Monday, September 24, 2007

Seventy-Five Percent of People Agree Tweens Should Not Suck Face

I polled and you ignored. I gave you a kick in the ass and you answered: 75% of my readers think dating is not an ok extracurricular event for 6th graders. I agree, too, but I thought, just for a minute, that I was being an overly protective, neurotic parent. I've been accused of crazy mom behavior in the past so it really helps me to have an objective opinion. Or in this case twelve objective opinions.

Madhubby and I discussed it, too. We agree that if some parents are ok with their tweens dating right now, then we'll just have to limit Lizzie's interaction with those tweens as much as possible. It will be hard but not impossible. I know we can't control what goes on at school, but we certainly have a say about whom she can invite over for a playdate or a sleepover. So, we'll just gently steer her towards "acceptable" friendships and hope she doesn't catch on. It could work.

In the meantime, I'll keep reading her e-mails and text messages. Don't act all shocked. If kids are going to be secretive - and they are - then I have no choice but to go covert.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good job, Mommy! I think covert ops are definitely a good plan at her age. You just never know.

Andrea said...

Just don't ever let her know you're reading it. God, I'm still scarred by memories of my mother breaking the lock on my diary and reading all about my preteen longings for a boy who didn't know I existed. I got a huge lecture about how I was too young for boys, and does she need to call this boy's parents??, and on and on. Ugh. And my mother wondered why I never spoke openly to her as a teenager. Scarred for life.

LawSchoolMom said...

Oh. Wow. No locks on the diary here - just a plain composition notebook. And the beauty of e-mail is I can set a simple forward to my e-mail account and Lizzie is none the wiser.