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Parenting Roulette

The Game of Parenting Roulette

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First off, Happy New Year! It’s nice to see you again and I hope you had an amazing holiday season. Speaking of holidays, my family had its share of traveling to do this season and it gave me the chance to notice an interesting game we play as parents.

It’s a game I like to call, Parenting Roulette. The concept is simple, you attend a party with a bunch of other parents and you all herd your children into one room to play together while you enjoy some adult time. The ages of your children don’t matter because they are children and adapt to all situations, right?

Winning the game takes zero skill and a lot of luck. About five to seven times throughout the party, one of the children will come out of the play area either crying or to fetch the parent of a crying child. Now for the roulette portion of the game. The parents all listen intently, with fingers crossed, as the crying child reveals the name of the offending child and then breathe a very loud sigh of relief if their child’s name isn’t called.

We had a pretty good run this season, only losing the game a couple times, but the odds change by the second in parenting roulette so you never feel like you have a sure bet. A quick pro-tip, this game is normally an unspoken thing between parents so if you are planning on gloating out loud, you may want to make sure you are around close friends and not simply acquaintances. You don’t want to be “that parent”, am I right?

I wish you the best of luck in future games of parenting roulette and may the odds be ever in your favor!

Something Made Me Very Angry Tonight!

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I’m not perfect. Not even close really.

I have done things I am not proud of. Recently even.

I guess I’m lucky that my parents taught me the gift of humility and how to admit when I am wrong. This is something I hope to pass on to my kids as they grow older.

Another thing I want to pass along to them, is that bullying is not acceptable. Not in any way, shape or form. I want them to know that it’s not okay to bully someone and it’s equally not okay to get bullied themselves.

While surfing Twitter tonight, my friend and local radio DJ Katherine Dines posted a link from a young girl named Sarah.

I was curious, so I clicked on it and it led me to the video clip you are going to watch right now. Please watch it.

http://yfrog.com/7go3gmlclcauebxjgqcyzjuvz

That brings me to the part where I got Angry. And Sad. And Emotional. Then Angry again.

What kind of human being bullies a beautiful person like this? My mind is aching at the thought of what life must be like for Sarah and all the other kids who have to deal with this on a daily basis. Most of whom suffer in silence.

I don’t want to do the “Blame the Parents” thing for the bullies because I don’t know their situations, but as parents, we have to do a better job of educating our children on the effects of bullying and why it’s important for them to not behave that way.

Admittedly, I’m not up to date on the Bullying Awareness campaigns that are going on around the world. Possibly because I have very young children, possibly because before I found blogging and social media, I was fairly sheltered. Either way, this one touched me tonight and made me think about my son, who starts school next week.

What if it happens to him? I want him to be able to come to me if it does so I can deal with it and not have him suffer alone. Alternatively, I need him to know that it’s not acceptable to do this to others.

We can’t end this problem without brave people like Sarah, who have chosen to put themselves out there for the world to see what is going on and I applaud her for sharing her video.

So here’s my plan. I thought it would be cool if we all gave Sarah a follow on Twitter and let her know that she doesn’t have to suffer by herself anymore. You can find her at @LuckyElizabeth2 and I’m sure she’d love to hear from you!

I realize that’s it’s only one person but isn’t lifting one up better than none at all? No one deserves to be treated this way, no matter what their situation is. Let’s start tonight, with this one brave girl and see where it takes us!

Cheers!