Should our children have privacy?
It's a good question and I am sure many of us straddle the aisle with this one. This topic came up recently on a news show. The question was by "friending" your kids on FaceBook are you actually spying on them and therfore invading their privacy? Kinda a dumb question, I mean sure, isn't that all FaceBook really is? A way for us to peak into our friends (and our children's) lives. With one click we can see everything from our friends kids on their first day of school to how those same friends they spent their three day weekend boozing it up at a concert. Like Jimmy Steward in Rear Window we are secretly living vicarious through our friends but unlike Jimmy's neighbors our friends have given us permission to "watch".
And with reference to our kids on FB, do we not think our teens have edited their FB and MySpace accounts with two or three different profiles? These punks can text 60 words a minute...we see exactly what they want us to see. Just like when I was a kid and I asked for $10 to go the movies, I didn't really go to the movies, but I knew enough to tell what it was about in case I was asked. On the other hand, and now playing devil's advocate, do we really want to know more that was they show us? Do we want to know all of the details of how they spend their time away from home, out of our watchful eye?
For me TODAY my answer is easy...HELL to the YES I do want to know. I want names, addresses, phone numbers, parent names, model and make of car, a breathalyzer test, a hickey check and text history before and after they leave the house. But again, my girls are only 9 and 5 so it is very easy for me to propose a clear and concise plan of how we will handle their "rights to privacy" (they will have none). And I can already see the exchange of that conversation 5 years from now. I imagine we will be sitting on the front porch enjoying the weather, I will be already tanked on a bottle of wine as happy hour will start earlier and earlier the older the girls get as I will need the extra strength. And peering down through my rose colored Beatles inspired glasses I will enforce my rules. But we all know that once you add some estrogen hormones to the conversation, some high pitch screaming, a couple of "I hate yous" and maybe a threat to runaway this so called "plan" of mine may need some major rewrites.
But my point is this...after all is said and done, when do we step off the playing field and onto the sidelines and let our kids actually play in the game without our interference? Where do we draw the "I will not pry, you are responsible for your actions and you deserve our trust" chalk line and find the balance of allowing them privacy while still being involved in their ever pubescent smelly lives? While you think of that thought provoking statement, let me go hide my daughter's journal back where I found it before she gets home from school.
Here is your Friday funny. Let's hear it for Gloria. Thank goodness we didn't have FaceBook when I was in college, I may have been a "Jenny".
Facebook, Twitter Revolutionizing How Parents Stalk Their College-Aged Kids
