We may move to Idaho

The way things seem to be heading down the toilet around here, I'm considering building myself a compound in a remote part of Idaho. The news is just depressing. Kids shooting each other in the street,  robbing houses, stealing cars... the list goes on and on and I live in a rural area! Thank goodness most of this foolishness goes on in town and not in the sticks where we live. I am serious when I say that if Louisville would get a Wal Mart, I wouldn't go past Rhodes grocery again. That's where I turn off of Hwy 24 to go to Edmund Burke Academy on this side of Waynesboro, a.k.a Compton Lite.

What really annoys me is that the mothers of these little hellions have been blaming the government, the police, the school system and everyone else for their kids' behavior since they were born. "Ms so and so picked on him," "This school hates boys", "they don't understand my baby"... etc. Give me a break lady. At what point do you start to recognize that the common denominator is your little terrorist?

I've just stopped watching the news.  So of course today I am READING the news in the New York Times and there is an article there regarding cyber-bullying.  All I could say was "wow". Texting each other horrible things (we do not allow our children to have cell phones), harassing each other on facebook (we don't allow the kids to have a facebook account), and generally being little jerks to each other. These are well educated kids with well educated parents who are acting every bit as thuggish as the dirt poor kids stealing from someone's garage. Personally I'd rather have someone steal my lawnmower than terrorize my children online. I'm not condemning parents for allowing these things. I have several friends who allow cell phones and facebook and are what I consider to be excellent parents. It's just a personal decision I suppose. Ali and Addie are never without us except when they're at school. EBA has an excellent parent communication system.  Why do they need a phone? Who would they call? Pete and I are not comfortable with it at this point. That might change. Might not.

A few weeks ago Ali Grace asked us for a Facebook account just to play farmville. I told her I'd discuss it with her Dad. Pete and I discussed it and decided against it. She was very understanding and Pete allows her to play Farmville on HIS Facebook account. A few days ago Ali told us she'd like to have a laptop so she could play on the computer in her bedroom. That was a big NO for us. We have a desktop computer in the office and I feel strongly about kids using a computer only in a public place. I think Ali may think her parents are dinosaurs from the stone age, but that's okay. I have explained to her that her well being is the most important thing to us and that one day she'll understand EXACTLY where we're coming from. She replied "I know- when I'm a mom I'll get it".  : ) So far the only ground we've ceded to technology is email. Ali has an email account that I check here and there. Maybe we're behind the curve- or maybe we're WAY ahead of it.

Here's a link to the NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/us/05bully.html?pagewanted=1&hp