I’m in temporary leave from my job (that, as far as job goes, I really like) and I really dread going back…

“Pumped up kids”

Edit: kicks (and I had checked the lyrics…)

There are many aspects of work one could consider. For me, the social aspect is a big one. I have been in sick leave for a while now, will likely be home for a while longer, and I honestly miss the social net that work gives - both friends, friendly coworkers and unrelated coworkers. Plus there daily structure, the feeling of accomplishment and “being an active part of society”. Those are all important mental values that work provides and that can help while dealing with a long term illness.

This being said, there is a gradient between encouraging people to work while sick because out provides mental health benefits and forcing people to work while sick because otherwise they’d be on the streets without health insurance… And providing easy ways to work part time should be part of the equation.

Don’t most countries have constitutions though?

Hanging is such a horrible method…

Low quality wine is much worse than its alcohol content.

Random personal anecdote: I can’t drink stout beers anymore. A single one gives me the worst hangovers. Same quantity of alcohol in other beverages doesn’t have nearly the same effects.

But by then they have school, so I can as well have my own job.

Sure, I wouldn’t want anymore an all-encompassing job as I had before, but a 9-5 is perfect.

Counterpoint: I took some months off work when my first one was born. And I hated it. I felt that all my value was as “baby-sustaining-machine”, the highest mental skill requested any given day was loading a laundry load and it was very socially isolating (not many people available during working hours for socializing). At the same time, it was stressful being constantly the only one in charge. I was relieved to drop them at daycare and get back to work.

Now that they are of early school age, I enjoy spending time with them, but I also find it taxing. I know I wouldn’t be a good parent if I were to do it 24/7. But I am glad to spend every non-school moments together.

It is not unusual to get a partnership recognized just for this reason. (I honestly have a very down to earth view on marriage, so I’m all for getting married for the papers)

We only had to deal with three EU countries and it was already messy. We are married, but kept separate family names. One of the three countries did not allow the kids to have the mother’s family name (yeah equality…/s), so we had to go with the father’s family name.

I assume you already checked your situation, but few countries accept “the right of land”, aka citizenship upon birth in that country, so we didn’t have to deal too much with the country with were in. Except for filling in the birth certificate that generates all other documents.

Personally, it feels like sooner or later something is going to majorly fuck up, but it hasn’t yet.

In my country of origin, only your first name is your legal name. You can have middle names on your birth certificate but they don’t get put on any other ID document. I honestly discovered I had them when moving to a new country. So now I have an ID and passport as <First name> <Family name> but my education papers and marriage certificate are <First name> <Middle name> <Family name>. Somehow nobody yet called me a scam.

To avoid this problem, my kid has <2 First names> <Family name>. That is legal in my country of origin and where they were born… but I later learned not in my partner’s country, so my kid has two passports, one with <2 First names> <Family name>, one with <First name> <Middle> <Family>.

Anecdote: a Mexican guy I knew went to the US and got a visa. Went back to Mexico then back to the US again with a new visa. Apparently, between the two visas the naming conventions changed, and his US legal name got scrambled. It was a mess to prove he was still the same person… and he never really understood why it happened.

That’s rage inducing!

How can you design a system and think that not allowing any maintenance of this section is a good idea?!

“And the rest of her body?” She skinny!

Very pretty! Loving the fading of focus

I’m glad different books appeal to different people! I’m actually really enjoying this thread of readers having different experiences than me :)

I will take the opposing stance.

Of the list, I only read the Children of Time book and it honestly put me off. I found the writing too dry, the characters too unexplored and the narrative too rushed. Stuff was happening at such a fast pace that it was unclear how characters were (emotionally) reacting to it. I found the generational stories particularly off putting, each chapter felt more like a list of facts than a novel. On the other hand, the book was definitely physically long enough, so I wouldn’t want more padding.

After than, I gave up in the whole author.

Agreed on this. Polpette is supposed to be a second course, while pasta sauces are supposed to be “saucy”, not over-clumpy as polpette

In the north, they exist, usually in tomato sauce, but not as a pasta sauce

Link

In the north, they exist, usually in tomato sauce, but not as a pasta sauce

Link