We’ve pretty much all heard about default parenting at this point. But very few conversations deal with how to prevent it. Sure, we hear plenty of stories of fed-up moms finally drawing a line in the sand after those obligatory responsibilities take their toll, but how to keep it from happening in the first place? This can be a struggle for all couples, because without constant effort and communication, it’s so easy to go into default mode. But pediatrician Dr. Em (@dr.emzieees) has a tip that can really help. It’s advice she learned when first becoming a doctor, that she now shares with parents during their first appointment—assuming that the child is in fact being raised by two parents, and those parents are one mome and one dad, that is. The advice is this: “If either parent is leaving the room, they need to tell the other parent.” Now, this might seem rudimentary, but as Dr. Em explains, we don’t often see an even dynamic between moms and dads here. Painting the picture, she said, “When both parents are in the room, if mom needs to leave the room — if she needs to go to the bathroom, if she needs to change her clothes — she tells her partner.” Meanwhile fathers “will oftentimes just get up and leave the room because they know that mom is there.” @dr.emzieees ♬ original sound - Dr. Em ? Even this seemingly innocent habit is a problem, because if only one partner, (i.e., “dad”) “can get up and leave at any time and not say anything,” that sends the message that there’s only one parent that HAS to be available at all times. And that parent is, you guessed it, mom. “It’s something a lot of men don’t realize unless you tell them. If mom doesn’t know when her duties are going to start and end she’s just always on duty for the baby,” Dr. Em reiterated. If there was any doubt that this is, in fact, a common occurrence for women, read the comments below: “I had this exact argument with my husband when our daughter was young. I wa sSO MAD that he could just come and go as he pleased, and I couldn't “Hubby and I had this argument when our youngest was a baby. Sometimes he’ led the house without saying anything. 6 years down the round and he would NEVER. Our kiddo is safer d/t this rule.” “Thank you for this! I’ve been trying to explain to my husband why I get upset that he just leaves and he hasn't quite got it from how I’m explaining it- but I showed him this and he said it makes sense and now he understands.” Then again, a lot of couples seemed to have found their way into this healthy habit naturally.“My husband and I have always told each other we’re leaving the room. I never realized this wasn't the norm,” one person wrote. So often in healthy partnerships—especially those that involve raising a human together—rely on excellent communication. It might feel like overkill at first, but it’s a subtle-yet-effective way to consistently stay on the same page. None of us might be born with these skills, but we can all get better through practice.

Everyone knows that cats are distributed by some unknown force in the universe aptly named the Cat Distribution System, CDS for short. Is this a real thing? Probably not but you can't tell most cat owners that. Even if your cat didn't arrive via CDS by showing up in your garage and refusing to leave, the stealth big cat impersonators still choose who they prefer whether that person likes them or not. The felines tend to worm themselves into even the coldest of hearts and there's no other explanation than magic. You mostly see this inexplicable phenomenon with parents who either don't like cats or didn't want a cat but were committed to making their child happy. It's not the child who begged and pleaded for the pet that is bestowed the honor of cat parent, nope. In these instances the cat usually makes it their mission for the begrudging adult to be their cuddle buddy. In a recently shared video by a young woman, you can see her gray short-haired cat has clearly traded her in for the woman's mother. The same mother who supposedly did not want the cat, but this cat is absolutely smitten with the elder woman as the younger one records the betrayal. It's obvious that the cat cares not about the woman holding the phone because the person she chose to be her mom is making her a sari. a gray cat laying on the floor next to a wooden chair Photo by Folco Masi on Unsplash A sari is a traditional Indian garment women wear that is made of a long beautifully detailed, colorful fabric that is draped around the woman's body. This sweet cat baby was enamored with the process of getting her very own traditional garb. Well, technically it wasn't hers but that didn't stop the woman from wrapping the cat like a colorful burrito. The cat just laid there perfectly still with her pupils so dilated that she looks like she should have cartoon hearts coming from them. It didn't stop with the sari, the mom pre-ordered tiny bangle bracelets to fit on the cat's arms and completed the outfit with a bindi in the middle of her furry little forehead. Sure, mom didn't want the cat but it's absolutely her cat and their love for each other is adorable. People could not get enough of the ridiculously sweet interaction and shared love between the two. @mostpyaari and now she’s turning her into a little indian burrito. the baby bangles suit her so well ? #catsoftiktok #cats #cat #kitten #catmom #catlovers #pets ♬ original sound - mostpyaari One person cries, "someone please make a cat sari and send it to them."The cat enjoys the bracelets, "At first she was skeptical but then you could see when the bangles came out she felt pretty!""You can't tell me that cat's face didn't light up when she saw the bracelets," someone else adds."Did I go searching for a cat being dressed up in a sari and bangles? No. am I glad the fyp knows me better than I know myself? Yes," one person writes. @mostpyaari On this series of “mom who said she didn’t want a cat.” (Also someone translate for me pls urdu is hard ?) #cats #kitty #funnyanimals #cutekittens #catsviral #inverted ♬ original sound - mostpyaari This isn't the first time the cat has worn traditional Indian clothing. In another video from April the cat is dressed in a red and gold outfit with a fake nose ring and a veil. In different video the cat is wearing a dress with cheetah print looking very bonita. The little kitty has a larger wardrobe than some grown women and the internet can't get enough. Each video racks up millions of views and the sari video is no different with 33.6 million views on TikTok alone.

The final performance of singer Marirose Powell has people welling up all over TikTok because of the soulful way she sang “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac while in hospice care. Powell performed as Stevie Nicks in a Fleetwood Mac cover band for over twenty years, so the song was a major part of her life. A week before she died from cancer, some friends showed up at her home and asked what she would like to sing. "And she said, 'I want to sing ‘Landslide.' And so she sang ‘Landslide’ one last time," Powell’s daughter-in-law, Sam Xenos, who posted the video on TikTok, told People. In the video, Powell grabs the railing over the medical bed as she sings a song about the inevitability of the passing of time. The song had to have taken on an even greater meaning as Powell was in the final days of her life. “I’ve been afraid of changing because I built my world around you,” Powell sings. “Time makes you bolder, and even children get old and I’m getting older, too.” “My mother-in-law performed as Stevie Nicks for decades,” Xenos wrote in a video overlay. “This was her final performance before she passed the following week.” In the caption, she added there wasn't “a day that goes by that I wish we’d had more time with her. She was truly the only person I’ve ever known to leave people better than she found them. Until we can be together again, mama.” Powell passed away on April 10, 2024, at 62. @samxenos there isnt a day that goes by that i wish we’d had more time with her. she was truly the only person i’ve ever known to leave people better than she found them. until we can be together again mama… In her obituary, she is remembered for her “infectious smile” that “guaranteed to brighten anyone’s day and she was known for her incredibly kind soul and generous heart. She had the beautiful ability to leave all those she touched better than she found them.” In addition to performing as Steve Nicks, Powell released 3 solo albums and worked as an ER nurse. As a lifelong musician, she would probably be more than pleased to learn that her final performance has touched many people. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Marirose Powell (@marirosemysticmoon) "I hope Stevie Nick sees this. She would be proud to know that your mom sung her songs for decades,and her choice of this song was heartfelt," one commenter wrote. "I’m sobbing. God bless you and your family. Your mom is beautiful," another added. "That might be the most touching performance of ‘Landslide’ to ever exist," a commenter wrote. Xenos and her husband, Powell's son, are overjoyed that the video has gone viral. At first, she was afraid of how her husband would react to the clip being posted on TikTok. "I remember calling my husband nervous because he didn’t know I posted it," Xenos told Upworthy. "He was over the moon after reading the comments and seeing people feel her genuine soul from that small clip. He asked me to post more videos of her and they have generated a phenomenal response. She was the most giving and generous person. I would tell her to post her music and she was worried no one would care. I’m so honored to have proved her wrong on that fact." Nicks says she wrote “Landslide” in Aspen, Colorado, at 27. "I did already feel old in a lot of ways," Nicks told The New York Times. "I'd been working as a waitress and a cleaning lady for years. I was tired." She was also having a hard time in her relationship with Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. She composed the song while looking out her window in the snow-covered Aspen mountains. "And I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills / Til the landslide brought me down." Here is a full performance of “Landslide” that Powell gave in 2016 at the Prospect Theater in Modesto, California. Jamie Byous joins her on guitar. - YouTube www.youtube.com This article originally appeared in August

Out of date. The post “You’ve left me”: The album Roger Waters felt was far beyond him first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

Not coming up to their standards. The post “Died a death in some bin”: The Beatles song Paul McCartney called too bad to release first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

It was called "rock and roll's all-time worst day."

It is universally agreed that Joe Biden’s legacy is in tatters. With Trump’s victory, Biden failed to fulfill the fundamental purpose of his presidency: putting “the adults” back in power and ending the movement Trump began. Even worse for Biden, Democrats have pinned the blame for Kamala Harris’s loss on him for his long refusal to exit the race. “The biggest onus of this loss is on President Biden,” concluded former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang. Several liberal op-eds reacting to the election, including one at the Atlantic, simply ran with the headline “Blame Biden.” But post-election, the Democratic Party’s alienation from Joe Biden has escalated even further. That estrangement reached its culmination this week when the president dropped the bomb that he would pardon his son Hunter for offenses he may have committed during a more than 10-year-long period. Crucially, the president blamed the politicization of the justice system for the charges against Hunter, saying that “raw politics has infected this process,” and refused to acknowledge his repeated promises that he would not pardon his son. Outrage echoed from all levels of the party. It was damning and deafening. So much so that, per Axios, members of the Biden family were “shocked.” Michigan Sen. Gary Peters deemed the pardon “an improper use of power.” Vermont Sen. Peter Welch called the move “unwise.” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis blasted the president repeatedly, at one point saying, “This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation.” Arizona Rep. Greg Stanton said, “This wasn’t a politically-motivated prosecution.” California Rep. Adam Schiff concluded, “It sets a bad precedent.” Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet said Biden “put personal interest ahead of duty.” Even California Gov. Gavin Newsom — who stuck wholeheartedly with Biden during his darkest days following the botched presidential debate — slammed the president for his decision, marking his full break with Biden. “With everything the president and his family have been through, I completely understand the instinct to protect Hunter,” Newsom told Politico. “But I took the president at his word. So by definition, I’m disappointed and can’t support the decision.” Newsom, who is ginning up a presidential run of his own, was forced to accept that support for Biden is now toxic in the Democratic Party. The pardon broke the dam on the anger over Biden’s refusal to step down from power and its cost: Trump’s reelection. But the pardon did more than that. It has also prompted Democrats to finally confront a hard truth: Biden’s presidency has been an unmitigated failure. Not in the sense that Biden would have been better as a transitional leader without ambitions for reelection. Rather, Democrats have realized that Biden should never have assumed the presidency at all. In the New Yorker this week, Isaac Chotiner reckoned with the possibility that Biden’s selfish pardon of Hunter was representative of his presidency rather than a break from it. “It would be comforting to think that this nearly final act from Biden is a break from his legacy, and his Presidency — the regrettable lapse in judgment of an aging lion who has given his country a life of service and made it a better and fairer place,” he wrote. The pardon, Chotiner said, “has once again forced Americans to ask whether he is acting in the national interest or in response to private whims and grievances.” This acknowledgment of Biden’s character flaws and weakness in leadership is a long time coming. Since the first year of Biden’s presidency, Democrats have not been satisfied with him and have wanted him gone, though they wouldn’t say it. In December 2021, following a year punctuated by the disastrous pullout from Afghanistan (from which Biden never really recovered), the New York Times reported that Democrats were already chattering about who could replace Biden in the 2024 race: “Conversations about possible alternatives are beginning far earlier than is customary for a president still in the first year of his first term.” The New York Times provided the explanation for why in another article that month: “Mr. Biden’s presidency has been dogged by a sense of failure.” In the first year of his presidency, Biden had only passed a small proportion of the significant spending that he had promised, and Democrats in Congress seemed to be at a standstill. Moreover, many were blaming Biden for the legislative failures. In January 2022, Time magazine reported on a meeting between Biden and members of Congress in which Biden had utterly failed to lead. Time said of the meeting: “As [Biden] was leaving, a member approached him and pleaded, ‘Mr. President, we need a plan.’ Biden didn’t answer, according to a source familiar with the exchange.” Alas, Biden suddenly had a breakthrough in July 2022 when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin agreed to a plan that would later become the Inflation Reduction Act. The law would be used by the president’s allies to tout him as having “achieved more legislatively in his first two years than any president since Lyndon B. Johnson.” However, this plan only came together when Biden was in a weekslong COVID isolation. The Inflation Reduction Act and the Democratic Party’s successes in the 2022 midterm elections helped silence Democrats’ worries that Biden should be replaced. Yet much consternation still remained. One House Democrat told CNN he was concerned that Democrats were overthinking how much Biden had contributed to his party’s victory. “A lot of things went right at the right time to end the year the way we did,” he said. “I’m behind him, but my concern is that they’re overreading just how responsible they are for what came together.” Amid Democrats’ weariness at nominating Biden again, some liberal voices claimed Biden had an incredible record and was one of the greatest American statesmen ever. “Lost in the gloom is that Biden has assembled the most impressive legislative record of any president since Lyndon Johnson,” asserted Steve Israel in the Hill. The Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher told the New Republic “Of course he should run. The very question is annoyingly myopic.” By early 2024, Biden was poised to be the nominee, as he was running nearly unopposed in the primary, and yet Democrats were still in a quiet panic. However, instead of an honest reckoning, more browbeating followed. For instance, in February 2024, Stuart Stevens wrote in the New Republic: “A plea to my Democratic friends: It’s time to start calling Joe Biden a great president. Not a good one. Not a better choice than Donald Trump. Joe Biden is a historically great president. Say it with passion backed by the conviction that it’s true.” When Biden’s cognitive failures were displayed for all to see in the debate, Democrats were forced to acknowledge that Biden had lost it. And when he refused to step down, liberals were forced to acknowledge that Biden was of low character and was clinging to power for his own sake. The New York Times editorial board wrote of the president in July: “Mr. Biden has disregarded the concerns of those voters — his fellow citizens — and put the country at significant risk by continuing to insist that he is the best Democrat to defeat Mr. Trump.” But upon Biden’s exit from the race, any dissatisfaction had to be hidden until after the election. Thus liberals switched back to lauding Biden as an oh-so-wonderful statesman, with the New York Times saying: “President Biden’s decision to exit the 2024 presidential election is a fitting coda for a man whose life has been devoted to public service.” That is, they did so until Kamala Harris lost the election. ***** The only real surprise here is that Democrats did not wait until the end of Biden’s term to stop pretending he was a good president. This will leave us with an unusual two months in modern American politics in which a sitting president’s own party makes their disdain for him clear. The whole disaster is made even more pitiful by the reports that Biden’s mental decline has been accelerating in recent weeks. The Democrats are in for a long winter. READ MORE from Ellie Gardey Holmes: At MSNBC, Rising Tensions Fuel Fears of Collapse Is the Transgender Movement Really Backing Down? COP29 Delivers Huge Reparations to Poorer Countries — But They Still Want More Cash The post How Democrats Learned to Hate Joe Biden appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Canned coconut milk is an incredibly versatile ingredient used in savory and sweet recipes from around the world, but make sure you buy the right kind.