Many posters have mentioned side effects of the Pill such as depression and encouraged women to learn about all its side effects prior to use so as to be prepared. May I extend that very good suggestion to ALL PRESCRIPTION MEDICATION? Especially those meds (like the pill) that one will take for a long period of time. Some meds produce side effects in a minority of people that you'd never suspect. Years ago I had a student in a class who was doing uncharacteristically poorly. When I expressed concern, he said he just couldn't get motivated or make himself do anything and he didn't know why, maybe it was "senioritis". The following semester he came by to tell me that the "senioritis" was actually depression, a rare side effect of a new drug he had been taking for a stomach condition. (yes I was a terrible psycprof for not recognizing a clear case of depression but it was early in my teaching career).

Yes, the guy's doctor should have known and told him but the ultimate responsibility for learning about a medication rests with the person (or the person's parent) who is taking it. Everything turned out OK, but he spent an awful and avoidable semester.

I had a Mirena and inserting it hurt but not that much (course I have had two children). I am very happy with my current method: tubal ligation. It hurt even less!

Animal hoarding is believed, at least to those who've studied it, as a form of hoarding or very similar to hoarding. Everyone thinks of the cat ladies (a guy working on our heating system told us he'd found a possum skeleton stuck somehow in the blower of such a woman's heating system...when I asked how it could have remained so long without the woman realizing it, he shrugged and said "she had a LOT of cats") but a guy near us has been charged with animal cruelty for hoarding horses! I think it might be more like other forms of OCD because the person must be going out and getting those animals, whereas typical hoarding tends to be more about not letting go of things most people have at some point.

I don't know if hoarding has been throughout history, but it has been fairly recently in human history that we have had so much access to materials to hoard. I wonder if hoarding takes place in less developed countries.

This woman most likely does have OCD: one recognized form is hoarding. In fact, some psychiatrists consider hoarding the most disabling form of compulsion because unlike most compulsions in which the person engages in an act, hoarding involves NOT performing an act, making it difficult to manage. Hoarding is less collecting than it is inability to discard. It's different from addiction. An addict finds his or her substance or whatever appealing, with a sort of siren call. A hoarder, as many have pointed out, is overcome with anxiety at throwing anything away.

Throwing everything out behind her back might make you feel better but she's just going to keep on hoarding and the same pattern will go on, plus you'll never get her to turn your back on you again.

Anyone remember the woman who died a few months ago in her home filled with hoarded objects because some fell on her and she suffocated? The police had to walk on the "stuff" and their heads touched the ceiling. They searched for her several times before finding her body. So this can be pretty serious. Even if she has "paths" now, those might disappear eventually.

I would suggest finding this woman a therapist that specializes in OCD. If she resists, that's when to threaten to leave and take the kid. The fact that someone is mentally ill doesn't automatically resolve him or her of responsibilities, including the responsibility to address the illness if it is harming others.

My husband and I kept both our children with us for about the first year. We were teaching at the same school when my daughter was born, so that was easier than the next baby when we were at different institutions. When our son was born, our chairs worked with us to make our classes compatible and we took turns. In both cases, we hired students to take the babies out for a walk when we were in class or for a couple of hours so that we could work in the office. Both of them slept a good bit (the babies, not the students) and were willing to play in a playpen for short periods of time. We both urged our colleagues to let us know if there were problems, but there weren't any...but we were very conscientious about taking the babies out if they were fussy. Luckily they were both very good-natured. In fact, several colleagues became very attached to them, especially my son. The professor that oohed and ahed over him the most didn't have children and didn't really like them usually!

Teaching at a college lends itself to that arrangement more than the typical office, though. A professor spends a lot of time talking to colleagues or students, and we could do those holding a baby easily.