I have been trying to get a time to take Dad to pick up his new glasses. We were set to do it on Thursday of last week. When I called Dad, on Thursday morning, he had made a "date" to go to the Senior Center with another resident. I told him to save MONDAY for me. I told him not to eat lunch. He called me 1/2 an hour before lunch to be sure I was going to pick him up.
In the parenting realm, we are learning to navigate things which never existed when our oldest were children. There was no internet at that point. We were one of the first homes in our town to have internet - and many Christians thought we were going straight to hell for signing up. We had strict guidelines in those early days. We've let up quite a bit over the decades of schooling and parenting.
New sites entered our home with a new 16 yo. We knew our principles. We knew our older kids (currently 20 - 41) didn't have social media until they were seniors. We decided to evaluate our standards and to check with younger parents we admired. Where we were wondering which parental controls, we should look into for say Snap Chat, they all said it's a "Hard no!" It was interesting to me that 30 and 40's who HAD all these sites say they don't want it for their kids.
We set down with Melia and asked which sites she had created. We explained she DOESN'T REALLY know these "boys" who are leaving comments that are NOT respectful. She is worth so much more than these schmucks realize or communicate. They shouldn't have a voice in defining her self-worth or self-esteem. We were proud she told us the truth about which sites she's created, and we discussed truth and trust in our little family unit. It was a good conversation; we agreed Snap Chat is going away. We aren't sure about Tik Tok. She's never had a phone. We are discussing what controls we'd need to see on a phone before we agree to purchase one. To be clear these are not punitive measures, we simply want to know she knows how to safely use these things. These things seemed easier to navigate in the 80's and 90's. The principle remains the same - we want our children's self-worth and identity to be built on who GOD says they are not on what social influencers or shmucks on the "internet" say about them.
We planned a salmon dinner. Monday nights are usually Stacia's night to have dinner with us. Her life intervened and she didn't make it home until late. The three of us at home decided we'd rather go with a YOYO (you're on your own - leftovers) than eat the salmon.
We are watching The Chosen from in the evenings. Our hope is to use it as a springboard into discussions leading to a full picture of Jesus and steps toward Biblical literacy.
