I am alarmed by the amount of younger children getting social networking accounts. I understand teenagers wanting a place to catch up with their friends outside of school hours & really, it's got to be a cheaper option & it leaves the phone line open for the rest of the family to use. When I was in my teens I'd race home from school, eat, run back out to see all my mates I had just left & come home before dinner. After dinner I'd jump on the phone & call my friends & spend the rest of the night there. So I do agree with social networks for that point. What a great way to keep in contact without having your parents screaming at you to hang up the phone.
My issue is the younger generation again. The one's 13 years and under. I was recently asked by my 7 year old if I could make an account for him on a very popular social website because he has friends that have their own accounts. 7 year old friends. After he went to bed I went on and had a look to see if these friends really did have their own accounts and he was right. Not only did these 7 and some 9 & 10 year olds have their own profiles but I was able to see all their information including mobile phone numbers & photos. I was shocked. Now I know for a fact you cannot have a profile unless you are over a certain age so they have gone & used a fake birth date & opened up a profile. What makes this issue worse is the fact that they are also friends with their parents on there. Parents that allow their young, innocent children to have these pages. Open for anyone to view. Scary.
I am finding it hard to keep up with this not so innocent generation. The constant demands for grown up things like mobile phones because 50% of their class mates have one. I am not even at the stage of allowing him to hand out our home phone number so he can call friends after school. I don't think there is a need. He has had conversations with his bestfriend, my bestfriend's child on the phone before but it's not a common occurrence. I really don't like to encourage that kind of thing. I had one mother say to me recently, Oh so you're Jay's Mum. My kid so & so has been talking to him on the phone at night. Umm no, actually he hasn't. Your child has been talking to the other Jay. That kind of thing doesn't sit right with me. Maybe I'm over protective, maybe I'm not but I certainly wouldn't have my child talking to someone night after night when I didn't even know the parents or at least have spoken to them first about it.
Which also brings me the the sleepover subject. Very scary thought for me. I had to be a certain age before my mother allowed me to have a slumber party. 12 to be exact. I was so very excited to have all my very close friends come over on my 12th birthday and sleep over. To have these kind of parties was a privilege. Something you got to look forward to like when you were old enough to shave your legs. Another very exciting time in a girls life. Anyway back to sleepovers. A friend of mine told me her 5 year old was invited to a sleepover. Huh?? She didn't feel comfortable with the idea at all and wondered how she would let the parents of the birthday child know. Would she make up a fake commitment?? etc Why do we have to be brought to lies because we are not comfortable with our five year old sleeping at some strangers house? Who the heck has a slumber party for a 5 year old in the first place? What happened to the hour long MacDonald's parties where you leave thinking, thank gosh that is over. All those hyped up, screaming children running around is chaotic but you get to eave it all behind an hour later. No staying over. No pulling your hair out because no one will sleep. No tears because 5 year old wants his Mummy in the middle of the night. Yeah I don't think so. Not going to be happening. Those are just the simple factors. I'm not even going to go into the safety factors. That's a whole other scary story.
So am I being unreasonable here? Do I allow him to follow most of the other kids or stand by beliefs and have him think I'm the uncool Mummy? I couldn't understand why I had to wait for things like these issues I've talked about when I was little but I certainly get it now. I guess I didn't turn out so bad for it. I actually thank my parents for making me wait for such things. What else would I have to look forward to if I had everything handed to me.
What do you think about these things. Do you agree kids should wait for such things?
I agree with you! (regardless) Always stand by your belief's. Your child, your rules. Trust your gut instinct, be open minded, hear other points of view but then always go with what you believe to be right, even if that makes you the uncool Mummy!
ReplyDeleteps We are totally the coolest Mummy's EVA (LOL)
Thanks! You are right there. The pressure on kids these days to be up there with everyone but in the end all you can do is what you think is right. It's hard to know sometimes!! You are a cool Mummy!!!
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