Online Media Networking in Perth

SuperParents and the Associate Woman are proud to be associated with WOMBAT - Website and Online Media, Bloggers and Tweeps. Just this past weekend, online media personalities in Perth gathered for a Christmas function at Ellie's Tent, a Turkish Restaurant in Vic Park.

Companies just can't make this stuff up!!!

WOMBAT started off as an offshoot to Aussie Mummy Bloggers, later renamed to Digital Parents Australia. The idea was to gather WA bloggers and provide a networking event before they flew over to the high profile AMB/DP conference that was hosted by bloggers over East. Our group however quickly became one of the most active online media groups.

Just carry on, and Keep Smiling.

This is the 4th year the group has been getting together, and we continue to be as active as ever. Already, we've had several sponsored and non-sponsored events this year, and we continue to expand our numbers. 

These are some the peeps I've got to work with to organise WOMBAT ... don't let this pic fool ya, they're hard hitters.

This is a picture of a picture of me video-ing the belly dancer, caught by Jules from The Bumpiest Path.

Our bloggers show that they're more than just keyboard warriors. We shake it as good as the rest of them. Well, maybe not as good as the professional belly dancer, but hey ... 

Before I forget, a big thank you to our sponsors Thorne Clark, Plantagenet Wines, and Typo - for providing the gift bags and some lucky draw prizes.

If you would like to keep up with WOMBAT events and promotions, please subscribe to our mailing list at http://t.co/PVNRCqpJ.

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The Associate Woman | The WA 6000 Daily | The Anti-Bully Paper | SuperParents on FB
To receive updates on all SuperParents events go to subscribe.SuperParents.com.au

Your Needs Can't be Summed Up in a List

I've always looked at Top 10 lists and 'Tips & Tricks' with fascination.

Most Top 10 lists are entertaining ... and more than a little funny. Tips & Tricks? What a great way to learn. If only a school's curriculum was written as a Top 10 list!

While lists and Tips & Tricks bundle information nicely, the fact is you'd not find your answers in a Top 10 list. SuperParents knows this and that's why we empowered individuals leading all our training events. We want these individuals to share their knowledge and life experiences. We want them to gauge needs. We want them to take this antibullying empowerment framework we have and then make sense of it for the individuals coming to our class.

A quick example - most Tips focusing on cyberbullying will leave you feeling like a prisoner in your own house. It would further victimise the victim. It would put fear into them. This is not what you want, do you? There needs to be some wisdom out there instead of a total lock down, don't you think?

Wisdom that you can't get off a list nor off the internet.

I look forward to hearing from anyone who has an interestt in victimisation and empowerment. You don't even have to be a participant in our course. Reach out and say hi. We're happy to hear from you.

Links

• SuperParents - Far from Over

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The Associate Woman | The WA 6000 Daily | The Anti-Bully Paper | SuperParents on FB
To receive updates on all SuperParents events go to subscribe.SuperParents.com.au

SuperParents - Far From Over

SuperParents instructors Colin (left) and Dragan (right)

SuperParents the parenting blog was really a business concept in disguise.

From when it started in 2009, I wanted to develop a SuperParents online portal for parents bringing together innovative products and local services to help parents stretched between young children and adult dependents. Of course, that was the idea. In reality, I found myself sucked into the blog trying to come up with 5 or more articles each week, looking for guest posters, dealing with marketing requests, and trying to develop my online network.

Of course, the excuse was that all that blogging work was really a subversive marketing strategy, and in the end I would be able to reach out to my numerous blogging friends to come to my aid in spreading the SuperParents brand.

Unfortunately, the wordpress software I was using to blog was brought down 5 times by viruses through 2011. You won't believe how difficult it was to bring the site back up after each time. I was caught between the pain of restoring a trojan hit site, and after I had it up and running then dealing with a live blog constantly needing to be fed.

The decision to bring down the site was a hard one to make, but it also meant a trip back to the drawing board. While SuperParents was silent for most of 2012, it was flexing its muscles offline. Through talks I had with other members of a national martial art association I belonged to, we knew that SuperParents was far from over.

Several of us instructors were looking at the range of expertise we had, and it didn't take us too long before we decided that SuperParents would be the company to deal with the issues of empowerment and victimisation in the community. Namely pushing an anti-bully campaign for schools, parents, and children, but also offering other services that few others could really deliver as well as we could.

So between coffee sessions, SuperParents was reborn. Or should I say it's all grown up, with a much heavier purpose than before!

This November 2012, SuperParents went live with a bang. We've done a parenting workshop focusing on building resilience for children, had an interview with 92.9 fm, conducted a women self defence course, ran our 'Core 1' Anti-bully course for children, scheduled some public speaking gigs, and have been really active through our social media channels.

Of course, it's only the tip of the iceberg - and we need to reach out to many more people before the company can break even. I ask for all of you who understand the disastrous effects of victimisation to help support our efforts. Give us a shout out, or subscribe to our updates. The minimum is to visit our website at www.SuperParents.com.au and understand what we're talking about and the options available to you or your loved ones.

Looking forward to chatting more.

Cheers,

Colin

More Blogging Carnival Posts

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The Associate Woman | The WA 6000 Daily | The Anti-Bully Paper | SuperParents on FB
To receive updates on all SuperParents events go to subscribe.SuperParents.com.au

Turning on the flames to talk about fire safety

The SuperParents Holiday at Home Program™ looked at fire safety for children today.

Let's crack open the extinguishers!

In truth, it wasn't even my idea. My son took a look at the extinguishers around the house and suggested we set something alight so we could see an extinguisher in action during the holidays.

Fire safety of course is not just about setting stuff alight. It's about prevention and proper planning as much as it is about using the equipment in the prescribed manner. Having visible extinguishers around the house is only part of it. There are the fire alarms that need new batteries, having a fire safety plan in case a fire does happen, and the children need to be taught how to respect everything from stoves to matches, and power points.

Pyro-maniacs

Before we start, the children don hats, tie up hair, and wear proper clothing. We set up some packing material as flammable stuff in a wheel barrow, and practice what they need to do in case they really are on fire - fortunately just missing the dog poo on the lawn. Of course I reach for an 'industrial size' extinguisher and got the camera ready.

We should ask Perth-based company Urban Locavore for sponsorship. The packing material from their three boxes we had lying in our cellar lit up REAL NICE. :-)

The extinguisher is not meant to be a magic bullet. In truth the three of us had a few goes, and each time the fire looked like it was put out, and then it was flame on again. This confirms my thinking that the fire extinguisher doesn't really have enough to put out even a small fire - it is only good to get you through an exit.

It's as fun as it looks. And for $30, a fairly cheap session for the kids! Make that two kids plus an adult.

The idea when using the extinguisher is to dismount it from its wall bracket, pull the safety pin, point the nozzle at the fire, depress the handle and then fan the base of the fire with the powder. A good tip is to close your mouth whilst doing it - the powder flies everywhere and tastes like a mixture of chalk and sawdust. Lovely.

Like some B grade movie, the fire refuses to die.

The extinguisher helps to facilitate your exit. When the extinguisher is empty, you can use the equipment to break through windows or doors. Or leftover bathroom tiles.



And once you're done ... disregard your dad's better advice, break open that packet of marshmallows and toast them up.

The novelty of roasting a marshmallow over a wheelbarrow cannot be ignored.

What other holiday at home program ideas do you have that you'd like to see us try?

Links

• Women Self Defence

Colin
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The Associate Woman | The WA 6000 Daily | The Anti-Bully Paper | SuperParents on FB 
To receive updates on all SuperParents events go to subscribe.SuperParents.com.au

My child gets the most by going at it alone

My little girl needs to be brave enough to go at it alone.

I have practiced the martial arts for 29 years, and in a previous life have been a National Representative and Assistant National Coach in Archery. With such expertise I know that the best thing for me to do whilst attending my children's judo class is to sit down, trust their instructor, and enjoy watching my children being challenged. This is an example of the first Tenet of Taekwondo - courtesy.

No one wants a hockey mum or helicopter parent walking back and forth on the gym floor. Talking loudly distracts the class. And snide remarks or even loud cheering changes the nature of the honest competition children have between each other. There is one coach on the floor, and I'm not going to mess around with his setup.

He does ask for my feedback every now and then. When I answer I consider my place as a guest in his dojo, and I respond professionally and objectively. This is an example of the second Tenet of Taekwondo - integrity. I am not going to overstep myself and I will observe the rules of his house.

If you want your child to learn discipline, first you must exercise the discipline of self-control - this is one of the Tenets of Taekwondo. Too often we see dickheads being rude to service staff, parents insisting on special treatment for their gifted and talented children, and people who think the world owes them a living. Be better than that.

While my parents gave me opportunities, I certainly did not earn either my first black belt or my 6th degree master's belt because my parents hovered over me while I was training. And I did not become a National Representative because my parents argued with the officials or judges. I reached these heights through the fifth tenet of Taekwondo - Indomitable Spirit. That comes from being brave enough to stand alone, knowing I will ultimately have to face my fears for myself, and lastly holding the most intimate tenet always close to me - perseverance.

Think of this and of the fat kid who just never gave up. It's two sides of the same coin.

Keep well.

Colin
-- 
The Associate Woman | The WA 6000 Daily | The Anti-Bully Paper | SuperParents on FB 
To receive updates on all SuperParents events go to subscribe.SuperParents.com.au

My Story about one of the Crazies I have Met through My Blog

This incredible story is about an ex business partner of mine who has since died but events in his life catches up with ... me, and my blog! Read the beginning of it on my [FB Page]. Perhaps you can 'like' SuperParents on FB when you're there?

... cont'd

About 10 years after that incident I post about his passing on my blog. My concern of his daughter is real, and because of my post I in fact make a connection with an old friend of another daughter of his from his first marriage, a daughter who is deceased as well.

Anyway, last year, I get a rather agitated call off my SuperParents line.

Someone is on the other line and she introduces herself, asks me if I've heard of her, and there's this big pause. She then starts yabbering on about how she was my friend's ex, how his family cheated her family, how they took all her money, and how he was not the nice person that I portrayed him to be (I don't think I wrote him up to be an angel ... but that's another story).

She also then talked about the incident my friend and I had a giggle over in Orchard Road. At this point, and while I'm not immune to someone's anguish, I'm seriously trying to hold back laughing about the "can't be cheating if I did an ex-wife" punch line. Apparently, the story was she was asked to come back into his life but was still incensed by the way she was treated. But not incensed enough to ... ahem ... try to get it pump out of her system.

Now, this is a tall story and I was taking what she was saying at face value, but what I couldn't understand was that this woman was so entrenched, so obsessed, and so fixated on past events. She hadn't let go since the divorce, and she's still blaming him for things spiralling out of control some 15 over years ago. And while she was getting it off her chest and repeating some things to me over-and-over again, I had to actually stop and ask her if she knew my business partner/friend was indeed dead.

"You do know he's dead?"

"Well, yes."

"So, what do you want me to do about it?"

I mean for crying out loud, I can't help you with your problem. I didn't marry you OR then divorce you OR then have a fling with you whilst re-married OR then asked you to return to what you had already decided was an abhorrent marriage. I just write a blog for crying out loud.

I don't give her a bad time on the phone. I'm rather sympathetic but just blown away that there is this woman out there caught up in a chain of events that is resparked with the SuperParents blog and has just featured as the last word in the Associate Woman.

Stay well, folks. Enjoy your life and health.

Links

• What are your stories about the crazies online?

Colin
-- 
The Associate Woman | The WA 6000 Daily | The Anti-Bully Paper | SuperParents on FB 
To receive updates on all SuperParents events go to subscribe.SuperParents.com.au

What are your stories about the crazies online?

A friend recently talked to me about forcing herself out of her comfort zone and meeting some 'acquaintances' online, and being pleasantly surprised by the results. Like most Australian bloggers eventually find out, that avatar you've 'friended' is not some crazy axe wielding murderer. In fact, once you get past your own apprehension, these online personalities you meet face-to-face are pretty much how they are online.

If I can add connect with thousands of people in my social network, and really only eventually block one from FB (a friend's ex wife who was stalking him through his friends) and two from Twitter (one who thought I was a racist and another who just was too crass for my liking) - there's hope for all of us including our children.

I add people carefully, so may be protected from the crazies online. But I know there are stalkers out there. In fact, I have an online friend who has received death threats from a mere connection to a pro-life blogger.

So ... what are some of your stories?

This post is dedicated to all those brave bloggers who are traveling to the Digital Parents Conference this weekend in Melbourne. I sure wish I was going.

Links

• What women want
• Women self defence tips

-- 
The Associate Woman | The WA 6000 Daily | The Anti-Bully Paper | SuperParents on FB 
To receive updates on all SuperParents events go to subscribe.SuperParents.com.au

Parents. We Lose Time Somewhere Between Inactivity and Chaos.

Breakfast in Bed. If only all of us are so lucky.  

Parenthood has me lurching between states of inactivity and chaos. I'm sure people in the know will agree that any blissful state with the bundle of joy soon evaporates. You'd be more likely caught in a whirlwind of work, boredom, loneliess, and then instances of self-doubt. And then your notions of 'little luxuries' change - they become littler indeed. Don't forget the washing up and cleaning of the oil spills you have to do afterward. Do you find time has been travelling faster since children? Maybe I've been dwelling less on myself. Or is it because there's no downtime to act as a marker of your efforts? How do you slow it down? Is it with a Girls Night Out? When do you have time for yourself?

Links

• What's a Good Man?
• Is a Mother's Guild the Same as a Father's Fear?

-- 
The Associate Woman | The WA 6000 Daily | The Anti-Bully Paper | SuperParents on FB 
To receive updates on all SuperParents events go to subscribe.SuperParents.com.au