Hannah Smith should be out enjoying her summer holidays today.
Instead she is known globally as the girl who hanged herself after
reading horrible stuff online. Now the plan is to name and shame her
attackers.
What if they are 15-year-old girls too, terrified of
being exposed as the bullies they are? What about the site itself,
should that be shut down? What about the trolls who targetted the
Facebook page Hannah's grieving family put up, egging each other on to
post the most hateful remarks?
As parents we have to get a handle
on this. Some of the trolls say it was this teenager's own fault if she
allowed herself to be harmed by remarks made by total strangers. She was
vulnerable. Millions are. Even the trolls, I suspect.
We have to
convince our kids that the nastiness on the web is a fact of life.
Switch off, shut down and talk to your family and friends. This virtual
world harms in a very real way. It cuts deep. Not every child is strong
enough to block it out. We need to talk to our kids. If this stuff is in
their lives then we need to act, now, well before they do.
Friday, 9 August 2013
Wednesday, 7 August 2013
Only Thickos Have Kids
Clever women, really clever women, don't have kids. Educated out of
the breeding programme, they are far too bright to face the drudgery of
raising the next generation.
So says The Times this week. It's a common theme. I usually ignore it. Being a mum of three myself, it's a bit like religion or politics. You are never going to convince the other lot, so don't bother.
It's the claim that only thickos and council house chavs breed that got me thinking. How clever is it to leave the survival of the species to them? After all, at brass tacks level we are but a mass of cells with one need - to replicate ourselves.
If the clever ones don't do it where will that leave us? I read that intelligence is passed on the X chromosome. Men, being XY, must get their X from their mothers, with XX. Girls get double bubble.
Women can have kids or not, it's all the same to me. Have the great job, buy the swanky shoes, travel first class and lie in till 3pm. I've done that. Enjoyed it. I've also got three fantastic kids, all clever, including two girls, and if they ever ask me, which they won't, I know which lifestyle I prefer.
So says The Times this week. It's a common theme. I usually ignore it. Being a mum of three myself, it's a bit like religion or politics. You are never going to convince the other lot, so don't bother.
It's the claim that only thickos and council house chavs breed that got me thinking. How clever is it to leave the survival of the species to them? After all, at brass tacks level we are but a mass of cells with one need - to replicate ourselves.
If the clever ones don't do it where will that leave us? I read that intelligence is passed on the X chromosome. Men, being XY, must get their X from their mothers, with XX. Girls get double bubble.
Women can have kids or not, it's all the same to me. Have the great job, buy the swanky shoes, travel first class and lie in till 3pm. I've done that. Enjoyed it. I've also got three fantastic kids, all clever, including two girls, and if they ever ask me, which they won't, I know which lifestyle I prefer.
Monday, 5 August 2013
Rich But Want More - Have Ours Too
As whiskery Lord Sugar would say: " Wot wuz you finking of !"George
Osborne is just the sort of posh prat Sugar berates on The Apprentice.
Shame he's also running the country.
This scheme to give two working parents earning up to £150,000 between them an extra £1,200 is beyond bonkers. It's criminal. Familes on £20,000 with only one earner will not qualify for the child care benefit. So my pal Tracey, wanting to get back into education after having her first child at 18, will get sweet FA, despite her husband Ben working all the hours God sends as a builder.
That's their real names and I take my hat off to them because they don't owe anyone anything, rent their home and can't get a mortgage because they have no credit history. They pay cash. If they haven't got it, they don't spend it.
Contrast that with the £75,000 a year types with their flash cars and expensive properties. They are knee deep in debt, so yes, they are glad to get even more, thankfully from the rest of us. Helps keep little Hugo in his posh Kensington nursery.
This Government talks about helping the strivers but in reality they help themselves. Ordinary people are being chased by the taxman while billionaires pay peanuts. Lost the plot but we can't fire them - yet.
This scheme to give two working parents earning up to £150,000 between them an extra £1,200 is beyond bonkers. It's criminal. Familes on £20,000 with only one earner will not qualify for the child care benefit. So my pal Tracey, wanting to get back into education after having her first child at 18, will get sweet FA, despite her husband Ben working all the hours God sends as a builder.
That's their real names and I take my hat off to them because they don't owe anyone anything, rent their home and can't get a mortgage because they have no credit history. They pay cash. If they haven't got it, they don't spend it.
Contrast that with the £75,000 a year types with their flash cars and expensive properties. They are knee deep in debt, so yes, they are glad to get even more, thankfully from the rest of us. Helps keep little Hugo in his posh Kensington nursery.
This Government talks about helping the strivers but in reality they help themselves. Ordinary people are being chased by the taxman while billionaires pay peanuts. Lost the plot but we can't fire them - yet.
Friday, 2 August 2013
Fight To Keep Kids From Evil Parents
Fancied writing something funny but then little Daniel's suffering
came to light and that was that. Plenty of worthy experts have had their
say. A children's services' sort said on radio that the number of
children dying at the hands of their parents is stable at around 50 to
70 a year. Phew, thank heavens for that, all under control then.
This four-year-old was clearly starving, eating rubbish from bins and with clothes that hung off him. Yet his evil mother convinced professionals that he had a compulsive eating disorder so teachers locked food away from him.
He was tortured, beaten and regularly drowned to the point of unconciousness. He was covered in bruises and nobody thought to see how his broken arm was caused - or if it healed.
I'm just a mum of three, but this is what I think. Worried teachers should not just pass concerns on. They should keep that child in a place of safety ie school, and refuse to allow him to leave until the police, the social services and a doctor call all confirm, right there and then, that that child is not being harmed at home. One look at him should tell them all they need to know.
Nick Clegg says information is not reaching the right people, facts are falling through the cracks. Not good enough. I would risk a charge of holding a child without the parents' consent if I felt that to let him go home is to sentence him to death. Too many people thought someone else would do something. Time for each of us to act according to our own consciences and risk the wrath of others. Otherwise we leave tiny boys to face that wrath alone.
This four-year-old was clearly starving, eating rubbish from bins and with clothes that hung off him. Yet his evil mother convinced professionals that he had a compulsive eating disorder so teachers locked food away from him.
He was tortured, beaten and regularly drowned to the point of unconciousness. He was covered in bruises and nobody thought to see how his broken arm was caused - or if it healed.
I'm just a mum of three, but this is what I think. Worried teachers should not just pass concerns on. They should keep that child in a place of safety ie school, and refuse to allow him to leave until the police, the social services and a doctor call all confirm, right there and then, that that child is not being harmed at home. One look at him should tell them all they need to know.
Nick Clegg says information is not reaching the right people, facts are falling through the cracks. Not good enough. I would risk a charge of holding a child without the parents' consent if I felt that to let him go home is to sentence him to death. Too many people thought someone else would do something. Time for each of us to act according to our own consciences and risk the wrath of others. Otherwise we leave tiny boys to face that wrath alone.
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
Angels Give Patients A Devil Deal
Nurses are too busy to give the right drugs or treat bedsores. Both
can cause death - so exactly WHAT are they too busy with? I've been
there, seen them, and while I can't praise some NHS staff highly enough
I've also seen the other side.
Nurses too busy to put up a drip for someone so close to kidney failure they have been admitted as an emergency. Dangerously dehydrated - yet not treated urgently. My son left that ward without even being offered a drink of water, let alone the promised drip.
The care he received elsewhere was exemplary - though seldom from the nurses themselves. A brilliant surgeon saved his life - but bad nurses were everywhere. Things have to change.
I do not want to find fault with nurses - my own sister is one, and a more caring person you have never met. Yet no one can deny that In hospitals the priorities get skewed, as seen by the shocking fact that nine out of ten nurses admit to missing basic care, like proper drug regimes.
They can't blame paperwork, that doesn't get done either, obvious from the fact that my son's details were written on a discharged person's notes. Bedpans take forever to arrive, so it's not that, and elderly patients have to be able to feed themselves or go without. What are these tasks that take up so much nursing time? I'd love to know
PS Im helping sick people through my book Devil Deal, by Liz Freeman, now out on Kindle and via the free Kindle app. I've just sent off my first cheque, for £71, to Crohn's and Colitis UK, as half the profits from each £1.53 sale, $2,99, go to medical research. It's just a small start. A huge thankyou to everyone who bought Devil Deal, a sexy suspense novel. It's had great reviews so please get it and help keep the fund-raising rolling along! Thanks.
Nurses too busy to put up a drip for someone so close to kidney failure they have been admitted as an emergency. Dangerously dehydrated - yet not treated urgently. My son left that ward without even being offered a drink of water, let alone the promised drip.
The care he received elsewhere was exemplary - though seldom from the nurses themselves. A brilliant surgeon saved his life - but bad nurses were everywhere. Things have to change.
I do not want to find fault with nurses - my own sister is one, and a more caring person you have never met. Yet no one can deny that In hospitals the priorities get skewed, as seen by the shocking fact that nine out of ten nurses admit to missing basic care, like proper drug regimes.
They can't blame paperwork, that doesn't get done either, obvious from the fact that my son's details were written on a discharged person's notes. Bedpans take forever to arrive, so it's not that, and elderly patients have to be able to feed themselves or go without. What are these tasks that take up so much nursing time? I'd love to know
PS Im helping sick people through my book Devil Deal, by Liz Freeman, now out on Kindle and via the free Kindle app. I've just sent off my first cheque, for £71, to Crohn's and Colitis UK, as half the profits from each £1.53 sale, $2,99, go to medical research. It's just a small start. A huge thankyou to everyone who bought Devil Deal, a sexy suspense novel. It's had great reviews so please get it and help keep the fund-raising rolling along! Thanks.
Sunday, 28 July 2013
Facebook For The Baby Boomers
I love Facebook - mainly because I'm not on it.. The latest stats on
users is an eye-opener too. Thought Facebookers were young, savvy and
having a party every night? Wrong, so wrong.
All those boozy twenty types with their blonde curtains and slinky frocks are not the biggest users after all. The even younger ones don't give a toss either - only 7% of teenagers are keen.
No, it's the 45 to 55 plus age group that are the biggest fans of Facebook at 42%. Who'd have thought it? Not me. Joined once, then burned hot and cold as it asked everybody I've ever contacted, including work colleagues, if they wanted to friend me. No, no, go away I'm taking this down, NOW! Sure to have been my fault, but I'm sweating now just thinking about it.
Some middle-agers I know like to friend their kids on Facebook, to see what they are up to. My advice - maybe get a life of your own?
All those boozy twenty types with their blonde curtains and slinky frocks are not the biggest users after all. The even younger ones don't give a toss either - only 7% of teenagers are keen.
No, it's the 45 to 55 plus age group that are the biggest fans of Facebook at 42%. Who'd have thought it? Not me. Joined once, then burned hot and cold as it asked everybody I've ever contacted, including work colleagues, if they wanted to friend me. No, no, go away I'm taking this down, NOW! Sure to have been my fault, but I'm sweating now just thinking about it.
Some middle-agers I know like to friend their kids on Facebook, to see what they are up to. My advice - maybe get a life of your own?
Friday, 19 July 2013
Summer Silliness and Sexy Tales
Don't you just love an expert! Make your heart sing, so many
wonderful hallelujah moments. Take the Met Office. Full of brains, such
study bunnies. Pouring over data evey day, so what do they reveal?
"There's a heatwave, it's official."
That is SO good to know! Then we have the BBC, whose fee fills the pockets of all the departing big wigs. Let's pay them for a year's notice and again for the whole year too. No sense in them going short! What does the BBC News have to tell us : "It's hot, you'll get sunburn."
That's worth £145.50 of anybody's money. Snip at the price! What about the insurance company having to divvy up £7m to a woman left severely disabled - by an uninsured driver. The court went after the last known insurer for the money. Didn't know they could do that, but I expect we will all notice when premiums go up.
Is this heat making me grumpy? Not really, I can still see the funny side. Working on new book, while great reviews come in for first one, Devil Deal by Liz Freeman, on Kindle or with the free Kindle app. It's fast, full of suspense and no one sees the end coming! Also got funny bits and sexy bits, sometimes together, all for £1.53, or $2.99 on Amazon.com. Get it, you won't regret it and enjoy your summer !
That is SO good to know! Then we have the BBC, whose fee fills the pockets of all the departing big wigs. Let's pay them for a year's notice and again for the whole year too. No sense in them going short! What does the BBC News have to tell us : "It's hot, you'll get sunburn."
That's worth £145.50 of anybody's money. Snip at the price! What about the insurance company having to divvy up £7m to a woman left severely disabled - by an uninsured driver. The court went after the last known insurer for the money. Didn't know they could do that, but I expect we will all notice when premiums go up.
Is this heat making me grumpy? Not really, I can still see the funny side. Working on new book, while great reviews come in for first one, Devil Deal by Liz Freeman, on Kindle or with the free Kindle app. It's fast, full of suspense and no one sees the end coming! Also got funny bits and sexy bits, sometimes together, all for £1.53, or $2.99 on Amazon.com. Get it, you won't regret it and enjoy your summer !
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)