14 Comments

so, so good! esp this part: "I think the bottom line is we are all being asked to pay too high of a price to do this work."

Expand full comment

I love Virginia, and this is such a nuanced conversation! Hard to do in this format - well done. This line is amazing: My work stands, and you can deal with it.

Expand full comment

Yes! I know that childfree people deal with this stuff all the time as well, but I think being a mother gives one great experience tolerating someone else’s disappointment in you, haha.

Thank you!

Expand full comment

Hahahaha so true. If I had one of those “family rules” Pinterest signs in our house, it would say, “Too bad, so sad.”

Expand full comment

Mine would say “I don’t care!”

Expand full comment

love!

Expand full comment

Bless the "Happy Endings" GIF!

Expand full comment

Alex is one of my hungry girl icons

Expand full comment

Thanks for this, and thanks to Virginia. In a previous life I was a comment moderator for a big news organization. Awful, draining, mentally taxing work and our superiors just told us to shake it off. Reading people being terrible to each other day in and day out, watching our colleagues get hate mail, reading our own hate mail, just a nightmare job in retrospect, and it left a lot of debris behind in my brain. Anyone who reads comments needs a LOT of support. And I love this message that however you choose to deal with them is the right way, and we don't all just have to shut up and take it.

Expand full comment

I can only imagine. I hate myself for sometimes reading comments sections like I did Twitter. Confirmation of peoples worst behaviors. I kind of feel sad for publications that still do comments because I imagine they need the traffic even if it is toxic.

Expand full comment

Ok, sorry, this comment is about One Witchy Thing - if you have FSA money to burn, FSAstore.com has some surprisingly bougie

skincare/lipbalm/sunscreen that could be a lil treat. Also, if you want to get a head start on next year, and you have a good relationship with your doc, or (like me), a friend who is a doc, you can probably get them to write you an RX for exercise and get your gym membership covered- same goes for massage.

Also, I love Virginia and Burnt Toast, thanks for featuring her!!!

Expand full comment

If a gym membership and/or massage are things that you enjoy.***

Expand full comment

thank you! This is good intel. I was just talking to a friend the other week who was about to just give up on FSA entirely b/c it was such a PITA.

Expand full comment

Ahhhh best headline ever. Thank you Claire! This was so much fun!

Expand full comment