How the heck does considering one of Telus' free gifts turn into a huge family fight* ??? Oy.
How do you all get it through to your 12-y/o kids that they shouldn't be on a laptop all. the. time. on their own without ANY parental supervision? Do your kids get their own laptops in theri rooms and unlimited/unsupervised internet??
I firmly believe that kids shouldn't be online all the time, and shouldn't have unrestricted access to internet, because they can't possibly be able to figure out who is on the other end of that "kids game website" or RPG with chat availability (there are SO MANY sites out there geared to younger & tween girls, it's unbelievable!). She says I am being unreasonable.
PLEASE tell me -- how do you handle this in your homes & families? I REALLY would like to know, because my kid says I am not being fair. Am I being unfair or unreasonable?
*It all started because Telus called me about some instability with my phone/TV/Internet services lately & I asked about changing my services to drop all the extra stuff that was added on which doubled the TV portion of the bill -- in doing so, the rep said I might get one of the promotional gifts if they change my account a certain way ... so I *might* be eligible for an XBox 360 w/ Kinect & 1-year Gold Membership, an HP Laptop, a Salaxy Tablet or a 40" lcd HD-TV... cross your fingers for me!!... the fight started because Em wants the laptop because I restrict her time online & on devices. I want the XBox with Kinect because it was fun when we tried it in a store one day, and because I think she could have friends over to play it, and there is no way I can afford to spring for one on my own.
Well, my girls are all grown and out of the house now but I'll tell you what we did when they were home. We had one computer for the entire family and it was located in a room that was open - anyone could walk in at any time. (and we did. I often popped in to see what they were up to if they were online)
ReplyDeleteNo child spent the whole evening on the computer. They had to share it with everyone else and we simply didn't allow it.
There was no way my girls would have been allowed to have their own computer in their own room. They weren't even allowed to have their own televisions! (We had two - one in the living room and one in the room with the computer. Television viewing was monitored, as well)
I don't think you are being unreasonable at all. Children don't understand that there are things they shouldn't be exposed to without a grown-up to help them understand it. Not to mention the pedophiles who target young children... They can't be sure who they are conversing with if they don't know them in real life, after all.
Again, you are just looking out for her and she may not understand that now. When she has children of her own someday she will definitely understand.