1. Vaccuums that don’t.

2. People who think they can relate to parents because they have pets.

3. People with no tolerance for children because they have none - and apparently can’t recall ever being one.

4. Waking up and realizing your baby is all grown up.

5. Waking up and realizing your big kid is acting like a baby.

6. The guilt associated with being a stay at home parent. Somehow the working parent just gets to sleep more because of that guilt - right up until the point where we crack and say, “HEY! I work hard too!”

7. When kids throw tantrums.  read more »

10. As soon as you’re whole family appears to be ready to finally go out the door - someone needs to use the bathroom.

9. Your children succeed in not getting you dirty all day, but you manage to spill on yourself.

8. The other kid’s snacks are always better than what you’ve packed for your own child.

7. Just when you think you’re past a difficult stage with your child they find a completely different way to challenge you.

6. As soon as you pick up your phone your once occupied child will need to talk to you immediately.

5. The moment you put down the acorn/rock/leaf that your child gave you hours ago - they ask you to show it to them.  read more »

By JIM SUHR, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 21, 3:25 PM ET

ALTON, Ill. - Banished to the basement, the 29-year-old mother with a childlike mind and another baby on the way had little more than a thin rug and a mattress to call her own on the chilly concrete floor.

Dorothy Dixon ate what she could forage from the refrigerator upstairs, where housemates used her for target practice with BBs, burned her with a glue gun and doused her with scalding liquid that peeled away her skin.

They torched what few clothes she had, so she walked around naked. They often pummeled her with an aluminum bat or metal handle.  read more »

Tax season. Bah humbug. As if anyone’s excited by the notion of it (aside from accountants maybe) but really it blows, does it not? Certainly our current president doesn’t make it a thrill for us poor to middle class families. Perhaps if I were in the top 1% then I’d be celebrating over fine champagne while watching my secretary cry into the copier but thankfully that’s not me, really.

Thanks to do-it-yourself tax software and the wonderful web we did the deed (filed our taxes) fairly painlessly. Still it sneaks up on you and its this daunting feeling when tax time comes. Like the grim reaper’s knocking on your door, he’s got the wrong address so you just send him on his way but as he leaves he says, “See ya later.” and it makes your skin crawl just a little.  read more »