Rootbeer

Neither Kevin nor Randall needed to step up and stand next to Kate as though she needed protection from her husband. Yes, both Toby and Kate were escalating, things were getting hotter. There is no reason why either Randall or Kevin couldn't have called out just to remind them that they were outdoors and the neighbors could hear, or otherwise defuse the situation without turning it into an Us vs Them confrontation. Toby was close to Kate, he was shaking his finger; she was not backing away or showing any fear. There was absolutely no indication that either one of them was going to get physical, nor any history that they ever had. If Kate needed help, she knew that her mother, her brothers and her mother's husband were nearby. Toby knew it too. It was Kevin stepping in looking like he was fixing for a fight, interfering in their marriage for the umpteenth time that was the potential breaking point. I do agree that Randall mainly stepped up to keep Kevin and Toby apart.

My cousin had to show my uncle how to write a check after my aunt died. They'd been married almost 40 years, and, in all that time, he hadn't done it even once. He worked full time and my aunt was a SAHM who occasionally worked part-time in retail, etc, mainly for Christmas money. A lot of married couples have a division of labor that works for them. However, on this show, Tobey is spending the majority of his time hundreds of miles away from LA. Kate expecting him to hire a plumber for her was a bit much. When we saw the ceiling in the present day, it appeared there were water stains and peeling paint. It would also take a massive amount of water flowing to take down the ceiling unless the masonry was already saturated from an ongoing leak. Hard to believe that the leak just started that day.

I watched the first episode and really enjoyed it. I thought it presented a balanced picture of Franklin and brought out a lot of small details that I'd either forgotten or never knew.

If I were Audio, I'd be at Gregory's back door begging him to save me from the crazy people, that's for sure. Randall did that long after Beth found the space herself and told Randall they should move to Philadelphia. Kate has never given Tobey the chance to help her find her way in SF. We've not heard that she is checking out the various schools for special needs kids or looking for some sort of music education gig for kids. How can Tobey help her when she has made it clear that she isn't moving to SF, no matter what? She has never considered it as a possibility because, for her, it isn't. Tobey cannot change that.

I corrected my response, thanks. It doesn't change the fact that they were discussing the fight that Kate and Tobey had right before that. Kevin needs to butt out and Kate needs to tell him so. Which is why they should have alarms on the doors to the outside, or even one on Jack's bedroom door; so he cannot leave the house on his own. While all kids learn to open doors eventually, their mothers don't usually teach them how to do it. If Kate wanted Jack to know how to open doors, she should've done something to make sure he couldn't use that knowledge to get out of the house unsupervised. Take a look on Amazon, there are a whole host of easy to install door alarms for use with toddlers, etc that cost under 20 bucks. 4 door knob covers cost under 10 bucks. I have a dog who figured out how to open a patio door, I know all about dog proofing which, it turns out, is nearly the same as childproofing.

As I recall, they WERE talking about him right before they started laughing at the doll. He isn't paranoid if its really happening. He's seen time and again that Kevin is way too involved in their marriage and he's not wrong to be disturbed by that, IMO. Then, Kate changed her mind some time after the woman left because she was definitely not on board with the woman's suggestions in that moment. I also doubt that any educational product for blind children recommends teaching them how to open doorknobs before their sighted peers learn that trick. Kate seems to be doing her own thing with Jack and some of it is working, some of it is not. Which is fine, like most parents. Just as Toby would like to do, if she would ever give him a chance.

Yes, they do, but usually not at Jack's young age and usually not because Mommy taught them exactly what to do to get the door open. There are a lot of things Jack will eventually need to learn to do, he doesn't need to learn the ones that can get him into trouble right now. If Jack had been a sighted child and his mother taught him how to turn the knob to open the front door, I would also think that was a bad idea.

How was Toby supposed to 'safely secure' the kid in his room when his mother had taught the kid how to open doors using the knob? If Jack could open the front door, he could open the bedroom door, too. Too bad Randall wasn't around to tie the door shut, but Kate would've probably gone off on Toby for that, too. The fact is, both Toby and Kate, especially Kate, IMO, have gotten to the point where the other cannot do anything right in their eyes. There was no way Toby could win at that point, she has shown that time and again and it seems like he has reached the same conclusion about her. Had Toby found Mary Poppins herself to watch over Jack in the safest, most child-proof bedroom ever, he still would've been wrong in Kate's world. Stick a fork in 'em, they're done.

Just as Toby shouldn't have had to point out to Kate that, if she insisted on teaching a toddler how to open the front door, then she needed to be absolutely certain that it was locked at all times. Or, better yet, like most responsible parents, do not let the toddler open the front door, even put a child proof knob on it so he can't. But wait, Toby DIDN'T nag her about it at all. In the grand scheme of things, the unlatched gate was the lesser problem, IMO. Kate taught their kid to do something that is dangerous for any toddler to know how to do, blind or not.

I thought the same thing. Your 70 year old mother is moving a wet mattress and you are standing there hollering at your husband who is carrying your child? It was probably realistic that Kate, at her current size, would be less help than a 70 year old, but the show seemingly glossed over that fact.

The fact that their parents seemingly justified their reaction to a babysitter calling Kate by a silly nickname (also the name of a well known doll of the 60's-70's) because Kate was 'hurt' and her brothers were 'protecting' her is exactly the reason why Kevin, and eventually Randall, feel the need to step into an argument between Kate and her husband and why Kate didn't even tell her brothers to butt out, but, instead, stood there staring snottily at her husband with her brothers at her side. That is some massively dysfunctional codependence there. And, Rebecca thought it was great that the kids locked the sitter in the bathroom? As punishment because Kate didn't like an innocent nickname? What is wrong with these people? Run far away, Toby.

Is there any way he could use one of those knee scooters to work while he's non-weight-bearing? Even if he could only work part-time, it might make it easier. I understand why he doesn't want to get it fixed, but he really could end up with even bigger, more painful problems in the future if it doesn't heal properly.

It is quite possible to tailor the blouses you already have to fit you, especially if they basically fit at the neck and shoulders, but are too big in the sleeves and body. There are multiple videos on You Tube explaining how to do it, or, a decent tailor should be able to do it quite easily. If they don't fit in the shoulders and/or neck, then the shirt really needs to be taken apart to re-do it and that's a bit more of a project. Look for 'tailor a shirt' videos on You Tube, even if you're not Betsy Ross, it isn't that hard with a sewing machine and some pins.

It is perfectly safe for pregnant women to get their hair colored, permed, whatever. However, I think the color is too light and washes her out. I think Jill should've gone a litte darker blond, maybe she can get some lowlights.

Back in the 60's, we were far behind in the treatment of preemies, so outcomes were worse than today. First Lady Jackie Kennedy had given birth at 34+ weeks only a couple years earlier and the baby died of respiratory distress after a couple days. Nowadays, after 34 weeks, a baby has the same chance of survival as a baby born at term, not so then. It seemed like her water broke a while before the baby came which puts them at risk for infection. Even at 36 weeks, babies can have RDS of prematurity, they are also prone to transient tachypnea of the newborn (TTN), jaundice, feeding problems and other complications. So, yes, even at 36 weeks, a baby's organs can be underdeveloped. BTW, even much earlier than 36 weeks, a baby can be vigorous and cry loudly at birth, only to run out of gas and have severe breathing difficulties, even needed a ventilator within minutes.

Except that, as a teacher's assistant, Kate is barely going to be making minimum wage while they will have to pay for full time childcare for two kids, one with special needs. Her paycheck will be eaten up by that. The average cost of daycare in California is roughly 17 grand per kid, so $34,000 a year presuming that she would be able to find someone who wouldn't want more for caring for a blind child. Good luck with that. A teaching assistant in California averages $16.64 per hour which works out to $34,590 a year. It is not possible for Kate to find a teaching assistant job that will do anything more than cover childcare. Had Kate suggested to Toby that she had the chance to work full time to offset the pay cut, he would've easily blown her out of the water with the simple facts. Kate has decided that their lives must remain in LA because, at the age of 41, she has found her passion, in a job that will not ever pay enough to make a meaningful contribution to household expenses. Working as a teaching assistant is essentially a hobby, an expensive one, and she expects the rest of the family to stand back so she can pursue it. I find THAT egotistical.

Kate has purchased a home in a hot market in just the past couple years; she didn't need Toby or the realtor to tell her they needed to move fast, nor was it Toby or the realtor putting the pressure on her. Houses are selling overnight in those markets and Kate knows it whether Toby says it out loud or not. I also disagree that Kate went to SF with any thoughts at all about moving there. Her mind was made up long before she arrived that she was never moving to SF, that Toby was going to have to find work in LA. We didn't see her testing the waters or giving any consideration to moving there; she rejected it out of hand before she ever left LA.

This isn't the first time that the show has been anachronistic in its storylines, but I thought the same thing. I thought the young soldier would either be black or that we would hear that his parents were opposed to the relationship and forced him to join the Army to break them up. The girl was obviously biracial and, back in the 60's, it would be very unusual for a biracial person to marry a caucasian without anyone thinking a thing about it. This was as true in Britain as it was in the US. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?, a film about an upper class white family whose daughter brings her African American boyfriend home for a visit; spurring all sorts of family drama amongst people who had thought they were very modern and forward-thinking and not at all racist, just came out in 1967. No way the citizens of Poplar were any more enlightened back then.

I'm in my mid-60's. so, younger than Rebecca but significantly older than Kate. My parents had 5 daughters and all 5 of us knew from an early age that we needed to be able to support ourselves at some point. Even my 2 sisters who didn't go to college got jobs and worked full time from the moment they graduated high school. The other 3 of us not only graduated college, but got advanced degrees; a Masters, a JD and an MD between us. My father graduated high school and sold vacuum cleaners, my mother never finished high school and worked as a waitress; so they had even less education than Jack and Rebecca and, yet, managed to instill the need to get out there and make a living in all of their daughters. This was not unusual thinking back in the 70's when I was in high school. When I think back to those days, all of my female friends had plans; they all intended to go to college with a specific career goal in mind. I never knew anyone who thought finding a husband and having him support her for the rest of her life was a viable option. The writing for the show is wrong when they show Jack and Rebecca barely interested in Kate's future. For that matter, back in those days, even if Kate was interested in a singing career; Rebecca should've been advising her on developing a backup plan. Most people interested in careers in music know that they need a side hustle. I have a nephew who majored in music and got his teaching credentials so he could earn a living while playing in a band on weekends and such.

I think it's a bit of both. The original books, written by Jenny, only covered a brief period of time. As I recall, she worked at Nonnatus for less than a year before segueing into hospice work. Certainly, in the early stages of dementia, there can be moments where someone could be more lucid and able to participate in conversation. So, in Jenny's brief tenure, she probably did see some flashes of the old SMJ. However, the show has now covered a decade of life in Poplar and, since TPTB wanted to keep SMJ as part of the cast, they've had to fudge on the facts of her dementia. In real life, she probably would've deteriorated and died after just a few years.

Netfoot, I know you're frustrated with Mo, but please, please do not hit him; he won't understand why and it will only frighten him. Same with putting his nose in his pee, he won't get the connection. There are a lot of resources online with advice on housebreaking, but, please don't hit him. He doesn't understand why you haven't been affectionate with him today either. He's a beautiful boy and I know you love him and just want him to behave; but he's still a baby.

I'm afraid you're wrong. Kate took the teaching assistant job to help because they were running through their savings while Toby was unemployed. Teaching assistants in California make slightly more than 15 bucks an hour. Kate is not working at a public school, but a private one, which means she is probably making on the lower end of the spectrum and wouldn't have been getting benefits for part-time work. There is no way her job maintained the family 'well'. Add in the fact that Toby is no longer home to care for the kids while she works and Rebecca can't do it. Full time childcare for 2 kids, one of them special needs, is going to take Kate's entire check. Also, it appears that what Kate likes is teaching music to special needs kids. She currently supposedly hates her immediate supervisor (yes, I know that changes). That being the case, I am sure she can find an equally fulfilling opportunity to assist in music classes for special needs kids in SF and earn minimum wage there. I am several years younger than Rebecca, but I do recall that there were a lot of film festivals in the late 60's-early 70's that featured films by iconic Hollywood stars like James Dean. Like Marilyn Monroe, he died young and had a bit of a cult following. Posters of James Dean in his tee shirt and/or leather jacket were often hanging in dorm rooms and such, too. It is a little weird, IMO, for Rebecca to have had a crush on a movie star who was not alive; but she'd certainly have known who he was and could easily have thought he was pretty good looking. His image was out there and most teens would've recognized him back then.

They are in Columbus, but I don't think the 9% figure is correct. Columbus does have a fairly large refugee population as do other cities in Ohio, but Afghanis aren't 9% of the population. Because of the university, there is a very ethnically diverse population in that part of the city; but, in the regular middle class neighborhoods not close to OSU, the population is pretty overwhelmingly white, Protestant and politically conservative. Most Afghan refugees would be living in family groups in some of the less affluent parts of the city, I believe. I live in Greater Cleveland and have quite a bit of experience with the refugee population through my job and that is certainly the case here. Al wouldn't be very likely to have a lot of fellow Afghanis living near him in the part of Columbus where they seem to be living. Many of Cleveland's Afghani refugees are former translators for the US troops and their families. They've been coming to the US and being resettled here for years. Columbus is kind of a weird city in that it doesn't have many suburbs and there are many middle and upper middle class neighborhoods within the city that would be suburban in other places. The city annexed most of its suburbs in the 20th century to aid in its growth which is why, although it is the largest city population wise in Ohio, Greater Cleveland's metropolitan area has more people overall.

I'm glad they're learning to swim, no matter who is paying for it. I'm also glad they won't be expected to do so while fully clothed unlike some of their fundie brethren.