Ah that loveable rascal So and So

I can remember as a kid trying out the argument well so and so’s parents let her/him do it. It didn’t go over very well or at all. My parents weren’t going to budge no matter how many children had their parents’ permission or that had told me that they had their parents’ permission, I was not going to. That’s it, end of story. And I thought that when I was a parent, I wasn’t going to do that to my child.

Now that I am a parent, I do get the so and so argument from my daughter. And I shut it down probably just as fast as my parents did to me. There are some things I have let her do because I didn’t know she was interested in them until she informed me along with the so and so argument. Those I do allow her to do but also inform her that the so and so argument is not the way to go about getting permission.

Recently there has been some talk about the Internet and playing on the computer. She earns time to use electronics by reading up to a certain amount each day. I have talk about her a lot on the Internet but I am very careful where I let her on the Internet. Until recently this was one of those non-issues but with her reading becoming so much stronger and some of her little friends starting to do games that are interactive with other computers, this is starting to become an issue that we are going to have to sort out.

She loved going on the Hasbro “My Little Pony” site. She would play the games and print out ponies to draw. That along with Nick and Disney were the only sites she wanted to go to. I controlled where she went on these sites and kept her off any social network aspects of them. All passwords and e-mail went to my mailbox or Peter’s. Caroline does not have an e-mail nor will she in the near future. She doesn’t need one.

The other day she went onto the site that she has been visiting for a number of years to play the My Little Pony birthday game only to find that it didn’t exist anymore. She informed me that she couldn’t find any games on the site and asked me to look at it. I did and followed the links to a new site set up for the new Hub channel (formerly the Discovery Kids Channel) and the game she wanted to play was still not there. In place of it was one of these immersion games that are rather popular these days. You create a pony and then let it interact with the other ponies that people have created. I said no. I do not let her play those sorts of games at this time. Maybe when she is older but right now it is a very clear no. She sulked a bit but went onto something else after a while that I would let her do.

The next day I got the so and so’s parents let her play the new My Little Pony game and she says that it is fun and safe. I said that is fine for so and so but not for Caroline. She pushed the issue a bit and then a bit more but stopped when she got to the countdown. We had some sulking and then she wandered off and played with Fig for a while. She then pulled out her my little ponies and had an adventure with them and some of her littlest pet shop characters on the kitchen floor with Fig bouncing in and out of the play area. I much prefer her doing that than playing online on a site that I can’t control what happens to her.

I know eventually she will be on the Internet without me to guide her. I hope that I can teach her what she needs to know to be safe there.

I am grateful to my parents teaching me boundaries so I can teach my daughter about them.