Family Ties: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

[StatisticalOutlier]

5 hours ago, Browncoat said:

But yes, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, biology -- all are foundations to understanding how the human body functions, and so I think are important for doctors to understand.  

Correction:  They are important for doctors to make an effort to understand.

[meep.meep]

If you're my doctor and you don't have a pretty solid knowledge of them, I really don't want you prescribing any medicine to me.  I think the people who issue licenses to practice medicine would agree.

[Ancaster]

On 7/16/2024 at 9:12 PM, StatisticalOutlier said:

Correction:  They are important for doctors to make an effort to understand.

It's important for doctors to "Make an effort to understand"?  WTH?  I suppose I'm grateful for my well educated doctor.  And no, not Harvard.

[StatisticalOutlier]

See my post upthread, about NYU students who signed a petition complaining, in part, that their bad grades in organic chemistry were not an accurate reflection of the time and effort put into the class.

[SweetieDarling]

40 minutes ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

See my post upthread, about NYU students who signed a petition complaining, in part, that their bad grades in organic chemistry were not an accurate reflection of the time and effort put into the class.

I think their grades are more of an accurate reflection of how they used that time and effort. I mean, the professor had been teaching for many years; if his grading was an issue, it'd have probably come up before now

I managed to pass organic chemistry, mainly because I changed how I studied and prepared for exams

It is important for future MDs to understand chemistry, because it gives an understanding of how your body works and how medications can affect that

yes, I'm old. Get off my lawn!

Edited July 19 by SweetieDarling

[Absolom]

My doctor today needed to understand organic chemistry to answer my questions about blood tests and treatment.  Thank goodness I had O Chem so I could understand the subject.  

[Dimity]

So my sister recently retired and her ex is big mad that she has a decent retirement income so he's told their sons that he's entitled to half of it.

Apparently some guy (literally this is what he said "some guy") told him that so of course it must be true.  He told the boys that he's willing to settle for less if my sister wants to avoid going to court.

What an idiot.  Technically he has a point - he could be entitled to part of her pension, but only for the amount in respect to her earnings while they were married.  He's definitely not entitled to one cent from anything she's earned since then!  5 minutes on google would have told him that.

Edited to add - they were married for 13 years and have been divorced for 25 and while they were married she only worked full-time for about 6 years and during their marriage he always outearned her.  Idiot.  

 

 

Edited July 29 by Dimity

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Dimity said:

So my sister recently retired and her ex is big mad that she has a decent retirement income so he's told their sons that he's entitled to half of it.

Apparently some guy (literally this is what he said "some guy") told him that so of course it must be true.  He told the boys that he's willing to settle for less if my sister wants to avoid going to court.

What an idiot.  Technically he has a point - he could be entitled to part of her pension, but only for the amount in respect to her earnings while they were married.  He's definitely not entitled to one cent from anything she's earned since then!  5 minutes on google would have told him that.

Edited to add - they were married for 13 years and have been divorced for 25 and while they were married she only worked full-time for about 6 years and during their marriage he always outearned her.  Idiot.  

My old work friend went through something similar in the past few years, that demonstrates how weak you sister's ex's case is. My friend was married about 25 years. They had 2 kids. She was home a few years with them but worked most of the time. Her then-hubby decided to retire early as 55, reasoning they could downsize and live off of her income (about $40k/yr a few years ago). This was the last straw in a marriage she had regretted from day one. During the long, drawn out divorce, she got promoted to a position paying about double that amount — which, with inflation, is more like, at most, 75% more. My friend hired an attorney, who turned out not to be very good, and yet she still does not have to give her ex anything.

[Absolom]

1 hour ago, Dimity said:

What an idiot.  Technically he has a point - he could be entitled to part of her pension, but only for the amount in respect to her earnings while they were married.  He's definitely not entitled to one cent from anything she's earned since then!  5 minutes on google would have told him that.

Edited to add - they were married for 13 years and have been divorced for 25 and while they were married she only worked full-time for about 6 years and during their marriage he always outearned her.  Idiot.  

Truly an idiot.  IANAL but I think at least in certain states if you don't have pension rights put in the divorce decree then you're out of luck later.  Where I worked when people who were divorced retired, they had to provide a copy of the decree so the pension people knew whether to pay the ex or forever ignore them.  

Oh and my neighbor at the begging of his second wife went back to court to reduce the spousal support he'd been paying because obviously his income went down when he retired.  The judge reduced it to zero after reviewing all the documents.  Seems the ex-wife had gone back to work and failed to notify anyone.

Edited July 29 by Absolom

[ginger90]

10 hours ago, Dimity said:

Edited to add - they were married for 13 years and have been divorced for 25 and while they were married she only worked full-time for about 6 years and during their marriage he always outearned her.  Idiot. 

The only thing either of them would be entitled to, once the divorce was final, would be social security, depending on who would have the higher of the two. Everything else is a done deal.

[PRgal]

I have a first cousin who seriously thinks like someone from an older generation than the Xennial that she is (Xennial = someone born between 1977-1983 (i.e. the youngest of GenXers plus "elder millennials).  I told her (in a recent chat/text) that I likely have undiagnosed ASD and she was all like "YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY BE AUTISTIC!"  To her, autism is someone who is a non-verbal savant.  I don't know WHERE she's been over the past decade or two when there's been so much literature published on autism spectrum disorder (when I sent her what autism could look like in girls/women, she was all "that could be ANYONE").  This is a woman who has three kids.  An educated woman who works in finance.  Cultural?  Possibly, but she went to university in the US, so it's not like she's had zero exposure to western culture (plus she spent her childhood and adolescence in Hong Kong while it was still under British rule.  Sure, Hong Kong culture is all its own, but elements of British culture DID seep and kind of fused itself in, yet creating its own thing (think Hong Kong style milk tea and such)).   It was really annoying and I had to end the conversation for my mental well-being.  

 

p.s. she's anti-therapy.  She thinks therapists brainwash their clients.  It's almost...tinfoil-ish.

[Dimity]

3 hours ago, ginger90 said:

The only thing either of them would be entitled to, once the divorce was final, would be social security, depending on who would have the higher of the two. Everything else is a done deal.

I did some googling and in Canada all he'd, theoretically, have any right to would be some share of her CPP (Canada Pension Plan) for the time they were married.  But since he always out earned her in those years it sounds like it would end up being a wash or else she'd be the one getting some fraction of his CPP.  I doubt he really wants to open that can of worms!

[ginger90]

3 hours ago, Dimity said:

I did some googling and in Canada

I didn’t know you were referring to someone in Canada.

[Dimity]

24 minutes ago, ginger90 said:

I didn’t know you were referring to someone in Canada.

Your info was relevant.  It's the same basic idea.  

 

[shapeshifter]

My sister and I have a mostly video-chat, frenemies relationship.
This week I asked for her input on a condo I was making an offer on.
At one point — I think it was when we had digressed to my selling my current condo — she told me "You have to lie." 
I replied that while I could embroider the truth a bit, I cannot lie. 
Then I quickly came up with a way of telling the truth that would be just as good as her proposed lie
— and ultimately better for so many reasons IMO, which I didn't mention to her, but include: moral, philosophical, personal mental health, relational, etc.

Anyhoo: The takeaway is that all those times when I think she's lying, she probably is, and she's okay with it.
And: I am right to take any of her opinions with a large boulder-sized grain of salt.

[EtheltoTillie]

I am like you @shapeshifter  I can’t even tell white lies, really. I think it’s part of my self diagnosed autism spectrum disorder. I am also direct. As far as selling your condo you could really lose out if buyers later find things wrong that weren't disclosed. In NYS there’s also a new disclosure law. 

[shapeshifter]

45 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I am like you @shapeshifter  I can’t even tell white lies, really. I think it’s part of my self diagnosed autism spectrum disorder. I am also direct. As far as selling your condo you could really lose out if buyers later find things wrong that weren't disclosed. In NYS there’s also a new disclosure law. 

Good to know!
Although based on just a quick skim of this page, at least my sister's "You have to lie!" was not related to any laws.
A friendly-but-of-questionable-morals neighbor suggested I sell it to his friend and bypass the realtors.
I told the neighbor guy that if I sold my condo without a realtor, my dear departed realtor father would roll over in his grave if he hadn't been cremated. 
I think I heard my Dad laughing from the great beyond and proud of me for silencing this neighbor who always makes me feel icky.
The neighbor encounter was at the condo pool with his wife present. They have lived in the area their whole lives, so I thought they could give me some info on the property, and it did turn out that they used to live adjacent to it.

So my sister was saying I had to lie to the neighbor about having been offered a much higher price. But a realtor had already suggested a too-high price, so I pointed out to my sister I did not need to lie (and that I cannot lie). 

I didn't bother telling my sister that I'd already crunched numbers in my head, and decided it wouldn't likely save me anything to bypass a realtor, factoring in time and stress.
And, yes, I probably shouldn't have brought up at all to my sister the sell-by-owner option.

Every conversation with her is a minefield.

[EtheltoTillie]

If you are only talking about price puffery, that wouldn’t implicate the disclosure law. The disclosure law is about telling people about a leaky basement or roof or some such. You would do well to have your broker or lawyer advise you because this version of the law is new. I actually attended a CLE on it just to stay informed, as I don’t practice in this area, but since it was so new we all are in that state of to be continued. The cool thing is that it was taught by a professor I had in law school 30 years ago. He’s about 88 and still sharp as a tack. 

Edited July 30 by EtheltoTillie

[meep.meep]

4 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

A friendly-but-of-questionable-morals neighbor suggested I sell it to his friend and bypass the realtors.
I told the neighbor guy that if I sold my condo without a realtor, my dear departed realtor father would roll over in his grave if he hadn't been cremated. 

Every person I know who has ever sold a piece of property has encountered someone like your neighbor.  If you just bypass the realtors then you'll be able to sell it to them for thousands less.

Realtors are worth their weight because they handle all the legal paperwork.  And if they're any good, they can help with the negotiation.

Good luck with your condo.

[Dimity]

1 minute ago, meep.meep said:

Realtors are worth their weight because they handle all the legal paperwork.  And if they're any good, they can help with the negotiation.

I would add that especially with condos this is important.  We sold my Dad's condo a few years ago and although everything ended up working out in the end we did hit a few snags that wouldn't have happened had it not been a condo.  A lawyer probably would have caught things as well but it was good that the realtor could run interference between us and the purchaser.

[BlueSkies]

On 7/29/2024 at 10:36 AM, PRgal said:

I have a first cousin who seriously thinks like someone from an older generation than the Xennial that she is (Xennial = someone born between 1977-1983 (i.e. the youngest of GenXers plus "elder millennials).  I told her (in a recent chat/text) that I likely have undiagnosed ASD and she was all like "YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY BE AUTISTIC!"  To her, autism is someone who is a non-verbal savant.  I don't know WHERE she's been over the past decade or two when there's been so much literature published on autism spectrum disorder (when I sent her what autism could look like in girls/women, she was all "that could be ANYONE").  This is a woman who has three kids.  An educated woman who works in finance.  Cultural?  Possibly, but she went to university in the US, so it's not like she's had zero exposure to western culture (plus she spent her childhood and adolescence in Hong Kong while it was still under British rule.  Sure, Hong Kong culture is all its own, but elements of British culture DID seep and kind of fused itself in, yet creating its own thing (think Hong Kong style milk tea and such)).   It was really annoying and I had to end the conversation for my mental well-being.  

 

p.s. she's anti-therapy.  She thinks therapists brainwash their clients.  It's almost...tinfoil-ish.

I'm an older millennial in the Xennial generation you pointed out.

 

I've always kind of been an old soul deep down.  But yeah I have that ASD diagnosis.  Which the ironic thing is that diagnosis sort of makes me more comfortable talking to people older than me than my age.

 

 

But yeah for sure it's sadly been an uphill battle for me to get my parents on board with it.  From the first time I heard of Asperger's Syndrome back in like 2003 I kind of thought yeah that's me.  But my parents would always talk way over me about it saying stuff like doesn't apply to me.

 

It took for me to see a therapist not long ago to ask if I was ever screened for it.  That and me threatening(Trigger Warning): To cut myself open for them to finally get on board.  

 

 

[PRgal]

@BlueSkies I think it’s one thing to hear your parents say things like that about your neurodivergence and another to hear someone in our age range, especially one with children, to say the same thing.  You’d think she would know better, even if all three of her kids are neurotypical.

[BlueSkies]

Another rough night with my Dad.  He doesn't hear that well and has been struggling with sleep apnea of late.  I suggested maybe a CPAP machine he might need to which he shot that down and how he'll never be able to sleep with it. 

I would very much love to get my independence from him but the reality is by the time I get home from a full day's work I have little energy to deal with him anymore.  The other night I just went to the bar after work for a drink.  Just a light beer......  anything more than that and driving to me is too risky.  

4 minutes ago, PRgal said:

@BlueSkies I think it’s one thing to hear your parents say things like that about your neurodivergence and another to hear someone in our age range, especially one with children, to say the same thing.  You’d think she would know better, even if all three of her kids are neurotypical.

Ignorance doesn't discriminate by age.

 

She actually might not have meant to be insulting.  But that leads to really my biggest peeve of all not hearing someone's opinion out.  

Edited August 1 by BlueSkies

[PRgal]

7 minutes ago, BlueSkies said:

Another rough night with my Dad.  He doesn't hear that well and has been struggling with sleep apnea of late.  I suggested maybe a CPAP machine he might need to which he shot that down and how he'll never be able to sleep with it. 

I would very much love to get my independence from him but the reality is by the time I get home from a full day's work I have little energy to deal with him anymore.  The other night I just went to the bar after work for a drink.  Just a light beer......  anything more than that and driving to me is too risky.  

Ignorance doesn't discriminate by age.

 

She actually might not have meant to be insulting.  But that leads to really my biggest peeve of all not hearing someone's opinion out.  

I think there are also cultural differences.  I don’t think my cousin fully absorbed North American culture in the 8-10 years she lived on this side of the Pacific.  Despite living and working in Manhattan, she was pretty ignorant about Jewish-American which I thought was fairly integrated with the New York way of life.  

[shapeshifter]

4 minutes ago, PRgal said:

Despite living and working in Manhattan, she was pretty ignorant about Jewish-American which I thought was fairly integrated with the New York way of life.  

But don't Manhattan folks tend to not interact because it would be too exhausting to interact with everyone you passed everyday, so your cousin might not have picked up on American culture — especially if she was focused on her kids.

[PRgal]

7 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

But don't Manhattan folks tend to not interact because it would be too exhausting to interact with everyone you passed everyday, so your cousin might not have picked up on American culture — especially if she was focused on her kids.

Most of it eas before kids and I thought she would have picked things up at work.  That’s how my dad learned (he worked in NY for years.  He was there and saw the planes on 9/11).  

[shapeshifter]

30 minutes ago, PRgal said:

Most of it eas before kids and I thought she would have picked things up at work.  That’s how my dad learned (he worked in NY for years.  He was there and saw the planes on 9/11).  

9/11 was a cross-culturally unifying moment for many Americans — although not for many who physically or culturally resembled those who orchestrated 9/11 — but may have been for your dad.

Your cousin’s attitude towards neurodivergence is more in line with my own mother’s, who was born in 1928. My mom’s shunning of neurodivergence was based upon fear of her being labeled and ostracized and thereby losing social acceptance and economic opportunities. Quite possibly this was true in your cousin’s workplace, especially if it was a time of downsizing.

Regardless, with your cousin having been culturally an outsider at work, she may think she’s doing you a favor by encouraging you to see yourself as not outside any norms?

[EtheltoTillie]

12 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

But don't Manhattan folks tend to not interact because it would be too exhausting to interact with everyone you passed everyday, so your cousin might not have picked up on American culture — especially if she was focused on her kids.

Well we do avoid random interactions in crowded spaces like the subway, but we still have to interact with people each day.  If you are a parent you end up having to interact with other kids and other parents all the time. That’s a real exposure to our NYC culture. 

Edited August 1 by EtheltoTillie

[PRgal]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

9/11 was a cross-culturally unifying moment for many Americans — although not for many who physically or culturally resembled those who orchestrated 9/11 — but may have been for your dad.

Your cousin’s attitude towards neurodivergence is more in line with my own mother’s, who was born in 1928. My mom’s shunning of neurodivergence was based upon fear of her being labeled and ostracized and thereby losing social acceptance and economic opportunities. Quite possibly this was true in your cousin’s workplace, especially if it was a time of downsizing.

Regardless, with your cousin having been culturally an outsider at work, she may think she’s doing you a favor by encouraging you to see yourself as not outside any norms?

I think she could have done both.  My immigrant/boomer dad understands neurodivergence.  He also managed to integrate/figure out North American work culture when he came to Canada in the 70s.  Well…to an extent.  He still isn’t a sports fan.  He will go to a game when invited but he doesn’t obsess like my husband (he does fantasy football).  

[shapeshifter]

21 minutes ago, PRgal said:

…My immigrant/boomer dad understands neurodivergence.  He also managed to integrate/figure out North American work culture when he came to Canada in the 70s.  Well…to an extent.  He still isn’t a sports fan.  He will go to a game when invited but he doesn’t obsess like my husband (he does fantasy football).  

My Dad was the first in his family born in the U.S. and he was never a sports fan either. It now occurs to me that this might have been in part because he thought it was a waste of time, and time is money (The Great Depression began when Dad was 6 years old).
But also, learning about sports does take time if you come to it later in life — I guess. There's not much to watching it on TV. But if you were never part of a team or cheered on a team as a child, it probably seems pretty pointless.

[PRgal]

 

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

My Dad was the first in his family born in the U.S. and he was never a sports fan either. It now occurs to me that this might have been in part because he thought it was a waste of time, and time is money (The Great Depression began when Dad was 6 years old).
But also, learning about sports does take time if you come to it later in life — I guess. There's not much to watching it on TV. But if you were never part of a team or cheered on a team as a child, it probably seems pretty pointless.

My dad plays golf, but like most people, he started as an adult.  He's literally obsessed with it (but he doesn't watch)!  He tried to get me into it and was NOT successful.  He's now trying to turn my son into Tiger Woods (but I kind of want him to play soccer).  LOL

Edited August 1 by PRgal

[BlueSkies]

Last night was rough with my Dad.  I need to center myself better before I see him.

 

I'm told getting older naturally more sacrifices have to be made.  So yeah instead of browsing the internet, I need to think of more better ways to respond/deal with him.  

[Dimity]

Maybe I am remembering my school years through rose coloured glasses - my oldest grandchild is smart, not Sheldon Cooper, IQ off the scales smart, but smart.  And he has absolutely no motivation to excel in school.  He does the absolute bare minimum to scrape by, and often not even that.

Is this a "kids today" thing or were there always kids like that and I just never knew one before?

[ginger90]

2 minutes ago, Dimity said:

Is this a "kids today" thing or were there always kids like that and I just never knew one before?

How old is he?

[Dimity]

Just now, ginger90 said:

How old is he?

He's 11 but this has been an issue since kindergarten "fingerpainting? nah".

[PRgal]

39 minutes ago, Dimity said:

Maybe I am remembering my school years through rose coloured glasses - my oldest grandchild is smart, not Sheldon Cooper, IQ off the scales smart, but smart.  And he has absolutely no motivation to excel in school.  He does the absolute bare minimum to scrape by, and often not even that.

Is this a "kids today" thing or were there always kids like that and I just never knew one before?

He might be bored.  

[Dimity]

31 minutes ago, PRgal said:

He might be bored.  

Oh definitely that's part of the problem, but he's not bored because he isn't being challenged.  He's bored because does not give a toss about school and doesn't seem to realize that he may as well make the best of things because he's not getting a "get out of school free" card anytime soon!

[Browncoat]

2 hours ago, Dimity said:

Is this a "kids today" thing or were there always kids like that and I just never knew one before?

There were always kids like that.  I knew one kid who knew he was going to join the military immediately after graduation, so all he really needed to do was pass his classes.  Smart guy, but didn't care about most of high school.  Except history.  He liked learning about all the battles and wars and things.  He excelled in the military, too.

(This was in the 80s.)

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, Dimity said:

Maybe I am remembering my school years through rose coloured glasses - my oldest grandchild is smart, not Sheldon Cooper, IQ off the scales smart, but smart.  And he has absolutely no motivation to excel in school.  He does the absolute bare minimum to scrape by, and often not even that.

Is this a "kids today" thing or were there always kids like that and I just never knew one before?

3 hours ago, PRgal said:

He might be bored.  

2 hours ago, Dimity said:

…he's not bored because he isn't being challenged.…

I guess that depends upon what you mean by "challenged"? 
— which might require too long of an explanation to type out here.

But being bored is a very common reason for smart kids to not do school work.

But there are also many other reasons he might not be applying himself. 

Has he had his eyesight and hearing checked in the last 6 months - to a year?

I was one of those high IQ kids, but didn't know it, probably because I was also a perfectionist, so worked way too hard to get those good grades, which wasn't healthy or productive. So, maybe he's smarter than I was in that way, and figures so long as he's learning what they're teaching, why should he waste energy doing busy work?

Or maybe he has observed that getting good grades is not a good way to make friends in his class.

Or he could be dealing with some serious problems that are not being addressed, perhaps because the adults in a position to help him don't know about what he's facing.

But my grandkids are only 2 years old and 7 months old, so I can't speak from experience as to your role in the situation.

However, I've read lots of Wikipedia pages of successful people who were poor students as children. Albert Einstein is the usual example, but also many other famous people.

 

Edited August 18 by shapeshifter

[PRgal]

@Dimity: Another thing - could he be autistic and for some reason hasn't been flagged for testing?  Or maybe just has different ways of absorbing material?  For example, I hated English because I didn't find the way that my teachers addressed literature was all that stimulating.  I mean, there were peaks where they were - like addressing social issues in books with the time period it was set compared to the 90s.  For example, in Grade 10, we read The Doll's House, so we talked about how women were trapped in a role (we also read Pride & Prejudice that year and expectations of British women of the Bennets' class were discussed as well.  Oddly enough I don't remember the teacher comparing the two).  Sadly, things haven't changed too much in terms of said roles.  Only a 2024 Nora (The Doll's House) would be expected to do MORE.  Much more.  Because she'd have a job outside of the house, too.

[Bookworm 1979]

6 hours ago, Dimity said:

Maybe I am remembering my school years through rose coloured glasses - my oldest grandchild is smart, not Sheldon Cooper, IQ off the scales smart, but smart.  And he has absolutely no motivation to excel in school.  He does the absolute bare minimum to scrape by, and often not even that.

Is this a "kids today" thing or were there always kids like that and I just never knew one before?

I'm definitely not the smartest person, and in jr. high and high school my grades dropped a lot. I think because I was being forced to sit through classes that I didn't care for, and (most) of the teachers were burnt out and didn't care-or they only cared about the straight-A students.

Once I got out of high school and, many years later, went to college, my grades were much better, I even made the Dean's List. I think it made a difference taking courses that I actually wanted to take, and most of our professors cared and were willing to work with the class when we were having issues. 

[supposebly]

I was very smart and liked school until I got bullied for that. Then I switched schools and had a few good years. Between 14 and 17 I couldn't care less and that really showed in my grades. I only got my act together at the end. 

There could be so many reasons why he doesn't care. It may change eventually. With the right teacher or the right friends, or finding something that excites him, you never know.

[Bastet]

One can be equal parts smart and lazy.

[Quof]

That's going on my tombstone.  

[Dimity]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

One can be equal parts smart and lazy.

I think you've nailed it.  A kind grandmother might suggest he's a modest lad who prefers to hide his intellectual light under a bushel.  I am not a kind grandmother.  I see a kid who is in for a rude awakening in a few years if he doesn't smarten up.  

[PRgal]

I think my son's new favourite toy is his VTech camera.  It's from a while back, but he ignored it for the longest time.  It didn't come with extra memory and since he was making videos, it soon became apparent that he needed an SD card.  128 GB later and he is back shooting videos and photos.  Watch out, world, this little guy could be getting an Emmy or Oscar in a few decades (possibly for scientific documentaries no one watches, considering his obsession with insects)! :D

[isalicat]

4 hours ago, Dimity said:

I think you've nailed it.  A kind grandmother might suggest he's a modest lad who prefers to hide his intellectual light under a bushel.  I am not a kind grandmother.  I see a kid who is in for a rude awakening in a few years if he doesn't smarten up.  

I tend to agree with you, and if I might make a suggestion: Identify what he *does* care about (I assume if its not school, there is still something that "floats his boat") and pursue that hobby/sport/whatever as an avenue for education (sort of a Montessori approach). Children learn a lot about math, physics, language and history through taking up a musical instrument, for example (if taught holistically), or a sport or something like cooking (which can be a great way to teach chemistry). My son loved video games so my husband used that motivation to teach him all about how computers work, how to build your own computer, how to write software to write a video game (very basic but you get the gist), and eventually my son made great money during college building custom gaming computers for people and writing mobile apps for local businesses. All the stuff that the kid doesn't care about then becomes a "vehicle" as it were to at least get them to the things they really want to do...if it is framed correctly.

[Mindthinkr]

10 hours ago, PRgal said:

possibly for scientific documentaries no one watches, considering his obsession with insects)! :D

I don’t know that he’s too young for this movie, but at some point he might like to watch the movie The Hellstrom Chronicle. 

[Caoimhe]

19 hours ago, Quof said:

That's going on my tombstone.  

Mine’s going to say “never worked to her potential”.

[PRgal]

6 hours ago, Mindthinkr said:

I don’t know that he’s too young for this movie, but at some point he might like to watch the movie The Hellstrom Chronicle. 

I checked the plot and I don't think he's ready - he's not even six yet!  The Wizard of Oz freaked him out when we tried to get him to watch it a few months ago.