Category Archives: Family Life

I’ve never read ‘The Lord of the Rings’

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I'm a fan of fantasy and science fiction. I adore sinking myself into a good, thick tome. Sword and Sorcery novels can easily get me hooked so I read the full series. But there is one series that I have never read, and I never will.

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.

And the reasons have nothing to do with its contents or historical origins. It's 100% my husband's fault.

Sit back and let me tell you about what married life can be like at times.

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If you don’t want people to talk about it, STAY SILENT

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I've always been of the belief that if you want an idea to die, then you need to stay silent. I'm not talking about the situations where one needs to take a stand against political injustices. No, I'm talking about the book that you want to see removed from the shelves… or the bit of misinformation that needs to be buried… or the embarrassing events that happened the other night.

The fastest way to ensure that anyone knows about whatever it is that you wish would disappear and never resurface is to tell others about it. And if you share it on social media, it spreads even faster.

In today's post, I want to talk about some of the instances that I've encountered over the years where people just didn't know how to keep their mouths shut, spreading that tidbit of information that they wanted to hide because of it.

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Louie, a Ginger Tabby

The Little Louie Effect

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I believe everything happens for a reason. We might not understand the reason at the time, but there is always a reason. We may never discover the real reason for an event, but if we look hard enough, we will find the little lessons that make us see things differently.

And sometimes, it's the cruel fate that was issued to a little kitten that force you to realize that, even if the choice fills you with guilt, your decision was the best for all involved.

You're going to have to give me a moment here while I set the stage for what will seem like an odd lesson.

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We let them in: “Help me, Mom” scams

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Wherever there are people who are trusting and wanting to believe the best in people, there will be people who take advantage of that trust, scamming people out of their good money.

The con artist can be seen throughout history, starting with the medicine man, who would peddle some miracle cure—which was normally filled with alcohol or some other thing that had no medicinal value at all. And there were the street games, where you attempt to find the pea under the nut. And let's not forget the scam artist that would convince you to invest your money in some great invention—and never come through.

With the internet era, a new breed of scam artist has risen, and the number of scams is on the rise. And the most prevalent scam at the moment preys on parents and their desire to help their children.

In today's post, I want to talk about the "Help me, mom" txting scam that has conned thousands of people out of their money, all because they believed that the txt messages were coming from their teenage and young adult children.

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Guilty

Should Social Media be an Adult-Only Zone?

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Every so often, I encounter another teenage nightmare unfolding on the internet. It starts out innocent, but as the social media machine takes over, it's an avalanche that threatens to bury everyone alive. And I sit on the sidelines, watching all the chaos as society spirals down into another hate-fest.

For years, I've been obsessed with how social media has taken such a hold of our everyday lives. The writer in me is watching every worst-case scenario play out within the digital world, and I keep asking how it could get worse. (Because as any writer can tell you, it can always get worse.)

In the beginning, social media was a brilliant concept. It was a place where people could connect with each other and form working relationships with people who were on the other side of the planet. But as its popularity grew and more people flocked to various platforms, the social dynamics changed. In some cases, the interactions descended into a toxic cesspit needing a HazMat suit with breathing apparatus to even enter. At which point, another platform would seem to spring forth with the promise of a safe-and-inclusive environment.

Regardless of what social media has become, social media and the internet form a huge part of the world we now live in. My children have never known a life where the internet didn't exist—and my oldest is now in his 20s.

Two decades. So much of our world has changed in those two decades.

So, when I see the teenage nightmares unfolding on social media, it's not surprising to me that there is an outcry of people wanting to make social media an adult-only zone. I can understand where the viewpoints are coming from that want to classify social media usage in the same way we do alcohol and driving. But as the number of these negative events grow—sometimes, resulting in the death of yet another teen—there is only one thought that goes through my mind:

Where are the parents teaching their children how to socially behave on the internet?

If you're willing to stick around, I'll do the best I can to explain why I feel that the deplorable nature of social media is actually the responsibility of parents and how I went about teaching my children to cope with the social media cesspit.

It's an interesting tale, involving Scouts, my children, my writing, and my obsession with social media and online behavior.

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