Susan’s Journal

These are my kids–my beautiful, wonderful kids. They don’t have computers in their rooms, and the only time they’re on the computer is maybe for a few minutes on the weekend to print out a chuck e cheese’s coupon. They’ll get older, though. They’ll want to chat with their friends, surf web pages, upload pictures, and all the stuff I do now. One part I don’t look forward to, though, is their first experience with cyberbullying. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. When I was a kid, though you might not believe it, I was bullied all… the… time. I didn’t have friends in grade school, and I hated being pushed around or scared by other kids. This happens today, but more often on the Internet than in person. Why? It’s because today’s kids have turned into chicken-shits. Instead of confronting a classmate, they’ll post death-threats online. They’ll photoshop pictures, put a monkey on the person’s head, and email it to all their friends. Kids started bringing guns to school ten or more years ago, and I thought man, when I was in school, they would just beat the shit out of someone they didn’t like. Kids got chicken, though, and started shooting instead. To me, this cyberbullying is another step in that chicken-cycle, where they have an environment they can say whatever they want without having to CONFRONT the person. I would stand here like a good mom and say it has to stop, but it will never completely stop. We can, though, teach our kids how to deal with it, and dammit STAY INVOLVED in their lives so we know what they are doing online, and what is happening to them online. At least I know someday when my own kids are bullied, they will have me to turn around to, talk to, and get a hug from.

This might not seem like a big deal. Around here, though, it doesn’t rain very often. Even last week, it was cloudy and crappy all week, but almost no rain; then again this week much of the same; but we had one day, one great day of rain. We really, really need it.

Last night, we went to kids-eat-free at Denny’s, and then took the kids to the 50c movie to see Pursuit of Happyness. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it or not, and I wasn’t sure if the kids would like it or not; but they sat the whole way through it, and I really enjoyed it. Well, is enjoyed it the right word? It really had an impact on me. I did my best on the long way home (now that we live 15 minutes further away) how lucky we were to have a home, to have meals, to have a car, all those things that the dad and son in that movie didn’t have. Heck, I didn’t even think to mention how lucky they were to have a mom.

I stopped at Best Buy and bought Happy Feet yesterday too. I’m not sure if other stores are doing it, but if you buy the movie there you get a free sticker book in the package. The kids were fighting a bit over it last night at Denny’s, so I guess it was pretty good.

I don’t know what’s up for tonight… more leftover hot dogs and hamburgers from the weekend cookout, probably watching the new DVD, hopefully a whole lot of nothing. I need a little mental break.

We were so lucky that it didn’t rain. In fact, the sun was actually out for a little tiny bith of the afternoon. Let’s see; in all, we had sixteen people at our house today, and it was a really good time. There were burgers, brats, hot dogs, chicken breasts, salad, beans, queso, brownies, and all kinds of other good stuff. It was great to hang out with family, some of which hadn’t seen each other in years. I hope we can do this again real soon.