Big Brother Mother

I read an amusing article that supposedly lists abbreviations that parents “should” know. Yes, you could memorize these items and scan your kid’s emails and IM’s for them, in which case you probably already know that these items meant and have a lot of time on your hands that I would love to take advantage of (email me if you have such free time. I will put you to good use, my little elves).

Parents aren’t really going to read through their kids’ messages for these items, right? Cause that just borders on nuts. If I as a parent have to read through my kid’s messages to see if she’s using these abbreviations, there were probably already clues that she’s doing things I don’t approve of, so seeing use of these items really isn’t going to do much. Also, going through your kid’s stuff is a serious invasion of her privacy that I have a big problem with. Either I trust her, or I don’t. If I don’t trust her, she’s going to try to hide any misbehavior from me and not come to me when she actually has problems. My mistrust is going to force her further from me rather than reign her in. If I trust her, yes, she’ll probably do some things that I disapprove of, but hopefully I’ve raised her well enough by that point that she doesn’t do anything too awful (staying out too late vs. killing someone), and she’ll be more likely to come to me with real problems, like when she feels in over her head.

Maybe I’ll change my tune when my daughter’s a teenager, but right now my thoughts are, you put solid rules in place, enforce basic behaviors, but also give your kid some space. Just seeing that your kid texted “IWSN” (I want sex now) does not mean that he or she is actually going to have sex anytime soon. Sheesh. Relax. There’s enough real stuff to stress about rather than this ridiculousness.