Lisa, of Grown and Flown, writes:
If the only thing I told my kids about sex was to use protection, would you think me a good parent? If I had never said more about drugs than stay away, would that have been alright? Then why is it okay that the only thing I told my kids about social media is be careful and don’t post anything that you don’t want employers, colleges and your grandparents to see. One caution, one phrase…clearly a dereliction of duty.
I told them no more about social media than this, because I knew no more. My parenting grew up with the Internet, each new thing was as novel to me as it was to my kids and I never got ahead of them. Parenting at the dawn of the Internet was like running in place and I envy any parent who didn’t learn about Snapchat from their child.
I know I should have done better and told my kids this.
Remember my favorite line from The Social Network (of course the movie had not yet come out…) “The internet isn’t written in pencil… it’s written in ink,” and repeat it to yourself every time your fingers touch the keyboard.
