I’m a message board drop-out!

So this week, I decided to try something new in an effort to branch out (and maybe score a few new readers in the process). I decided to join a message board, nothing fancy, just a board set up for moms of preschoolers to chat about all the joys of having a preschool age child.

Let me preface this by adding that I stayed away from any potentially controversial topics like spanking, whether to bottle or breastfeed, religion. You know, the usual hot button issues. I figured I would pick some innocuous topic, pop in with a comment, add my blog URL, and be on my merry way. Good plan, right?

I started with a post about the flu…harmless enough. Ha! The posts soon turned to whether or not people had vaccinated their child. Oh boy. The claws came out in a huge way. The anti-vaccination people called the pro-vaccination people sheep. The pro-vaccination people were making the case that the anti-vaccination people were putting all of us in danger and didn’t have accurate facts. There were allegations made against the drug companies, doctors in general, all that was left out were slurs against “your momma”. The whole conversation deteriorated pretty quickly and when it did, an interesting cast of characters emerged.

And it reminded me sooooo much of high school.

There was the prima donna queen bee (in this case she was the “natural parenting expert” who was vehemently against vaccinations).

Then there were the queen wanna bees – they regurgitated whatever she set as the party line.

And then there were the unfortunate targets – those who happened to just wander into the fray. The “I vaccinated my daughter because she is/was a sickly child and her doctor said we should” parents. They got the tar beat out of them, called sheep, told they should do their research, and were made to feel like they were inferior parents because they didn’t wear the right clothes believe the right things. The more they tried to explain themselves, the more they were beaten down.

Needless to say, I got out of that lunchroom chat room darn quick and headed back to the safety of the library blogosphere! Maybe I’m a bit biased, but I tend to think bloggers are a bit above that. I haven’t experienced that kind of treatment around here – maybe as my readership grows, that will change (I hope not). Maybe it’s because we are not as anonymous as on a message board. We have invited each other to share in our lives, so we don’t feel like complete strangers, so we treat each other as friends.

Whatever the reason, I’m glad to count myself among you! (And I will be steering clear of message boards!)