Family faces huge and unexpected challenge
You and the grandparents could start by sharing parenting duties (as many families do). Even if you are the primary parents, the grandparents could be enormously helpful, possibly giving you and your husband opportunities to travel a bit.
Yes, this is NOT what you had planned for. Yes, you are angry, and yes, you will mourn for the radical shift in your plans. But this is what life is about. Illness, job loss, random acts of violence -- or kindness -- will turn many of our lives upside down. And making ethical and compassionate choices, sometimes in opposition to your own desires, has to be its own reward.
A professional counselor could help both of you to come to terms with this, and arrive at an action plan.
Dear Amy: What's the rule about taking guest-sized packets of shampoo, conditioner, moisturizer and those little soaps left in the bathroom of a hotel for guest use?
I always thought they were there for the paying guest to use every day, or even take for future use.
Is it proper to take these small packets every day and store them in one's luggage, if not using them at the hotel? This is in regards to someone's choice to remove these items every day during a week-long stay at a hotel.
-- Curious
Dear Curious: I travel a lot. I use these products while I'm staying at a hotel, and then nab any unopened or unused ones to stash for future use at home or on the road. They are often great advertisements for products and hotels, and fit into the TSA liquid guidelines.
Stashing these unused products every day, and then returning home with a seven-day supply of tiny bottles and soap bars seems excessive, but I don't think it is unexpected -- or wrong. If hotels wanted, they could simply charge guests for these items, the way they do for those $5 bags of M&M's that I occasionally grab from the mini-bar.
Dear Amy: "Mentor Over My Head" was a male mentor to a young female employee who disclosed a sexual assault to him. Thank you so much for running a question by a man who is demonstrating his #MeToo support. There are many of us out there. Thank you, too, for encouraging him to continue to try to help her.
-- #MeToo Man
Dear #MeToo: I also appreciated this man's compassion.
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(You can contact Amy Dickinson via email: askamy@amydickinson.com. Readers may send postal mail to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068. You can also follow her on Twitter @askingamy or "like" her on Facebook.)
