Posts by Kimberly Nguyen

Are you even in your right mind? ... Honestly, I don't think you are ... Is there a full moon tonight or something? ... Sometimes your logic is just completely nonsensical, though I suppose that’s why I tolerate you 😍 🙂 ... But seriously, who am I supposed to turn to for reliable advice in your line of work 🙂 ... You really need to sit down and give this some actual thought ...

That’s why I was asking you about the whole process... I honestly thought if the amount was lower, it might be easier for you to just go after a standard personal loan instead. I mean, sure, a mortgage offers a better interest rate and you get much more breathing room with the repayment term, but the paperwork is a total nightmare and the closing process takes forever... Plus, they're going to scrutinize your income and credit score just as hard as they would for any other loan.

Personally, I’d let my kid just soak up every bit of freedom for one more year... School isn't going anywhere, you know? This is honestly the only window they get where there isn't constant pressure or a mountain of obligations weighing them down. This is when they actually play, really live, and just enjoy being little...
If you’re absolutely dead-set on buying "homework" or something similar, you can always head over to a place like Barnes & Noble and pick up those activity books—you know, the ones where they fill out all sorts of busywork...

If you don't have any creditworthiness, you know damn well you can't get anything done...

And just how much cash are we actually talking about here?

Honestly, you really ought to sit down and read through this entire thread first before jumping to conclusions 😉

Look, mortgage loans are specifically designated for property—they aren't "all-purpose" loans... what you're actually looking for are residential housing loans (there's a separate discussion on that just a bit further down the list) =>

That might be how it sounds on paper, but in the real world, it just isn't 🙂

I was never much of a reader myself—honestly, it’s a bit embarrassing (though my son doesn't know that part)... and he isn't exactly a bookworm either, but he’s approached it with this "just get it done" attitude, like it's just another task on the checklist... It’s actually pretty sweet how you put together that reading schedule, though... deciding on a specific number of pages for today, then a different amount for tomorrow...

Kate Cox2 said:As for this whole "focusing on feelings" thing—I’ve never heard of such a requirement. Maybe they have some sort of specialized "emotional intelligence" teacher now??😁
My eighth graders do the same old thing: listing main characters, adding notes about the author, and so on—but let's be honest, they all just scrape everything off the internet. They don't even open the book; they just find enough online fluff to pass the written portion...
When I was in high school, I remember there were maybe one or two study guides available, and my teacher kept copies of both, so you couldn't really pull a fast one on her. But nowadays, it seems much harder to catch them red-handed...

As for my kid, he's actually going to sit down and read the damn assigned reading 🙂 ...

Kate Cox2 said:Oh, I was actually referring to the reading lists for middle school and high school... they weren't exactly "horror" stories, at least not to me, because I’ve always been an avid reader. But if I compare those old classics to what students are assigned to read these days, the older stuff seems much more substantial and engaging. Plus, we seemed to have a quota of maybe one book a month, whereas I personally went through way more than that...
or perhaps we just had an incredibly intense teacher... 🤔

edit—A FIRST required book in fourth grade? How is that possible?? We had assignments starting from the very first year of elementary school... obviously they were simpler, but still!

And even in our school district, we’d only be assigned one book a month, and then we’d end up racing all over town trying to find a copy because the local school library barely had anything on the shelves... but hey, we dealt with it...

But this whole assignment they're giving for book reports now... when I was in school, we actually wrote about the setting, the time period, the main characters, the supporting cast—everything actually related to the story itself...

But these kids? They have to write their report by picking three specific days where they happened to be reading, and then they have to describe how they *felt* while they were reading it 🙄 without being allowed to mention a single thing about the actual plot... I mean, seriously, what the hell? And they have to fill up a page and a half of A4 paper! So what does the kid do? They just scramble to write absolute nonsense, tossing sentences around and flipping them just to make it sound meaningful. I honestly don't get the logic behind this garbage. 🤷

urbanbison70 said:I remember back in my day, we did it letter by letter in first grade. We’d write a single letter a billion times in our notebooks... everyone remembers those endless drills of writing "Isaac" and "Ann." But I distinctly remember my niece was writing full sentences from day one—just copying them from the book—before she even knew her letters because nobody taught her the basics before school started. She was just being a kid, playing, totally uninterested. They skipped the letter drills and went straight to sentences, plus some cursive later on. We never did that.

And honestly, the point isn't us arguing over who had it better. It's that today's parents are sitting down and doing homework with their kids (which, if you ask me, isn't right, but they have to given the curriculum). When we were growing up 20 or 25 years ago, nobody helped us; we were on our own. My mom never even asked what my homework was. Now, parents are fully involved and totally in sync with everything happening at school... I joke with my sister that based on how much her kid is learning, she could probably apply for Wheel of Fortune in a few years. 🤣

Also, btw, I've noticed that for kids today, English is the biggest struggle (way more than math). That tells me the entire approach to teaching reading and writing is fundamentally broken. Back in my time, nobody struggled with English; you didn't even really "study" it, it just happened. If there was ever a struggle, it was math. 🤷

And honestly, before we even got to practicing names like Jack and Anne, there was just a massive pile of notebooks filled with random scribbles... just straight lines, zig-zags, circles, half-circles, you name it. Just pure chaos on paper.

Kate Cox2 said:I work in an educational setting with older students, but from what I gather through my colleagues, they only introduce cursive once the class is truly ready—meaning everyone has fully mastered printing both upper and lowercase letters.
And honestly, I hear the exact same thing from my friends who are elementary school teachers.
While I don't recall every specific detail of my own first-grade curriculum, I was absolutely stunned to realize that some kids spend their entire first year just rotating through numbers up to ten and the alphabet...

I actually filled in for a second-grade teacher once, and I was genuinely surprised to see they hadn't even covered the months of the year yet... apparently, that was slated for much later in the term.

To my mind, that feels far too slow-paced... 🤷

Hmm... let me get this straight. If the state curriculum explicitly dictates that students need to have mastered cursive by the end of first grade, then there isn't any "if the class is ready" excuse. Period. They have to know it by the time the school year wraps up. And we aren't just talking about scribbles, either; we're talking actual legible handwriting 🙄... though honestly, you can only imagine how messy a first grader's attempt at "fine penmanship" looks when they're trying to use it for the next couple of years
.

Look, this isn't about picking sides in some political tug-of-war; we need to be on the side of the kids 🙂 ... As far as I can recall—and honestly, my mom backs me up on this one, even if I might be misremembering slightly—back in my first-grade days, we focused on uppercase and lowercase print plus basic reading ... there was zero emphasis on cursive handwriting ... and grades were all descriptive feedback rather than numbers

And yet, from what I’ve gathered, everyone in the education department seems to be preaching that children don't need to master letters or numbers early on => that's supposedly all handled in first grade ... but let's be real here, we all know deep down that a kid is going to struggle immensely if they haven't grasped those fundamentals already

urbanbison70 said:It's not just harder—it's damn near impossible today🤣

But you see, according to some people, that whole mess is nothing more than a walk in the park compared to what we used to deal with. ☕

I don't even know where to begin with this absolute disaster of a situation. Honestly, I’m sitting here staring at my screen, just fuming, trying to make sense of how things have spiraled this far. It feels like every time I turn around, there's some new layer of incompetence or sheer stupidity being shoved in my face. I mean, seriously? Is anyone actually in charge over there? It reminds me of that time back in Chicago when I was dealing with the DMV—just endless lines, zero communication, and people acting like they’ve never seen a computer before. That same feeling of "is this a joke?" is exactly what I'm getting right now. It's exhausting. You try to follow the rules, you try to be reasonable, and then someone comes along and flips the table just because they can. And don't even get me started on what Kimberly Nguyen was saying earlier. I read the thread, and frankly, her take was completely off base. It's like people aren't even looking at the facts anymore; they're just reacting to the noise. It’s frustrating, it’s loud, and it’s completely unproductive. I shouldn't have to explain why this matters, but apparently, in this day and age, common sense has become a luxury. I'm just done. Just... done. kaže:
I mean, seriously? You clearly didn't spend any time actually using a calculator back in elementary school, did you? Because let me tell you, that’s exactly what kids are doing these days. It's a completely different world now.

I honestly don't even have the words for this... I’m just going to say one thing: grow up. Seriously.

I don't know about you all, but I am absolutely losing my mind over this weather. It’s just... relentless. One minute you’re stepping out of your front door in Chicago thinking you might actually get a decent breeze, and the next, the sun is beating down on you like it has some kind of personal vendetta. It’s oppressive! Honestly, it feels less like a "beautiful summer day" and more like being trapped inside a giant convection oven. I was trying to walk down to the corner bodega earlier—just a quick trip, right?—and by the time I reached the end of the block, I was practically melting into the sidewalk. My skin felt like it was simmering. And don't even get me started on the humidity. It’s that thick, heavy air that makes you feel like you're breathing through a wet towel. You can't escape it. You turn on the AC, and the power grid starts groaning under the pressure. It’s exhausting. Just utterly exhausting. Is anyone else feeling this, or am I just losing my grip? kaže:
It’s just pure, unadulterated logic... or the complete lack thereof! I’ve got my dad’s book, my own, and my brother’s, too. We’re looking at them right now, and get this: the covers are completely different colors. Totally different aesthetics. But the actual content? Every single word, every comma, every damn thing inside is identical to the last. It makes absolutely no sense! 😁

I honestly have no idea how anyone could claim this is accurate... It’s just complete nonsense.
If we actually end up moving and my kid has to switch schools mid-year, I’m going to lose it. Just thinking about the sheer logistics is giving me a headache. It’s not just the packing and the driving—it’s the school supplies. I’d have to go out and hunt down an entirely new set of textbooks because every district uses different publishers. One school follows one curriculum, another follows something else entirely... it's a nightmare. I’ll be spending a fortune just replacing books that were perfectly fine for the old school!

I don't even know where to begin with this mess. It’s just one thing after another lately, isn't it? I was sitting there yesterday—just trying to have my coffee, minding my own business—and I saw the news, and honestly, my blood started boiling all over again. It’s the same old story, different day. You think you’ve seen the peak of incompetence, and then, boom, someone pulls a stunt that makes you question if anyone in this entire country actually has a functioning brain cell left! It’s exhausting. Truly. I find myself venting to anyone who will listen, but people just look at me like I’m the crazy one for actually caring about the standards we used to hold ourselves to. We used to have some semblance of order, some respect for how things were supposed to run, but now? It’s a free-for-all. It’s chaos masquerading as progress. And don't even get me started on the way they handle these specific regulations—it’s like they’re intentionally trying to make life difficult for everyone just for the sake of it. It's maddening! I've spent half my morning just pacing around my living room, fuming about it. How much longer are we supposed to just sit here and take this? kaže:
I honestly cannot wrap my head around it. I’m sitting here looking at what they’re teaching kids these days, and I am just completely lost. It feels like the curriculum has ballooned into this massive, unmanageable monster compared to when we were growing up. Back then, things actually made sense. You learned the fundamentals, you mastered them, and you moved on. Now? It’s just an endless, bloated mountain of information that seems designed to overwhelm rather than educate. It’s exhausting just thinking about it.

I honestly can't wrap my head around it. I don't recall anything even remotely like this back when I was in grade school. Seriously, where did all this extra weight come from? Back then, I didn't have two textbooks plus two workbooks for a single subject like English. And don't even get me started on Math—we had one book per semester, and even those weren't exactly thin little paperbacks! Now, it feels like kids are being lugged around under the weight of an entire library just to make it through a Tuesday. It’s just absurd.
It’s absolutely ridiculous. They’ve gone and downgraded the language curriculum to a first-grade level... can you believe that? It used to be introduced in fourth grade, actually giving kids enough cognitive development to handle it, but now? Now they’re just treating them like toddlers. It’s a complete joke. I remember back when I was in school—we actually had to work for it, we had to build a foundation before being thrown into the deep end. But this? This is just stripping away the rigor. It's lazy, it's short-sighted, and frankly, it’s an insult to the intelligence of American students. We're setting them up for failure before they even hit middle school!

I’ve got a teacher in my own family, and even she’s telling me that the curriculum has ballooned compared to what it was even just a decade ago. It’s relentless. The sheer volume of material they’re shoving down kids' throats these days is insane. And don't even get me started on the expectations—it’s not enough to just show up and listen anymore. They're demanding this constant, high-level engagement that feels totally exhausting. My son, for instance, is perpetually stuck hunched over his laptop, grinding away on these massive PowerPoint presentations for every single assignment. It’s like being a junior marketing exec at an agency in Chicago instead of just being a student. Honestly, it feels like the bar keeps moving higher every year, and I'm not sure anyone actually knows where the ceiling is supposed to be.

Let’s get one thing straight here—and I mean really get it through our heads: I have absolutely zero issue with teachers or professors who are tough. You want to be strict? Fine. You want to demand excellence and push your students to the limit? Go for it. Honestly, if you're going to be that demanding, you better be prepared to actually deliver. You can't just set the bar through the stratosphere and then leave everyone hanging without the tools to reach it. If you're going to be a hard-ass, you need to provide the resources, the guidance, and the actual substance to back up those high expectations. It's about fairness, plain and simple. Don't give me that half-baked rigor where you expect us to climb Everest but forget to hand us any oxygen. Give us the work, give us the knowledge, and then—and only then—do I care how hard you make us work for it. 👍 And that’s exactly how they go about judging people—based on nothing but their own arbitrary standards! It’s always the same pattern, isn't it? They set these ridiculous benchmarks, completely out of touch with reality, and then they have the audacity to pass judgment like they're some kind of supreme authority. It drives me absolutely insane. I remember back when I was working at a firm in Chicago, dealing with middle management types who thought they could dictate every single move we made based on these flawed, nonsensical metrics... it was infuriating, and frankly, it's just as pathetic now as it was then. They don't actually look at the substance; they just follow their little checklists and call it "evaluation." It's a joke. A total sham!
It’s the same old story, isn't it? A total farce. I’ve always believed that if you put in the hours, actually hit the books, and grind through the work, you should see the payoff. Simple as that. Hard work deserves a reward. But lately? It feels like the whole system is rigged against anyone with an actual work ethic. On the flip side, you’ve got those people—and I know exactly who I'm talking about—who wouldn't lift a finger if their life depended on it. They don't study, they don't show up, and they certainly don't try. Yet, somehow, these slackers always seem to get "rewarded" too. It’s infuriating. You watch people coast by on pure luck or connections while the rest of us are breaking our backs, and it just makes my blood boil. Where is the justice in that?
Let’s be real for a second—it is objectively harder to make a living today than it was even fifteen or twenty years ago. I’m not just being cynical; I’m looking at the facts. Back then, you could walk into a decent entry-level job, pull a standard forty-hour week, and actually feel like you were getting ahead. You weren't constantly staring at your bank account wondering if a single trip to Target or a grocery run at Publix was going to put you in the red for the month. Everything has shifted. The cost of living in most decent American cities has absolutely skyrocketed, while wages have basically stayed stuck in the mud by comparison. It feels like the goalposts aren't just moving; they've been hauled off the field entirely. I remember talking to my old mentor back in the day—he had this steady career, built a house, supported a family, all on a predictable salary. Now? You see kids graduating from top universities with mountains of student debt, only to find out that the "dream job" pays barely enough to cover rent in a cramped apartment in Austin or Chicago. It's exhausting. It’s a constant, uphill grind that just wasn't this intense two decades ago.

Jonathan Adams2 said:If this stuff happened at my school, that teacher would definitely get a formal warning before being fired. If I were a parent, I'd call the school board and file a complaint with the Department of Education... it's teachers like her that make everyone lump us all together...

And listen, moms, you can actually do something... there's the local school district that funds the after-school programs, the Department of Education, the state inspectors... these days, teachers aren't untouchable like they used to be.....

It really is tragic when one bad actor causes everyone else to be judged by the same unfair standard... In my experience, the teacher handling the class was actually quite fair with the kids. Honestly, she could have been even stricter, but whatever... regardless, they definitely shouldn't be lumped in with someone like this.

Jonathan Adams2 said:If this stuff happened at my school, that teacher would definitely get a formal warning before being fired. If I were a parent, I'd call the school board and file a complaint with the Department of Education... it's teachers like her that make everyone lump us all together...

And listen, moms, you can actually do something... there's the local school district that funds the after-school programs, the Department of Education, the state inspectors... these days, teachers aren't untouchable like they used to be.....

Look, I know all those channels exist. I actually called up a friend of mine—she holds a pretty high-ranking position in the administration—just to get some professional advice on how to handle this... And she told me straight up: sure, you can call in an inspector, but you might just be making a bigger mess of things. She had a nightmare situation herself with a teacher who was absolutely impossible—this woman was ancient and practically terrorized the kids with her attitude... When she tried to report her own case (which, let's face it, was way less intense than what she went through), she was basically advised to just stay quiet and not rock the boat...

Yeah, it's true. Back when I was in school, my parents never had to step in or deal with anything regarding my education... There just wasn't a need. The curriculum wasn't nearly as heavy as it is now, and everything moved at a much more manageable pace. These days? You almost *have* to help your kids because the workload is relentless and the tempo is just too fast.

But man, the grading discrepancies are massive... It isn't just teacher to teacher; it varies from school to school and even town to town. Trying to standardize those grading criteria? Good luck. It’s a total nightmare...

Seriously, how on earth am I the one at fault here? I’ve tried reaching out to her multiple times because even the teacher couldn't wrap her head around what was actually going wrong or explain why things fall apart the second she leaves the room... Look, she doesn't have any direct control over my kid's grades, sure, but she is there with the kids from roughly noon until about 4:00 PM every single day. As a parent, I have every right—and frankly, an obligation—to talk to her. The fact that she sees absolutely no reason to communicate with parents, acting like she barely even exists on any official school updates, isn't just my headache; it's a massive failure on the part of the school administration too. We never had these kinds of issues with any of the other grade levels...

You hit the nail on the head when you said nobody can actually hold them accountable, but honestly, it’s beyond pathetic... Even the principal pulled me aside and admitted he’s already received several complaints about her and is trying to sort out the mess... If a whole group of parents has been voicing concerns about her specific way of "handling things" over the course of several years, then something is clearly broken here.

Jonathan Adams2 said:I'm a teacher, and honestly, I've handed out plenty of D's in reading during first grade... I don't get why people think that's weird. Not every kid is going to pull an A in reading. Besides, the scale is 1-5... when a kid gets a 3, the parent needs to step up, work with them more, and practice reading so they actually succeed next time.

I never sent tests home and I don't plan to. Any parent can look over their child's specific tests during individual conferences to see exactly where they messed up. Plus, after every test, corrections are written right in the notebook, so parents can see exactly which types of problems need more practice.

The real issue here is the reading grade and the teacher, from what I can tell. There's a massive amount of material to cover in a short time, so teachers really need to spend more one-on-one time with the students.

Someone mentioned here that they helped their kid with homework while the kid was supposed to be in after-school care... that's insane to me. Why??? It's the teacher's job to work individually with students who are struggling so the work actually gets done at school (that's literally the whole point of after-school programs). These teachers aren't daycare workers or babysitters. Some kids are super restless and refuse to do work at school. A colleague of mine who runs the after-school program has zero tolerance for that... those kids stay late, and you wouldn't believe how fast they knock out their homework once they're forced to focus. Of course, that's all coordinated with the parents.

Stop stressing about the grades because you're just stressing out the kid. It creates massive pressure and frustration. Every grade is earned based on merit and knowledge, and besides, any grade can be improved later.

I've always been known as a pretty tough teacher. Parents from the last generation (before I was pregnant) were sometimes furious about my strict grading. When I ran into them later while I was on maternity leave, they were yelling at me, saying they regretted my strictness because my substitute was too soft. They claimed the kids totally checked out and lost their drive to learn or their curiosity because they knew they could just coast to an A.

You're only in first grade. Help your kid find their footing and make sure they experience school in the best possible light. School shouldn't be a nightmare unless we turn it into one.👍

I guess I'll probably take this off-topic now...

Yeah, I was the one who wrote that. And why did I do it? Because the person supervising them after class was—and remains—an absolute CATASTROPHE. I have no clue what she was actually doing with those kids... I can only go by what my son told me, which was basically that she isn't really there, and they are effectively left to their own devices. When she *is* around, she does nothing but yell. Constant yelling. I tried asking to speak with her several times to figure out where the breakdown was happening, but she never had "time," or she'd literally slam the door in my face because she was "too busy." I even complained to the classroom teacher, but she just shrugged her shoulders. I begged her to at least stay in the loop, to be present during these discussions, but I didn't manage to get any traction until second grade, when things finally boiled over into a massive confrontation. It got so bad that she actually had the audacity to claim my husband once wanted to hit her 😕. I think I posted about that somewhere else... in the end, I sent an email to the Principal, praying for some kind of change. We spoke a few times; he kept promising he would look into the "situation"... but by the time my son reached third grade, nothing had changed. Every single parent had an issue with her, but whenever it came time to actually step up or say something, everyone just backed down (out of fear of her 🙄) because they didn't want their kid to become a target...

There was this one time my mom went to pick him up halfway through the first semester of first grade... the whole class was out on the playground, but he was nowhere to be found 😲... she figured he was probably just in the classroom. So my mom goes into the room, and he's not there 😲... she thinks, "Well, maybe he already went home" 😲... at that point, my mother lost it. She practically brought the whole school to its knees because my son knew he only ever went home when someone actually showed up to get him. They eventually found him in the classroom, hiding behind a cabinet... can you believe that? They had been playing soccer, and some little kid had kicked him pretty hard in the leg; he started crying, and instead of helping him, this woman just shoved him into the classroom to shut him up...

That woman is still at the school, just in a different role, and you can't do a damn thing about her. I just hope that by the time my daughter starts school, she'll be gone, because if not, I am absolutely switching her class.

I don't care how many teachers or school administrators try to tell you that kids don't need to know their letters, numbers, or basic reading skills before starting first grade => they are talking absolute nonsense because we all know that's just not true... if a child walks into that classroom without those fundamentals, they are going to struggle immensely. My son, for instance, couldn't read at all when he started, and his grasp on the alphabet was pretty shaky too... I can tell you from experience, I spent the entirety of his first and second grade working intensely with him, though things tapered off a bit by third and fourth grade... even though he was in an after-school program, we still tackled his homework together at home. During the first semester, everything was just smiley faces and little drawings of flowers... the highest "grade" he could get was when they actually drew them in gold ink! But then the second semester rolled around and actual grading kicked in, which was a massive shock to both the kids and the parents because it's incredibly rigorous. I never once thought it was a good idea to go down to the school just to nag or beg for updates—that’s just ridiculous—but I did go to see exactly where we needed to focus our efforts. He's in fifth grade now, and honestly, he studies on his own, handles his own homework, and has maintained straight A's all this time... I’m really just there to double-check his work and quiz him occasionally.

Parents with kids today absolutely have to be involved in the work and the learning process, especially during those early school years... not just to do the work for them, but to instill proper study habits and show them *how* to learn. Without that support, life is incredibly difficult these days.

I truly believe that an investment doesn't always have to show up on a bank statement... for me, I’m investing in the quality of life for myself and my family. Sure, I don't get a monthly dividend check from this particular "asset," but I get paid back every single day in the sheer enjoyment and peace of mind it provides... It’s an investment for my kids, too. One day, they’ll inherit this home, and by then, it will have fundamentally leveled up their standard of living.

Take my parents' house, for instance. Looking back at what they paid for it about twenty years ago—back when things were much more affordable—it’s worth a fortune today compared to that initial price tag. We aren't looking to sell it, obviously, but we recognize the equity we're sitting on. Based on how much property values have surged over the decades, it’s clearly going to keep climbing... and even if the market hits a plateau, the value is still lightyears beyond where it started two decades ago.