Even if the plant itself is harmless, it could have been sprayed with pesticides that could make a child very sick. I don't know how old your child is, but if they are that much younger than the 9 year old they probably shouldn't be playing with him without an adult around anyhow. We had a neighbor who was 12 and my 8 year old and the 8 year old neighbor wanted to play with him all the time. The neighbor's mom would let her son go into the 12 y/o house to play anytime. I said NO to my son. I told him he could only play with the 12 y/o if it was in our yard and I was there. I told DS, sorry, but your rules are different that a 12 y/o's rules, you need to be with kids your own age with 8 y/o rules. That 12 y/o could have been home alone for all I knew. If you kids are the same age, it's time to talk about peer pressure. That you can't say "It was Jimmy's idea" and expect that to get you out of trouble. Use you own brain, make your own choices. Explain to your kids the chemicals that could be on those plants, and that some plants are just poisonous in themselves. Since they don't always know the difference, don't eat what isn't food! Explain the potentional consequences of dangerous plants - nausea, vomiting, brain damage, death.

SD10 has come from a family in Ca. that stops everything for the children. They actually run wild. Not something that I am used to at. Although SD10 is not wild, she is very well behaved, she does retain that "I am the most important person in the room" attitude. She has made progress and as her daddy makes progress (LOL) I think she will do much better. She made a comment after arriving here that sums it up quite adequitly I think. She was dead serious when she remarked..."I'm just not right anymore!"....She had never been challenged before she moved in with us. So here is a 13 year old boy and a 17 year old girl and myself refusing to be told how life works by a 7 year old....pretty funny. Dad would just let her have her way, she ran the show. Having her home for the holiday break is giving me a chance to work on things. She is limited now to 2 hours of TV unless we do a movie or something extra. She and I have played on the Wii together and she spent time at a friend's house. She was drawing in the living room when I came in here to post. I had a long talk with DS16 last night and he is missing the "old" days before I remarried. It has been difficult for him to accept SD's age/behavior. But then of course he was the youngest before she came along. I was quite sad about it, did a lot of crying and then decided that he and I should have a date night every so often. SD and dad could do a date night on the same night and that would give her his undivided attention. As far as extra activities....she is in an extra math and science class twice a week, private violin lessons once a week and church youth group once a week. We do trips to the library.....she loves to read. We also do church every Sunday and she is in Sunday school there. She has a pretty well rounded life. I do want to make sure that I am not picking on her. I know that she is doing what she has been taught and what has worked for her before the remarriage. I have to teach DH how to be part of family and not an outstanding individual so to speak. I don't mean that disrespectfully. Family dynamics from childhood play a big part in it, both on his side and mine. I remember my first SD being the same way and she was an only child not to mention the grandparents favorite. I had never seen adults stop what they were doing to watch a child dance until I met her. She wasn't even taking lessons. I thought...ok...when are we just going to sit and watch her breath!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was raised in a household where kids were to be seen and not heard and most of the time nobody even wanted to see you.

Oh, good grief! Anything can be taken out of context and to the worst degree! I’ve purposely avoided this thread after I initially posted, as some posters made it sound like any parent who helped decorate this kid’s dorm room was crushing that child’s own creativity “Mommy-Dearest-like”. In retrospect, I’m sure there are parents like that. And, yes, some of those initially featured pics of rooms are so incredibly unpractical. BUT, there are so many more, like us, where daughters have grown up learning from mothers who are very good at decorating, and they are absorbing and enjoying it, too. They have their own likes and dislikes, which are encouraged and respected. BUT, they still need and want help with storage issues in those minuscule shared dorm rooms, lighting ideas, and a lot of other ideas to consider. It irritates the heck out out of me that some immediately paint the worst scenario when someone (Me) says, yes I did help my daughter decorate her dorm room. No, it was not some impractical designer room. No, it did not make her friends there hate her or her room. But, yes, it was overseen by DD and her roommate with the colors and art they wanted and chose. We mothers did, though, know what and where to find the storage and lighting that would facilitate the very best use of that minimal space. And, we did it at our daughters’ and with our daughters’ blessings. In closing, there are probably as many normal, happy mom-daughter collaborations as there are non/collaborations. Maybe I’m in the minority, having had a great, fun relationship with my own daughter her entire life. I consider it a blessing, but one that takes work. My own daughter has learned and absorbed so much interior design creativity from me over the years. She could easily make it her career if she chose. And, we love trading ideas still. But, even at age five, I allowed her to make the final design decisions with her own personal spaces. Not all decorator mothers are “Mommy Dearest monsters”.

I've got 4 kids, the oldest is 10. The only times they have eaten in a store while I was shopping has been in the last few years when my local grocery store started offering a free snack size piece of fruit (apple, banana or orange) to kids. Prior to that; as babies in carriers to toddlers sitting in the basket to preschoolers walking along side; I never brought food for them and I didn't give them anything in the store either. If I knew I was going to be shopping and they would be hungry, I would feed them before hand or give them a snack in the car afterwards but not in a store. None of my kids have any medical conditions that necessitate an immediate dietary requirement that can't wait until we leave the store. Maybe I would feel differently if one if them did.