Message Boards

Well for the past couple of years, I have been involved in message boards. I have met a lot of really nice friends. Even though I call them friends, I have never met any of them, but I still feel like I know them. I hope they feel the same about me. I have seen several people get offended on boards and even seen whole boards dissolve because of fights. I feel like you can talk about something, say parenting, and disagree with someone but still not hurt others feelings. You know we all do not do everything the same. We all have our way of parenting and it may not be the same as another parent. Not long ago, I personally felt attacked over something I had posted on a board. I truly felt the person could have stated what they believed without "singling" out my way. As I said before, none of us are perfect. I feel like even if we do not agree with people we can still respect there views as their own even if it is not how we feel things should be handled. I have truly seen this happen a number of times on different boards and it always leads to major contention. I have always said, I would just let it go if someone did that to me, but you know the sting is still there! I also feel it is sometimes hard to become involved with people who live so far apart. The ones on the board who are close are already good friends (I would say almost cliquey (sp?)) and will protect each other all the way. Here I am, on every board the only one from KY. So, I really do not have anyone who really knows me or can stand up for me. I believe I am a good person, I believe I have a lot of knowledge to give to others and I believe that I need the adult companionship, which I do not get at home taking care of 4 kids! That is why I joined the message boards in the first place not to feel singled out for my ways and feel left hurt. I do not think anyone wants that. I also think message board posts can be misunderstood. Sometimes it is hard to tell what a person really means by just typewritten words. Anyways, I will probably still stay on message boards, but I just think people who are on them need to be reminded to be careful of their words because words can hurt!