@melaniefarrell74 , you write with a personal understanding of both parents and offspring, unlike some other commentators who seem determined to blame the parents. Their ‘no smoke without fire’ attitude ignores the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder in the daughter.   I believe they are the victims and my heart goes out to them. Thanks for your perceptive answer. 

When the fashion for big lips ends, (as I’m sure it will at some stage, like all beauty trends) what will everyone’s overly stretched and deflated lips look like? I imagine they will be wrinkled, like a shrunken and deflated party balloon found in the corner days later! Will those lips need a “lip lift” to restore their normal shape? Or will you be doomed to a lifetime of “refills”just to look normal?

I was a gender disappointment to my parents., and I wonder how much of my personality  was shaped by that . All my childhood I heard my mum say “She was supposed to be a boy,” when discussing me.  I was given my father’s first name,  (fortunately sometimes  given to girls as well). I had two older sisters and a brother, so as the fourth child I was supposed to even out the numbers! I was a real tomboy, climbing trees, riding my bike, playing sport, etc.  I wonder how much of that behaviour was caused by that oft-repeated remark of my mother’s?  Was I subconsciously trying to gain approval and meet expectations? 

How cruel of the “experts” to match Sandy with Dan. Dan wanted someone fit, sporty and athletic who would slot seamlessly into his self-absorbed life. Instead he got poor Sandy, a novice in romance, who went against her family and culture in a brave effort to find true love. A total mismatch, set up to fail. These are real people, dammit! My heart bleeds for Sandy.

Whoops! Cut myself off…..! To continue, my doc says it’s not so but even the expert in this article says they don’t know it all. Has anyone else had the same experience?

I’m 77 and have had three doses of the vaccine with a fourth planned next week. I have never had any reaction from them. Two were Astrozeneca and one Pfizer. By the next day I couldnt even find the jab site. I’m worried that means I had no immune response. My doctor reassures

My deepest sympathies to all flood (and fire) victims. If this is the new reality what are the government’s plans for alleviating future climate emergencies like floods and firestorms? We can’t have a “business as usual” attitude.  Australian life has irrevocably changed but I don’t think our shortsighted politicians get it.

History will call this the age of rampant narcissistic superficiality.  I cry for all my sisters who have become victims of such exploitation by money-grubbing plastic surgeons. Where will it end? Which body part will be next under the knife? 

I’m still fuming about our government’s slow rollout of the vaccine program. They wasted a golden opportunity to get ahead of the virus - and thus I hold them responsible for much suffering, both financial and health wise.  We, the public, have been compliant and done our part, but they sat on their hands and expected that our relative isolation was enough. If you have lost, or will lose, a loved one to COVID, blame the Federal government. They have “fiddled while Rome burned”. What a useless bunch in comparison to our State governments who have (mostly) risen to the challenge.