NightmareMom is born

I've had many inquiries about how I came up with my username, and decided I would post a little bit about it.  It all started way back in 1992.  A guy I worked with thought I was way to over protective of my son, who was 6 at the time.  He and I became good friends and he would tease me about being a 'nightmare Mom.'  It was a pretty funny joke back then.  He was a single guy, no kids, and didn't really understand what I was going through as a single Mom.  He lived out of state and took my son under his wing of sorts.  As he traveled, he would buy him T-shirts, post cards, and small trinkets.  My son thought he was the greatest!  Of course, he also taught my son the nickname he so lovingly gave me.  It would be silly most of the time, but there were occasions were my son did not get what he wanted and he'd reply, "Mom, you really are a nightmare mom." I came to love the name!  When my answer to my son was going to be no I'd ask, "Who you talking to?"  He never got the no, but he knew exactly what I meant.  

                        

Fast forward to spring of 1996 (I think).  My ex-husband, who also lived out of state, started working for CompuServe as a tech.  CompuServe was going to be unveiling a new online service.  It was supposed to be the best, so innovative, and unlimited charges.  He thought it would be so great to communicate with our son online (another story).  He built a computer, nothing fancy, but it worked and sent the disc for the service.  Back then I had heard nothing but horror stories about the Internet.  How folks would stalk you, try to get your information, even send you porn, and that you had to be careful with what you did, etc.  

I was a naive, yet pretty excited about trying something new.  When I got the disc, I installed it and set things up.  I had to have a username.  I sat staring at the screen as all the warnings flooded into my mind.  Don't use your name, don't use something that is traceable, don't, don't don't.   

I'm not sure how long I sat that before I was hit with a ton of bricks, square in the forehead, but it did come to me.  Use NightmareMom, surely no one would bother you. So there in March/April of 1996 NightmareMom was born on WoW, by CompuServe. I think I was fairly close to being one of the first users.  I think as I searched I only found like 16 chat rooms, and very few folks in them.  I was afraid to go in, of course, but I did look.   

Some folks out there may actually remember WoW!  As I became more comfortable I did venture out and found some great people.  It seemed everyone knew everyone as we grew together.  The service wasn't the greatest.  It was cheap and fun.  Mail more often then not, did not work.  If you left a room you may never get in again, and how many nights you would get kicked off but your ghost stayed and you would have to sign on under a different name.  Looking back I have some great memories!  

I remember my first experience in a chat room.  I sat and watched as folks talked nonsense.  I had such a hard time following the flow of the conversation and all these abbreviations......... LOL... BRB...... TTYL............ LMAO.  I sat for a few minutes before I had the nerve to ask what the hell all that meant.   

NightmareMom:  What is LOL?  

DaddyDear:  Laughing out loud  

Call it what you want, but I just thought that was too weird, but what was even weirder is we became great friends.  Nightmaremom and Daddydear.  Late night chats, and learning the ins and outs of both computers and the Internet.  I think the majority of my computer talents were taught by WoW members.   

I remember talking to a member that I had met to walk me through setting another chat program.  I think it was freenet? It allowed you to have private IMs like AIM and also had voice where you could talk live.  Needless to say my computer was to slow to do the voice, but it was exciting learning about different things.   

Well, I think it was Jan of 1997 WoW was calling it quits.  AOL was going unlimited and so many of us 'WoWies' were going to AOL.  Most tried to keep some variation of their name to make it easier for us to find each other.  I, of course, had to keep my name!  There was no doubt about it!  To my amazement, I couldn't.  I had to change it as AOL did not allow that many characters.  I found a variation and used it until AOL changed the character limit, then I changed completely.  

So there you have it.  How NightmareMom was born :)  She lives and will live!  LOL I still keep in touch with so many of the WoWies.  Some have long since disappeared, some just hide, some, well who knows.  Life moves forward and so do we, but something's will always remain in our heart and thoughts.