can understand the divorce statistics in these situations. It's exhausting at times.

With many airlines charging $25, $35 for every checked bag, one can certainly understand why more people are carrying on more luggage.

And I say this as someone who is extremely annoyed by those people who seem to carry on more than their body weight.