When we came back from our lovely birthday holiday and I logged on to my blog for the first time I was astounded to see that my last post had had quite so many hits. I hadn’t promoted it particularly well as I was rushing around getting things ready for our trip and hadn’t expected the thousands of hits it had raked up. Upon closer inspection into the world of the internet I realised that the post, which had been about immunisation, had caused a bit of a furore.
I had kind of expected some people to have an opinion on it because I know, as I said in my post, that there are people who don’t agree with me that all children should be vaccinated with the MMR. The problem however, and the reason I had been messaged in different ways, was actually nothing to do with my points or argument for or against. Instead, a group of people had decided that I had ‘outed’ their private facebook group on my blog. Now I did talk about ‘a group’ but all I said was that there was a facebook group in my area dedicated to natural parenting. I don’t ever actually talk about the exact area in which I live and I definitely didn’t mention any names of any groups. The fact these people assumed I was talking about them and chose to speak about it on the internet did point the finger at them but of course it was only their finger pointing so there’s not much I can do about that…
Unfortunately I also received some private messages which told me that someone thought my blog was silly and that no one cared about it. Fine I thought, but you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to!
All this prompted me to delve a bit deeper into the on-line world and I discovered that some of my work had been reproduced on the internet without my having been quoted, it being directly attributed to me or the reproduction having been put in quotation marks – that’s intellectual theft! I also discovered defamatory material had been written about me somewhere and my name was not just a suggestion but in print to go along side it – that’s libellous!
Now, I am a nice person I guess, or at least I try to be. I am friendly and open and honest and I try my hardest to help people and to be kind. I didn’t mention WHO I was talking about in that last post and I still won’t. I haven’t even mentioned in this post if the libellous and defamatory material are in connection with anyone in particular – why would I? It worries me slightly though, that the group of people so concerned with my immunisation post say that I MUST be talking about them as there isn’t another group like theirs in my area. Firstly, how on earth do they know where I live when I don’t know them personally? VERY worrying! And secondly, if there are private Facebook groups how do these people who say they are in one know there isn’t another but kept private from them? For all they know I might have had interaction with another similar group to them… I might even start a group myself! My rules would be you have to extend the same kindness to adults as you would children – not that this group or others like it that I know of don’t have that particular policy too? I wouldn’t know? I’m not a member of one these days!
I won’t be taking down that immunisation post because I have freedom of speech and am very glad that my children are growing up in a country where we are afforded that. I won’t tell you what group I was talking about because why should I, although I would be quite within my rights to do so! And I won’t be taking this matter further – as long as I get no more trouble from it. But… I will say this: It pays to be computer savvy and it pays to take a very hard look at yourself before you accuse anyone of anything and ultimately, if you wouldn’t shout it out from the top deck of the local bus then don’t write it down in any form – someone, somewhere might take exception to it and unless you’ve been very careful about what you’ve said then you might just find yourself in legal hot water!
There’s a saying: ‘When you point your finger at someone else, there are always four fingers pointing right back at you’…
MY LIFE WITH 2!
Well! My baby turned one! ONE! I don’t know where the time has gone? They say it flies when you’re having fun and boy are we! Jimmy joining our family has made our lives even richer and I feel exceptionally lucky to have both my little ones, we mustn’t ever forget how lucky we are!
We stayed at Pontins for his birthday and had a fab time! Florence was quite literally in her element and although we mainly did our own thing in the day time, she loved all the organised entertainment for children and was on the dance floor the minute it started until it was time to go to bed! Jimmy too was rather fond of a little boogie – I obviously don’t make shy children!
For Jimmy’s actual birthday we celebrated with some presents in the morning followed by a fabulously fun trip to Drusilla’s Zoo and finished up with a yummy trip to Pizza Express where we all had chocolate fudge cake for desert and Jimmy had his first ever candle on a cake. It was a lovely birthday and we enjoyed it all so much!
At the time he was born I had my picture taken with Jimmy just as I do Florence every year but I don’t think Florence was all that impressed with not being the one having her photo taken! I said ‘C’mon, you be in it too’ but…
When we came home we threw his brilliant birthday party which was Mad Hatter themed! It went exactly as I wanted it to and we had such a good time! And now I have a one year old and a three year old!
Jimmy seems to have grown up over night! All of a sudden he points and says ‘what’s that?’, he wags his finger and says ‘no, no no’, he waves and says ‘hello’ or ‘bye bye’ and his beautiful way of saying ‘Mamma’ has turned into a beautiful, if Eastender-ish, way of saying ‘Mummaaaaaaay’! My beaut boy is one!! Flobo was very helpful assisting with present opening, candle blowing and general merriment of partying, three year-olds are good at that!
Well, that’s it for another week, see you soon but in the mean time do follow me on Twitter @rocknrollerbaby.
I was not paid for any part of this post.
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