Sunday, September 30, 2012

Memo to my girls: If you EVER do this...

I am generally a pretty mellow person (or at least, that's how I hope I come across).  I'm kind of a "live and let live" girl.  I might not agree with your decisions, but it is completely in your right to make them.  I might talk about you to others, but I figure you will have to deal with the consequences, so it's not really my business.

BUT, there are certain things that get my blood boiling.  This topic came to me a week ago.  I seethed about it, initially opting not to write it.  I don't want this to become a venting place.  It's supposed to be reflections and anecdotes and positive mommy stuff.  I don't have a large readership, so what would be the point?  All I would do is annoy the readership I DO have.  Then I decided it needed to be blogged about because people needed to KNOW about the entitled idiots out there.  And I need to do everything in my power to make sure MY daughters don't do anything like and are smart enough to disassociate from those who do.

One of the moms on my message board shared this screen shot.


One of those people on her friend list who she knew from high school, but wasn't in touch with regularly, posted this at 3:00 am.  If you can't see it clearly, it's a picture of her dashboard, with the speedometer reading 105 mph.  The status is "This was probably not a good idea after drinking...oops!  lol".

So drinking, driving, speeding, taking pictures WHILE driving, and posting it proudly on Facebook.

I'm not sure what bothers me most.

The fact that she did it? Yeah, that bugs me.  But people do stupid stuff.  She just happened to do a lot of it all at once.

The fact that people LIKED it?  Seriously?  I mean, within an hour, she had three people LIKE this status and photo.  Who looks at that status and thinks "yeah, I like that!  Good for her!  Owning her DUI/racing/distracted driving!"



The conversation afterward?  I mean, seriously, as her friend is shocked about it (although she seems to only be concerned about getting pulled over, not killing anyone) she's responding "whatever.  Ur dad was not around so I'm good.  It was fun.  :-)" and  "cops know better :-) lol Im good."  (her spelling). 

All the LOL and emoticons?  It's no longer a problem!  See?  I'm smiling and laughing!

Sadly, probably not in this case.


The sense of entitlement she projects?  As if no cop would DARE to pull her over.  I mean, come on.  She's good.  Any cop can see that.  

Oh, it's you!  Never mind!  Continue on!


I just want to SCREAM at her how stupid and irresponsible she was.  Yes, it's 3:00 am and there probably weren't a lot of people on the road.  But I bet there were some.  What about the family rushing their sick child to the ER?  A woman in labor trying to make it to the hospital?  What about people who may work nights?  Heck, what about cab drivers trying to make the roads a LITTLE safer by driving other people home from the bars?

What about herself?  It's SO easy to lose control with all of those variables.  Really, would that fun night be worth it for her?  Hey, I'm paralyzed!  LOL!

OK, the night is over, she didn't kill anyone, she didn't kill herself.  So it's OK, right?  I should stop obsessing.

But I can't.  Something is still really bugging me about this, and it's that people like this EXIST.  They always have I suppose, but now they broadcast their lives on social media, so we're aware of it.

Someday, my girls will be driving teenagers, and then college students, and then 20 something single girls.  I mean, cell phones and Facebook will probably be obsolete, but I'm sure there will be something for young people who feel invincible to document their stupidity with.  

I'm not saying my girls will be perfect.  But I'd like to think that I'm raising them better than this.  I hope they will someday realize that if they EVER do something like this, all Hell would rain down on them from Adam and I.  And trust me, Adam was not an easy teenager.  We're not expecting perfection.  But doing things like this is a quick way to jeopardize and potentially wreck your health, your career, your permanent criminal record, your LIFE.  I don't care what it takes, we will somehow impress that line upon them. 

But now, another goal is to raise them to be savvy, and help them recognize people like this, so they can make sure to stay as far away as possible, no matter how popular they are.  These are the kind of people who tend to take other people down with them.  And THAT worries me.  Because there are a lot of people these days who think they are invincible.  And not only that, but they are entitled to do this kind of stuff, and get away with it. 

Thankfully we have eleven more years before Madison turns that frightening age of 13, and fourteen before we have to think about her driving.  So we have a while to figure it out.  But if the last two years are any indication, that time is going to fly by.  We'll need to deal with this before we know it, and that scares me!  I hope in eleven years I have the wisdom to handle all these situations.

In the meantime, I guess we are just more aware that people like this are out there, laughing about their recklessness.  And we make sure those car seats are installed well.

Be safe.

My message board friend has informed me that this girl has since removed the picture because of the negative response she got to it.  Maybe she's cursing her friends for being annoying.  Or maybe she actually got it.  If it's the latter, good for her.



3 comments:

Jen Piwtpitt said...

What a complete and total moron. I can't even believe she was dumb enough to do this let alone post it. I'm glad she got so much negative feedback that she took it down. People like this infuriate me. Thanks for sharing.

JD @ Honest Mom said...

Did Jen punch this girl in the throat on her blog? Because DAMN, she deserves it!

Meredith said...

Not on her blog. This kind of attitude ENFURIATES me.

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