Connect with the local Deaf community. There’s likely a Facebook group or something that you can browse (even without an account). Look at local community classes, college courses, or even free classes held at a church. Our local community has a bi-weekly silent dinner at the mall and other events that hearing and Deaf people attend. I started with a local community center class ($50 for 8 weeks or whatever) and then found everything else through the instructor. I usually screenshot the silent dinner dates from the Facebook group and then attend when I can.
I read the book Screentime Solution by Emily Cherkin (also Anxious Generation and Screen Schooled). Basically her advice is to be screen-intentional as a family. Right now my husband and I make an effort to put our phones away when we come home from work and spend time with each other and our toddler. Another thing is that she does not have any of her own internet devices. It’s the family tv and my iPad that she uses (with supervision and sparingly). We have a few devices she uses that are dumb (old gameboy and old iPod) but still rarely. Restaurants and family dinner are screen free zones. Even as she gets older we’re more likely to get a dumb phone and a family phone than let her have her own device. Something from the book was to let your kids have access to the internet and social media when you’re ready for them to see porn (not necessarily her opinion but an anecdote) and there’s no fool-proof parental controls. We are getting a family computer soon to teach her typing, using a mouse, and general computer skills but that will not be unsupervised or even internet connected most of the time. My goal is to teach her responsible use and to always have a line of communication open about it.
Just because a person doesn’t have a memory of a traumatic event doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect them. Kids can have lasting trauma effects even from things they were too young to remember.
When I ordered a watch band that for some ungodly reason required a signature they would accept anything. Wouldn’t take it anywhere else. Wouldn’t accept the signature on the back of the “sorry we missed you” paper. Wouldn’t let me change anything online. They came 3 days in a row (Wed-Fri) before informing me they were returning it to sender. Luckily they tried again on Saturday and we were home.
I have ONE good picture of both of my dogs. I got it by taking a bunch and splicing two pictures together. Even then my one dog isn’t looking at the camera. He refuses.
I didn’t do the marriage thing because of love. I don’t need a piece of paper to tell me that. I did it for the logistical stuff.
Buying a house.
Having a kid.
Combining finances.
Life insurance.
Health insurance.
While all of this could be possible without being married, it’s much easier to have a marriage certificate than to try to prove to everyone all the time that we’re partners. If my husband were in the hospital on life support, being next of kin would simplify so many things. My culture is designed in a way that traditional marriage shapes so many processes. There may be workarounds, but they’re not always simplified and most people may not know how to use them. That can take valuable time that you don’t always have.
I think my hospital bills were around $5,000. What I didn’t anticipate was the fact that once my daughter was born I was paying hospital bills for me and for her. I think without insurance it was around 30k? So insurance covered 25,000 and we paid the rest
My husband recently broke his foot (second time in 5 years). While at the doctor they discovered he has an extra bone in some parts of his leg, then they’re looking at things on the x-ray and asking if all these various parts hurt because apparently his leg is all kinds of fucked up from high school sports.
We bring ours home to our outside trash can because once we threw it away in a neighbor’s and he brought us the poop back and not-so-kindly suggested we keep it out of his trash. (The trash collector was coming within the hour to collect the can, and the bag was tightly tied)
Our house is mostly mobile. We each have a laptop but it’s more for “bigger things” like filing taxes, booking a trip, designing something, and filling out forms. We have decided that we are getting a desktop within the next year, however. We have a toddler and it’s important to me that she is able to navigate a mouse and keyboard. I work in a school library and my lesson on using the catalog in 2nd grade begins with how to use a computer mouse because I have some of the only desktops that are left in the school. (I’ve even had grown-ass adults come in and try to touch the screen).
I have a soda stream and then several flavoring options. I have mio and other brands, then soda syrups, and cocktail mixers. That way I can control the amount of sweet. I personally don’t like the flavor of artificial sweeteners or stevia so I try to find ones that use real sugar and real fruit extract. There’s some with caffeine too.
Connect with the local Deaf community. There’s likely a Facebook group or something that you can browse (even without an account). Look at local community classes, college courses, or even free classes held at a church. Our local community has a bi-weekly silent dinner at the mall and other events that hearing and Deaf people attend. I started with a local community center class ($50 for 8 weeks or whatever) and then found everything else through the instructor. I usually screenshot the silent dinner dates from the Facebook group and then attend when I can.