<p>Every year you invite all your kids and grandkids to your ski house for New Years. You set up the house with gifts for the kids, and repeatedly ask us if we're coming. Yet at least 3 times in the past few years (including this year) you told us you would be there, then you never came! Every day you call and say you might come today but probably tomorrow, because you have "things to do." Then you make up an excuse that doesn't fool anyone. WHY??? The only person who expects you to babysit every day and make dinner every night is YOU. We're perfectly happy to order pizza or take turns making dinner. Just be honest with us! </p>
<p>A few years ago you told us to all go up, and assured 2 of us TO OUR FACES that the house would be available all week. After we arrived following long drives, you called and told us a) you weren't coming, and b) we had to leave in 2 days because there were renters coming. Another time you told your son and his family the house was available, but when they arrived your neighbors were already there - you assumed both families would be comfortable sharing the place, without telling either family in advance!</p>
<p>Look, its YOUR house. You can do as you please with it. You don't have to invite us at all. But for heaven's sake, just TELL US THE TRUTH UP FRONT so we can make our decisions accordingly!</p>
<p>THANK YOU! To the woman in the white coat who saw the woman in the black coat steal my mother's wallet out of her purse in the grocery store and SPOKE UP. You asked black-coat-lady if she took something from my mother's cart. She said no and walked away. Then you asked my mom to check her purse, and sure enough her wallet was gone. As black coat sped around the corner, you ran after her, yelling at the top of your lungs that she had stolen a wallet. As the thief and her accomplice headed out the front door, everyone who was in the front of Publix took off after her, but they jumped into a waiting car and drove off. </p>
<p>My mother is 72 years old and in her 3rd year of chemo treatments for cancer. The treatments have left her with pain and numbness in her feet and poor balance. She couldn't have run after the thief if her life depended on it. She was reading a nutrition label when the thief reached into her purse in the cart and took her wallet. Yes, she shouldn't have left her purse open in the cart, but it was right before Christmas, she was tired and had a lot on her mind, and when she opened her purse to take out her list she forgot to zip it shut again. </p>
<p>White coat, if you hadn't spoken up, my mother would have gotten to the cash register with a cart full of groceries and discovered she had no wallet. She would have thought it fell out in the car or the rainy parking lot, and she was in no condition to search either place, or that she had left it at home. She and my dad would have spent hours looking for it, and when it didn't turn up and she had to cancel her debit card and replace her drivers license, she'd have had no police report to back up her "lost" claim.</p>
<p>But because you were observant and courageous enough to step up and help her, my dad was able to cancel mom's debit card and put a fraud alert on their checking account minutes after the theft. The police, who were so kind and gentle, gave mom a report that enabled her to get a new drivers license the next day. If you hadn't gotten involved, the damage from this theft could have been so much worse. Instead, the thief only got away with $50 in cash. (Luckily, mom keeps her credit cards in a separate holder).</p>
<p>Thank you for having the courage and caring to step up and help a frail elderly woman who was being victimized by the lowest of the low.</p>
<p>To DS's biological father who has not been seen or heard from since DS was 6 mos old, including no cards, gifts or child support, and who after 20 yrs suddenly feels a paternal need to contact his "son": Congratulations on your wonderful tracking abilities via Facebook! By the way, since DS still has 3 more yrs of college, perhaps you new-found sense of guilt/responsibility can help with tuition? (not that your financial support now could make up for the father DS never had).</p>
<p>[I know, I probably SHOULD tell him to his face...]</p>
<p>To my lovely kids who want to leave our Christmas decorations up until Valentines Day: enough already! I like Christmas as much as anybody, but I'm tired of watering the tree and nobody ever helps to take the decorations down. I'd just like to get on with it please and reclaim the floor space in my little living room.</p>
<p>I am tired of the kids who chastise me for not doing enough holiday traditions or decorating for them - while they are watching TV, doing computer, etc. At what age can I say - if you want traditions, help with the planning and execution ? Actively participate, and don't always make your schedule the most important one. Compromise would be nice - When Xmas traditions are planned around the TV schedule, that's really pathetic !!</p>
<p>To the teacher who told my son that he has enormous intellectual potential that he (the teacher) believes a lot of other teachers in the (very small) school don't "get"--gee, thanks. I know you meant it as a compliment, but my son is confused, and I am angry. What don't they "get"? And as educators, shouldn't they be trained to "get" it? Isn't it the job of an academic magnet school to nurture and support bright students? I'm ready for him to be out of there. End of vent. Thank goodness for this thread.</p>
<p>oh Christmas! to my DH...I know you are a guy who hates to shop but would it have been too much to ask for just one teeny tiny gift under the tree from you. Anything would have been appreciated. And NO taking me out shopping the day after Christmas to shop for my own gift is definitely not the same. It's not a good example for our sons. I will be having a big heart to heart with them about gift giving before they get married!</p>
<p>To those high school seniors out there who, having now gotten college acceptances, are suddenly quitting their sports and clubs midstream or are ignoring or slacking off on their responsibilities of leadership and membership: </p>
<p>You lack integrity and need to own the fact that you are letting down many other students.</p>
<p>I have been lurking here in this thread , but today I found myself the victim of one of my biggest pet peeves.</p>
<p>People please..when you go to the grocery store or any store that requires you to use a cart to carry your items to your car, take those few extra steps and put your cart back in the cart corrals ! Really is it that much to ask ? </p>
<p>Some days are windy, and while you are long gone from the parking lot, it is inevitable that your laziness will affect someone's car ( today mine, when the wind plowed the abandoned cart right into my vehicle ) Arrgghhh !! It drives me nuts.
End of rant</p>
<p>Im sorry I can't underwrite gene splitters or textbooks for the whole classroom, but the money I spent on teacher gifts before winter break was significant to my families budget.
But I wanted to recognize teachers and staff and hope that it helped them feel supported.
Im sorry it was just a starbucks card, but I figured everyone could use that and it wouldn't gather dust.
While one teacher that I hand delivered it to thanked me at the time, is it really too much effort to send an email acknowledging you received it?</p>
<p>I know one of you lost his job last month and is still looking.
I know one of you is pushing hard on a launch date for a start-up before returning to college at month's end.
I know one of you is trying to catch up on lost sleep and reconnecting with high school friends after a first semester away at college.
I know I do all the menu planning, grocery shopping, and meal preparation for our family dinner almost every night of the week, and I enjoy that responsibility.</p>
<p>But would it really be too much to ask that one of you might take a little time out of the many hours you spend in the house each day while I'm out at work, to wash the pots and pans and utensils used in the previous night's dinner creation? When I arrive home from a long day at work, ready to get a nice dinner on the table, and then find that before I even start I <em>also</em> have to wash and dry the cooking equipment I'll need to make that dinner, well... it just gets kinda old when all three of you are in the house all day and could have done it while I was at work.</p>
<p>AARGH! If you are too fat to fit into a seat in a public place, kindly buy yourself an extra seat for everyone's comfort! This goes doubly if you attend with the rest of your fat family. Where do you think all of that flesh is going to go? I paid a lot of money for symphony tickets and my experienced was ruined by you oozing over into my seat. I don't think H and I have rubbed thighs as much as you rubbed on me that day. Do you not notice that you are pressed onto a complete stranger? Ewww. What about personal space and common courtesy? Ewww. If you can't fit within the confines of the seat you purchased, get yourself an extra one. Thanks.</p>
<p>To our public works department: Thanks for making sure our street is plowed so efficiently (OK, one of my friends is the PW Department Head - LOL!) , but when you see us out in the driveway shoveling the snow/slush/muck - is it too much to ask that MAYBE you can divert the blade a bit so that what we just cleaned out from the bottom of the driveway doesn't end up back in the driveway, along with huge ice chunks again????</p>
<p>To my friend- by going to each and every game you can get to all through HS and now in college that your Son plays in, you are short changing your Junior HS daughter. She should NOT be spending her weekends hanging out with college kids after her brother's games, and she should NOT be home alone on the weekends when you are away to HIS games.</p>
<p>She deserves her time with you, and it shouldn't always revolve around your son....and if you want to do something with US, your friends, we shouldn't have to just worl with your son's sports schedule.</p>
<p>You are making a big mistake thinking its cute that your 16yo D is hanging with a bunch of college rugby players on a Saturday night, and staying in the dorms to party.</p>
<p>I am NOT going to exchange the tickets I bought for the play for the day YOU suggested just because they changed the time of son's game.</p>
<p>And YES, you should pay me back if I can't get someone else to go</p>