In my first ever diary, I want to talk breifly about a few things that I think about daily.
The topics of conversation will be guns/gun control, rape, military, and bullying.
I wont go in any particular order, so I will go over bullying first. This will be my first diary, the rest will follow.
Now I had and still have my opinions on bullying and some research has changed my perspective on bullying, but some of the other views are unwavering. I had this deep down belief that, all kids get bullied, and whether you like it or not at some point you will get bullied. I don't ever remember getting bullied or bullying for that matter, I am sure it happened, but for me I guess thats how insignificant it was. I had thick skin, I had to, my dad was a cop and if you want to talk about bullying I am sure that that is what I remember the most, was from dad, but my classmates? Nope.
More below the Squigly thing
linkWell my research started when I saw the story of a 15 year old girl named, Amanda Todd, and what she endured and went through, and after her death continues to go through. I can look past the rumors, and some of the facts and part of the unwavering part of this little girls death falls solely on her parents.
This may be where it gets crazy, here is a news clip of her story Link
Part of this girls back story is that she was in 7th grade and visiting chat rooms at friends houses "meeting" new people. When the girls started flashing these boy and men. She was basically extorted into flashing a 23 year old man and thats kind of when all hell broke loose.
He ended up sending every where she went and the kids at her schools bullyed her to the point she had to change schools a few times. THis is where her parents dropped the ball. With the amount of technology out there why wasnt this 23 y/o dirtbag ever apprehended? Why would her parents not limit her access to smart phones and where and when she uses them after this incident? Then she is texting a boy from her old school goes out, because his girlfriend is out of town and they "hook up?" She is 15 how did she get out there? Why would her parents allow anything remotely close to this after the fire storm of half or full naked photos this girl was taking. So girlfriend and a bunch of her friends show up beat her up, then she goes home drinks bleach to commit suicide. WHERE ARE THIS GIRLS PARENTS?
When you look through her story you can learn more about it, but it got me wondering, I have a little girl plus one on the way, how would I teach my girls that this behavior is not ok? How do I keep them from making these same mistakes? I am still trying to figure that out. I am still researching, so I will be prepared when they get to the "I like boys" stage, daddy is still the most important man in their lives until they get married.
I then watched the movie (documentary) Bully. The thing that pissed me off the most about the whole damn thing is the teachers. If you haven't seen it, worth the watch. The administrators are holding these kids hands and coddeling the perpetrator and reprimanding the victim. Its disgusting. These teachers and administrators are not there to raise my kids, thats my job, but it is their job to make sure the children who are causing the problems are dealt with accordingly. Also some of the teachers are involved in the bullying.
So I take my 2 year old daughter on dates, we go to lunch, play at the park, then usually, I put her down for a nap at home (Lord knows if I don't the 2 year old meltdown will happen) and by time she wakes up momma is home. I want her to tell us that kind of stuff, so I can deal with the teachers and the administrators and the other parents if the school will not. It is up to me to restrict or allow internet usage and phone usage, not let her run wild, doing whatever she wants.
I am her dad first, I will be her friend when she can prove to me she doesn't need to me to make those types of decisions for her.
The movie bully and Amanda Todd's story opened my eyes to what is happening these days with these kids and I don't like it. Parents need to pull our heads out of wherever we have them stuck and realize, kids have way to much access to the stuff online that maybe they shouldn't, and we fuel the fire by not dealing with it, becasue we still wanna be cool like we were in highschool and college. Be a parent not a friend, and maybe we can keep these children from killing themselves. It falls on the parents everytime. The victims parents and the bullys parents, that is the simple truth.