advice please?

[psocoptera]

I've been called for jury duty on the 23rd of March.

This is soon enough that we know that it would be a pretty good day for Josh to work from home and, if I ended up on a trial, would be an okay time for him to take some vacation to take care of Juniper.

However, if I postponed until the fall, say October, there's a chance Juniper might be in all-day preschool three days a week, solving the childcare issue on those days, or even if she was just going a couple of mornings, it would still be a time he could get some uninterrupted work done. (She's not accepted anywhere yet; we're in the visits-and-applications process.) However, it might also be a much less good time for him to need to take time off (if, say, she ends up in the only-two-hours-a-week class), and we don't know the exact dates of his travel schedule.

To further complicate things, I've been thinking that I might try to wean Junie by the age of two, that is, the end of March, although right now she doesn't seem very ready (to me) to even drop down to one time per day instead of two. If I in fact only have to serve for a day, this won't be an issue, but if I ended up on a longer trial, it might be... or maybe she'd just move the afternoon feed to the evening and keep on happily. I don't even know. Or maybe me not being around during the day would actually make it *easier* for her to wean than if I'm sitting right there actively denying her. (Which I'm not sure I want to do, anyways... so far, cutting back on the number of feedings has been more a matter of postponing and distracting, but at this point, we've established pretty clearly that there is A Time when nursing happens, as a way of explaining why we're not doing it at any *other* time, so stopping doing it at that time is going to be a pretty stark change and I guess my best-case scenario is that *she* might seem less interested at some point. But I would like that point to be more like this spring than after that, so... I dunno.)

Anyways. Jury duty. A major part of me really just wants to do it now and get it over with rather than drag it out and deal with the uncertainty of October. But maybe gambling on October would pay off. Does anyone have any insight for me? I'm particularly interested in whether any former breastfeeders have thoughts about how possible weaning might play into going in March - or whether I'm way overthinking it and it won't be a big deal either way.

Comments

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

MA tries to keep on the one-day-one-trial system, which means there's a good chance of it only needing one day, and you'd have some decent reasons why a much longer trial wouldn't be ok. Chances are, you'd have to go in for most or all of one day and that would be it for five or more years. I'd go with the nearer time and get it over with.

[(Anonymous)]

In Massachusetts, you can show up in any courthouse calling juries that day within your county, on any day before the one you're called for, and start jury duty that day instead. This means you can choose a more convenient courthouse, you can choose district court if you want to make sure you can't get a rape or murder case, and you can choose a date that's convenient for you or a date when they're less likely to start a trial. It also means you can go the same day to the same courthouse as someone else you know who's been called for jury duty if you want company. So you get the maximum flexibility by postponing for a year and then choosing your own date and location and just showing up. Court employees do this; not a lot of other people seem to. I did this last year or the year before when I was last called.

[kairon-gnothi.livejournal.com]

Yup; Mr/Ms. Anonymous has it pegged. As does ruthling; one-day really is typical.

When you do go in, try to avoid Mondays or any day after a holiday; cases tend to back up on those days and it increases the chances of being needed all day.

[rave/rant]
Think about this, though...jury duty is not just an obligation, but an opportunity for you to exercise and protect freedom for all residents (not just citizens, either) by intelligently, willingly, even enthusiastically participating in the judicial process, whether civil or criminal. You as a jury member have a more direct impact on liberty, both abstractly and practically, than when you vote in an election. If you think that only includes criminal cases, remember that in the world of consumers vs. corporations, juries are a powerful defense of the people against the sheer financial and political power of eternal, many-headed semi-living entities. Pretty much all of our consumer protections, including the statutes which now exist for our benefit, emerged from juries making decisions on consumer protection cases. I won't pretend that every case is filled with political excitement, but a juror, systemically speaking, is the most democratic person in our republican (small -r-) nation. One person truly translates into one vote.
I think you should plan your life to accomplish it, but consider the inconvenience vastly outweighed by the benefit. You've been called. You don't have to think of the judiciary like a bill collector. Think of it as a neighbor asking for help because his pipes froze and he has no running water. It is inconvenient? Sure! Is there a warm fuzzy glow, there to be found? Absolutely.
[rave/rant]

[(Anonymous)]

Amen to that rant. Participating is also the only possible balance against the petty, vindictive, racist, and/or slavishly authoritarian members of the jury pool, since the overall jury pool (though not every jury) is guaranteed to include some folks of that ilk.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

No, sure. If I had been called before I had this kid, while I was working a job I hated, I would have been pleased. Heck, I would have been thrilled. It's the intersection with being a full-time parent, and, particularly, with the whole weaning thing which I'm feeling somewhat fraught about anyways, that has me stressed out about it. My tolerance for uncertainty, never high in the first place, is pretty much used up just on ordinary day-to-day kid variance; a really important civic duty of unknown duration and nature feels like a big extra thing to be anticipating.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Also full-time parent isn't the best way to phrase what I meant here. Full-time child-minding person.

[gannet.livejournal.com]

No help on the jury duty front.

On the weaning front, I will say that the way it worked with T was this: we'd worked our way down to twice a day. A week before I weaned him to once a day, I told him we were going to stop doing the morning feeding in a week. (We were doing once at waking and once at bedtime.) He seemed fine with that, so I counted down the days for him, and he was fine. No fussing. I did much the same for the final weaning a few months later, except I think I started telling him ten days before the last time. (I waited until shortly after his second birthday.)

Oddly, even though he kept on breastfeeding until the last day, he started struggling and kicking while breastfeeding; it was a singularly unpleasant experience. I guess he was ready to be done, too, though I didn't figure that part out until after the fact. There were no complaints on his part when we gave it up. He never asked for it again.

I don't know if he would have complained without the warnings; he has always done better if he knows what's going to happen ahead of time.

Anyway, I don't know if that's any help or not, but there it is.

[gannet.livejournal.com]

Also, I will say that we had an easier time cutting out the middle of the night feedings when S was the one who went in when T fussed. I suspect there's some merit to the idea of it being easier to cut the afternoon feeding if you're not there.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

That is a help. Although I think Junie would get upset if I told her morning noms were going away in a week, which is maybe a sign she's not ready. But it's useful just to hear some people's stories of how it went for them. Possibly I should actually Do Some Reading, I feel like I did a lot more learning about how TO breastfeed than I've done about how not to breastfeed...

[gannet.livejournal.com]

Well, part of the reason I warned T was that I thought he would be upset, but then he wasn't. On the other hand, they're different kids, with different reactions, so who knows.

[gannet.livejournal.com]

I keep coming back with more. I suppose it's just the way I am. Anyway, here's a helpful starting point: http://www.askmoxie.org/weaning/ . This article in particular (and probably comments) has some how to. (http://www.askmoxie.org/2007/12/qa-weaning-or-n.html)

weaning

[rivka17.livejournal.com]

Lirael has been a very avid breastfeeder but at this point it is sort of an attack of opportunity. If I am not there (work week) she is happy to nurse 1x in in the morning, 1-2x in the evening and 3-4x at night. If I am there she also wants to nurse every 2 hours during the day. we are currently trying to wean her down to less frequent, but yeah they do seem less urgent to nurse if you are not there.

[belecrivain.livejournal.com]

your anon commenters up there would probably not think fondly of me, but I got an exemption altogether last year; my county exempts full-time child-minders until the age of six. (But we don't have the one-day rule, as best I know.)