Month: January 2010

This evening as I was perusing the interwebz, I ran across this article from Cosmopolitan:

10 Signs You Should Unfriend Someone on Facebook By Ashley Womble

1. She’s a firm believer that you can learn a lot about your health from your bathroom habits — and has the status updates to prove it.

2. You’ve only met him once but he “likes” everything you do on Facebook. Uh, stalk much?

3. You’re pretty sure she doesn’t wear her dress and veil everyday, but the girl can’t stop posting pics from her wedding two years ago.

4. He changed his relationship status to single instead of breaking up with you in person.

5. One word: Farmville.

6. She might not be on The Biggest Loser but for some reason she wants the entire world to know what she had for lunch, how many miles she just ran, and when she is sweating it out at the gym.

7. She has a photo album of your days as a teen beauty pageant queen, a scanner, and a passion for tagging.

8. EVERY WORD HE WRITES IS IN CAPS AND USUALLY FOLLOWED BY TONS OF EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!!

9. “So-and-So added you as a friend on Facebook” is the most you’ve heard from him in 10 years. Now that you’ve accepted the request you still haven’t connected.

10. Offline you call her Mom.

Pretty funny, no? I’m guessing that most of us could find the perfect example of each of these offenses on our own friend list… in fact, some people might fill more than one role.

However, while I don’t disagree that some of these things (and an endless list of other Facebook faux pas) are super annoying, I do disagree with the method through which the author suggests you deal with your “friends.”

Here’s my number one rule on Facebook:
Don’t unfriend. Hide.

Because really? Unfriending is SO RUDE. I recently discovered that a few of my FB “friends” unfriended me, and let me tell you, I was super offended! The fact that I barely knew one person in question or that I hardly ever talk to the other is not the point. The point is that they unfriended me! Unfriending is just not nice, and frankly not at all necessary.

Suppose I were to commit every one of the offenses listed above (which I wouldn’t do, I might add. Except for number 10, that’s entirely possible. But I would never, ever, ever do the first one, and believe me the odds of me doing number six are working in your favor as well) and you were just sick of it. You could unfriend me so you wouldn’t have to be annoyed by me daily (or hourly, or ever 7-12 minutes, depending on your propensity to monitor Facebook. Not that I know anything about that. *ahem*), but in case I haven’t mentioned it, unfriending me would be rude.

You could simply hide me, and everyone would be happy.

You wouldn’t have to hear about my latest Mafia Wars escapades, and I wouldn’t have to know that I annoy the shit out of you.

You see? This is a much better solution. Just hover around the top right corner of my latest status update or whatever it is that you don’t want to see anymore, and click on “hide.” I will be none the wiser.

And that way, I can continue to believe that you’re actually interested in what I do all day, every day.

Thanks for your consideration.

The Tooth Fairy has been a frequent visitor to our house lately – take a look at the state of Kate’s mouth:

The whole losing teeth thing? Grosses me out. I don’t know what it is, but the sights and sounds (and yes, there are sounds) involved with loose teeth just make me cringe. Andy feels the same way.

So we just let Kate deal with it.

She’s lost a total of seven teeth now, and she’s pulled each and every one of them herself. Usually as Andy and I hide our eyes.

I’ve been astounded, though, by the demands on the Tooth Fairy these days. When Kate lost her most recent tooth, as she was getting ready for bed she told me she was going to sleep backwards that night, because when her friend slept backwards, the Tooth Fairy brought her a Build-a-Bear.

“YOUR Tooth Fairy brings quarters,” I told her. A Build-a-Bear? Seriously? Kate’s got a lot of teeth in her head, we’ve got to keep the expectations low or we’ll go broke. That night I tweeted about what she said, and someone responded saying that her child’s friend got $100 for her first tooth, and $10 for subsequent teeth. If that’s the going rate, I think I can part with a few of my own teeth!

Needless to say, the Tooth Fairy didn’t bring Kate a Build-a-Bear or a $100 bill that night – it was more like four quarters… which really, I don’t think is too bad! But maybe we are behind in the times.

What is the going rate for the Tooth Fairy at your house? Please let me know – as you can see, Kate’s about to lose another one and I need to find out if I should run out and sell some plasma.