Really?!

[ladyjbug]

I am a member of many forums. They all suit a different purpose for me. I am a bit introverted, don't have a lot of friends on the "outside", and even less so since I stay at home and chat with toddlers all day. It is nice to have some adult interaction in my life while I browse from time to time during quiet points in my day.

I like some forums for craft/menu/daycare design ideas, I like some for questions I have, some for venting frustrations, some for offering support, and some for pick-me-ups. I think every career has good or bad days, everyone vents about their "co-workers" from time to time. In this business, I have found that 90% of the job is totally awesome for me. But that 10% of bad (late payments, entitlement, screamers, etc.) seems to take up so much energy when a provider unfortunately has to deal with it that those posts seem to receive all the attention.

Usually when I have a problem like that, I go to my venting site first, get it all out, get some perspective, offer some support to someone going through the same thing on another site, get some ideas from my daycare design site to take my mind off of things, and then come on my positive site for a pick me up. It's possible that I could be judged as a negative provider that shouldn't be doing the job if you just read a vent. But I love kids, I love what I do, and every forum serves a particular purpose for me. I wouldn't necessarily judge every provider for every post. Besides not knowing them in person, it is very difficult to judge tone in posts so things often get miscontrued. Some one "telling it like it is" may seem absolutely cruel to one person and just what another person needed to hear to keep on with their day. Also, if you are finding that other forums are not helping you and only making you focus on the negative, there is no hard and fast rule that you have to be a part of every forum. Just use the forums that help you, and don't judge others for the forums that help them. Hope that helps you.