I made that mistake and settled for a guy that just used me, cheated on me, and in general treated me like crap.

Some people have dated someone simply because they're lonely and that never works. If you want to date, please make sure you are doing it for the right reasons. (You in a general sense, not you specifically lol)

It's the kids job to keep mom and dad on their toe

While growing up, I have asked my mom some doozies. Some she answered easily, others she had to call in help from an uncle or my dad or some other family member :)

I am single now because I chose to be. My ex was lying to me, cheating on me, treating me like an atm, emotionally and mentally abusing me, and I finally decided that this was not the life I wanted.

Yes, I get lonely, but its better than the feelings I had while I was with him.

I have known my best friend since 1991, he is my soulmate even though he is straight :)

I do not believe that your soulmate HAS to be the person you are married to or dating.

I've said the pledge of allegiance when I was in school, but I always said the original pledge. I left out 2 words that weren't in the original version. Now I may not say it out loud but I will place my hand over my heart when it is being said, out of respect for america and the soldiers that fight for it.

i won't go into details but I didn't have a choice in the matter.

I hadn't ever even thought about sex up till then.

This is just another study trying to blame kids behavior on something other than the parents and the kids. I never looked at porn as a kid, yet lost my virginity at 9....the media is there, parents just need to learn to talk to their kids and not just ignore them.

My mom had the same idea when I was growing up lol

I learned to fight back, and please save the "you should tell an adult" speech. I tried that, all it did was get me beat up after school when there were no adults around to run to. As soon as I fought back, the bullies left me alone.

Bullying is a major problem in schools, but in the end the bullies win because kids do as their parents tell them, the back down and go tell an adult. Yes, this is great, but what do the kids do when there is no adult around to tell?

Why is it that when something like this happens, the liberals are automatically to blame...

As for the topic at hand, halloween is supposed to be fun, we are told that our kids have to accept other nations religions and holidays but then we ban or cancel our own?

Our kids will end up resenting the other kids and then we have bullying and fighting and we blame the kids. They do what we teach them. Not to mention, "we dont want the other kids to feel left out". Guess what, as adults they are gonna be left out of alot of things. They need to learn to accept that they can't always be part of everything that goes on. Sometimes they won't get chosen, they won't get to go to prom with the girl they want to...such is life.

Halloween is about expression and fun, if some kids can't celebrate it, that isn't fair but again, such is life. It won't always be fair, life doesn't give two hoots that your school district taught you that you should be picked and be able to be part of anything you want.

Please don't use the "some children can't afford costumes" line on me. I grew up poor, I got creative with household things to make costumes. I never bought a single costume growing up, so that line is baloney (yes i spelled it wrong on purpose as i hate the lunchmeat lol)

Candy isn't healthy for anyone, but it will still be eaten. Don't blame the candy if you don't know how to properly take care of your mouth after eating it. The food is not the bad guy, it's an inanimate object that you eat. Proper care for your body falls on you. Exercise, proper teeth brushing, and general care will help people.

Teaching our children to realize that life isn't fair will get them ready for adulthood, not teaching them that will set them up for failure.

I recently started watching glee, got hooked on it, and watched it from the beginning. I noticed that someone in glee club gets a slushie thrown at them daily. The school does nothing about this.

In my opinion this is a gentler bullying. No the kids are not getting physically hurt, but I imagine emotionally and mentally they are.

My question is, would parents actually consider this bullying since they only do it to members of the glee club?

I rather enjoy politics lately...if obama is not re-elected, it won't be long before the new president is targeted as the awful president. It has happened with every president. No matter what the president does, only the bad stuff will be talked about.

I did love him but I deserved to be treated better. I deserve someone that will love me for who I am not who they can try to turn me into. I still love him but I have to let go and move on.

and yet the friends I have with gay parents are well adjusted adults...

people may not like it but oh well thats their problem, this thread is not about gay parents but about children growing up poor

My mom raised her children mostly alone, we may not have been rich, but in no way were we poor. What we didn't have in money we had in family and love. Sure she had to save a bit more in order to do christmas, but we were always happy with whatever mom could afford.

People put too much stock in how much money a family has, money does not equate happiness, Love, Honor, Respect...those are what create happiness. I cherish my childhood, even if it wasn't the absolute greatest, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

As for what constitutes family:
I believe that a family is not based on the traditional Mother and Father idea, parents can be mom and dad, 2 moms, or 2 dads. As long as you raise your children with love and respect, they will be ok.

Thank you all, I've been having it rough the last couple of days but I'm slowly recovering and will be happy again at some point. I think i let love blind me to what he was doing behind my back, I loved him so much I didn't want to believe he was lying to me. He still swears he loves but but he had to get out of the cycle we were in, i didn't know we were in a cycle.

It's his loss, I'll do better, i just had to spend the night convincing myself of that.

So my boyfriend left me last night, we had a huge fights and i found out a few things I needed to know about him. He'd been doing drugs and cheating on me for the last 3 months, lying to me about everything, and I foolishly believed him. So now while he's out having a grand ol time, I sit here ripping myself apart, hating myself for not seeing it. I hope this will get easier and I'll get over him but I loved him sooo much, I don't know how to move on.

I love how people try to force the idea that it's a choice.

I tried hard to be with girls once I really started dating, even though I knew I was Attracted to guys. Thats the key to it all, we can't help who we are attracted to.

My mother always taught me that being happy is far more important that making other people happy. I have the choice to live my life with a man that makes me happy and I truly want to be with, or I can choose to be single for the rest of my life, or I can choose to live my life as a lie and be with a woman that I will never truly love. Of those options only one would make me happy.

I refuse to use a woman in that way, it's not fair to her or me, and I do not like the idea of being single for the rest of my life.

So who we end up with may be a choice, who we are attracted to, not so much, but that's only my opinion.

Yay for little dogs lol

I was a rough child to put it mildly. I didn't get along with my mom's boyfriend at all, I did whatever I wanted to a point. We didn't have cell phones as a kid so we communicated different ways. I would leave her a note, or call from school, the problem was that my mom had to check everything I told her to be sure i was doing just that.

Worst punishment I ever received was 2 weeks of watching soap operas with her, since my bedroom was an entertainment playground. Most of the traditional punishments didn't work with me. Forget time-outs lol I was 13, time outs were not gonna happen. Those stopped by the time I was 6. We did discuss actions and consequences.

The biggest change in my behavior came from an unexpected source...the look of disappointment on my mom's face when I got arrested. I changed almost overnight. Started behaving better, stopped lying about stuff, made sure she knew everything, and stopped hanging out with kids that were a bad influence on me.

I do hope that when their time of judgement comes, they pay a heavy price for their actions. They are not human in my eyes, they are cruel devils that have fallen from their god and are being overly swayed by whatever devil they have.

They are mean spirited and apparently love to torture families of deceased military people or other victims. It is high time this "cult" is dealt with. For the friends and families of the deceased that this church has protested, I hope things get better. I am also proud of the people that formed the wall to keep the protesters out.