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Okay, so my oldest, a 13 year old of the female variety has begged me and her father for her very own Facebook account, to which we both said NO! Not just No, but the 'HELLO NAW, the Lawd Gawd would hav ta come down out da sky and command us to give ya skinny behind permission' type no!
I trust my kids to a point. I'm not naive (I had to spell Evian; as in the bottled water company;backwards there); teenagers are sneaky, I was one not too long ago. Okay yes it was many moons ago, but my memory is still in tact. Hell, I was one of the sneakiest kids you'd ever meet. Had every parent I met fooled, with the exception of my "Auntie Mom". Yes that was a play on the Rosalind Russell character. My actual mom wasn't really around, so my Aunt (dad's sister) filled in as mom after my grandma died. Any who, I remember what it was like to be 13. We thought we knew it all and that our parents were complete imbeciles who had fallen off of the proverbial turnip truck yesterday. I mean hello! They like music by Bobby Darin for cryin' out loud! And now, my kids here me jamming out to Radiohead and are like, WHAT IS THAT?!?
So back on point. I and my better half explained to our taller than me daughter......yes, she is taller than me by 4" and 1 shoe size, that the world is full of crazy people! We showed her a video of an adult guy who with parental consent, set up a fake Facebook account, posing as a 14 year old boy, who contacted these girls, and set up meetings with them. ALL 3 of these girls agreed to meet with him. They thought they were meeting a boy their own age. Our daughter said she would allow us to check her page, etc. We gave her a trial run, letting her use MY Facebook to message friends. She was in the house on my android, while me and hubby sat outside at patio table on the tablet, and watched as she chatted with a boy, and quickly deleted messages thinking we would NEVER see them. We busted her then and there. Tears were shed by both her and hubby, cause well, it surprised him that she was being sneaky....me, not so much!
To drive our point home about crazy people, I also noticed she had befriended and messaged a Disney Europe star. This singer/actress was actually responding to my daughter. I pointed out to my daughter that celebrities have pages, but they NEVER respond to private messages like this one was doing, that this was probably some sicko who was saying, "Oh I would love to be able to perform in your town, but I'm already scheduled to be in 'such and such' city on that holiday" This starlet is from Spain, so why would she be performing in Romania, on a Romanian Orthodox holiday?!? That was another point I made......sorry got sidetracked.....I've noticed I do that in my writing not just verbally! Hmmmm....
I went on to explain that, perhaps not immediately, but eventually this "starlet" would message saying, "Hey, look I've got a gig in X city, I'll be passing through your little village at this time on this date. Why don't you tell me where to meet you and what you'll be wearing, and I'll pick you up and you can come to the show with me, stay backstage, and we'll drop you off after.." She'd run down thinking she's been hand-picked, that's she special in some way to this person, and then she gets picked up not by the "star" but by some HUGE, ugly men, who will take her out of the country and sell her as a slave to some God-forsaken country where horrible things will happen to her.
Part of her believed me and was scared, but I could see that part of her thought I was just being "mom" and making stuff up to scare her.
I guess my point is that, perhaps I am paranoid. Maybe I'm crazy, and should be medicated, however with all the messed up stuff I see on the nightly news from all over the globe I seriously doubt it. I'm probably to most normal, most rational person on the planet! Not literally, but ya know, compared to those running things, uhhhh, Yeah, I am! I don't understand why parents let their kids under the age of 17 have unfettered access to the internet. It just completely baffles me!
Ok, my dog is barking at something, probably a fox out in my vineyards.....GOD I miss the 2nd Amendment! I'd give anything for a rifle and scope!
I trust my kids to a point. I'm not naive (I had to spell Evian; as in the bottled water company;backwards there); teenagers are sneaky, I was one not too long ago. Okay yes it was many moons ago, but my memory is still in tact. Hell, I was one of the sneakiest kids you'd ever meet. Had every parent I met fooled, with the exception of my "Auntie Mom". Yes that was a play on the Rosalind Russell character. My actual mom wasn't really around, so my Aunt (dad's sister) filled in as mom after my grandma died. Any who, I remember what it was like to be 13. We thought we knew it all and that our parents were complete imbeciles who had fallen off of the proverbial turnip truck yesterday. I mean hello! They like music by Bobby Darin for cryin' out loud! And now, my kids here me jamming out to Radiohead and are like, WHAT IS THAT?!?
So back on point. I and my better half explained to our taller than me daughter......yes, she is taller than me by 4" and 1 shoe size, that the world is full of crazy people! We showed her a video of an adult guy who with parental consent, set up a fake Facebook account, posing as a 14 year old boy, who contacted these girls, and set up meetings with them. ALL 3 of these girls agreed to meet with him. They thought they were meeting a boy their own age. Our daughter said she would allow us to check her page, etc. We gave her a trial run, letting her use MY Facebook to message friends. She was in the house on my android, while me and hubby sat outside at patio table on the tablet, and watched as she chatted with a boy, and quickly deleted messages thinking we would NEVER see them. We busted her then and there. Tears were shed by both her and hubby, cause well, it surprised him that she was being sneaky....me, not so much!
To drive our point home about crazy people, I also noticed she had befriended and messaged a Disney Europe star. This singer/actress was actually responding to my daughter. I pointed out to my daughter that celebrities have pages, but they NEVER respond to private messages like this one was doing, that this was probably some sicko who was saying, "Oh I would love to be able to perform in your town, but I'm already scheduled to be in 'such and such' city on that holiday" This starlet is from Spain, so why would she be performing in Romania, on a Romanian Orthodox holiday?!? That was another point I made......sorry got sidetracked.....I've noticed I do that in my writing not just verbally! Hmmmm....
I went on to explain that, perhaps not immediately, but eventually this "starlet" would message saying, "Hey, look I've got a gig in X city, I'll be passing through your little village at this time on this date. Why don't you tell me where to meet you and what you'll be wearing, and I'll pick you up and you can come to the show with me, stay backstage, and we'll drop you off after.." She'd run down thinking she's been hand-picked, that's she special in some way to this person, and then she gets picked up not by the "star" but by some HUGE, ugly men, who will take her out of the country and sell her as a slave to some God-forsaken country where horrible things will happen to her.
Part of her believed me and was scared, but I could see that part of her thought I was just being "mom" and making stuff up to scare her.
I guess my point is that, perhaps I am paranoid. Maybe I'm crazy, and should be medicated, however with all the messed up stuff I see on the nightly news from all over the globe I seriously doubt it. I'm probably to most normal, most rational person on the planet! Not literally, but ya know, compared to those running things, uhhhh, Yeah, I am! I don't understand why parents let their kids under the age of 17 have unfettered access to the internet. It just completely baffles me!
Ok, my dog is barking at something, probably a fox out in my vineyards.....GOD I miss the 2nd Amendment! I'd give anything for a rifle and scope!
2 comments:
You are wise about the Facebook situation. There's a lot to be said for hand-held lances for self defense and a sling (not slingshot) for wild critters. The latter would require a lot of practice, though.
You`re not paranoid, Odessa.You did the right thing.Your life experience helps you.You`re parents aware of dangers.Keep up the good parenting work.
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