As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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My Mom sent the family a care package for Halloween. It was really nice, and DS was very excited about it so I called her so she could talk to him (in case you didn't remember, DS has a speech delay so when he is excited to talk about something you've got to discuss it with him right then and there or you don't get much out of him at all). Anyway. I call my Mom, and I have DS talk to her and all goes well. And then she wants to talk to me. I don't know what kind of mood she is in... maybe it is because there is a full moon tomorrow night, because my MIL is acting the same way this past week, but as the conversation went on she became more and more openly critical of the way I choose to raise my kids. She's throwing out unsolicited advice and telling me how I "need" to be playing with DD and how I ought to be playing with her... how my housework shouldn't be more important than the kids (Dsis is coming over today so I happened to be cleaning while I was on the phone with Mom), telling me that I need to do this and that with DS, and suggesting that I don't do much with him to continue his speech development (oh really? why do you suppose I called you today, then? Because I didn't get enough criticism from DMIL who I've had to grin and nod with four times already this week?) That DD should have this kind of structure and DH should be at home more to help me, and blah blah blah. UGH. This on the heels of getting a barrage of unsolicted advice about potty training DS from MIL yesterday, and Tuesday, and Monday... oh and Sunday. I just want to scream!! AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!
I know that they mean well... but it's just plain old annoying to have to listen to this kind of crap day in and day out. They both berate me in a one-on-one, but when anyone else around to listen, you'd think I'm the greatest Mother on the planet. What the =bleep= is that all about?
Deep breath. =ahhhhhhh=
Thank you. I feel 80% better now. I'll feel 100% better, I think, if at the end of the day, MIL hasn't called! Yeouch. But it's very true.
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Boogie down!!! __________________________________________________ ______ "Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing. Keep pretending." from The Muppet Movie
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One of my parenting boards has the bean dip response.... Basically you thank the intrusive relative for their opinion and then switch the topic quickly. If you are at a large family gathering (which is where much of this type of thing occurs) you change the topic by asking the person to "pass the bean dip," and then walk away!
Not sure how well the idea would work with you mom, but it does work well w/ more distant relatives!
Maybe you just need to sit your mom down and say... thanks so much for your input but you got your chance to raise your kids... please let me raise mine. Of course in a little bit nicer way.
Then your dh has the same conversation w/ your MIL... NOT you.!!
I know that they mean well... but it's just plain old annoying to have to listen to this kind of crap day in and day out. They both berate me in a one-on-one, but when anyone else around to listen, you'd think I'm the greatest Mother on the planet. What the =bleep= is that all about?
My mother does the same thing. Only thing is, my situation is a little worse - we live together so there is no avoiding it by not answering/making a telephone call.
Thankfully, I don't get it from MIL, but I only see her once a year at Christmas time, which is sad since she only lives about 1/2 hour away. But she doesn't like me and never has (don't know why) and she's always down on my DH - her son. DH says it's because he looks too much like his mom's brother whom she didn't get along with. It's a can of worms I don't want to open so I don't ask. But anyway,she doesn't call us and I never call her. And Abby, being Abby, seems quite happy in not knowing her other grandmother.
I have a family member who always tells me how to live my life and raise my kids. (they don't have any kids) And anything else they think I am doing wrong in my life. We don't talk anymore and at first I was sad, now I am not.
I know the secret to why they act like you're the best mom on the planet in front of others and get on your back one-on-one. They believe your parenting is a direct reflection of how they raised you and your DH. If they berate you in front of others, it's the same as announcing to the world that they raised you wrong.
I get it all the time. Except no one ever stopped my mother from leaving a store or restaurant to tell her how well-behaved my brother or I were. DJ gets that a lot.
Wanna really throw a wrench in the works? Ask them point blank in front of someone else how they like your parenting. Then, when they get on your back again in private, you can, with perfect recall, parrot their "public" answer right back at them. "But the last time you were here, you said..." My mom and MIL know I'm not going to be diplomatic in response to them questioning how I choose to parent, so it works for me because I won't walk on eggshells to please them. YMMV.
My mother does the same thing to me and my sister. We have what we nicknamed the "bad mothers club" as a joke because we can never do anything right raising our children according to her.
I'm so sorry; just tell them you learned from the best and you're raising your kidlets just like they raised you and your DH. That should shut them up. Many, many
Why is it one of the two most important people in our lives is also the biggest pain in the .................???? I always got a long great with my dad...but my mom. Well thats a whole nother story. Is it the mothers job to annoy the children?? Well I do not know. Most moms do a great job of raiseing kids. Where would we be without them? And yet------there is that invisible wire that forces moms to never let go and let the children live their own lives. Sorry no easy answer--I am just thinking outloud. Well there is one easy answer but I am still at work and can't start drinking wine.
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She's throwing out unsolicited advice and telling me how I "need" to be playing with DD and how I ought to be playing with her... how my housework shouldn't be more important than the kids (Dsis is coming over today so I happened to be cleaning while I was on the phone with Mom), telling me that I need to do this and that with DS, and suggesting that I don't do much with him to continue his speech development (oh really? why do you suppose I called you today, then? Because I didn't get enough criticism from DMIL who I've had to grin and nod with four times already this week?) That DD should have this kind of structure and DH should be at home more to help me, and blah blah blah. UGH. This on the heels of getting a barrage of unsolicted advice about potty training DS from MIL yesterday, and Tuesday, and Monday... oh and Sunday. I just want to scream!! AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!
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They believe your parenting is a direct reflection of how they raised you and your DH. If they berate you in front of others, it's the same as announcing to the world that they raised you wrong. 
Except no one ever stopped my mother from leaving a store or restaurant to tell her how well-behaved my brother or I were. DJ gets that a lot. 
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