Our youngest daughter crossed a milestone yesterday, and it was painful. Painful for her. Painful for me. Painful for Gregg.
The backstory is our twelve year old wanted to be on Facebook because "all" her friends are on it. We had taken a united parental stand of "not yet and we will continue to talk about it if we can think through the privacy issues," etc. Sometimes she is in such a rush to be older... that we we just wanted to slow her down a bit. Plus, really how much can twelve year olds have to say on Facebook?
Last night, our son ratted her out inadvertantly. And so it began.
The confrontation, the tears, the disappointment, the fear, the resolution. Sigh.
The conversation moved from rants and tears to a heartfelt discussion of just why we are "uncool" parents at times. You could see the reality cross her face as we talked about adults who pose as kids on-line, sharing information about how innocent posts can give weirdos information to stalk. On and on the tears and discussion flowed.
The talk about trust and disappointment followed and was probably the hardest part of all, but it all came full circle as we talked about a parent's love and forgiveness.
The result? She pulled the Facebook account of her own choice. She is facing consequences that spill into other privileges she has.
But the biggest realization. Out little girl is no longer a little girl. Wow.
