photo credit: Jim Sneddon

I’ve talked to Andrew many times about online safety since he’s on the computer a lot. He even has a mouse pad that reminds him of the basics. However, we recently came across a situation where I realized it wasn’t enough. I usually check on him quite often when he’s on there, but a couple weekends ago I had been sick and spent most of the day laying down, watching movies. At one point I got up to get a drink and decided to check on him. He had been checking on me pretty regular most of the day, bringing me drinks and making me sandwiches, and I hadn’t seen him for a while. So I walk in the office and he jumps up with a deer in the headlight look. Sign one. Then he says, “Mom, I love you! Can I have a hug?” Sign two.

After I hugged him and told him I loved him too, I asked him what he was doing. He said just playing a game. I asked him to let me see and sat down at the computer. He was in one of those chat rooms where you create a virtual character. He was in there with a girl. He had told her where he lived, including city. He had told her his first and last name. And he had told her he was 18. She had told him she was 14. I checked the account he had created and there he had used a birthday that made him 16. I was shocked since we’d talked about it so many times. I deleted his account, and he didn’t even look at the computer for two weeks.

I came across the following article today and it reminded me of that story. I’ll be sharing this site with Andrew. Regularly.

NEED TO KNOW

Keeping Kids Safer Online

(SPM Wire)  As the first generation to be born in the Internet age, today’s youth have a wealth of information at their fingertips. But with that information come potential hazards.

That’s why the Federal Trade Commission has issued a free booklet entitled “Net Cetera: Chatting With Kids About Being Online.”

With over a million copies distributed to schools and police departments, it provides a practical guide for parents to help children make better decisions online. “It’s proof that people want to have continuing conversations with their kids about communicating online,” David Vladeck, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, recently told Congress.

Many of the tips in “Net Cetera” can be found online at OnGuardOnline.gov.

photo credit: Alexo!

The other night the power out went out in our part of the city. Happens a lot here this time of year. All the air conditioners on I would guess. I quickly realized our only telephone on the home number is a cordless and wasn’t going to work. Since I didn’t have many minutes available on my cell phone, I decided it was a perfect time to run up to the store and purchase a regular corded telephone. I told Andrew to get in the car we were going to the store. As we were leaving, I told him what we were going for. And then spent the rest of the ride trying to explain the different to him between a cordless phone and what we were on our way to purchase. Finally I had to just tell him he’d just have to see it when we bought it because I didn’t know how else to explain it.

So we get the phone and he’s like a kid on Christmas. He immediately opens it in the car and starts trying to figure it out. At one point I hear from the back seat, “This is SOOO confusing me.” By the time we got home, the power was back on so I told him to go ahead and plug it in so we’d have it for future needs. Not only does he plug it in, he spends the next several minutes playing with it. It was seriously tripping him out to have a telephone that had a cord. I finally had to tell him it wasn’t a toy and to stop playing with it. I’ve had to tell him several times since then. He’s obsessed with this new phone.

Next week maybe I’ll hunt down a rotary telephone. That’ll blow his mind.

Will you go here and vote for him? Just find Entry#216 and submit. You can only vote once per computer and will have to use a valid email address and click a confirmation link.

Thank you! Andrew and I appreciate it. 

Ok, so now that you’ve seen the first picture. Let me say the second picture made it’s way home the other day, and I am very pleased. Much better. And while I was concerned his hair might not look as good, I’m thinking it actually came out better.

What do you think? Much better me thinks.

So this year, I went with him to school on picture day because I wanted to make sure his hair looked good, and that he didn’t be goofy. Too bad for me, the photographer this particular day was one of those get them in, get them out kind of guys.

Fast forward to this week. Andrew was out sick two or three days this week. I lost count. Well apparently pictures came in one of the days he was gone and make up pictures were on Friday. Thursday was one of the days he was absent. So Friday morning, right after he leaves on the bus, I get a voice mail from his teacher. She’s letting me know pictures came in and if I have a second I might want to run down and take a look at them because today is make up day. Ok, if the teacher calls and says today is make up day and you might want to look at these pictures just in case, chances are she knows something I as of yet do not. Of course, Andrew has already left for school and it was not one of his better hair days and obviously too late to do anything about it. So being the paranoid mom I am, I ran down to the school, and I ended up with this:

At least his hair looks good…right???

So what did this picky mom do? She went down and talked to the make up photographers of course. I asked them if I sent him for make up pictures, and I ended up liking this one better, could I keep them instead? I politely explained that it was not the greatest of hair days and if I was going to end up with a goofy looking picture, I’d at least rather have the one where his hair looked good. After they were done laughing with (not at) me, they told me I was welcome to stay and make sure I liked the new ones. If we couldn’t get a decent smile out of him, then I could take the first package home. Sounds good to me!

I went back to the classroom and stuck his head under the sink and finger combed his hair as good as I possibly could. We DID get a decent photo out of him, and I look forward to sharing that with you in a couple weeks. And on top of all that, I got to keep the first set even though normally you’re supposed to turn them in because the owner happened to be standing there and he also owns the printshop the school printed their yearbook through last year, which moi happened to be in charge of. So he recognized me and told me I could keep them. Who knew working on an elementary school yearbook for the PTA would have it’s perks.

So last night we decided to get it over with it. I promised myself I would not cry. And I almost made it.    Ok, I didn’t cry until after it was done. And I tried to wait until he went to bed, but I didn’t make it. I explained to him though that I just liked it long, but since he was happy with the hair cut, that’s all that mattered. Anyway, here it is.

It’s like my baby grew up over night. Now people might actually start guessing him closer to his age of seven than four or five. Sigh. I took him to school this morning and the reaction of teachers and students was so positive the child is absolutely glowing. I can learn to live with this. I can.