21st century parenting is complicated. Social media platforms have stormed onto the scene in the last fifteen years, completely changing the way that both parents and kids interact with peer groups and the wider world. Gone are the days of notes passed in class or phone calls to update far away family members on how life is going, now kids text each other and parents post videos on social media.
The online environment can in many ways be a blessing. It allows us to connect with people who have shared interests, interests like fencing. It allows us to connect with family and friends. It allows us to document our children and their accomplishments. However it can also be a curse. It’s easy to fall into negativity in the online world or to post things without thinking. Not only that, online interactions make anonymous bullying easier and can make our connections less real and more virtual.
For better or for worse, social media is here to stay. How it shapes our lives and the lives of our kids is up to us. Here are seven social media guidelines for fencers and their families.
One of the greatest things about moving forward as a competitive fencer is that competitions are increasingly broad, taking fencers from one end of the United States to the other. 
When I look at our own family and its fencing schedule, with four kids attending fencing lessons, classes, camps, 
Every parent wants to capture the memories that their children make, it’s part of being a parent! But what to keep and what to get rid of can be a big challenge, especially for fencing parents who follow their children from season to season. Organizing your child’s fencing career into a scrapbook or a series of scrapbooks is easy and it takes the guesswork out of the whole thing. Not only that, it’s something the kids can get involved with and make their own!
Something that we’ve heard people ask, more than once, is “Why should I pay so much for my child to do fencing?”
