Maude VS The Divorce (Part 2)

 NOTE: Be sure to read part 1 before you read part 2, I promise it is worth it

To catch up my dear readers (all three of you, you know who you are) I am now divorced. It has been almost 4 months since I penned Part 1 and a few things have changed but not much. Buckle up friends, and don't be drinking any beverages, lest you laugh so hard it comes out your nose...

I put myself out there. Yep, not once but twice. And within about 36 hours I took myself off the "being out there" because I could not handle it. OMG. I've learned two things: internet dating is NOT for me and I am not at all ready to put myself out there. Not at all.

The first time I did it was on a recommendation from someone after a few glasses of wine. Everything seems harmless when you're all warm and fuzzy from some adult beverages. So, I tried eharmony for a hot minute (with, TBH, absolutely NO intention of connecting with or going on a date with anyone) and IT. WAS. HORRIBLE! What the hell was I thinking?!

I don't think eharmony is horrible in and of itself, just the experience was not for me. First of all, you can put in your specific requirements in a potential suitor. Apparently my "requirements" are quite limiting. 

Not a lot to choose from, and also, I am cheap and since this was more of a dare than anything serious I did NOT pay the money so I could see a lot of the profile pictures.  (Yes, I am a skin deep person. Not afraid to say it.)

So once I got my profile up, it was a little weird. It was like walking into a bar full of men who haven't seen a woman in 20 years and you're THE ONLY ONE. Creepy McCreepersons!!! I mean I am sure they are all lovely but I just felt so awkward, virtually speaking.

Potential suitors can send a wave or a wink which, and while this is all via a web interface, it was weirder than being in a nightclub. I must say that I did not like it AT ALL. 

Plus, because I AM truly trying to make up for being an asshole in my 20s I felt horrible that I wasn't reciprocating the winks and waves. I have plenty of emotions in my life, guilt being one of them and I didn't need that hanging over my head for a bunch of men I never intended to meet. So I deleted my account.

Keep reading, I promise this gets funnier!

Fast forward three months. My former husband (again, hate the use of the term "ex") let me know he was starting to see someone. 

My reaction was actually nothing but supportive. His happiness has always been important to me. What I was MAD about was that he felt it important to tell the kids so soon and so early.

His reasoning was that in case someone saw them out together and it got back to the kids. As a kid whose parents IMMEDIATELY started dating other people before their divorce was even final I was worried about the trauma and asked him not to tell them. I still stand by my position, but he told them anyway. 

They are good kids and handled it just fine as far as I can tell. But I kept saying "our city isn't so small anymore, you don't need to tell them, no one we know is going to see you." Remember that statement friends, it WILL come back into play shortly.

Over the weekend after having learned of his news and after chatting with some friends (I need new friends, their recommendations seem to get me in trouble LOL!) I decided to try HINGE, the dating app. I had heard good things about it and thought, what the hell. Mark put himself out there, maybe I am ready to meet some new people, too. I am, most certainly, NOT as I've learned.

Setting up your profile is quick and easy for sure. A few pictures, answer some questions, put in your deal breakers and boom you're done. Once again, I've learned that my very specific requirements severely limit the field of men that I can "match with" which, as you'll learn in a few moments is a bit problematic.

I went to bed shortly after setting up my profile and woke in the morning to several "comments". You can actually look at the men who commented to see if you want to respond. 100% all got deleted. And I. FELT. AWFUL. 

It was like going to a bar, and a nice guy buys you a drink and you walk away to flirt with the hot dude at the pool table who won't give you the time of day. UGH. The guilt!  The horror!

I worked most of a full day that day and had a break to walk the dog, so I checked HINGE while I was out and found even more comments that made me SUPER uncomfortable, except for one which was laughing emojis on a funny picture I had posted. 

I had previously previewed the less than 10 guys that met my criteria and decided a couple of them looked nice enough. I thought if one of them reaches out I'll respond back.

One of them did (see above note about laughing emojis) and because I know NOTHING about the app, I commented on his comment which then made us a MATCH. Oh boy. 

You can only see a first name, not a last name so that was good in the sense that I still felt a little anonymous. It can also be a bad thing if you need to know the last name of the person you "match" with, which in my case would have been TREMENDOUSLY helpful.

Having never been on HINGE before and not ever having corresponded with someone like this I didn't know WHAT to expect. We chatted briefly and he let me know that he was never married and had no kids. I told him I had teenagers and if that wasn't terrifying he was probably lying.

He asked if I had a girl or boy or both and I said one of each I mentioned that the older one had a college basketball scholarship. He asked if it was to his alma mater and I said no, a small private out of state Catholic college and gave him the name. To which he replied, that is Father So and So's alma mater. 

I about shit my pants.

You would likely only know that if you're Catholic. If you are Catholic you might know my former in laws.

He then mentioned he was an alumni of the private Catholic high school both of my children currently attend. 

More shit in my pants. 

He likely knows my former husband's siblings, at least one or two of them...Crap, what do I do next?!?!

So, I let him know as much and that depending on his answer we likely could not be friends. 

His year of graduation? Same as my former husband's oldest brother. 

I asked him if he knew the brother and the reply "why yes, he's one of my dear friends." 

EVEN MORE SHITTING OF MY PANTS. SO much so that they would likely need to be changed...

You have GOT to be kidding me, I thought, my requirements are so freaking narrow the only person I can match with knows my WHOLE ENTIRE FORMER FAMILY-IN-LAW? 

And, also, what does it say that I seem to only attract alumni from the same damn high school. And I'm not even a cradle catholic. 

He offered that I could get a reference check from the brother and I offered that he ought not to ask the brother about me. More awkward chatting. At this point I don't know how to back out because he is nice and I'm inexperienced.

Thankfully, I had to end our chat and go to a basketball game and did not have further correspondence with him until the next day.

Once again, overnight, there were a few just bizarre comments and some pretty forward requests in my little HINGE inbox from other men on the app, all of which got deleted. 

Some of them did appear to be nice but they were either too short, too conservative or mentioned they weren't Journey fans, and right now Journey is providing the soundtrack for my life. That's a hard pass for me if you don't like Journey...

I got SO uncomfortable not only with the comments but the volume of them and feeling that old Catholic guilt about deleting them all. 

I realized, I am so not ready to "put myself out there" nor am I even ready to probably go on a date with an actual human male, hell I cannot even sustain a chat for more than 12 hours on a dating app without running away screaming!

Because where we live does turn out to be a small town (remember me telling my former husband that it's not a small town? Karma is laughing her ass of at me I tell you) I thought I better tell this would-be suiter that this isn't an experience for me but that I wouldn't mind keeping in touch so I sent him a message with my number. 

Then I deleted the app. Which meant that my message was ALSO immediately deleted. Therefore I totally ghosted someone that knows my whole husband's family and the guilt and embarrassment was too much to take. 

Sooooo what does a girl do? She consults a serial dater in her office to ask what HE would do, and then does the opposite of his recommendation! He said, don't follow up, he will find you. I, however, did not WANT him to find me because I do not want to date anyone right now.

In December I deactivated my Facebook account and I deleted my Instagram access (not the account) so I could not find him on social media to apologize for disappearing. The reason is I started my MBA and thought I'd eliminate distractions which now seems ironic that I decide to go on HINGE which is a HUGE distraction, what can I say, I'm complicated.

I did the next best thing: I used my exceptional Nancy Drew investigative skills (AKA stalking) and found him on LinkedIn. That's right friends, I switched from a dating app to a professional networking website. Who does that? I do, apparently.

I sent him a brief, albeit self-deprecating message and apologized for my behavior. I tossed in a movie quote for good measure and he got it, thankfully and sent me a message back in kind.

There are some lessons I have learned through this experience, as follows:

1. I have a type - very sweet Catholic boys who I will completely terrorize with my personality and horrify with my penchant for swearing.

2. I DO in fact still live in a small town where the six degrees of separation is more like two. 

3. There is a better than average chance that anyone I may in the future decide to date, if they are from this city, will know my former husband and his family. (lesson 4 could be that maybe I need to move away when the kids are in college?)

4. I am totally unprepared to meet someone new right now, and I may never be ready. But, I think I know I would rather be set up than try a dating app or website in the future.

5. Finally, Karma is REAL. 

My former husband and I caught up at another basketball game recently and I shared with him the whole entire story (including who the guy was), and we both got a pretty good laugh about it. Nothing wrong with the guy, but everything wrong with ME right now LOL.

If anything, being able to share a story with him like this and us both finding it funny was kind of healing. He was my best friend for 22 years, I'm hoping that doesn't change. 

It is challenging to navigate it all, but I am grateful for the effort we're both putting in on it. Losing a husband was hard, losing him as my friend would have been devastating. So that's the unfunny part of this post, but it is the part with all my heart.

XOXO,

Maude

PS - I have received exactly ZERO dick pics thus far and that is a HUGE relief.

 

            

Maude VS The Divorce (Part 1)

Blog post penned in Sept. 2021 but never posted until now:

If you know me, this new information may come as a surprise.  So let me be clear, many people from my various lives have no idea that I'm divorced.  We haven't really "put it out there" or made any "unconscious uncoupling" announcements.  It is what it is.

To be honest, I wouldn't say I had "get a divorce right before I turn 50" on my vision board for life, but here I am.  That's probably why it's been kept close to the vest.  Who wants to publicly share a total personal failure after 20 (yes, 20!!) years of marriage.  And I DEFINITELY do NOT have "start dating again in my late 40's" on said vision board.  

For the record, I don't really have a vision board anyway.

Short story short, these things don't happen overnight.  And, rarely are they an amicable situation.  In our case, amicable is maybe being a little too optimistic but we're doing our best and putting the kids first and at the end of the day that's all we can do.  But, it wasn't an overnight situation and neither of us was surprised when we reached the mutual conclusion that we should "lovingly separate as a couple and commit to co-parenting our children." #celebritybreakupexplanations

For the record, I will not say anything unkind about the father of my children (I flat out refuse to say "ex-husband" as I find that term offensive for some reason) nor will I hash out any of our "relationship business", after all that's really what therapy is for.

My INTENTION is to do some processing of this loss on occasion, share some of my random thoughts about being in a position of being single and whatever other humorous or poignant stories, or otherwise "helpful hints" I can come up with to maybe give another middle aged divorcee sister from another mister out there a little help, if they need it.

My first helpful hint is actually directed at people who ask me, maybe not immediately but certainly way too soon, when I'm going to jump back into the dating pool.

Not now, maybe not ever? Never say never, as they say. But, as I think about the total package that I am, I don't know who would even be able to handle me!

Plus, I'm still trying to process the loss of a 22 year relationship, all its imperfections, happy memories and struggles.  I think it will take me at least that long to get over it all.  That puts me at, if I'm doing my math correctly (which if you know me is not my strong suit) roughly 70 years old when I'm ready to move on.  Folks, that's a no go for launch.

And, even if I were considering getting back into the game, I would have to try internet dating and that's just not a thing I can even envision.  Like, what would my dating profile even say?  At this stage of my life I'm so uninterested in trying to pretend to be something I'm not so unfortunately I'd have to put the brutal, unfiltered truth out there.  

I think my bio would have to be something like this:

"I am almost 50 years old, I've got stretchmarks all over my abdomen from giving birth to not one, but two giant children.  I'm a little saggy in many places, no matter how hard I work out and eat right.  I run, but I'm not fast, I lift weights as long as they aren't too heavy and I have a list of foods I can't eat longer than Santa's naughty list at Christmas.

I burp and fart.  Out loud.  And I think both of those things are hilarious.  The smellier the better, for either of course.  I am really pretty feral after nearly two years of working from home in my yoga pants. 

I don't like foreign films.  In fact, I prefer comedies, not rom-coms but just straight up comedies with mostly bathroom humor.  Basically I'm a 13 year old boy trapped in a 49 year old female's body.

I am hilariously funny.  This is the truth and I will make you laugh your ass off. But then, twenty minutes later you'll be so mad at me you won't even want to be in the same room with me. I'm complicated.  What can I say?

I like to be outside whenever possible and one of my favorite activities is fly fishing even though I am terrible at it. If you want a River Runs Through It experience, I'm not your girl.  If you want to untangle my line and help me tie flies on then we're good to go.

I'm basic, I'm flawed, I'm nothing really all that special.  Also, you should know, I swear like a sailor.  The F word is something I'm not afraid to use.  

I am anal retentive which means I'm a total neat freak and I like to be in control. If you are messy and bossy I'm definitely not your gal. Truthfully, I've got more issues than national geographic.

I am a hard worker, a loyal friend, and I try hard to be a good person to make up for a lot of crap I pulled in my 20s. I will be trying for YEARS to keep karma at bay...

I love my dog and my kids fiercely, I don't list them in that order because I like my dog better than the kids, it's just that right now since the kids are 15 & 17 the dog seems to be the only living breathing being in my house that cares that I'm alive.

I'd rather go on a hike and watch the sunset than sit and watch TV or a movie. I can quote a lot of movies, by the way, but for some reason I'm not really into watching them much anymore.  

I survived cancer, the early death of my father and a rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis.  And I will survive this divorce.  

Therefore, I can pretty well survive being alone for the rest of my life so you have to be someone pretty goddamn amazing with like a unicorn horn and wings and shit for me to even give you a second look.  HMU if you're down with this."

And, I am not at all sure that the world of single middle aged men is ready for a shit show like me.  I'm loveable, for sure, but a shit show just the same. I will not be putting myself out there anytime soon.

Maude VS the unpublished Christmas Eve post from 2013

Original post written Dec. 24, 2013: Have you ever wanted to ruin Christmas for your children?

Have you ever wanted to ruin Christmas for your children?  I'm only asking not because I'm trying to be funny, but "au contraire mon frere" that is NOT the case.

Today, I want to ruin Christmas for my children.  Yesterday was magic.  Yesterday was the day before Christmas that I've always dreamed of.  

The kids got along, listened well, were an absolute DEEELITE all day as we went and purchased donations for Boys & Girls Aid, delivered the donations, shopped for their father, braved the post office, survived the grocery store.  

They were angels as we finished our holiday goodies, frosting cookies, making fudge & toffee, so good you could hear the choir of angels singing in the background.  I really really really wish today had been Christmas, so I don't have to harbor the memory of Christmas Eve 2013, the day I almost went ape-shit and ruined Christmas for my children.

And by ruin, I mean I wanted to sit them on the couch so they could watch me TOUCH the ELF ON THE SHELF.  I pictured myself picking him up by the small of his scrawny little neck, they'd gasp in horror as I rubbed him on my ass and farted, tossed him on the ground and stomped on his little creepy face.  But I wouldn't stop there.  Nope, there would be even more horror in store.

Next, I wanted to take every last one of their goddamn presents out from under the tree and toss them in the trunk so I could return them or mail them back to the giver.  Then, they would watch me, horrified, as I stripped every last ever loving ornament from the friggin Christmas tree and tossed them in a box.

Every last decoration in the house would be put away.  There would be no trace of the holiday.  And yes, they'd still be forced to go to Christmas Eve Mass, and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (whose name I must have taken in vain at least a dozen times today) only to come home and go to bed and sleep WITHOUT SUGAR PLUMS DANCING IN THEIR HEADS. 

But, alas, I couldn't do it. 

Update on October 14, 2020:

So, well, I am not really sure what happened to this post. Why it went unfinished and most definitely why it went unposted!  We're talking almost 7 years ago so I can only begin to imagine what was going on in my home at that moment.  

As I've said before, my kids can be dicks.  In 2013 they would have been junior dicks, just starting their preparations for professionalizing the whole being dicks to their parents thing.  Ages 7 & 9, that's what they were.  Sweet, innocent little babes.  

I'm imagining that perhaps I needed a Xanax or wine (or both) and that in all reality they were really just being normal every day kids who were gettin' a little stir crazy (like their bat shit crazy mom) over the holiday break.  

Whatever it was they did I can say with absolute confidence that I DEFINITELY blew it way out of proportion and used their poor behavior as an excuse to drink a lot of wine and write a funny blog.  

That's just how I roll, or used to, before my busy life and horrified children (who now KNOW about this blog's existence) got in the way.  In any event, I thought this could have been some of my best work if allowed to finish and post.  So here you go, a half finished 100% crazy post about ruining Christmas.

And, for the record, I love my dick kids with every fiber of my being.  I would literally do ANYTHING for them.  I'd lay my own life down if that's what it took.  

But still, they can be dicks....

Maude VS COVID, "online" school, working from home and the (literal) end of the world

I really don't have to say it, because we all know it, but I'm certain the end of the world is near.  There are signs literally everywhere.  And I'm not one of those super-religious and cray-cray freaks who stocks up on food in my bomb shelter or anything.  I'm just a girl who works at home in her sweatpants who notices things.

For example, just 2 or 3 weeks after the wrath of COVID (plague, anyone?) began to rain down on humanity, where I live there were a few earthquakes.  I mean even back then it seemed a little to coincidental but as they say hindsight is always 2020 so I can see clearly now...

We all got lost in the newness of working from home, our daily commute shortened to two minutes from the bedroom, including a stop for coffee.  The absolute bliss of being able to stay in our pajama pants until noon as long as we wore a neutral top that could be covered with a scarf for the occasional zoom call.  I kept earrings and lip gloss with an emergency hair kit close by so I could put lipstick on this pig at a moment's notice.

The wonderful experience of working from home while we let our kids (on "extended spring break") goof around on TV, cell phones and video games was all too short-lived as schools began to build their "temporary plan" of online school, which, I think we can all agree on now was a total joke.

And before you get all high and mighty like I'm bashing teachers and schools, I'm not.  My kids are just kind of dicks sometimes, and yes it wasn't an ideal situation for anyone but they also totally hosed the entire quarter with MISSING WORK in the end.  How do you ask?  I wish I knew.  

Endless hours to complete assignments after 15 minutes of (sometimes/mostly) pre-recorded instruction and they ended up with B's and C's?  Come ON, if ever there was a time to get straight A's people THIS WAS IT.

But back to the end of the world.  As soon as we all adjusted to not accomplishing anything of value at work (because I was constantly checking to see if the kids were watching YouTube or Tik Tok instead of their classes) and school (see previous reference) the next thing that happened was MURDER HORNETS.  Murder. Hornets.  

The name was enough to strike fear into the hearts and minds of children and adults alike.  Immediately images of a dying Macauley Culkin in that one movie we all saw but can't remember the name of that had that adorable little girl Anna Chlumsky in?  Remember?  Anyway, that whole image just made me sad.  But, murder hornets?  Need I say more?

Eventually "school" ended and I was free to work from home, in my yoga pants, without interruption except for if the kids were A) fighting, B) hungry or C) asked to mow the lawn.  We all settled into the sweet rhythm of the summer.  Slowly but surely we could emerge from our homes and begin to act like stuff was getting back to normal.

And then, snakes.  So this one sign of the end of times is probably just in my little corner of the world but holy shit-ballz I have never seen more snakes in all my life.  Pretty much every time I take my dog for a walk I see a snake.  My favorite kind is the dead kind which is about 50% of the time, the rest of the time my fat stupid dog (who I love almost as much as my children) thinks it is a play toy.  Twice now she's almost been bitten in her fat dog face. 

And I lived in this house/neighborhood all summer last year and I NEVER SAW A SINGLE SNAKE.  So, using that as evidence I'm back to my thinking that we're nearing the end of the world.  2019=no snakes; 2020=snakes...

I should also point out that while we weren't experiencing total famine, there were a LOT of people unable to access food during the massive layoffs and business closures, but even more broadly there were shortages of food and supplies for all of us: sugar, yeast, flour, canned beans and toilet paper.  Which, if you have teenagers in the house you can relate to why running out of TP is a very frightening thing.  

The one thing you COULD buy in abundance at the grocery store? Chickpeas in the can.  Apparently no one wanted to eat a shit pile of those with limited TP resources available.  I can understand completely and I might be the ONLY person making that correlation.  You're welcome.

The final straw that broke the camel's back in my thinking that we're truly in the end of times was the appearance of a salamander IN MY OFFICE, on the second floor of a really dry building.  I did not even know we had salamanders in Idaho let alone in Boise, which is one of the driest parts of the state!

I think what's bothering me the most is that I still have a lot to make up for from my twenties.  I mean, I've spent the better part of the last two decades TRYING to be a better person.  (uphill battle over here) I'm also disturbed in thinking that if the end of the world is really near, what's that going to look like?  

I'll tell you what it looks like in my house: my kids will be at home, watching videos of someone watching videos of someone playing video games or learning Tik Tok dance moves while I'm hunkered down in my office working in my pink bathrobe, at noon on a thursday, still nursing a now cold cup of coffee, with the best bed head you've ever seen because it's likely been three days since I last showered and a months since my last haircut, teeth un-brushed, holey and dirty underwear (sorry, Ma), with my fat lazy dog snoring right behind my chair so if I stand up to use the bathroom I can't miss her without stepping on her.

Yes, that's what the end of the world looks like in my house.  A total shit show.

I'm not really sure how I would have pictured it otherwise, I honestly never gave it a thought until now.  But I really did not envision the curtains closing on my own little sit-com stage at home.  As I sit here typing this I think I should make some personal resolutions to start showering more regularly, at least putting on some pants and maybe changing my underwear on a daily basis.

 

Maude VS Snap Chat

Beware: Strong language and polarizing opinion about to be shared.  Read at your own peril.  Any viewpoints contradictory to those expressed in this opinion piece will not in any way, shape or form change the author’s opinions.  Additionally this piece is not meant to be judgmental or parent shaming.  We are all in this together and as such we should support each parent’s right to make choices for their own children.  Let’s be the adults we are supposed to be. Now, brace yourselves…

F!*k you, Snap Chat.  F!*k. You.   I know that we have never had a relationship, though we did experiment that one time.  I downloaded you onto my phone so I could see what the fuss was all about.  You were confusing, you made no sense and I could not understand the attraction.  I guess I’m over falling for the bad boys.

I deleted you within about 48 hours and because you were so hard to understand I vowed then not to allow my child access to something I myself couldn’t understand.  That was BEFORE I truly understood what a shady bastard you really are.

But really, f!*k you Snap Chat for even existing.  Facebook was bad enough, then we got Instagram which started out benign  but now it’s like a PG-13 version of you.  And the origins of Snap Chat were certainly not born of necessity, but purely a desire to prevent people from seeing things you don’t want them to see.  That’s what journals are for, people.

Personally, I liken Snap Chat and the tremendous pressure from society to join in as the proverbial cliff our parents warned us about.  Just because everyone is doing it doesn’t mean you should too.  If everyone jumped off a cliff, could you jump too?  Remember that? I do. 

Snap Chat IS that cliff that we, as parents, are not only letting our children jump off of, but ourselves as well.  Face it, if this stupid app had never been invented there wouldn’t be an argument about should you or shouldn’t you.

And I stand by the MYRIAD of facts and research that says SNAP CHAT IS HORRIBLE for teens (and I personally would argue for adults as well).  There are literally paid researchers who are constantly designing NEW ways to keep our children (and our society) addicted to these social media apps, and there are no worse ones than Snap Chat.  I stand by this statement 100%. Yes I have Facebook and Instagram (thanks a lot FOMO) but I’m drawing the line at Snap Chat for a million damn good reasons.

Everything I know about it, from it’s original concept of “make sure our communication disappears so no one can see it” to all the awesome features that make kids feel like their social status is 100% tied into an app, the strength of their friendships and their worth as a person revolve around streaks of “snaps” and the number of people who follow them, pressuring kids to allow people they don’t even know to follow them and snap. Um hello adult predator pretending to be a teen…..

And I haven’t even gotten into the normalizing of risky behavior.  Whether you want to believe it or not, social media but ESPECIALLY SNAP CHAT normalizes risky behavior.  When they see their friends engaging in risky behavior they think it is OK, it becomes the “every one is doing it mentality” and it NORMALIZES poor choices.  Snap Chat is the #1 place where kids SHOW they are engaging in risky behavior because in theory and mostly) PARENTS CANNOT SEE!!!!!

Case in point:  Last year in a very frank discussion with some parents about Snap Chat there were three moms.  One allowed it, and myself and the other do not. (That parent has since caved in along with most of the other mothers I knew who were in my camp).

The parent who allowed it went on to talk about how open she and her kid were and the rules they put to utilizing it and that she felt she could trust her kid.  Personally, at the time and still today, I don’t know how you can trust your kid with something you cannot see.  We all want to believe our children are good kids, and mostly they are.  But kids are kids and they can make poor choices.  It’s part of their evolution as humans.

Anyhoozer, at the end of the conversation I continued to stand my ground, it’s a decision I am not going to make, allowing my kid to have Snap Chat.  This parent then sent me an article the next day via email basically in a way (I felt) shaming me for my choice, under the guise of being “helpful”.

Guess what peeps.  Her wonderful child was caught vaping because she and her friends thought they were SAFE by SNAP CHATTING themselves while doing it.  Unfortunately for them, someone took a screen shot of the image and the rest is history.  It NORMALIZES RISKY BEHAVIOR.  I don’t need a research paper to tell me that.  The kids who were involved were, and still are GOOD KIDS.

You think your kid won’t snap or sext compromising photos?  Think again.  You would be surprised and the sad thing is, you won’t know about it because they use SNAP CHAT to do it.  And even if they don’t do it, their friends do so they ARE being exposed to things you might not want them to see.

Think your sweet angel isn’t pressuring his girlfriend to have sex?  Think again.  He’s not using his text app to do it, nope he’s using SNAP CHAT.

Time and time again I have been proven right that SNAP CHAT is terrible for teens.  I want to reiterate here that I AM NOT JUDGING YOU IF YOU HAVE MADE THIS CHOICE FOR YOUR CHILD.  I really hope it works out OK for you.  I do, pinky swear.

But I personally feel that we, as parents, are feeling the “peer pressure” to allow kids to have something they should not “because everyone is doing it”.  (remember my cliff analogy?)

Or because someday they will be out of the house and will be able to gain access to it then.  BUT GUESS WHAT?  When they are ADULTS their brains are better prepared to handle it.  Not well prepared, I don’t think any of us are, but BETTER prepared.

Teenagers brains are not fully developed, their impulse control isn’t always there, emotionally they are all over the place and they don’t have the confidence to navigate the ups and downs of social media. 

And I have had many people say that I need to show my kid how to handle adult situations on social media now before they are out of the house and have all the access they want.  For me, personally, that logic doesn’t fly.  I know my kids will experiment with alcohol someday.  I don’t support, approve or endorse it.  Someday they will be in college (or heck still in high school) and they will drink underage.  Just because at some point they will have access to it, does that mean I should start serving them at home and teaching them how to drink responsibly? 

I feel very strongly that they main reasons people give for why I should let my kid join in are totally bogus:

1.       Everyone is doing it. (there’s that old familiar cliff).

a.       INSTEAD why doesn’t everyone just stop allowing it?  Why do I have to let my kid do something I know is bad just because everyone else does (which I assure you not everyone does….)

2.       You should teach her to be responsible with it now so she knows how to use it later.

a.       I’ve given her Instagram.  She can’t use something I can monitor responsibly so why would I give her unfettered access to something I can’t monitor?

3.       She’s being exposed to this stuff anyway, so it’s not like you can control it.

a.       Actually, I can.  I can MINIMIZE her exposure to risky behavior by NOT allowing her 24/7 access to teenagers and their poor choices. 

b.      Yes, she is exposed,  I don’t disagree. But I am the parent, I can do what I can to minimize it.

There are plenty of kids who use Snap Chat who are good kids, but it doesn’t mean every kid they are associated with through the app are like-minded remember that.  And no matter what, you really cannot every effectively see or know what they are sharing on that app unless you sit next to them 24/7 and watch. Which is impossible.

My last frustration with Snap Chat is there are literally NO parental controls that can effectively monitor it.  NO PARENTAL CONTROLS.  And I know so many parents who judge me to using parental controls.  But I AM A PARENT, so it’s my JOB to do what I can to keep my kid safe, happy and healthy.

If a genie appeared in front of me today and asked for one wish to be granted, honestly I would wish that Snap Chat had never been, and would never be invented.  Ask yourself what good can come from a method of communication that is 100% designed to disappear and be untraceable.  Why would anyone want to use it unless there was something they didn’t want you to see.  PERIOD.

In conclusion, F!*K YOU SNAP CHAT.  Your very existence on this earth is causing a huge rift in my relationship with my children and their relationships with others.  We should not have to rely on a smart phone app for our friendships to bloom.  PERIOD.