Son just diagnosed PA/TNA

[Ra3chel]

For now, that probably doesn't seem like that big a deal...


but as you go along, it might be later.    Friends, neighbors, and family have a way of finding us here.... and (unfortunately) so do those who might be looking for less desirable/helpful reasons, like that nasty woman at the homeschool co-op, or the guy that told us to bug off at the HOA meeting...  school principals.... etc.

It happens.  Also, as your kids get older, they become more desirous of anonymity, which is something that most of us never stop to think about when they are preschoolers!  I first joined up with this community when my DD was just two years old.  She's almost 14 now, and she's <gulp>  a member here, herself, now. 

Most long time members handle that need for privacy in one of two ways:

a) let all of the identifying stuff hang out there, and NEVER share anything-- ever-- that you wouldn't shout out in front of your own house.  No vents, no ranting, nothing less than flattering/nice about EVERYONE in your life, and everything you encounter.

b) Keep some details very private (location, gender, names, birthdates, identifiers of your occupation/employer/faith community, etc) and then let all the stuff you CANNOT have out there in real life hang out.  Rant/vent away.  And believe me, there WILL be people who will do things that make your live much harder than it needs to be, and you WILL want to scream. 

The latter tends to be a bit more sustainable in the long haul as our kids age into adolescence, but both are viable solutions.  Also, worth noting that some communities (support) skew toward less anonymity and some toward more, and some toward VERY young cihldren, some toward young adults.  We tend to be about school-aged kids and adolescents on the parenting side, and multiple food allergies on the adult side.

A few of us also have (known to the admins) sock-puppet accounts we use for more sensitive topics. It's not exactly condoned, but the folks here do understand the need for confidentiality--and that sometimes protecting that means compartmentalizing information under multiple handles.