Yeah. I don't think so.

There are four different types of bullying- since y'all aren't actually sitting in my psych class today I will spare you the rest of the power point- and it's prevalent in our society, many times without even realizing it. One of my students was really into giving examples of what is bullying vs. what isn't. I certainly am not an expert, but as an employ of a public school system I am pretty savvy. We are constantly on the lookout for behavior that can be termed bullying, especially when it comes from the world of everyone's favorite timesucker  social networking site, Facebook. Yes, it's outside of school, but yes, it's still my responsibility to be aware of it, and report it. What struck me this week however was how bullying is evident in all phases of life. We may call it something different- maybe you have a friend that's "headstrong", "domineering", "a control freak"- but really, they can tend to be bullies. Hell, I am pretty sure that I have inadvertently bullied someone else in my life time- not on purpose, but let's be real. Last week I saw it first hand. One person says one thing, somebody else jumps in, and then more and more people are throwing around their opinions. That's great, the more the merrier! And then comes THAT person. The one that puts things out there as the end all, be all. In my world, the sanctimommy. Again, I can handle that. Until you use inflammatory language that does nothing but instill fear and generate a knee-jerk response. Yeah, that's my deal breaker. I don't give a hoot what you are actually saying, no one is going to hear it, simply because of word choice. That's the line. Don't poke it, tiptoe over it, nothing- at least, not when I'm around. I was FLAMING. Hopping mad. Angry. Irate. Breathing fire. I was really ready to say things that would potentially have me banned from social networking until 2020- but then I drank a little more wine (hey it might have been kosher but it still did the trick!) and tried to exercise restraint. Which I sort of did, at least publicly.

I guess I'm that mom- loud, brash, and a little wacky- but totally the one you want in your corner.