Monday, June 25, 2012

Overprotective

I am, apparently, an overprotective parent. I do not let my 8 year old ride her bike around the neighborhood alone. I also see no point in my 8 year old having a Facebook page. Am I in the minority? I ask these things because I see them happen on a daily basis. My daughter has friends who show up on our doorstep on their bikes wanting to know if they can play. If we are home, they come in and play and don’t have to call their parents to say where they are, or let them know that we are home. They have a curfew, but don’t wear watches and don’t have a cell phone. I wonder what they do when they stop and we’re not home. Do they ride their bikes around for the next hour and a half? Do they stop by other friends’ houses to play? If they don’t go back home, how do they know what time it is? My daughter is still learning how to ride her bike down the street without getting run over, so I cannot imagine just letting her run free. I also don’t understand what an 8 year old has to do on Facebook. Her friends don’t need to know what she’s doing. She doesn’t take a lot of pictures. She doesn’t have a phone with internet. So are her friends actually on Facebook? Or do their parents run their pages to share pictures and stories of their children? If so, why can’t they just share stuff on their page? I can’t imagine my daughter having a need for her own Facebook page yet, let alone having the time for one. I also don’t have the time to sit and police what she does on Facebook. And you know I’d have to police what she does on Facebook because I’m so overprotective. Am I?

5 comments:

  1. Absolutely not! I think you are a SMART parent! I doubt our kids will have a Facebook until it is LEGAL for them to have a Facebook! You go, mama!

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  2. You sound just like me...and it's "so unfair"...according to my daugthers. Mine can't even cross the street by our house (small subdivision) without asking and us watching. Apparently we are the only ones! LOL. Nope, not too overprotective in my opinion, just cautions!!

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  3. Not at all! I think that some kids these days are just growing up too fast and it seems like it's one extreme or the other. Do what you feel is right!

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  4. I think you are doing great , honestly I think it is crazy for 8 year old to have facebook page ( don't they have like an age limit? ) - I saw one of the girls i know looking on facebook classifieds for tv for her 3 year old room - she was looking for at least 36 inch I was like OH WOW REALLY?

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  5. Thanks everyone for your support! Yes zolzetka, they do have an age limit. I think it's 13. Our kids don't even have TVs in their rooms, but we don't spend hardly any time in our bedrooms.

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