Death By Message Board

There have been a few things I've learned, being a frequent poster on parenting message boards over the past few years. I've been lucky enough to be part of a group of particularly passionate women for a number of years now, and I've seen a lot of interesting things posted. One such interesting event happened tonight. It was another case of parents failing on purpose, which for whatever reason, seems to be a trend on my blog so far. A regular member of the board posted a facebook link, one that directly connected to a facebook user's personal picture album. This particular album featured pictures of an infant, not more than a few months old, if that, being unrestrained in a moving vehicle. One picture even showed the baby sitting on the dad's lap in front of the steering wheel, the road blurred beside them, clear evidence of the moving vehicle. Another shocking point against the parents was a picture at the beginning of the album documenting their road trip, the driver clutching a beer bottle and the steering wheel at the same time. That was strike one and two, and no one needed to find a three before reacting.

For a huge group of very well-meaning parents, the images were extremely shocking. I myself was caught up in the disbelief, and the anger that followed. How DARE people mistreat helpless children that way? That was the general consensus. However, not content to simply view these pictures, I, like many others took it upon ourselves to send messages to the mother of the infant. Some were nice, some not so nice, and others were just plain old "How the HELL can you be so IGNORANT and IDIOTIC with the life of a baby?" The post that the original link was presented in grew to three pages of comments, all various degrees of disgust, where calling CPS was brought up, calling the police was also offered.

What amazes me, beyond the obvious stupidity of certain parents, is the ability for people to use sites like facebook to over share and document their blatant stupidity. Its one thing to go off and do something that has questionable morality, but its a whole other level of moron who will then POST that behaviour for everyone and their uncle to see. Showing those pictures to a group of relatively ethical moms was like throwing a lit match into dry brush. We erupted just that fast.

I wonder, if our well-placed anger may have actually made any difference. Is a group full of venomously passionate mothers enough to get someone who is ignorant to begin thinking? Or did the woman in question simply block everyone from seeing her photos and go about enjoying her night? Maybe none of us are that good a parent, we're just mostly smart enough to conceal any photographic proof of our shortcomings! Maybe there are tons of unrestrained infants in vehicles with drinking drivers out there. Maybe loads of kids are getting beaten behind closed doors. What can a truly good parent actually DO about those things? You could lead by example, and hope that people strive to be a good parent like you. Or, you could be a part of a parenting message board mob, and hope that a trial by fire will burn some sense into certain less-than-stellar parental units. Personally, I'll take a little from option A and B, mix em up, and see what develops.