NotCleverEnufToRedit

My daughter just started middle school, and she said there's a deaf girl in one of her classes. She said the girl wears hearing aids and asked the teacher to look at her when she talks, so I don't know if she's completely deaf or very hearing impaired or something else.

Anyway, my daughter likes this girl and wants to strike up a friendship with her. It sounds like she's already made herself available in class if the girl needs help. Are there any things she should or should not do so she doesn't offend this girl with her ignorance about deaf culture? My daughter's pretty shy, so she already has a hard time approaching people. I'd hate for her to try to befriend this classmate only to have it all blow up in her face because she didn't know about social issues regarding the deaf community.

What are people doing to their Dysons that cause them to break so often? I've had one for 10 years and I've never had a problem with it at all.

That's pretty much how my kid operates -- unless her little brother is involved, then all bets are off.

I too have flown under bridges, tried to fly through a hangar, tried to fly between skyscrapers.

I am not a pilot.

I have a son who's almost 13. He's been in martial arts for close to 3 years and could test for his black belt in the fall.

His school changed management about 6 months ago, and my son has hated going to class ever since. The manager (who also teaches most of my kid's classes) is harsh and has my kid almost in tears just about every time I pick him up.

My son is ready to quit, and he's been so miserable that I'm willing to let him. He really wanted to earn his black belt, but when he learned he wasn't eligible to test in May and would have to wait until the fall, he was crushed. He doesn't think he can stand to be around this instructor for that long. My husband thinks that he should stick it out because not everyone our son has to deal with will be someone he likes. However, I think that if he hates class so much and dreads it as much as he does, he shouldn't have to go if he doesn't care about earning his black belt. It's not like he tried it for a week and decided to quit; he's been at it for 3 years. He hates the instructor so much that he's willing to walk away.

As someone with high ranking yourself and an instructor, what would you recommend in our situation? Should we encourage or require our kiddo to keep going until he gets his black belt, or should we let him be done and move on to other things?