I Just have to say, after reading some of these comments, I'm surprised at some of you mothers on here. I am a mother of 3 kids; one of which is SEVERELY MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY DISABLED! While my husband and I spend 95% of the day fighting to keep this boy contained, it is with great difficulty. He also happens to have REALITY DISTORTION! For those who don't know what that means, it means at any given moment, he slips off into a completely different world. He Will NEVER be able to be left alone. We have done very well at keeping him close for 9years, but this summer, we plan to renew our vows by a large river. As any parent with an also autistic child knows, they Will do anything to get to That water. For the first time, we plan to use a child safety harness in order to allow our child to enjoy the festivities without the worry of him floating down the river. So please, before you go telling someone how much of a horrible parent they are for using these, I challenge you to spend a week with a special needs child and tell me if you feel the same way. These devices have been created to give them more freedom while keeping them as safe as possible. Thank you

Yep, I love CraigsList. DH is always wanting to toss stuff and I say NO - try CL first. Last night we sold the old PC, monitor, etc. for $50 and two high quality CD racks last Saturday for $50. DH brought them from CL, probably for around $50 several years ago. We have also given away a lot of stuff. I like the fact that we don't have to pay to have it hauled away, and it doesn't end up in the dump. Clothes go to the local thrift store, though. It is a charity. I think selling clothes on CL would be too much hassle. We have not purchased as much via CL as we have sold and donated from CL. Brought a few file cabinets, desks and a great chair. One tip - DH had an expensive telescope that was an impulse purchase and he used only a few times. We posted that it would ONLY go to a school, etc. that could give us a tax (donation) receipt. That worked well for us.

I'm sorry for you all that it happened that way, especially the kids. What a difficult position to be in... because you know that if you say anything to them about it, you'll be accused of being ungrateful, "looking a gift horse in the mouth", etc. I mean, sure, they didn't have to censor themselves and make every little thing perfectly equal if they have a lot more money and felt like indulging themselves/their kids... maybe there was a misunderstanding about who was expected to pay for what, and maybe communication could have been clearer on the subject on either their part or yours... But it sounds like the discrepancy in provisions was excessive, and to not share at all with your kids was pretty heartless. Especially after it probably was evident that you were not going to be able to financially "keep up" with their spending at that time. They could have at least offered to temporarily *loaned* you the xtra sending money to make sure your kids enjoyed similar things to the others, even if they only really wanted to pay for the basic costs of your trip. Wonder what kind of point they were trying to prove... and to who? Gross... As for advice, I'm not sure what to tell you. Other than try to gracefully turn down any future offers they make like that, or try to come up with alternative ideas so that trips, visits are a more "level playing field". If you're the ones "hosting" them, they have to do things on your terms, and you are still doing your part to be gracious and maintain relations (without being unduly controlled). I'm afraid if you or your husband tries to be emotionally honest with them about how it hurt, they won't understand and you'll be called ingrates with too big "expectations". Which is clearly not the situation, but that's how they'll see it in order to feel okay about themselves being so self-indulgent. So the only thing I can think of to handle it is just to make sure you're not put in that position, in the same way, again.

I just talked to DH and he is going to pick up some rain ponchos when he goes to get dog food. DD has a book about Disney. And she got something else online that tell you which days are better for each park in terms of crowds. I think it is also somewhat personalize based on the kids ages. We will be taking a double stroller (one child sits/one stands) with us. The double stroller rental is a ridiculous $31 a day with a $100 deposit. - Not gonna happen. Sounds like the tea cups will be about the right speed for little kids and old ladies. We are not staying on Disney property. We have a condo at Terra Verde Resort. Liz, if you don't mind you can turn the head down a tad. Somewhere is the low 80s would be nice. Linda