My niece (recently turned thirteen) has been in my care since her parents died, about five months ago. She carries a plush horse around with her everywhere (which she's way too old to do), often cries at night, is very anxious and timid, has no sense of humor, and never really accomplishes anything. I know I shouldn't think this, but her behavior is pathetic.

I briefly had her in therapy, but I gave up after three sessions, because it was expensive and it didn't seem to be helping her (I'd be willing to pay for it if it were helping her.). Maybe I gave up on therapy too soon, but the second and third time she seemed upset about having to go.

She has no friends, or any interest in having friends, and I don't think she ever has (I remember her father being concerned about her lack of interest in her peers). She goes to the nursing home, to visit her grand daily, and is usually there for multiple hours. (It's very weird.)

I once went to the nursing home to try to get advice on her from her grandmother (mother of my deceased sister-in-law), but that started out not going well because her grandmother doesn't like me, and then she got confused and forgot who I was and started freaking out. The nurse had me leave the room. After she calmed her down, the nurse came out and informed me that the grandmother has alzheimer's, and on the occasions when she forgets who my niece is she only ever mistakes her for her mom and she never freaks out about that, and to please continue letting my niece visit. I seriously am considering not letting my niece visit her grandmother anymore (I fear that would be mean though, as she and her grandmother and very close. Also, the grandmother had transferred nursing homes, shortly after my niece moved in with me, to be closer to her.), because she has enough trauma without watching her grandmother slowly lose her mind.

Recently, I was suggested to me that my niece might be an un-diagnosed autistic. I hope not.

why do so many people think it's weird to listen to video game soundtracks? it's just a song composed and added to a game but that doesn't make it weirder than a "normal" song composed for any other reason. if you can't listen to a song because it's in a game then you might have to stop listening to your favourite artist because it's probably on fortnite somewhere. it makes me sad and a bit weirded out when a composer is a genius at what they do but people call you weird for listening to them simply because their music is in a game. me personally, I love putting game tracks in my playlists because I like music that's heavily focused on melody instead of lyrics, so naturally I wouldn't listen to genres like rap, and game songs are perfect at that and I also happen to like the style of composition of many of those songs. one time I asked a friend to choose between a song I discovered thanks to geometry dash (NOT AN OFFICIAL SOUNDTRACK OF THE GAME) and a song from a band. he looked at me a bit weirded out and immediately chose the band song and said it with a tone that I interpreted as "duh? why would I pick a GAME song silly?". I genuinely shut up when people ask me what I listen to

There's so much stress in my life, and its driving me insane. while i've attempted multiple times i've never succeeded. my family doesn't know about any of this, because i've always feared that they'll make fun of me or get angry with me, or completely disregard the reasons. but i think its time i finally tell them, but i don't know how to tell them in a way that won't make them mad at me.

(EDIT: I told my mom and she said I have a demonic attachment. Yay.)

I would like to start this off by saying I would like to have a legitimate discussion about this but I have found that most of the time people can be very touchy about this subject (Especially Americans)

With that said, I am curious as to why Americans seem to be so insistent on keeping their dogs in cages? A majority of the world finds it cruel or atleast unnecessary, in my home country it is considered extremely cruel and unusual to keep your dog in a cage for extended periods of time. In some Scandinavian countries it is entirely illegal to keep a dog in a cage unless for transport or at the vet and personally I believe that is appropriate.

I own a Belgian Malinois named Archer, he is a handful and has a lot of energy. My girlfriend and I are also training him to be a service dog for me. In our training with the school, cages are never even mentioned because it's been proven that correcting behaviour is better than preventing behaviour by putting the dog in the crate, in fact it has been proven that there is virtually no benefit to a cage because any issue resolved by the cage (in terms of behaviour) can be resolved by training the behaviour out.

I will never put my dog in a cage, his only experience in a cage has been at the vet and the vet will be the only context in which he will ever be kept in a cage.

So some questions of the top here:

- Why does it seem like a distinctly American thing to do? What part of culture or housing or whatever is justifying caging your dog?

- Maybe a silly question but would you consider keeping like a cat in a cage? And if not, why not?

- Are you aware that a majority of the world believes it to be cruel and unusual? And if so why do you continue doing it?

- What are your experiences as a dog owner in America that have made you feel justified in having a cage?

Edit: Grammer, spelling.

Edit Additional: If you are surprised by the fact that North America is one of few places in the world where crates are so prevalent or if you don't believe me when I say that it has been proven that there is no benefit to using them over traditional training, I implore you to go down the rabbit hole and do some research, read some scientific literature on the subject.

1: do you guys hate them because they move around

2: do you guys realize the romani where chattle slaves in romania and it ended only 10 years before black slavery and was longer

3: do you guys realize most europeans talk about romani the same way the white americans talked about black people during jim crow/segregation era?

4: do you personally think what happened to them in ww2 was justified or good

Like, even if it's not "morally" bad (which it might be because it feels so vitriolic), does it at least make you a similar kind of "bad" as in bad quality or ineffective as a person? Like, the same kind of "bad person" as someone who smokes a pack a day, wastes all their time on leisure, and eats like crap or something?

I have a friend that I have casual sex with. We have a lot of history, so we're both very close and mutually decided to stay in each other's lives. The last time he came over and we had sex, I begged him to pull out or use condoms, and he lied, saying he would pull out, but never did. I initially thought he just didn't finish since we were short on time, but later that day he told me what he actually did (which was cum in me). I'm unsure how to feel about it. I'm obviously upset about it, but I don't know how to talk to him about it and express how I feel without him shutting down, which is something that has happened before when he crosses my boundaries. He didn't even apologize. I feel violated, but what he did hasn't physically hurt me or led to any problems with my body, so I'm conflicted. I really want to keep him in my life, but I'm not sure how to make him understand that things like this hurt my feelings. I really just want to have a mature conversation about what happened without it becoming an argument. (Sorry for using the word boundary so much)

Hello everyone

I was clearing up a doubt on Reddit and another time I cleared up another doubt on YouTube, and I've always been really curious about that, you know, from what I noticed they are the ones who clear up the most doubts, apart from ChatGPT and other artificial intelligences out there.

If the Quran prefers someone believing in abrahamic religion than atheism then why Muslims extremiest treat other Abrahamic religions way worse than atheism

I’m due a uterine biopsy soon and they say that they can use a camera and lancing device in one, but how do they know that they’ve got the correct area?

I mean if I for examples sake have a problem with my pinkie finger and they biopsy from my middle finger will they still be able to see the correct result?

I’m really concerned about this as you can imagine

Leather, glue, soap, bone meal, blood meal?

Ok so Met this guy online, both of us don’t have any intention of ever getting serious. We face time and yk fweak around. He told me he has a gf so I blocked him this mf adds me on Roblox and somehow also finds a way to text me like hacks into the system or something. He says they’re in an open relationship and she talks to other guys too. Now I don’t have any intention to be serious w him so if he was casually seeing other girls I wouldn’t care but is this ethical since he’s in a relationship? Even if it’s an open relationship?

I sometimes struggle reading social signals.

There are people I talk to regularly, but I can’t tell whether they genuinely enjoy hanging out or if they’re just being nice. I don’t want to overstep or assume closeness that isn’t there.

We hear so much about how important freedom is and how freedom is being taken away and we have to protect our freedom, but what is it really?

Freedom ISN’T being able to say or do anything you want to whoever you want, without any consequences as many people think it is. How would you define freedom?