A Serious Post

With the advent of social networking (namely Facebook) people feel the need to constantly update others with what they are feeling. I am guilty of posting daily to Facebook but I keep my personal feelings to myself. It would be very uninteresting to others to hear that I am happy today as I was yesterday and that I have little to no drama in my life. I like it that way. I am happy everyday I wake up and kiss my family before I leave for work. The only reason I ever really get on Facebook is because I am stuck at my desk for about 6 hours a day at the computer and it is a good way to pass the dead minutes of the day.

I am concerned with the people who are constantly updating others regarding how terrible their existence is. I especially am bothered by those who have children and they still claim that their existence is flawed in some way and that they should give up. I feel the need to say something in private to these people but I fear it will only cause some sort of discord because they will feel that I am acting in a superior manner.

How can you feel that your existence is worthless when you are a parent? I don't get it. How can you get to a point in your day that you feel the need to tell others that your life sucks so badly that you want to give up, while in the same breath you claim that you love your children? I feel that having a happy healthy child should preclude you from ever feeling so down that you need to dramatize it for all to notice.

One thing that Facebook is is a permanent record that will always be accessible in one way or another at points in the future. Imagine the feelings that your child will experience when he or she reads your posts stating that your life isn't worth living even though they are part of it. I couldn't imagine what I would feel if I came across a writing of my mother or father from when I was a child notifying all of their friends that they no longer had the drive to go on living their life because it was so terrible.

I guess I just don't get it. Maybe I never will but all I can think of everyday is my children and my wife and their faces and those thoughts are what keeps me sane and they keep me from ever feeling that things just aren't right. To me they are all that matter. My job could be lost tomorrow and my house taken from me but as long as I have them none of that would matter enough to convince me that my life isn't great.

If you are a parent reading this and you ever feel that your life is effed and that you just can't go on I suggest you take an inventory of the things that really matter to you. If your child and your life with your child isn't enough to keep you from feeling down and out and ready to quit then I suggest you seek some sort of professional help because there isn't anything that should matter enough to take your focus from that.

We all get down from time to time. It is how we handle it that really defines our character and can define the character of your children. They are a reflection of us whether we like to believe that or not and their attitude depends on yours.

With faces like these how can anyone feel down.

Think before you post. Your children will thank you.