Tell Me When

I'm really bad at reading details. I'm a skimmer and that's burned me more than a few times in my life. Last week I was suppose to post on Stalking Prevention for the Tell Me When Blog Hop, to celebrate Stina Lindenblatt's new book. But I thought I was suppose to today, because today is when her book comes out.

So, better late than never:

When I was a teenager, we used to drive by the boys houses that we liked. We'd wonder if they were home, freak out if we saw them, and behave like giggly teenage girls, and then something happened that made me stop doing that. I saw a boy drive by my house. It was kind of creepy, and I realized what I was doing was just as creepy.

Although I suspect kids don't drive by each other's houses anymore, now they do it virtually.

Now I'm a parent of a girl who is about to be a teenager, which is scary as hell, especially when it comes to an online presence. I make sure I keep careful tabs on her facebook account. My kids are not allowed to have facebook unless I know they're passwords.

As parents it's our responsibility to monitor what our kids are doing online. Kids will always take risks. Studies reveal that 46% of teens surveyed would change their online behaviour if they knew their parents paid attention.

If you don't keep track of what's happening of your child's cyber life then you open them up to all kids of problems. Make sure nothing personal about them is posted, no school names, town they live in, email addresses.

In this day and age, parents need to be vigilant.

Make sure you check out Stina's book, Tell Me When, a NA story about a college freshman who struggles with the aftermath of being stalked and kidnapped during her senior year of high school.  

Happy New Year

Every time I say that, I think of Frosty the Snowman when he gets his magical hat put back on his head after being frozen or melted. And that's what I feel liked 2013 was for me. I was either frozen or melting on the floor.

It was a struggle, I won't go into details, but it was a year of working more, and doing everything else less. Then my oldest left for college and I realized everything happens really fast. Within six years all of my kids will be done high school, and I could have an empty nest. So I don't want to miss a thing. I will go to every basketball game, volleyball game, band concert, piano recital I can, but mostly basketball games. When your kids are young you can't see the light at the end of tunnel, but now that light is coming way too fast.

So that is my New Year's Resolution. Spend more quality time with my family.

Also to be a morning person so I can get more stuff done so I can spend time with my family, which will be much more difficult.

How about you? Any resolutions this year?