Thursday, April 2, 2009

You want privacy????

Remember when you were growing up and your mom would do or say something you didn't like.
For example not letting you wear what you wanted to wear..
"No Kerri, you may not leave the house in plaid pink pants and an orange striped shirt".
And you would stomp back to your room to change, mumbling "When I have kids, I'm gonna let them wear whatever they want".

I had one of those moments.

Ryleigh (who turned 12 last Thursday) has a MySpace. Yeah I know, that's a little young to start. Beside the point.
The other night I made her log on to her MySpace account so I could see what she had been doing on it.
I went through her friends list asking her who different people were, looked over her profile, went through her photos, I made her take a couple things out, and delete a description under one of the pictures. There were a couple things I didn't like.. But nothing that made me want to call Dr. Phil.
Then I went to her MySpace email account and was randomly picking emails to open up and read.
I didn't like some of them (she cursed). And I told her she wasn't acting very lady like and if she wasn't careful she was going to get a not so pretty reputation. Told her that I was going to check more often and if she didn't get it cleaned up, I would kill her MySpace account..
Just mom stuff. I'm sure all she heard was "blah blah blah".

Then it came..

"When I have kids, I'm not going to invade their privacy like you do".

WHOA!!!! I told her it was my house and my computer and I could look at anything I wanted.
But inside I was laughing my butt off.

What did I do? I got a piece of paper and wrote down her exact words and made her sign it..
It's in her box of memories, waiting for the day that she has her first "I've turned into my mother" moment.





This was my baby then.




This is my baby now.










10 comments:

Bobby X. said...

I'm reading every post. If you write a book, I will buy two....one to auction off when your book becomes part of the Oprah book club and a NYT best seller. I would wait until this whole Twilight thing is done. Give it time.

Kerri said...

Bobby X..
Thank you!!!! You won't have to buy them.. I'll give them to you..
Agreed on the Twilight thing..
I'll get my pen out when it passes.
It disappointed Dixon, but the teens are eating it up.. It's Ryleigh's "new favorite movie".

Amy said...

See my blog for a new Twilight post. . .

Cassidy has a My space account, too. But I think he mostly plays games there. I should make him log on tonight so that I can see what he's up to. I know one of his friends has herself listed as 21, and I wasn't too happy about that.

Ryleigh looks so grown up, as I'm sure you know. She looks a lot like you. I never looked that good at 12!!!

Kerri said...

That's the shit deal with myspace.
I think you HAVE to put that you're at least 18 to have an account..
Well with Ry's body, she could pass for 18.
My new line to here is "put them away" meaning "pull your shirt up the girls are bursting out of the top".
at 12, she a 36C.
She'll kill me if she reads this.

Bev said...

If you had not mentioned how old Ry is, I would have sworn by the pic's that she was at least 17.
Guess she's too big for the Easter Bunny.
Mom, what the heck are ya going to do in her teen years???
Hey I could make her one of those high collar Amish kind of dresses.
Bet she love to have one
Is she still going to the catholic school?
I can still remember the days she use to visit us at work.. ahhh the sweet baby!

Miss ya Ry .. Mind your mom.

Kerri said...

Can that dress come with a pair of lockable bloomers please.

For her teen years, I plan to lock her in the basement.. But don't tell anyone, I hear it's illegal.

Amy said...

I'm telling you, it's all the hormones they give cows and chickens that are making our girls into women way before they should be!!!! I'm a . . . well, don't worry what size bra I wear. I could only dream to be a C cup!

Kerri said...

Amy that's only true if the hormones are in chicken McNuggets because that's all she'll eat.

Seriously, I don't disagree. I think something is in some kind of food somewhere because they sure don't make 12 year olds like they used to.

Kara said...

Good post Kerri and a good way to keep tabs on her. Myspace's youngest age you can choose is 14, but it instantly makes their page private to non-friends if they do so of course most of the kids go for age 18 and up. If they choose an age under 18 it also limits who can be their friend (someone w/an age of 45 can't befriend a girl with the age of 13 - although it doesn't mean they can't communicate via the e-mail feature of myspace) which is probably why many kids pick an older age so they can be friends with the older kids.

She'll tire of myspace soon and want to move onto facebook, which I think you'll find more reassuring and less worrisome. They seem to tire of myspace around 14-16 and facebook has become pretty hot for the teenagers. It's vastly different from myspace and allows much more privacy and control over who can contact you, see your page, etc and is more like a twitter account than a showcase of everything in your life. Only people who are approved friends can see your info and even then you can filter what they see if you so choose.

If you aren't set to private in Myspace any Tom, Dick or Harry can view your page, pics, etc. without even having an account on MS.

Kerri said...

Thanks for the info Kara..
I think she doesn't want to do facebook because no one else at school is doing face book.

Poor girl.. I drill in to her about all the dangers of people pretending to be young kids when they're not..

There was a guy at Heatcraft in Georgia that I dealt with on a regular basis..
He played hockey and I would talk to him about Andrew playing hockey, and bring up Ryleigh playing soccer etc.. And when their sport pictures came in, I forwarded them.
Then one day I get this phone call from someone else down there..
The FBI came to the plant took his computer and his 4 computers at home and he spent 5 years in federal prison for child porn.
I seriously had to go to the bathroom and vomit.
I sent pictures of my children to this creep.
I told Ry that story and her eyes got real big.. I think she understands but doesn't think it could happen to her.