Maybe somewhat like a mandatory exam that you have to take at 18 (+/-) would help. It would, however, exclude a chunk of disabled people.

As a side note, I’d argue if you have lived in a country for 5 years and have no intentions of leaving (i.e. you have a job, your kids are in school) you should be able to vote for the country you are residing in.

And vice versa, if you move away, you keep your voting privileges for 5 years, no more. I still cannot believe that voting based on citizenship is a thing in the 21st century tbh.

I’ll join you in talking to the void about inuyasha since I am rewatching it for the first time since I was a teen (and it is the first time I actually have an order): I see what you mean with Kagura. But some poetic bittersweet death does the story good. Sess being there when she died and comforting her was a huge character development.

I’ve seen some clips from Yashahime and I doubt I’ll be able to watch it. I think the idea of the main conflict is compelling, but it’s already the language (“dad” instead of “father” is already off putting) and the character design (the tomboy daughter looks like she is wearing a suit and I somehow dislike that they had to make a tomboy character to begin with instead of a boy) that makes me unlikely to watch it.

I’ve spoiled myself the whole Rin thing though while I was in the middle of my rewatch and I have to admit I can see it. And I like it, and I prefer it. There is nothing romantic between Kagura and Sess, she only gives small indications, apart from the final declaration in the final act. (Not there yet in the manga, might scream into the void later.) He clearly only has compassion towards the end but no romantic or emotional attachment.

Honestly I can see it. While he is thankfully not grooming Rin when she is a child or showing any kind of romantic feelings towards her, it’s obvious she has a very unique position for a reason. The whole thing where he jumped into the Meido to save her from the netherworld (?) was a crazy episode. She’s the only person who makes him feel emotions like fear, sadness, regret, despair, and yes, love. Love for her, Jaken, life, his brother, the quest, people and beings. Hell even Sess’s mom was like “tf” and somehow found it in herself to revive a “human being” that is beneath her like an ant.

Afaik, even in Yashahime Sess is not being too present with Rin and never was, and their relationship isn’t all too lovey dovey. Their relationship, even when a romantic one, will be very… discrete. People point out that he is hundreds of years old anyway, so there will always be a difference in age/maturity when he finds a human partner. But I think this is almost making it too complicated. He is a demon. She is a human. The ick that we perceive stems from seeing it as a human-human coupling, when he is a demon and cannot be assessed this way. Apart from that, Japan in the feudal era and such. Him giving her choices en masse is already quite the luxury. Him not aging also. He is still a spoilt teenage/tween brat at the beginning of the series, despite being hundreds of years old.

Also I think Rin has a crush on Sess all along. I still have 4 episodes to go from the final act and idk what happens to Kohaku, maybe that would have been a more satisfying match for the audience, but I think for the characters SessRin makes more sense than SessKag and KohRin. I can absolutely imagine Rin being the pushier one to get together with Sess.

To be fair, the manga is much better in that regard. Tuxedo mask is actually very useful and might have a better character arc than Usagi herself, being that he starts out as a guy who just dresses up to someone with some powers who still feels inferior to his super badass gf whom he feels he is only holding back, to actually having a crystal of his own and some deep shit crazy powers. I’m not so sure it was supposed to be about empowerment as much as we want to read onto it. Same with all the sapphic views on it, claiming everyone there is gay or at least bi. Have it your way and read into it what you want, but I don’t think it was the actual intention of the creators, neither Naoko nor the anime studio.

I mean they literally give the girls manicures in their transformations, although they wear gloves - simply because the executives planned to market nail polish.

Both the seshi and tuxedo mask have episodes where they are vital though. I hate when he is called a damsel in distress as much as when the senshi are reduced to bystanders. Within the format and with the target audience, with the ease of production goals, I honestly think it is ok to not have them all kick ass every episode.

Sincerely, a huge Sailor Moon fan who is currently rewatching with their daughter. (The pegasus storyline is awful in the anime so far but it might be the best one in the manga.)

Yay, now I can open the first image and zoom in! The lil’ heart on Pluto 💜 thank you!

I was using standard firefox btw. The two other pictures that are cut outs can’t be zoomed or opened, in case you want to know!

If it’s of any use to you, I cannot zoom in on the website (in mobile mode), neither on the pictures, nor on the text. My guess was that this was a feature to not copy your work? On my phone, this ends up being too small to be readable. But I’ll assume you did my boy Pluto justice.

The only acceptable finance bro

I won’t argue that it is the most hygienic way to clean laundry, but I doubt it is necessary on a day to day basis. Most people don’t get their underwear or bedsheets that dirty. Hospitals, nursing homes, daycare centers - sure. But not your normal household unless someone is severely sick.

We personally only wash dish towels, cleaning supplies and similar stuff at 90°, the reason being that the 60° program on our washing machine uses up just as much energy as 90°, and we don’t need to use extra hygiene detergent when we do that.

This is so lovely! I can’t read everything the dwarf planets say unfortunately but it is cute nevertheless.

I laughed at Neptune being so happy about having the strongest winds. Truly a gassy planet.

If you don’t tear a postpartum cow and its calf apart the milk just ain’t that tasty

Unless the same family eats out at that restaurant every day of the week, who are we to judge when we see this? Maybe they went out once in a blue moon and kids went insane but parents wanted to finish their meal. Maybe the kids had a long overstimulating day already and can’t handle a restaurant anymore but are also too hungry to go home at that point. Maybe the parents are scared of everyone around them judging if their kids don’t behave like 1920s kids who are too scared to even breathe in front of their parents. There can be multiple reasons for screens at restaurants and food courts and it’s not up to me or you to judge. Restaurants and going out are usually a special occasion and while I don’t condone putting your child in front of a screen when you are eating out, I don’t want to prematurely extrapolate to screen use at home.

I also want to add, when you say you see kids glued to screens every time you go out, are you sure you don’t see any who aren’t? Because I have this with dogs, I despise dogs and I spot a dog when there is one. While a place could be full of cats or rats or squirrels and I wouldn’t even notice.

Isn’t it already? Or am I living in some kind of parenting bubble? No one I know thinks it is ok to let their kids be glued to the screen. There are some parents (usually understandably exhausted single parents with multiple children under 6) who do put on kids music on youtube just so that they can tackle some acute problem or have a 10 minute break but otherwise no one thinks screens are great or even ok. It’s used as a last resort mostly. Isn’t that the norm? At least this is my experience for kids under 6.

A friend of mine once said that pears are wannabe apples and this sticked with me

Sure, somewhen like 7000bc at least

Jokes aside, I do believe in a better future. As bleak as everything looks, I strongly want to believe that all the amazing people I’ve met who want change can achieve it. Even if chances aren’t great, I do believe it is possible. After all, what life is left inside you if you decide to not have hope?

I love this statue! It’s in Novosibirsk. I’ve always wanted to go there and see it in real life. Once the war is finally over and Russia is free again I’ll pay a visit to that little rodent.

It’s unclear if you want to have a hobby on a laptop or whether that doesn’t matter.

If it doesn’t - mending is great. Some people have already recommended knitting and crotcheting, and while mending clothes is usually a mix of these two and sewing, I find it easier and faster paced than making something anew. Also regarding the sustainability aspect - buying new yarn and making something that you possibly might not need or enjoy vs repairing something you own and might otherwise throw out (and if you end up messing up you have hardly any losses. It was a try to save something from the landfill). It’s in a way a gateway to knitting, sewing, crotcheting, embroidery, but it is great on its own.

But it doesn’t have to be just clothes. Trying to figure out how you can make broken stuff last longer or adapt it as necessary is also great.

The only downside is that if you work a lot on your computer or something desktop-ish, then you might want to choose something outside to give your eyes a rest from focussing on something that is rather close.

What happened in your life that this has become your lucky number? (Genuine question)

That is in a way correct. Washing cloth diapers was incredibly annoying and single use diapers have been a big relief. Before that, the need/urge/desire to get rid of diapers was a big factor in deciding when to approach potty training.

But maybe it is a good thing that kids aren’t being rushed anymore and are given the time they need to understand their bodies. Child led potty training is an incredible privilege and I can absolutely understand that 50 years ago this would have taken the strongest nerves to practice.

People really seem to think that children are just born with the knowledge inside of them and they will just figure it out cause we as adults know it.

In regards to potty training, that is actually quite the way it is. There is a reason you cannot teach a newborn to be potty trained and a reason why the vast majority of kids age 5 do not use diapers.

The “training” part of potty training - as in, sitting down, pooping/peeing, wiping, flushing, washing your hands - is a social necessity. This should absolutely be taught. But the feeling of “oh, something’s coming, I gotta go” is absolutely something that kids do figure out by themselves and cannot figure out before the right time has come. This is a neurological thing and rushing it won’t do any good and won’t work. You can help guide your child to listen to their bodies once the time comes. But at the end of the day, it is their body and their connection to what is happening in there. You can condition them to use the potty every time after X Y Z happens (after you get up, after you eat before we leave the house,…), but this is not the same as learning to feel their bladder, how full it is, how much time is left before they really gotta go, and so on. And the latter is so much more important - which is why there has been a push for later potty training.

This is to say - it is a good thing that potty training takes place later now as it is now much more child led and child focused. Not out of a societal need to function. As others have pointed out, this article is confusing because it doesn’t clearly state what school/age they are talking about and what “potty trained” entails. It makes you think that elementary school children get their shitty diapers changed. Are they “not potty trained” because they fail to wipe correctly or wash their hands? Do they do their business into diapers? Are we talking poop or pee? Are we talking more frequent accidents? And especially, what age group are we talking about exactly?

Like, believe me, even in a climate where kids are allowed to do this at their own pace, our kindergarten (ages 3-6/7) is not full with kids that have diapers on, especially past 4. Have you seen the reaction of a baby vs toddler vs preschooler when they poop their pants, even in diapers? A baby doesn’t realize it, a toddler might actually enjoy the warmth. A preschooler usually hates the feeling and starts to cry and wants a change immediately. When they are ready, they are ready, they don’t want to run around dirty or wet.

And last but not least - I assume we are talking about kids under 6, i.e. under elementary school age. In that case: What does it matter if a kid is potty trained at 33 or 39 months? We are making a big deal out of a couple of months or maybe a year, while this year might actually be incredibly beneficial for the kids in their bodily autonomy and body feel.

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, it is now the kindergartens that are advocating for this. While they of course prefer kids to be potty trained there is so much more awareness and understanding from the teachers’ side; every kid has their own pace and is an individual and should lead their own way. And they absolutely do in 99% of the cases.

Framing “late” potty training as some kind of societal failure is simplifying a very complex issue in a grotesque way. In some ways, it is a very big achievement in children’s rights.

Germany here. It is now not expected that your kid is fully potty trained when they start kindergarten at 3 years old anymore - at least not in the majority of kindergartens (“it would be nice, but it is not obligatory”). The reason is that there is a push to not start potty training before the kid shows signs of readiness. And this is often not the case before 2.5-3 years. Not in the majority of cases but some kids don’t have the necessary body feel (which is a neurological development) to do successful potty training.

Now, we also have to discuss how we define “potty training”. Over here, it is normal to keep a potty and offer to try it, but you don’t take away a toddler’s diaper and let it sit on a potty until stuff comes out. So I am talking about child led potty training where they take the incentive, but are offered the access regularly and obviously are then shown how to wipe and wash their hands.

If I remember correctly, research shows that earlier potty training takes longer until the kid is considered potty trained (i.e. few to no accidents during the daytime). Another reason for the push to do it later - besides bodily autonomy - is that potty training that is done too early often uses tactics such as putting the kid on the potty “just in case”, which is now considered not ideal, since the kid doesn’t learn to feel when the bladder is actually full.

Moreover, kids often change from early daycare to kindergarten at age 3, which is considered a major life event that often leads to a regression in potty training. Our kid was almost completely potty trained at 3 years old but when she started kindergarten (without having been to early daycare) she regressed immensely due to the stress and it took a couple of months until she was fully potty trained again. However, it was her teachers who advocated not to rush her and give her the time she needs and who reassured us that this is very normal, and I am grateful they did.

I find the article a bit misleading because it doesn’t clarify what age the kids are and what school we are talking about. Or how exactly they define potty training. It makes it sound like a quarter of seven year olds who are in first grade shit in their diapers. I mean, maybe they do, but it is unclear what they are talking about. Most kids will, at a certain age, absolutely lose it if they happen to poop or pee their pants (even in diapers). Apart from one autistic child I really don’t know any kid that regularly does its business in diapers at age 5. There is also a sense of societal norms and wanting to belong - also something that the teachers told us before we started kindergarten - so usually the diapers go away because the kids don’t want to wear them anymore. They want to be big.