i think the most autistic dom thing ive done is send partners a form (no i do not still have it) of like kinks, limits, body part terms, pet names, etc before flirting/dirty talking. so like, they could check off which pet names and kinks they like and I would act accordingly. which sounds normal until it’s like “wow you’re so hot I’m going to- wait can you fill this out please? ok thanks anyway- im going to fuck you stupid”
minor edit: to everyone saying “this isn’t normal?”. having a lengthy conversation discussing limits and boundaries is normal/mandatory. handing someone paperwork before dirty talking is the funny/weird part.
I sat with a crying second grader today. (The age range is outside my wheelhouse but I was the most convenient adult.) He was crying, the other adults said, because his brother took a phone he was playing on. “Phone addicted,” everybody said. “If he would get up and play games with the other kids he wouldn’t be crying.”
He told me everyone lets his brother take things from him because his brother is younger, and doesn’t know better. He told me he doesn’t want to play because he’s tired, he has too many extracurriculars this summer and can’t get good sleep because “everyone in my camper is so loud when I’m trying to sleep.” He’s exhausted and only eight. His mom’s an acquaintance and told me she and the kid’s father are going through a separation — mom and four kids left the house to stay in a camper.
But people will seriously not listen to kids crying over seemingly minor things because on the surface it looks like a tantrum. If kids are given the space to articulate themselves they often will.
I’ve found that if a child is capable of having a conversation (that is, old enough to speak and express themselves, not injured or upset so badly that they literally cannot stop crying, and not behaving violently), then 90% of the time their reason for being upset is legitimate, or at least understandable.
Please remember that this also applies to teenagers and preteens, they might be acting like a knowitall who doesn’t give a shit, or a first class jerk, but chances are fair they feel like shit for one reason or another and adults just chalk it up to teenage angst instead
fun fact about me: When I was 6 years old I sent so much hate mail to the president (the second Bush) that the mail carrier had to tell my mom I needed to stop before we got FBI’d
I was COMPLETELY unaware of the US political scene or why the adults in my life hated Bush, but I knew I hated him because he let people shoot wolves from helicopters and that’s mean and shitty
I also had a poor grasp on how stamps worked, so given that I wasn’t allowed to continually throw money away by putting stamps on my presidential hate mail, a lot of the times I just drew squares with little pictures inside on the corner.
Love, love, love reading more proof that everyone should encourage the children in their lives to write to elected officials–it teaches them about citizenship and can also be very funny.
When I taught second grade, one of the options for students who had finished their work was to write a letter to the president. I would send all of the letters in a big envelope at the end of every month.
Watching my students get more and more frustrated with him (and concerned about his wellbeing) was not the result I’d hoped for when I came up with the idea, but it was kind of hilarious.
See, Obama had a standard packet with information and activities about his dog he’d send in response to letters from very young citizens…and of course his office sent one back to our class every single time we sent mail.
So eventually all of the letters looked something like this:
Dear President Obama,
I am writing about the environment. I am sad that the Great Barrier Reef is hurt. Also the Amazon Rainforest. Can you help? PLEASE DON’T WRITE BACK TO TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DOG AGAIN. WE ALREADY KNOW ALL ABOUT BO. WE COMPLETED THE MAZE AND COLORED HIM IN. It is good that you love your pet a lot. But try to remember the environment. It is also important.
Loving this post, not least because it reminded me of this email and attachment that my kid’s 5th grade teacher sent us last November.
Context: we are Canadian, our provincial government is currently conservative and the CUPE strike was for teachers and support staff at an adjacent school board that didn’t affect my kid’s school but was talked about with them in the current events/being active in your community sense.
This is the email I opened:
and this was the attachment:
I haven’t thought about this for months, so thank you for inadvertently reminding me it existed so I could lose my shit laughing about it all over again!
Butte Falls residents disproportionately live with disabilities or in mobile homes, risk factors that make it difficult to prepare and evacuate from wildfires that have become increasingly destructive. The hamlet itself, once a logging powerhouse, is still struggling to provide residents with good-paying jobs more than 40 years after the local timber industry began its long decline. Almost 10% of Butte Falls residents left town between 2010 and 2021.
Conventional wisdom in the region would have Butte Falls try to reclaim its former glory as a logging hub. But community leaders have hatched an ambitious plan to protect their future by looking to the forest itself as a source of protection as much as prosperity.
The town government recently purchased a ring of privately owned timberland surrounding Butte Falls. Instead of harvesting the land — which could provide an immediate, short-term boon to the town economy — locals want to grow an older and biodiverse forest that they say will better protect the town from wildfires, while attracting outdoor tourism.
Conservationists and the state’s top politicos say the small project playing out in a remote corner of Pacific Northwest forest can teach other communities how to adapt to climate disasters and hard times.
ID: Digital illustration of a blue anthro bird floating through a cosmic space full of geometric shapes and tetris blocks. He’s leaned back, listening to music on a pair of big headphones, wearing casual clothing.
