I'll bet you think this post is about you, don't you?

Ok, so this has been amusing me all morning so I thought I'd share.

In my many years online I've met scores of intelligent, funny, and emotionally secure women on the 'net, all of whom are (or will be) fabulous mums. I'm lucky to have made their aquaintance and look forward to 'hearing' their ideas and opinions every day - even if I don't always agree with them.

As with all things, though, one must take the bad with the good and I’ve discovered a new category of Cybermom: the HyperSensitiveMom (alternate title: the AllAboutMeMom).

Have you ever ‘met’ folks on Bulletin Boards or in the Blogosphere who get their knickers in a knot all the time because they randomly decide that something general that someone has posted is directed right at them personally? They are so self-important (or so very insecure) that if you talk about, say, a parenting choice that they happen to have made, they think that you MUST be talking about THEM!

Is this self-centered egotism (the Spoiled Brat) or a form of paranoia (“I know you all are whispering about me!”)?

One sees this all the time regarding the hot topics like circumcision, breastfeeding, co-sleeping, etc, (I've always wondered if these people react so vehemently because they secretly feel uncertain about their choices) but it can rear it’s ugly head in the most innocuous of topiocs. The HyperSensitiveMom simply assumes that it’s all about her. They certainly fail to grasp the unfortunate fact that the written word can simply come across wrong. I have many times been irritated by something that someone wrote, but I don’t assume that the poster was – like one of those evangelical television preachers – speaking directly to ME, Blue, from SC. (“Did YEW choose to suppliment formula and thereby endanger the health of yor chile?! Yor goin' to HELL for that!”)

Not so the HyperSensitiveMom. She doesn’t take a half a second to get to bitching and whining about how wrong you were to post (whatever) ‘cause it was obviously about HER PERSONALLY - an attack on HER views and HER ideas - (insert 'poor me' histrionics or offended rage here).

Uhm … get over yourself honey. Newsflash: everything in the whole wide world isn’t about YOU. You’re not the first person to get pregnant, have a baby, or raise a child. There are folks out there who have done it before and might have legitimate advice or *gasp* are just relating their own views and experiences.

Relax.

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(Now how many of you would like to take bets that a few people who read this post get bent out of shape because … you guessed it … I must be talking about them!)

Remember the song by Carly Simon: ‘You’re so vain”?

“You’re so vain, you probably think this song is about you
You’re so vain, I’ll bet you think this song is about you
Don’t you? don’t you?”