Watched a Movie with my Kid...

This afternoon, I sat down and watched Cyberbully with Jody. I had heard about it when it was put out on ABC Family, then saw it on Netflix a couple months ago. I added it to the instant queue and made a comment to Mark that we needed to watch it with Jody. I would pass it in the queue and say "we will get to it someday". Today was that day. As we watched it, I asked her questions about the behaviors she was seeing on the TV, and how she felt about them. I can honestly say I am one very proud Mama right now. Her comments and reactions were very mature and empathetic to the characters. I am also happy to say that she didn't once say "hay, that happens at school!" She was appalled when the bully's father said that his daughter wasn't doing anything wrong. Below is her review of the movie and what she learned. She also talked about how to prevent bullying or what to do if you are bullied. **The following is her words. I only corrected spelling.***

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Cyberbully is about a girl, named Taylor, who gets a new laptop for her 17th birthday. She creates an online profile. It had wacky questions, like 'What color underwear are you wearing right now?'. While she was at school, her brother hacked her account and posted bad stuff on her profile that was not true. At school, her life changes. She gets bullied. When she gets home, she sees a profile of a cute guy named James. She starts talkign to him, only to find out that he is not real. Her best friend, Samantha, created him, thinking she was protecting him from the wrong guy. Taylor tries to kill herself. She then goes to therapy and a support group that halps her learn to cope with the bullies. Her mom is trying to get a law passed about online bullying. Sonn, she stands up to the bully, backed by her friends. In the end, they get the law passed about onine bullying.

I learned that you should be careful of what you say. If you see bullying online or offline, you should say "Hey, It is NOT OKAY to do this." It cannot be allowed, so step up and speak out.
You can prevent bullying by talking about it, joining a support group, talking to your parents, or best of all facing it HEAD ON.


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I am one very happy and proud Mama! Well, except for the fact that my 9 year old has officially wrote a better piece than I think I ever could have!

January 31...

Today is my biological father's birthday. Sometimes I feel sadness that I never got to meet him, other times I feel anger that he made the choices he did. There are times I want to know the truth and others that I would rather not. Seeing my husband with our daughter makes me happy and I can't imagine him not being in her life. I don't think anything can replace that relationship.

As a child I would have dreams that I would grow up and find my dad and he would be happy to see me. When I was 11, we found out that he had passed away in 1991 (I was 7). I cried a lot, not so much for the man as for the dreams I had that now would never come true. After that, I had a period that I was just plain angry at him. I hated him for making the choices he made. I hated him for dying. I even had a point where I was angry with my mom for keeping us away from him, as irrational as my emotions were, I still "loved" this man that I didn't know! With his passing, we were put in tough with some family from his side. My Uncle Russ, my Bio dad's brother, and a half sister that was about 14 years older than me. At first, we would see them both quite often. We lived in Lockwood and my uncle lived in Pacific Grove and my Sister lived in Salida. After about a year, they both just seemed to drop off the face of the earth and we didn't hear from them anymore. Once Facebook came around, I was able to track down my older sister, but I feel like we just can't form a bond after all these years. We send the occasional text and play a word game here and there, but no "sisterly love". She knew our father more than anyone else I know but we don't talk about him at all. Perhaps one day the relationship will work itself out.

As I grew into an adult, I let all my feelings of resentment go. I looked back on my childhood and guess what I saw? My Dad! We might not be biologically related, but he is my dad. He came into my life when I was about 5, and I still have a relationship with him today. My daughter calls him "Papa Mike". I call him Dad or Mike. He has his own struggles but I know that if I really needed him, he would be there for me, and I hope he feels the same! Between my Grandpa and Mike, I managed to grow up and I like to think I turned out okay!

So, instead of this day being a sad day, I am choosing to be thankful for the Father I was given, rather than the one that wasn't there. They say that a girl will choose a husband like her father, I have to say, I chose one like my Dad, not my father. To me, they are two very different people!