User Comments

grumpier monster November 11, 2024

Well said although I think the author ignores the role of traditional media. 

grumpier monster November 5, 2024

I feel sorry for them. What use is a tiara or a golden carriage when everyone feels like they own a piece of you? Who would want this for their children? Even without public money, the king and Prince William have enough private funds to never work again. Shaking hands, looking interested, and avoiding controversy whilst dressed to the nines might seem glamorous but it’s dull. It would be a kindness to sack the monarchy and employ actors. 

grumpier monster October 14, 2024

@l123456789 exactly. 

grumpier monster October 6, 2024

I suffer depression and my friend suffers from undiagnosed social anxiety. I make plans because my mental health is dangerously low and she cancels at the last moment. For my own mental health I never plan to see her and agree with whatever plan she makes. I understand people’s social anxiety. Do the anxious understand rejection?

grumpier monster October 2, 2024

Back in the 1990s I had a gift registry for my wedding because I lived interstate and didn’t want the hassle of carting gifts home in my small car after the wedding. Most guests decided to give me a gift at the wedding. It was incredibly inconvenient and I would have preferred nothing. 

grumpier monster September 6, 2024

I remember hearing about a mum with 2 pre-schoolers being attacked by a stranger. The kids scared him off. 

grumpier monster August 19, 2024

This isn’t working. The daughter is being inadvertently punished for the son’s behaviour. Maybe it would be better to start with on-line parallel play, then moving to on-line timed shared games. When the boy can manage this, set new goals. You need to catch him being good. 

grumpier monster August 8, 2024

I was astonished when a friend told me her mother was her best friend and hero. My mother neither liked nor respected me as a person and only valued things that she taught me to do (eg how to be a martyr). She's older and frailer now and I can hear her anxiety when she talks to me on our weekly phone calls, but I can hear my own coldness when I superficially respond. I can't do better. I'm too bitter. 

My relationship with my young adult daughter is only marginally better.

grumpier monster August 2, 2024

A long time ago I read a book called Living in Small Spaces. It suggested switching if it meant the kids could have somewhere other than the living room to play. 

grumpier monster June 29, 2024

It sometimes feels like there’s no feedback loop for doctors. All the doctors who missed the diagnosis won’t automatically be told that they were mistaken for disbelieving the pain. They told the patient it was psychosomatic and she went away so, as far as they know, they were right. I’m not saying the patient should take on the load of making a formal complaint or suing. But the doctors should be told. 

grumpier monster June 25, 2024

I don’t understand why the porn industry isn’t required to issue warnings about anything that is potentially illegal and/or dangerous. Maybe it would be genuinely educational if it did. 

grumpier monster May 30, 2024

Thanks for sharing this. I’m not vain but I rarely look in a mirror because I hate how I look. It doesn’t sit well with me that I’m like this and it’s good to see I’m not alone. 

grumpier monster May 27, 2024

As an 18 yo in 1988, I read The Motherhood Myth by Shirley Radl (1974). I found it helpful as I’d never wanted kids. I changed my mind when I was 30 and having an existential crisis but it could have gone either way. 

grumpier monster May 14, 2024

Worrying when it doesn’t and can’t change anything is a self indulgence. Get it together. You’re MID now- you don’t give a flying F about what others think. Embrace your limitations. 

grumpier monster February 1, 2024

Glossy dark floating floors. They show all the dust plus every smudge, including footprints. 

grumpier monster January 31, 2024

@mamamia-user-482898552 if half to three quarters of the people planning to be child free are doing it because of personal preferences, that’s fine. But the other 25-50% might be persuaded to change their mind if they were properly supported. We should support the second group. 

grumpier monster January 22, 2024

I expected you to take out all the optional non-school items (like tutoring and spending nearly $800 every year on a new laptop). 

grumpier monster January 18, 2024

I'm not sure going for a walk constitutes "play". Isn't "play" usually playful? Singing a song at the top of your lungs. Dancing a silly dance. A pillow fight. Pretending to be a superhero or an animal.  Anything that makes you laugh and stop taking the world so seriously. 

grumpier monster January 17, 2024

I thought the news about King Charles was to deflect some of the unwanted attention off Princess Kate. Not jealousy so much as protection. 

grumpier monster January 11, 2024

My parents bought a property in QLD and the one of the sellers died before settlement. My parents had sold their house in Victoria and started the move when they got the news that settlement couldn’t go through for a few months until the will was finalised. Luckily they were allowed to rent the property. $10k out of pocket.