My primary job as a mother is to protect my children and keep them safe. Because of this I have decided to make my blog private. Since I started this journal for my kids back in 2009 I always wrestled with public or private. To share or not to share? I have tons of pictures and stories that shines a light into our daily lives. I have always considered their feelings and would never intentionally write anything that would be hurtful or embarrassing to them. I also would not post any pictures that are in any way inappropriate. This blog is just a way to document our special moments. A way to remember the good days and also some not so good ones too. This is a journal so my boys will always know just how special each of them are to me.
Why did I make this decision? A few weeks ago a friend from home had one of her personal pictures of her little girl stolen from an online account. Her little girl's photograph was then blasted all over the Internet as one of the victims in the Sandy Hook tragedy. Why? I honestly have no idea. There were enough real victims in the tragedy without making up any more. My friend then worked around the clock begging and pleading site after to site to remove her daughter's picture.
This afternoon a friend of a friend had an image taken from a profile picture on facebook. Someone used the profile picture of someone else's children and sent the parent a friend request. These sorts of incidents get into your head.
To my knowledge none of my photographs have been taken and used inappropriately, but I just feel it is time to guard my images a little closer. After all they are of the people that I hold closest to my heart.
What does this mean? I will still continue to blog just as I normally do but to follow a private blog via blogger, you must have a Google account. (think gmail.) Google accounts are free and easy to acquire if you don't have one. (main reason I never set to private because this part is a bit of a pain in the neck) I will keep the blog public for a few more days, but then I will be making it private and sending out "invitations" to follow the blog. If you would like to follow along just email me at andrea.schaff@gmail.com and I'll add you to the list.
I honestly have no idea who (if anyone) reads our little journal anyway. Do not feel weird or "stalkerish" requesting to follow along. I love to read blogs of friends as well as strangers and I consider myself 99.5% "normal."
Enough about the blog. Here is another thing weighing on my heart. Recently I have heard so many stories from friends and strangers and the 1,000,001 things that can go wrong in a day. Truly at the end of the day when our kids are safely tucked into bed that was a successful day. So many stories of major sickness, accidents, heartbreak, and tragedy regarding precious and innocent children. I read a blog yesterday. It was written by a mother whose child died 8 years ago after a dresser fell on the child. After I read my immediate reaction was to bolt all of our furniture down. These stories set you into "fix it" mode. Is bolting down all of our furniture the answer? Probably not. The best that we can do is take every necessary precaution to keep our boys as safe as possible. After that we just have to live each day and make it count. Last year we had a speaker at MOPs who summed it up perfectly. She said that each morning before she released her children into the world she just prayed over them and gave them back to God. As a mother that is really all that I can do.
Thank you all for following along. I really enjoy blogging about my family. I love to look back on the memories. I love to take pictures to remember each moment along the way. I just felt like it was time to make a few changes.
Hope 2013 is a fun filled, happy, and prosperous year filled with many blessings...
Andrea
No comments:
Post a Comment