Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you cry alone.

[traceroo]

Today on Facebook, an acquaintance of mine posted that he wants to start running. He talked a bit about some specific goals. It was a very positive, upbeat sort of status update. One of his followers responded with a comment that amounted to, "I wish I could run. My knee can't take the repeated stress." That comment annoyed me. It took my friend's

Comments

[jatrina]

I love you dearly! And I get you! I actually became conscious of not wanting to post about any hardships I'm facing involving being that SAHM with no babysitters at all and no breaks because of another friend of mine, Stephanie. She had one older daughter - I want to say the Beastie was 10 or so at this time. She was a single mom with little support from the dad. And she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Before she knew it was terminal, she had gotten to the point in treatment where she would no longer be able to have children. She wasn't at that moment planning on it, but she was young, and it hurt to lose that possible future, but of course she did it because she wanted to live. She told this group of us that all chatted, and most of us had babies at that point, that she had to hide some of our FB posts because seeing the pictures just hurt too much. But that she didn't want us to stop posting them, of course. She was just hurting all over and that was something she shared, to be clear.

That's really the point in which I promised myself to be more aware of what I'm posting. Though of course it didn't stop me from posting happy pictures of Zander. I mean, I'm pretty private as it is, and I don't like posting my private business in general, and certainly not broadcast on social media. It's just not my style. But Stephanie made me always think about how my words could affect others.

Anyways, I don't believe I'm one of those that make you step back - though it is possible. It is hard. But it is also work I am lucky to be doing and I appreciate that. When I need to vent I tend to do it among other mom friends who are going through the same frustrations - and who aren't going to take a virtual knife to the gut reading it. And I try to find the humor in the frustrations anyways, which I'm happy to share with the world.

Again, I love you dearly!

Love you bunches and bunches!

[traceroo]

I adore getting to be even vaguely connected to Zander through the weekly photos you post -- Please don't discontinue that process. It's such a privelege and delight!

I know people have hard days. I liken it to this: Everyone is entitled to the occasional post in social media about having had a bad day at work. We all post them.

Some people dedicate the temple of social media to the daily bitch session about how much their job sux. I usually put those people on Hide.

A bad day at home is the same way with the kid screaming nonstop and he just flushed the goldfish and poured glue into the Blu-ray player -- I get it. I know some who use social media as their grind for how "hard" their lives are because they get the wonderful freedom and privlege to stay at home to raise their healthy, lovely children full-time. Those are the stories I can't handle -- the near nonstop bitching, the seeming lack of conscious thanfulness and gratitude. I'd find that void annoying in any human being no matter what the topic was -- when it's this one in particular, it's just Too Damn Much.

And it's never you, not even for a second. :)

Love you madly!
T.

Re: Love you bunches and bunches!

[tlm_lorelei]

I completely understand! And while I am on social media *far* more than I should be, and probably share *way * to much, I always try to stay positive.

A bad day - as you say - is a bad day. But when all you do is gripe, bitch, moan and complain, I really don't want to be part of it.

For me what I can't stand is the women who gripe about their husbands. I always feel awkward when moms i know sit around and complain about their husbands -- and the lack of what they do, how they are at home, how they are with the kids, etc etc. They always tell me how *lucky* and *fortunate* I am to have a husband who is a partner and shares the load with me. I'm always quite honestly shocked to find out they do not. So while I listen, very rarely will I disparage my husband in a bitch session.

As for the posts about kids, I don't blame you. As you said, everyone has a bad day now and again. But when the bad days become the norm, I could see not wanting to be part of that.

Incidentally I had never heard that phrase about crying alone. It's a good one, and it rings true for me.