Where I've been and where I'm going

I've been asked if I'm still blogging. The answer is: I don't know.

I'm not sure what's left to blog or complain about that I haven't covered already. How many times can I keep plowing the same ground? The entitlement-minded, child-centered culture is here to stay. I don't have to like it, but for my own sanity, I've opted to accept that it is so.

I'll leave this blog up for a while, but I don't know whether I'll post in the future. I'll just be out there living life, which is what being childfree is about. I don't want to be enslaved to either children or causes.

Which family killed Megan Meier: The neighbors, or her own?

The answer is: Neither. Megan Meier killed herself.

If we want to assign blame, if we want to say she was driven to this desperate, final act, who is truly to blame? The family who perpetrated the MySpace hoax, leading her to believe a cute guy named Josh liked her and then suddenly didn't like her? Or her own family, particularly her mother?

Many articles about Megan's death state that Megan went upstairs and hung herself after her mother found her upset about MySpace messages from "Josh" and - instead of offering any comfort - criticized her daughter for using vulgar, inappropriate language to defend herself against friends who were attacking her.

"Once Tina returned home she rushed into the basement where the computer was. Tina was shocked at the vulgar language her daughter was firing back at people.

"I am so aggravated at you for doing this!" she told Megan.

Megan ran from the computer and left, but not without first telling Tina, "You're supposed to be my mom! You're supposed to be on my side!"

On the stairway leading to her second-story bedroom, Megan ran into her father, Ron.

"I grabbed her as she tried to go by," Ron says. "She told me that some kids were saying horrible stuff about her and she didn't understand why. I told her it's OK. I told her that they obviously don't know her. And that it would be fine."

Megan went to her room and Ron went downstairs to the kitchen, where he and Tina talked about what had happened, the MySpace account, and made dinner.

Twenty minutes later, Tina suddenly froze in mid-sentence.

"I had this God-awful feeling and I ran up into her room and she had hung herself in the closet."

Megan Taylor Meier died the next day, three weeks before her 14th birthday."

You're supposed to be my mom. You're supposed to be on my side.

I don't excuse Lori Drew and her helpers for their part in this, nor do I believe that parents should always take their children's side no matter what, without finding out the facts.

However, in Megan's case, it appears to me that Lori Drew and Tina Meier share equal amounts of responsibility for Megan's death.

The bulk of the responsibility belongs to Megan herself. That's one of the hardest parts about suicide. The person who's gone, the person we grieve, is the person deserving of the most blame about his or her own death.

There's no easy way to reconcile that.

So that's where my readers come from.

In the portion of my stats that shows where my visitors come from, I noticed this location, among others:

Dial-UP Network for Miass customers., Miass, Chelyabinsk, Russia

If you've ever suspected that I must be pulling site visitors out of Miass, it would appear that you're correct. No word yet on whether my ideas come from there.

Someone in San Francisco thinks I'm special.

From this charming and not at all snarky entry on SFGate's baby blog:

The point is well taken that many of us parents need to be more considerate to people without children, especially those who read those special childfree blogs and probably have a "I Have a Dog and I Vote" bumper sticker on their Mini.

Well, I'd certainly like to think I'm special, and not in a short-bus kind of way. I don't have a Mini or a dog. I do vote, though. Two out of three ain't bad, Tara. Don't worry about being more considerate to me or other childless/empty nest/childfree folk; I'd hate to make you take extra steps on our part. We're used to your selfish behavior and constant justifications that your needs - excuse me, your CHILD's needs - take precedence over all.

We will survive. Our hearts will go on. We'll be the considerate ones who straighten out and put away the sugar packets you let your little dears scatter while they're speaking in their cute little voices. Someone has to be the adult, and as you and too many parents like you are busy being childish along with your children (at least they have an excuse; what's yours?) it will fall to those without children - as is so often the case - to maintain some level of functioning adulthood.

Addendum: I saw a comment for the SFGate blog post in which someone wondered why childfree people are reading the SFGate's baby blog. I read it because my stats tracker showed the link to the post and the traffic it was driving to my site. One could just as easily ask why a baby blogger, or any parent, reads childfree sites. I think it's human nature to be curious about the "other side."

Entitle-sows as YOUR doctor? It's likelier than you think.

This editorial sums it up well.

In newer developments:

Sophie "It's All About Me" Currier has won yet another hall pass in what appears to be her quest to become one of the most entitlement-minded, least qualified, "gimme M.D. now" people ever to carry the title of "doctor."

Given her determination to claim repeated victim status and sue her way to the top, look for her to eventually claim she should be granted a law degree by virtue of the fact that she can drive to her lawyer's office in her sleep.

Even if she goes into research rather than practice, the notion of someone like Currier having any say over any medical care or developments is a frightening thought. What suits will she file and excuses will she have when she can't cut it on the job? What discrimination will she claim then?

I would make a crack about Currier being better suited as a third-shift clerk at a convenience store, but then she'd probably ring everything up wrong and then sue when she was fired for not doing her job well or on a timely basis. Fuck that; convenience stores suck enough without her smug entitled ass behind the register.

Potential employers and clients, remember the name: Sophie Currier. Remember that it's her way or the Hershey Highway, with papers served right up your ass with a high-heeled shoe. Give her a wide berth. Let her figure out life on her own, without endless hall passes, gimmes, and do-overs.