Mommy plus Five

My 365...

Social media growing pains.  Yes, that is a thing.  At least I have decided that it is a thing.  Blake has had a Facebook account for the last couple of years so that he can play Facebook games with his father, and keep in touch with his sister.  He also uses it to message me, his sister-in-law and his brothers.  In other words, it has been solely for entertainment and family communication purposes.

Now that Blake is in school, he has been adding his peers to his Facebook account, which I fully expected him to do. What I did not expect, is what followed. The sort of drama that you witness, and halfway expect, with teenagers.  When I say teenagers, I am referring to the 16 and above crowd, certainly NOT the 11 to 14 year old crowd.  This is not okay.

When I was 12, the last thing on my mind was drama with boys.  I was climbing trees, playing street ball, going fishing, and having normal "age appropriate" fun.  Talking to boys was limited to school, or occasionally in the neighborhood when we would gather to play a game of street softball.  Heck, I did not even talk to boys on the one single home phone line that we had as a family.

Nowadays, children Blake's age are engaging in all sorts of "adult level" behavior that they are simply not emotionally equipped to process.  As his mother, I KNOW that Blake is not at a maturity level to properly process the conversations I have witnessed between him and these girls from school.  Blake is on the very young side of 12.  One conversation in particular was so worrisome to me that I reached out to the girl's mother to express my concerns, and she never responded back.  Yes, that is a thing...uninvolved parents.  Who knew?

Last night I had a long conversation with my oldest son.  Garrett is awesome.  He is reasonable, intelligent, and gives me great advice.  He started the conversation with the very predictable..."Times are different mama."  Yes, I am fully aware that times are different.  His concern is that if I shelter Blake too much, he might find himself behind the power curve moving forward into Junior High and High School.  I get that...but I am not sure that what I am witnessing is a power curve I care for him to be ahead of?

I guess the main point of my rant today is that I do know times are changing.  Social media is a big part of our children's lives.  However, that should not change what we teach to be appropriate communications and behavior.  It is very important to develop social skills in a face to face setting.  As a mom, I will always be protective.  I will always be 100 percent involved in my children's lives, and above all, I will always, 100 percent follow my instinct as a mother.  What I see developing here is not healthy, and it is not acceptable.  Time to reel it in a bit.  Kids need to be kids for as long as they can be.  All that angst and drama will come soon enough.

And my message to the other parents out there.  GET INVOLVED in your children's lives.  Know what is happening, what they are thinking, what they are doing, what they are dealing with.  Network with other parents, it takes a village after all.  "Thank you to my awesome mom friends of MRU!  I am so thankful to have you as my mommy support group!"

Hope your day was a good one planet.  It was a little warmer today...high was 23°f.  Yes, that is warm...lol  My awesome hubby surprised me with a new blender last night.  I murdered the last blender we had, and have not been able to enjoy my healthy fruit/veggie smoothies.  But now thanks to him, I can!  "Thank you honey!"

Until next time...

Peace.

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Love,






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