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Recently, some articles were published at the two columns I write for at Examiner.com. The first is the Seattle Multi-Faith Examiner and the second is the Marysville Parenting Examiner. Both columns focus on distinct parts of the local communities of the Greater Seattle Area and the Marysville Area. The former being a focus on what is going on in the Seattle Faith Community, tips, advise, and inspiration for those who are part of the Greater Seattle and come from a diverse background of religious convictions. The latter is parenting advice, family events, and information for parents who reside in the Marysville, Washington area. Apparently, one particular article that was published at the Marysville Parenting Examiner offended someone. How it could have offended them, my guess is as good as yours. Yet, this individual decided to make it her personal objective to attack me, attack my position and circumstance, the advice given, and even my own parenting style. Therefore, this article is focusing on how we as parents sometimes receive ridicule and mockery from those individuals around us who think they know better than we do. In addition, it will expose Alexandria Abedia’s personification. How she spoke out of line when she published her comments and twitter updates, directing them specifically toward me. In a sense, this article does two things, exposes the foolishness and blind ignorance and hate an individual has, as well as publishing her own words to show forth that she is held accountable for what she had said and published.
Examiner.com is hosting a Back to School drive. Examiner.com contributors (independent contractors) are asked if they can angle some of their content toward the Back-To-School. There are suggested topics provided. In one particular article, I decided to write and publish about bringing the family back to the table and making family a priority at the beginning of the school year; attaching a challenge within the context of the article itself. An innocent, quick blurb about the challenge and establishing one night a week for family time should not be something that would cause controversy or offense. Despite this, Alexandria Abedia took offense to this and published this on the Marysville Parenting Examiner Facebook Page:
Your parenting ideals are completely off base. I just wasted several minutes of my life reading the drivel you’ve written on parenting. All I can do is pray for your children, if in fact, you actually have any. (I hope not)”
Her rant did not stop there. On a question poised at the Facebook Page, she replied to the question – What challenges do you face as a parent? With a comment that essentially stated how she likes to respond to moronic and pathetic fathers who do not go out and support their families. Now, when I first read those statements, I started to respond to them. In the midst of publishing my reply and realizing what I am doing, it was better to let things lay. Delete the offending comments, ban her from the Facebook page, and be done with it.
Having done just that, it was not until I went into my twitter account and discovered these tweets from the same person:
blawes0me Alexandria Abadie
@
@SeattleGhost This article had so much potential, yet you sloughed it off at every turn. You’re stay at home parent, how do you know stress?
The article she is referring to here is the Back to school: Bringing Families back to the table. A friend of mine had notified me about her comment there. Since having already banned her, I did not see the comments (because I blocked her on Facebook, and therefore, since Examiner.com uses the Facebook plugin for commenting on articles – I would not see them), this was what was written from her:
Two hours of perpetration? Timothy, exactly how many children do you have? How old are they? How long have you been married? Did you actually do any research on this? Or is this more of a wishlist? Who on earth is your editor? They need to read this
By this time, emotions are running amuck within me. Keeping my anger, keeping my cool, I refused to cave into her narcissistic moments of viral infection of rants and ravings. Instead, I did the next best thing. Copied as many of her comments I have found and reserved them so that if and when asked why I am ignoring her, I can provide her very own words to show her how idiotic and foolish sounding she truly is.
Here are the remaining comments she has made toward me:
Alexandria Andrews · Lafayette, Louisiana
How is this a nice article? It’s subjective – this isn’t reporting -this is cherry picking facts from people who didn’t actually have anything to do with history when it comes to the constitution.
[Like]
· Reply · 13 hours ago
Alexandria Andrews · Lafayette, Louisiana
John Fiske had nothing to do with any amendment. How is this actually printed. What is your editor’s contact information? Someone should stop, or at the very least put some sort of idiot warning, on all articles like this.
[Like]
· Reply · 13 hours ago
Alexandria Andrews · Lafayette, Louisiana
@Timothy, why did you hide your facebook page? Why are you taking an article titled “separation of church and state’ and turning it into ‘if a bull dies, the slave dies’ – also, who exactly is your editor?
[Like]
· Reply · 11 hours ago
Alexandria Andrews · Lafayette, LouisianaLOL, @timothy berman – Facebook user? Seriously? I guess that defines the convictions behind your words.
[Like]
· Reply · 11 hours ago
[Submit]
Alexandria Andrews · Lafayette, Louisiana
The father is the head of the family? I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul.
[Like]
· Reply · 14 hours ago
blawes0me Alexandria Abadie
@
@SeattleGhost @Sarahbear9789 Timothy, you’ve proved you’re completely spineless, please don’t write a book – someone may take it seriously.
»
blawes0me Alexandria Abadie
@
@SeattleGhost Hi Timothy! You responded to me and then deleted your reply. I just want your other 174 followers to know you’re a coward.
»
blawes0me Alexandria Abadie
@
@SeattleGhost Sweet! Let’s cherry pick some more facts! Perhaps, the world is still flat? Pop rocks and coke will indeed kill you? Pathetic
What we have here is evidence of cyber stalking and cyber bullying. For parents who have children that experience far worse kinds of harassment and statement, the best antidote in dealing with these types of individuals is to record their comments. Do not just retype their words, copy and paste them into a word document from the email notification you get. Create a folder in your email to save those notifications. You would want to save the entire email because that gives a time stamp, date, and important information as to IP Address and the like.
The other thing to do, and this will infuriate the cyber stalker and bully further is to publish their comments online in a blog posting. Provide only the facts relevant to the situation and do your best to refrain from commenting out of frustration and anger – especially since most of these types of ilks utilize ridicule, mockery, and personal jabs against someone. Publish their comments because it is their own words that you want to expose, and the more exposure that their words receives, the more they realize how much of a greater fool that they are showing themselves out to be. I would not worry about removing hyperlinks that lead someone to their Facebook page, twitter account, or any other online username account. After all, once they publish it (and more specifically, when they delete the comment), you still have the record of what they said, when it was published and they can’t falsely accuse you of making it up: “I did not say that, they are lying” because they want to save face. They don’t want people to know how idiotic they truly are acting online and how foolishly they are portraying themselves to be.
As the school year comes underway, it is a good reminder that parents ought to be very diligent in knowing what their children are doing online, whom they are interacting with, and being aware of any instances where there is the possibility of cyber bullying and cyber stalking. We know this does not only happen to children; adults participate in this type of activity as well and in some instances are far worse than children can be.
