My only theory is "she thinks the word survive means something a little more metaphorical than it actually does."

this is why everyone should have twins or triplets first out the gate. You learn very rapidly that they are INDIVIDUALS and to triage what is actually an important battle vs. a preference you have

And who will be selling them these phallic accoutrements? WHO ELSE BUT A WEINERSMITH.

Also curious about whether there was much attempt to tax the textile side of the household economy and how that worked.

Very excited (as a textile nerd) to see what the womenfolk are getting up to next week. I'm especially curious about the way the two sides of the household interact economically - how a surplus of one "gender" of labor could compensate for a shortage on the other side, etc.

Legit thought you meant Pterry was the one who cold shouldered you and was a little bit heartbroken. Glad I misunderstood. :)

Wow. Is that not just... Athena? I'm not sure we DID miss out on seeing that exact face in the world. :D

so MUCH labor too. So much.

there are non-ai brainstorming aids, too! Fridge magnets. Random word generators. Wikipedia random article chooser. Hecking mad libs. Solo journaling RPGs. Picrew character makers. Fill some fanfiction prompts. all kinds of things that let you start putting together stories and then make them yours

Ah, I think you're misunderstanding what I mean by "basic courtesy." I literally mean "the kind you teach to kids, such as my high school students or Hank's elementary schooler." Learning to say "Please do X" is a pretty fundamental/basic/kid-level part of courtesy.

Yes, because it's the context Hank provided. He guessed (based on repeated experience) that that's what his kid MEANT and encouraged them to rephrase it with a joke instead of nagging them. A+ parenting/teaching strategy, and it keeps you sane when you're repeating the same reminder 200,000 times.

also, having taught high school, being treated like a vending machine takes a psychological toll if it keeps happening day in and day out. :D Making them practice basic courtesy is good for everyone.

When an adult says it once, it's probably just a random statement of fact. When a kid walks into the kitchen daily and says it to their caregiver, then they're missing an opportunity to practice the polite phrasing, which is "Can you make me a snack, please?"

I kind of wonder if a few generations of reproducing being optional will select for the people who have a biological drive towards kids. Let the people who don't feel baby fever voluntarily remove that trait out of the population. But there are a bunch of unproven assumptions there.

former high school teacher here: we have to educate EVERYONE and therefore k12 schools tend to assume it's the teacher's job to motivate the students. Also, class sizes - a lot of the techniques for making learning interactive get harder as the class size scales up.