Why weren't the parents paying attention?

"Why weren't the parents paying attention?"  Early this October on boards, and comments on newspapers articles the internet screamed with this question. The parents in question were parents of two teenage girls who have been accused of cyber-bullying another teenager who eventually committed suicide. 

Interviews with both parents of the bullying victim and the bullies found that they all checked their child's Facebook page. All of them thought they were monitoring their child's social media habits and messages. All of them were wrong. None were aware of the messages that were being sent through other social media avenues such as Kik messenger and ask.fm.

When reading the news-articles I had to ask myself, "Would I have known?" Unfortunately the answer would have been no. I like to think of myself as at least competent in the area of technology. Reading through the list of social media apps that were used I did not recognize a majority of them. Upon further research I found articles describing the newest "generation" of social media. Apps such as Pheed, Wanelo , or 4chan have never even entered into my field of awareness. Even a casual perusal of the websites and apps show that they all have active populations. Even more disturbing was how easy it is on many of these apps to access inappropriate content. 

Andrew is only fifteen months old, so it's a little early for me to start worrying about his social media habits. That doesn't stop me though. He is growing up in a world that is increasing connected through media. Eliminating the use of social media is impractical. For better or worse it is becoming more and more integrated into our everyday world. I won't be able to monitor every single website or app that Andrew ever looks at. How do I as a parent allow my child to participate in media community while at the same time protecting them? I don't see easy answers. I'm sure it's a question that I'm going to struggle with for the next thirty years or so.

Buckets and leaves

A few days ago Andrew and I went out into the backyard. Andrew grabbed the bucket and ran into the yard. Fortunately the phone caught the moment.

Andrew's first trunk or treat

Last year Andrew went trick or treating;  he didn't understand it nor did he get to eat the candy that was obtained. This year is going to be different. Andrew knows what candy is. In fact, he will instantly want anything that has a crinkly wrapper.He will want to eat at least some of the candy that he gets this year. This is a sad fact for Wendy; last year she could exploit the cuteness to score more candy for herself. That won't be quite as effective this year.

About a month ago we had grand plans of turning Andrew's stroller into a pumpkin, dressing Ben up as a butler to push the pumpkin carriage, and having Andrew be a prince. What actually happened bears a remarkable resemblance to what happened last year during Halloween. Andrew is going to be whatever costume we happened to inherit from his older cousins. In this years case; he's a dinosaur...or a dragon...the actual species is still under debate. But it's cute...

It took a little while for Andrew to start to understand trick or treating. The first person we went to gave him a piece of candy. Andrew grabbed it and would not let it go. Putting it his candy container was a non option. It wasn't until we went to four or five trunks for candy that Andrew started to see the potential in the activity. He still didn't let go of his initial piece of candy. But he did start to point, grab, and put candy into the container with his other hand.

Who's more excited for candy, Mom or Baby?

Andrew learns to swordfight

I taught Andrew how to swordfight with a paper tube. He grasped the concept disturbingly fast.

A new addition

We've been talking about it all summer, prepping, getting ready, and telling people. Happily we can say that the big day has arrived and we finally have added a new bike rack to our outdoor gear.

Andrew couldn't wait to go biking once we got our bike rack installed.

At the beginning of the summer, we got a stroller/jogger/bike trailer stroller.We took it everywhere. The fair, Wheeler farm, the park, down the street to Melinda's house. Everywhere.

Andrew in his chariot. "Faster, my servant!!"   

Notice our trailer hanging out behind the falcon man.

However, we didn't use it much as a bike trailer. It took us a while to put a hitch on our little car and then decide what sort of rack we wanted. Some might says its unfortunate that we're ready to ride just as the snow is about to fly, but we like to think that it's fortuitous that everything fell into place just in time for the end-of-season sales. (The Thule T2 is cool. Even Wendy can safely secure the bikes.)

Andrew unpacking the box. Yes, it's just slightly bigger than our car!

Reading the instructions

Let's just say that Ben put together the bike rack, but Andrew was his right hand man. 

It took a little more than a 1 minute 33 seconds to put together, but you can see it all from Andrew's perspective in that amount of time (it's worth every second). 

And, yes, there is clapping at the end. We are so excited. 

http://youtu.be/a75872e0L58

Andrew loves his walks

My mother has been babysitting Andrew when I volunteer at a local children's hospital.  Grandma always takes Andrew and the dog for a walk.

Or rather, Andrew takes Amber and Grandma for walks.

Dare To Share

For one of my nursing classes I'm reading a book called Dare to share. It'd actually a book about presenting. It seems to have a lot of psychological components in it.

For example. The first couple chapters involved naming and drawing your inner critic, reciting a creativity mantra, and setting time regularly for an artists date.

One part also discussed the benefits of free writing. In free writing you respond to a question in under two minutes. The book claimed that this is the best way to improve writing ability.

It did make me think. I enjoy writing and even journaling. I don't do it regularly because I usually think i need to write a novel. Writing a novel takes time.

Maybe instead I should think of writing or journaling more as a series of small two minute thoughts. Especially since I have a smart phone that would be able to facilitate the writing fairly easily.