It sounds to me that your husband's comment was less about YOU and more about how to get the most out of your exercising. I say that because he suggested P90x, which is the dvd set that is often thought to be the "gold" standard that gets excellent results (or in your husband's words, whistle inducing results). You responded that you were too old for the whistles, and your husband basically said that age doesn't matter if the body is "perfect." Maybe it was his use of perfect that offended, but I would take his comments more just to mean that if you are serious about exercising, why waste your time on the lesser exercise systems--and instead just go for the gold.

Here's what I think is sad: No one says that the GIRLS are having sex because they enjoy it. No.....it's always because of peer pressure, some boy wants them to, they might lose their boyfriend, looking for love, blah, blah, blah. I lost my virginity at 14. After that, I was date-raped twice; once I was drugged by my best friend's brother and the other I was held down. I met my X when I was 16. Got pregnant and married at 19 and divorced at 23. Basically, throughout that entire period of time, I believed sex was just something that a woman did for their man. I never knew it could be enjoyable and pleasureable until I met my SO. Everyone else just "took" what they wanted from me. My SO changed all of that. For the first time in my life, I didn't feel like a means to an end. I felt like a partner in something wonderful. I know that sounds sappy. But what are we teaching our girls when they have sex to make someone else happy? Are we afraid that if we let them know how wonderful it really is that they are going to run out and do it? I really don't think that's the case. No one ever bothered to tell me that I would get to feel connected to someone at a spirt level when that person was right for me. I think that if a girl knows how great it is to be "partnered" with someone in every way, I think they will treasure their innocence more so they have it when they meet that right person. I would give anything in the world if I could give my SO the gift I gave away so freely to someone who didn't even care. I wish I could take away all my baggage and sexual hang-ups. Did any of you ladies have the same view?

This article goes along with the theory that mothers are more likely to be the abuser because they pend more time with the child. They refer to this as "time at risk" in the article. Causes and Effects of Child Abuse - Abusive Mothers A national survey in the United Kingdom of the childhood experiences of young adults ages eighteen to twenty-four found that mothers were more likely than other household members to be violent toward their children. Child Maltreatment in the United KingdomA Study of the Prevalence of Child Abuse and Neglect (Pat Cawson, Corinne Wattam, Sue Brooker, and Graham Kelly, National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, London, England, November 20, 2000) was the most comprehensive report of childhood maltreatment ever conducted in that country, involving 2,869 interviews about young people's childhood experiences. Of the 11% of respondents who reported physical abuse, nearly half (49%) indicated that their mothers were the perpetrators of violence. Violence took the forms of knocking down the child, burning, threatening with a knife or a gun, kicking hard, shaking, or hitting with a fist or a hard implement. Another 40% of the respondents identified their attackers as their fathers. Some Experts Say Social Factors Cause Abuse by Mothers Straus and Smith, in "Family Patterns and Child Abuse," found that women are as likely, if not more likely, as men to abuse their children. The authors believed child abuse by women could be explained in terms of social factors rather than psychological factors. Women are more likely to abuse their children because they are more likely to have much greater responsibility for raising the children, which means that they are more exposed to the trials and frustrations of child rearing. Women spend more "time at risk" while tending to their children. "Time at risk" refers to the time a potential abuser spends with the victim. This would apply to any form of domestic violence, such as spousal abuse and elder abuse. For example, elderly people are more likely to experience abuse from each other, not from a caregiver, if one is present. This is not because elderly couples are more violent than caregivers, but because they spend more time with each other. Risk Factors and Chronic Child Maltreatment by Mothers To determine the connection between psychological risk factors for child maltreatment and chronic maltreatment, researchers conducted interviews and tests of a group of abusive mothers in Quebec, Canada, on three separate occasions: during the initial recruitment for an intervention program, two years later at the end of the program, and four years after the initial recruitment as a follow-up (Louise S. Ethier, Germain Couture, and Carl Lacharité, "Risk Factors Associated with the Chronicity of High Potential for Child Abuse and Neglect," Journal of Family Violence, vol. 19, no. 1, February 2004). Fifty-six mothers were evaluated: twenty-one mothers whose files at the social agencies had been closed for at least four months (transitory problems group) and thirty-five mothers who were still abusive (chronic group). The risk factors were categorized into two general groups: the mother's history and her characteristics as an adult. The mother's history included placement in foster care, childhood sexual abuse, running away from home in her teens, break-ups with parental relationships, parental unavailability, neglect, and physical violence. The mother's adult characteristics included family unemployment, limited social support, past intimate partner violence, low level of intellectual functioning, low level of education, and high numbers of children and partners. Ethier et al. found that mothers who reported a history of childhood sexual abuse, placement in foster care, and running away from home during adolescence were more likely to have chronic problems of child maltreatment. Overall, mothers exhibiting more than eight risk factors had about four times the risk for chronic child maltreatment. Those with a history of childhood sexual abuse had 3.75 times more risk of having chronic child maltreatment than those without this risk factor. The risk for chronic child maltreatment was 3.57 times for a childhood history of placement in foster care and 3.02 times for a history of running away from home in adolescence. The study also found that the following risk factors predispose mothers to chronic child maltreatment: childhood neglect (0.58 times more likely than those without this risk factor), physical violence (0.69 times), and unavailability of and break-up with parental figures (0.92 and 1.54 times, respectively). The authors concluded that traumatic experiences of childhood sexual abuse (77.8% of mothers in the study), placement in foster care (80%), and running away from home during adolescence (77.3%) had adverse effects on the mothers' ability to parent their children. Results also showed that mothers with a low level of intelligence were 2.75 times more at risk for chronic child maltreatment. A total of 78.6% of the mothers showed such risk. However, the researchers cautioned that some studies have found that unless a parent's IQ (Intelligence Quotient) is below sixty, his or her low level of intelligence does not impair parenting abilities. Still other studies say IQ has nothing to do with parental competence. Mothers with a large family were found to have 3.13 times more risk for chronic maltreatment, with 80% of the sample displaying such risk. Here's the link: Causes and Effects of Child Abuse - Abusive Mothers User Comments Add a comment Name Email Body Cancel or Copyright © 2008 Net Industries - All Rights Reserved

My floor is red oad (with "provincial" stain from min-wax and 3 coats of polyurethane) If you want a harder wood, hickory is a good choice (its what baseball bats are made of). My friend has hickory and ash, it is beautiful. Pre-finished is definitely at DIY project! The price per sq foot is the same (I THINK) but you save on the intall. If I were paying someone to do the floors, I wouldn't go with pre-finished UNLESS it was a remodel and you didn't want to risk sawdust in the house. (Altho we added site-finished floor to a room a couple years ago - there are ways to prevent the dust throughout the house) Keep in mind - I'm no expert, just giving my honest opinion!