Covid definitely had a strong immediate negative impact on kids’ education, but the trend of children struggling more in school over time is older than that. Until recent decades, there was an observed increase in children’s IQ over later generations, called the Flynn effect. Children were on average expected to be 3-5 points higher in measured IQ than those born a decade earlier. But we have reversed that trend after peaking somewhere around the 80s. There are likely a lot of contributing factors, but they should all be environmental rather than genetic. So hopefully later generations will be able to reverse the trend again and support their kids’ development in ways their own parents had neglected.

That’s rough. I hope you are able to find something more flexible.

I’m a software developer, so there’s a lot of WFH positions at least compared to other fields. But unless you have particularly good connections you would probably need to get a related degree if you wanted a job at most places. I’ve also heard it’s not a good time to be applying unfortunately. You might be able to try for some WFH consulting work related to your current job. Big software companies will hire contractors for temporary work too I guess, but they would probably still want experienced candidates. For me, this was just a position I applied to a few years ago and was lucky enough to get an offer. I don’t think there’s a secret to it, sorry.

I’m vegan but really missed ice cream so I started getting Ben and Jerry’s almond milk version when it’s on sale. It irks me that they charge for a pint what I could get a gallon of the dairy ice cream for, but there isn’t much selection for dairy-free. For whatever reason vegan versions of foods are pretty much always priced like premium brands. I’d be happy to buy generic brands of stuff in bulk, but instead I look at the price of something and often decide I don’t need it after all.

Yes. I have worked at both and I feel much more comfortable at home. It gives you a level of flexibility that is hard to describe. I can start my day early, take a break for an hour, and resume it when I feel I can give it the proper level of attention. When I was in office, there was a pressure to look like you’re working all the time. It felt hard to concentrate when the expectation was on dedicating the expected time to work rather than getting something done. With WFH, it’s more about getting your tasks done and generally no one cares when you do it. And I can slouch and prop my feet up and have videos/music/audiobooks playing and whatever else I want without anyone knowing, let alone caring. I don’t need to worry about a commute, and all my food and comforts are available when I want them. I can easily handle things like being at home for a package delivery or a technician repairing something or walking the dog or just doing laundry.

That being said, I will admit it is considerably harder to get help with a task in office. You can’t just have someone pop by to look at something for example. You can still do a call or message, but it’s a bigger barrier to overcome. With WFH, collusion for a group more often needs to be scheduled, and you don’t have an analogue for water cooler talk.

Many places that offer work from home also have an office somewhere, so I would recommend new employees go in while learning the ropes, then switch as they become more independent. And some people like having different locations to help switch between work and relaxation mentalities. And it can be nice to get out of the house too. But overall, WFH is much better for me.

Yeah, a bidet alone isn’t enough to get you clean. It does most of the work, but it’s going to leave remnants that need to be wiped. It’s not a matter of water pressure either. Mine has a stream that will reach the other side of the bathroom at full power, but there’s still going to be debris.

It sounds like that comment chain is discussing two different things. First is the piefed default block list, which admins can edit as they please for their instance. Hexbear and lemmygrad are on there.

Second is the lemmy slur filter, which used to be applied across all of lemmy and was not configurable. That may have changed, but it isn’t clear how. But regardless, that doesn’t seem like a complaint about piefed, unless I am misunderstanding.