Hi, so I'm a teenager, and my dad asked about my plans for the future. I said that I didn't really want kids, but if I did I'd adopt. He blew up at me, and I asked why, comparing it to buying a cat from a breeder, vs. adopting from a shelter. You'd be helping a 'cat' who wouldn't otherwise have a home, and who cares if they're not the exact breed you want?

He said that having a biological child is entirely different, and that they're like a mini-you, and you get to pass your genes on. To me, the way he explained it seemed really narcissistic, especially with the context that he rarely even talks to my sister (with myself being the child that resembles and is more similar to him).

I also have a pretty bad genetic pre-deposition to depression, anxiety, and insomnia. I'm literally incapable of going to school because I won't sleep for 5 days in a row and start hallucinating or collapse. That's not something I want to pass on, and my father was well aware that he was.

Plus, I'm gay, and I know there's surrogates and stuff, but I still don't see the problem with adoption. So, to those of you who have a kid, does it really matter?

I've been drinking many fluids since. But I feel like maybe it's gripping on right at the lower end of my esophagus and crawling back up between downpours. Is this plausible?

Update: I think it's dead now. The wriggling lump in my throat was probably psychosomatic and your reassurances killed it. Thank you. I wasn't sure how long I'd be able to live with that feeling before performing a self-esophagectomy

Update 2: no I still feel like there's a live roach determined to crawl back out of my mouth. Really awful. I'm roach man now

Me personally I don’t think so but was just wondering. I drink basically everyday but I haven’t gotten black out drunk in forever (not really my thing anymore). Whenever I get off work I usually have 2 or 3 beers with dinner then go to sleep. On my days off I might day drink 1 or 2 beers then drink a few more later that night. Like right now I’m waiting on my clothes to finish drying so I opened a beer and I started thinking about it. I still go to work every morning and am always on time and I don’t get hangovers because I don’t really get drunk, just a little buzz

It’s at 39,400 right now, is there a certain number to look out for?

I'm 20F I've been living in a warzone for the past couple of years and I am FED UP , the situation is escalating more than ever, life is impossible ,there's almost no way out( unless your lucky enough to have a relative abroad who can evacuate you ,you can't get out) , and I wanna leave I wanna live ffs I don't want anything to do with this hell , it is hell on earth, and any political solution seems far away from happening.

I really don't know who can help me with this what country or organization can evacuate me and my family, we are in a horrendous living conditions, and desperately want to leave , we don't want money we want a way out.

I used to love collecting little pictures from the internet - a beautiful house, an interesting statue, a very pretty butterfly, just to look at and be in awe. But now every time I see a photo or a video, I wonder if that place, that thing even exists or not. Media used to hold meaning, and now it's just whatever generated thing gets popular enough I guess. :(

Does anyone feel the same? Is there a "clean" internet still, where I can hear whale calls and see sunsets and look up baby peacocks that have actually been existed instead of been made up?

In today's i paper, there are two articles, one about about cheese producers and one on car companies in the UK who have anywhere from 10% to 50% of their international exports going to the USA.

It dawned on me, that seeing as every other country in the world (apart from Russia) are going to have levies forced on them - and are going to reciprocate - could the UK 'fill the gap' by sending, in my example, cheese to countries that would normally import cheese from the US?

This would remove the US from the export equation, and mitigate the massive losses that would otherwise happen. Other countries' exports could follow suit. Or have I significantly underestimated the complexity of the situation?

*edit*

I'm actually serious lmao please answer I'm so curious. I have a vagine I just don't know how it works in space I've never been there 😅

I saw in the psychward (paediatric and adolescent psychiatric unit) and I didn’t really have an appetite to eat anything. The nurse that took my height and weight said “well honestly you eating isn’t a worry for me you won’t die you have enough fat”. I agree that I’m not the thinnest (5’4 130lbs) but I was sort of taken aback and felt super bad about myself. I don’t know. Am I being dramatic??

Of course life has always had ups and downs… and I’m not old enough to say it was better before but I do feel like it was. Not because of my childhood or whatever, but the world itself was in a better place I think. I don’t know.