July

This weekend my husband and I celebrated our seven year wedding anniversary. Well, actually the anniversary occurred earlier this month, but amongst the craziness of our lives we postponed the date night celebration to this weekend.

I still feel like a married rookie in some ways. But when it comes to verbally communicating, Chris and I have definitely improved, and we've developed a sense of humor about those specific questions that require specific answers in a male/female relationship. After seven years of married life and nine years together, for many situations we have implemented a system not unlike a dance with choreographed steps.

I'm the last person who needs an excuse to spend more time on the computer.  When my kids want juice, my instinct is to say, "Put that request in an email, will  you?" I've bought everything from aspirin to diapers to shoes on-line (and yes, the shoes didn't fit, and no, I didn't get around to returning them, and please, don't tell my husband. I told him they didn't fit because my feet change size with every pregnancy).

But recently, I took the plunge and entered the great time-suck known as Facebook. I'm not sure why I did it, except all my high school friends were doing it, and I'm just hypocritical enough to tell my kids to stand up to peer pressure but crumble to it in a New York minute myself.

At first I felt addled and ancient. What was the big deal about this newfangled network all the young people were talking about? And why would I want to post a note on someone's "wall" - their Facebook page - when I could have a lengthy, personal, and pleasant talk with them by email? I had no time for this; there were ill-fitting shoes to be ordered.

Originally posted by "anonymous" in the thread titled "DCUM, it's not you, it's me":

I think there are several different types of posters on DCUM. Let's start with the noble nice guys. These people come on here with trepidation, generally do not post many questions, but mainly answer others. They are always nice, always helpful, and go out of their way to say things like "this may not apply to you" or "you've probably already thought of this approach, but have you considered..." They bend over backwards to give helpful advice in a way that doesn't sound overbearing. These people keep me coming back. 

Then there are the obvious trolls. These seem to be the work of one or two posters. Foreign-born former nanny is the standout here. She disagrees with everything just for the sake of being crotchety, typically insults Americans in general, tells us how we're worse than a "third world country", and then adds that she is sorry for our husbands or children. All with creative grammar, lots of ALL CAPS and free standing sentence fragments.