I was still bleeding, and that was embarrassing as well as painful. We were trying to learn to breastfeed. I also was overwhelmed. I needed to get to "whelmed" first.

By two weeks I was ready for modified entertaining. Those who loved us enough to overlook the dirty house and etc were welcome to come, share takeout, examine the baby, and tell me gossip. We avoided the rest.

It really depends on the visitors. Good friends who won't judge are fine. If you have to clean for them, you don't want them anywhere near you. That includes family members. Have a list of things people can do for you. WElcome Mommy gifts. Take a nap!!!!!

Both are productive, love each other, and want to help each other. The college student could have screamed that he needed help, but it sounds like he sucked it up. The younger boy could be self-centered and oblivious, but he isn't. The parent could play one off the other, but that's not happening, either.

Wait, I must be reading the wrong column. This can not be a LW in the Tennis column.

Cary is right. A trust is genius, and if managed well, would preserve the capital and use the interest to pay off the half of the loan. Then there would still be principal left for the second son.

Good answer, Callie. Congratulations LW. You've raised two winners!

Hormonal birth control for the 18 and older group (which has been studied) is fine and makes sense.

I would rather see condoms, sex ed, and a public health campaign for the 14-18 year crowd than hormonal birth control pills and devices. We really don't know the effects of hormonally based birth control at such a young age. Would it impact development?

Without aggressive sex education, will the girls and their mothers even take advantage of it? Will fears drive them away? The Catholic Church has aggressively spread misinformation about birth control in Latin America. While educated girls and women know that, will the less educated? Will the ones in the ghettoes or the rural areas have any idea or willingness if it is not "marketed" to them?

Some health care workers are spreading the gospel of smaller families. With condoms, workers can slip women the foils unobtrusively. For birth control pills, they will need to go to a specific place, and risk public knowledge.

As for 15 year olds getting prescriptions without parental knowledge, I don't think that's good. If the child has a health issue, guess who will have to deal with it? Hormonal birth control pills are not recommended for certain populations. Do we really trust 14 year olds to manage this in their own interests? I don't want 14 year olds criminally tried as adults because of judgement issues; the flip side of that is I don't want them to become sexually active too early either because of judgement issues.

It's the 14-17 year olds I have qualms about, not the grown women. Grown women should have access to birth control because they are adults.

Get a financial advisor you pay by the hour, not a percentage of your account. The hourly rate prevents shadiness and churning!

I think a loan is acceptable.

WHile carrying loans is OK, it is not optimal. If not for the younger boy's career, the other would not be carrying the loans. Mom should set up the corporation, take a salary and perhaps use that to help the boy.

I think a really good tax lawyer and a good financial advisor (not affiliated with a bank) is important.

Bonds are a really great method of protecting assets. Real estate (real land, not speculation) is good.

My doctor says you can not diagnose bipolar disease in a pre-teen, but you can in a teen. You can not diagnose it in infancy. That's bunk.

I like to think the Gospel and Jesus reach hearts DESPITE people like Driscoll.

I agree. The Gospels, and clearly Jesus, would not approve of all of this. Jesus specifically hung out with women, people in "bad professions", and the people who were seen as wild. He specifically broke many rules from Deuteronomy and Leviticus (the hand washing, the unclean, the whole "whited sepchulure" speech, the emphasis on taking care of neighbor and not judging, etc).

If these people actually read the Gospels as a whole, instead of picking and chosing pieces to study, they would not be in this church. Jesus was a revolutionary. Driscoll is a Pharisee, and enemy of Jesus. he's even more dangerous because he uses the clock of Christianity to attack it's central precepts.

There is cultural Christian and Gospel Christian. Driscoll is cultural, but not Gospel.

He is a grown man. He has to make this decision. You can tell him you love him and want him around to see his grandchildren. You can tell him he's hurting you. But only he can stop it.

If he has liver disease, and is in beig enough denial to be doing this, LW needs to arrange for professional intervention. I'm not sure the LW can do this on her own, or even with her siblings. There's some sort of mental issue going on, or the addiction is so hardened that it may take medical intervention.

The LW is a better person than most. She's forgiven him his absence, etc. But she can't caretake her father. It's too big a burden.

When he huffs and acts immature, ignore him.

I wish the LW luck.