July 24 – Say what, you ask???

Someone today asked me questions about Amanda’s death and what has gone on in the past 9 months.  Why do I search out information?  What do I do with it?  Why do I bother? What or who will it benefit?

My answer:  Despite the fact that my daughter is no longer with me, I am still her mother.  I will always be  her mom until I take my last breath.  And it is for that reason, I will continue to be the parent that stands up for what is right and for what my daughter believed in.  That is to ‘Help Other Kids’.  Almost 10 months ago, when Amanda posted her You Tube video, we had no idea what would happen but it happened.  I must reiterate again, her You Tube video was not a good-bye video.  Amanda had gained strength and made that video to share her story and to make sure that others would get the help they needed if in similar circumstances.

So with that, I gather info, read books and articles, talk to people, post these things on my social media – all in hopes that someone will read it and find something valuable from it to share and talk about with their children, parents, classmates, colleague, etc.

When we no longer want to learn, what does that mean.  Whether it be learning how to play the latest Facebook game or put together a bookshelf.  When we see that social media continues to evolve, we must keep on top of it if we have children who are vulnerable.

Bravo to @MPJoySmith  who wrote on Twitter about child protection/internet filters/online content – https://twitter.com/MPJoySmith.  That’s a step in the right direction as the U.K. continue to forge ahead with their framework of exactly those things as announced this week by David Cameron who is the Prime Minister of the U.K.

The outline of the landscape is changing as it should.  The more people that continue to ‘fight the fight’, changes will happen.

I have been messaging with Leah Parsons in the past few days.  It has been real good to be able to share thoughts with another parent who is travelling on the same road as myself.  Unfortunately however, there are others who stand by the side to wave and chat.  We always have lots of  soft tissue.

As Glen Canning said in Winnipeg in May, this is one parent group that we don’t want to increase the size of its membership.  It takes a village to raise a child.

Come on communities, speak up to your officials to make the change happen.