Backroads

I think most men would be okay with a FWB arrangement but to me the woman is basically a prostitute charging how much her rent is for her services. Not the qualities most look for in friendship 

Ah, yes. The trad wife, hearkening back to those halcyon days of yore when women just stayed home all day watching TV, doing Pilates, and going shopping, while the man took care of annoying things like paying the bills and keeping the cars running. You know, like our grandparents and great-grandparents used to live.

I have a friend who does work part-time outside of the home, but I don't think she has a full set of outside the house skills. 
What they do have, and it isn't the worst option (particularly in their case where she is very much also the homemaker and homeschooling the kids as well) is a rather complex financial plan with a lot of stuff just in her name so that if he dies or runs off she has enough to pay for everything including a training/school plan for a number of years to get herself into the workforce. Hopefully it won't happen as her husband is in good health, knock on wood, and is the quintissential devoted husband and family man, but it's there.
I really don't get not having a plan. 

I’ve been married to the same woman for 20+ years, so this doesn’t apply to me. But I have friends who are single, don’t want drama but want sex, and would almost certainly be okay with paying for an apartment in exchange for a friends with benefits thing.
 
It’s gross and sinful to me, but I can see it happening.  

To be fair, most of the single women I know (uh, three of them. I don’t have many single women friends) wouldn’t put up with being friends with benefits, and certainly would not be a mistress to a married man. So I don’t think it’s common, especially out of your college years.  

In a more civilized era, this was an uncommon though not unknown phenomenon. The neighborhood men (either those local, or those who took part in the families' social group, or those related, or some combination of all three) saw to it that the abandoned wife was treated as a widow and helped out with things so that she could continue her important mission of mothering her children while the men collectively and individually picked up the responsibility of surrogate father to the children. Wasn't a perfect system, for sure, but I think it beats our modern system of the government sending a check and everyone else just keeping their distance every which way.

There’s nothing wrong with that lifestyle-until the man leaves his wife and she’s left with no “outside the house” skills and has to raise three kids by herself. 

And from the man's point of view, why have a "kept woman"? She won't be faithful. and you don't want children with her anyway. What's the attraction? She's a money sink with no connection to you other than sex and (your) credit cards.
I don't actually want to understand this. Some things are better just left on their own.

I don't know if this is new, per say, but my internet algorithm keeps throwing stuff at me for some reason about the rise of the stay-at-home girlfriend lifestyle.
Now, while I realize that the housewife/homemaker stereotype was actually a flash in the pan historically, at least the way we want to picture it and usually the female adult of the house was doing SOMETHING besides watching soaps and eating bon-bons, I do support the general notion of a caretaker of home and children. I think there are many benefits to this: house care, direct and full-tie involvement with children's needs, food prep, errands, even the wild card in the back pocket of having someone a household could theoretically always send to work for money, if needed.
But the notions of the stay-at-home girlfriend vs the stay-at-home wife (or, hey, husband, whatever) seem worlds apart and I'd even say a mockery of that traditional type of marriage. On the surface, it seems the same: you have someone caring for the home. Yet is there any commitment or is it just two people playing house? In the current economy, it really is a sacrifice for many to get by on a single income. So what happens when the stay-at-home girlfriend, without the significantly greater commitment (and, let's be honest, legal protection) of marriage, gets dumped? Why would you be in this situation without a real commitment despite the sacrifices?
And I realize the ones making it on social media rather do have a job and are getting an income out of this, but what message does it send?

Sometimes I feel like the last guy out there in a family where I was always the worker and my wife was the SAHM.  I have to be careful telling stories because of the awkward silences that ensue.
However, I'm hearing a new phrase in social media: "Trad wife".  It's used both favorably and critically, but there are an awful lot of GenY folks out there wanting to live the lifestyle.  I'm ok with younger generations finding it appealing to have the dude be the main provider and the chick be the main kiddo nurturer.  Next year is the 30th anniversary of the Proclamation on the Family - it has weathered startlingly well, and new humans in the US are coming up with some of the principles here on their own without ever being LDS.
But yeah, the "I'll find a man and will never have to work" notion should be dispelled.  The SAHGirlfriend thing is troubling.  ~15 years ago, my bishop asked me to give a talk about the importance of women gaining an education and job experience.  Basically, how the women in our church need to prepare for a future where they'll get married and never have to work.  Statistics, even 15 years ago, stated that most of them would have to work for at least part of their lives.  

What I don’t understand are those people who “fear commitment” but have matching tattoos and three kids together, yet are not married  

I don't know if this is new, per say, but my internet algorithm keeps throwing stuff at me for some reason about the rise of the stay-at-home girlfriend lifestyle.
Now, while I realize that the housewife/homemaker stereotype was actually a flash in the pan historically, at least the way we want to picture it and usually the female adult of the house was doing SOMETHING besides watching soaps and eating bon-bons, I do support the general notion of a caretaker of home and children. I think there are many benefits to this: house care, direct and full-tie involvement with children's needs, food prep, errands, even the wild card in the back pocket of having someone a household could theoretically always send to work for money, if needed.
But the notions of the stay-at-home girlfriend vs the stay-at-home wife (or, hey, husband, whatever) seem worlds apart and I'd even say a mockery of that traditional type of marriage. On the surface, it seems the same: you have someone caring for the home. Yet is there any commitment or is it just two people playing house? In the current economy, it really is a sacrifice for many to get by on a single income. So what happens when the stay-at-home girlfriend, without the significantly greater commitment (and, let's be honest, legal protection) of marriage, gets dumped? Why would you be in this situation without a real commitment despite the sacrifices?
And I realize the ones making it on social media rather do have a job and are getting an income out of this, but what message does it send?

May your page load lag just enough that you end up accidentally clicking the ad link.

Part of some science-y show I watched explained that doorways trigger our brains to "leave the old behind" and "prepare for new" (to greatly simplify).  As we get older, it's harder to recall what we left behind - though going back into the previous room can help.  They explained that if one wants to retain something from one room to the next, one should simply repeat it to oneself as one passes through the doorway.  This seems to work for me.

May every jar lid be just slightly too tight.

May every jar lid be just slightly too tight.

I already hear this has been a good career boost for her, and I'm happy for her.

If you haven't seen Cabrini, I recommend going to see it! It is a great movie!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14351082/
My wife and I loved it. If there is anything praiseworthy, lovely, or of good report we seek after these things. This movie is definitely praiseworthy and of good report.

One concerning incident I was involved with as a teacher was a family trying to get their kid declared disabled in order to get SSI. No one in the family worked (Mom, Dad, and Grandma) and relied on an assortment of programs to survive.
Kid had ADHD, which, if extreme enough, can qualify for a disability, sure.
The parents' strategy was to enroll him in online school to manipulate his school work and use that to try for an IEP (which apparently can help with SSI cases).
Kid didn't qualify for IEP because our only evidence of any learning issue was the parents not sending him to class and then obviously manipulating his school work.
Mom threw a tantrum, then complained in a mutual Facebook group how concerned she now was about finances since they couldn't rely on a 6-year-old's SSI.

I'll get screwed out of about 60% of my SSN because I will have a public safety pension.  There are currently efforts to change the laws that take away my benefits.  Not really holding my breath.

Take my anecdote for what it's worth:
Years ago, wife and I helped put a Utah child molester behind bars.  He was accused of a dozen counts over the span of a year - abusing his niece.   It was an "aggravated" felony because he was in a position of trust.  Basically, extra horrible, carries extra penalties than just plain old child sex abuse.  He pled guilty to one count, the sentence was 5-life.  He was up for a parole hearing 4 years in, but he hadn't availed himself of any of the programs for sex offenders who want parole, so it was not granted.  He made parole the next year, a few months shy of a full 5 years.
I've heard stories of similar sentences for similar crimes in other states.

I think I might try this one. As much as I think Schindler is the man for all he did, I can't watch stuff like his titular movie.

Just finished Season One. Curse you, Backroads!

This is a rewatch for me, but it cycled back around into another viewing: tv series The Booth at the End. Consists entirely, and I mean entirely, of watching people chat in a diner booth. Guy hangs out there, and people that want something come to him, and he tells them to do things, and they report back. Kind of twisted at times, but really a fun watch if you like character-driven stuff.

The fam went and saw One Life last night.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Life_(2023_film)
I can highly, highly recommend it.  Everyone should know the story.  Inspiring and important reminder of how average folks can rise to the occasion.  Anthony Hopkins and all the other actors did an amazing job.  Easier to watch and less traumatizing/extreme/violent/shocking than Schindler's List or Saving Private Ryan.   Excellent movie for older teens on up. 
In my life, as the son of a WWII vet, I've felt the pressing need to preserve and pass along the lessons my dad's generation learned.  This movie really really helped me forward that goal with my older daughter.