u/0May_May0

Hi. Until just recently I've only had a male parakeet I found in the street three years ago. For this mating season my cousin brought her female so they could breed. It's been a new experience and I've learned even more about these beautiful creatures, but I'm still very concerned about some processes.

Both parakeets had an instant connection and seems very comfortable with each other and since the beginning they've been very caring with the eggs and babies (apparently the female already have had babies before). A few days ago the first baby bird left the nest to explore the cage, the next day the second one did it too. But there's another one who is still inside. At first I thought it was because they weren't ready, but I've noticed that whenever they peek outside, their mamma or papa would push him back.

Honestly I've been trying to give them their distance during this process (avoiding to touch the cage unless it's for cleaning, and just changing the food and water), especially because the female doesn't know me and I don't want to stress her. And both birds keep feeding the baby in the nest along the rest of the babies, but I'm concerned I'm indulging an abnormal behavior that would be harmful for the baby. It seems well shaped and already grew their feathers, so I don't understand why wouldn't leave the nest already.

For further information (and I'm not sure this could be important) the baby is an albino, the only one in the family.

For the past 10 years, I’ve known my best friend. I’ve seen her go from being a rough person to a sweet and kind girl. We’ve both grown a lot since adolescence and we have a very strong bond.

In recent months, she has gone through a lot of crappy experiences. Her university friend group broke up and she lost contact with other people. I even considered ending the friendship last year because she became difficult to deal with and somewhat explosive. She’s currently going to therapy and has improved a lot, but I noticed that if she was already someone chronically online, without many real-life friends, she has become even more so, and honestly, I think that has significantly changed her attitude toward people. For example, in the last months, she started sending me videos of people bothering others; not harmless jokes, but unpleasant things that could have ended in tragedies or people taking out their anger on children just because. When I told her I didn’t find it funny, she stopped sending me those things.

Two days ago she sent me a video of a girl who told how her friend group made plans without her and that during one of those outings, a friend was shot (the girl survived), but the attitude with which she told the story was very mean-girl-like and she even seemed happy that her friend had been in mortal danger. Along with the video, she sent me a message saying, “I’m the girl, honestly, good the friend got shot.” I immediately asked her if she didn’t think that maybe spending so much time online had desensitized her a bit toward people. She told me no and that she wasn’t serious. When I asked why she would say something like that if she wasn’t serious and that it wasn’t even funny, she said, “I don’t know, I think it’s something normal to say.” I told her it wasn’t and that it sounded like edgy teenager talk.

After that, she stopped replying until the next day at night saying she still thought it was normal, when I told her again my thoughts about she still didn't reply until yesterday during night (and I'm seriously thinking she only did that because she's too serious about the TT streak bullshit). I told her I wasn't mad and it wouldn't be a long serious conversation if she hasn't delaying it the way she did it and I wasn't mad at first until she started doing it. Her reply to all was that she's not going to stop saying those comments because all her friends and family does them and she's not sorry about her actions. That it may be not right laughing about those things, but doesn't feel wrong because she doesn't know those people and in her head they are not real. I got perplexed and just stopped my discourse about morality and basic emphatic because it would be in vain.

Being honest, I’m aware that on social media people feel free to make those comments without thinking, but I think that’s exactly why empathy is slowly disappearing, and I wouldn’t want the sweet girl I became friends with to change and for it to affect her life.