Tonight my wife and two daughters went to get their hair done and d0 “girl stuff.” (I am not sure what that girl stuff is and I am not sure I want to know.)
I thought this would be an awesome opportunity to hang out at Starbucks and read. As I read the ambient noise of conversation came alive with one statement from a high school girl a table or two away, “My dad doesn’t know he is 23 or that we are hooking up, he thinks he is just some high school guy on My Space.” I thought of following her home and telling her dad or simply spray painting – “He is 23 (And they are hooking up)” on her car, but I decided neither were probably great ideas.
I don’t blame her dad for not knowing. It is easy to become dis engaged, by simply getting too busy. It is easy to let them do their own thing, it is easy to not know their friends. Tonight God reminded me that I need to reaffirm my commitment to not do what “comes easy.” I need to do the hard work of staying connected with my girls.
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Oh that is scary Ben! Yikes. I think the spray paint would have been forgivable.
I often wonder how parents know when they’ve stopped knowing their kids? My kids are still young and tell us everything even when they know it’s going to get them into trouble with us. Last week my 10-year-old daughter curiously asked us to confirm: “I’m too young to go out on a date, right?” Randy and I kidded that she’d have to wait until she was married. She got a good laugh out of it, but reading a posting like yours today makes me wonder if comments like that could do more harm than good later down the line. Food for thought. ~Lucy
Unfortunately I am now learning how “normal” this is. I’m student teaching and have a private/blocked myspace account.
Some of my middle schooler students found my account and tried to add me. This gave me the opportunity to see what they had on their myspaces.
Most were lying about their age in order to bypass myspace security measures for minors. Several had inappropriate pictures. A few were having inappropriate conversations with what looked like high school guys.
I turned the info over to my master teacher. She told me that kids create two myspace accounts. One for their parents to view and then their “real” one.
We might use it for parent conferences, but the school can’t do anything about the myspaces.
I have sons so I can be a slacker. ;-) Just kidding!
My boys are still pretty young, but this is great stuff for future reference. I aim to be involved in my kid’s lives and am currently off to a good start of it; they are 1 and 3 now so lots of interesting stuff up ahead.
~Bear
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