Kat's Arbitrary Thought Processes

Was anyone else as disturbed by the CSI Vegas episode named “Burn Out” that aired last Thursday (I just got around to watching it last night) as I was??

I mean, the whole ped – o – file (spelled that way so as to not attract yukkies from a google search) story line completely creeped me out, and made me quadruply glad I’ve done what I can to remove my children’s names from my layout & photo galleries and from the web. I have created several false names that I use for my children now, as far as internet goes, even gone so far as to re-do a bunch of old layouts with the new names. Now I know that at my children’s current age, a true threat would more likely come from their surroundings, but still… call me paranoid if you wish, but I want to do what I can to keep my kids safe.

That said, what creeped me out more than then the calm way the bad guy on the show last night just listed through all the other suspected bad guys proclivities, was when he acknowledged that kids today get less the 20 minutes quality time with their parents, and how this kid searched him out, looking for a daddy.

That should be a slap in the face to all parents! Get involved! Take time to be a part of your kids’ lives. Kids don’t have privacy, just the illusion of it. My mom read my diary, and snooped around. If she hadn’t, I must likely would have committed suicide around age 16. I was so depressed at that point, I even made out a will & testament, declaring which sister got what of my toys, and what I wanted done with my money and my room. Yea. It was bad. But my mom snooped (although she didn’t tell me she did until years later), she would magically show up in my room, and seem to know what to say to get me talking. Before long, I didn’t feel quite so much like offing myself.

Then DH found this article on LifeHacker, which led me to this article by Cool Cat Teacher. Vickie Davis lays out some very sound advice to those of us with kids. My fav was to get yourself a MySpace profile, and make sure you are added to your child’s profile as a friend.  Make sure you know where your kid is going online, and make sure you are tuned into your kid’s emotions.

So get out there and get involved with your kids.  You won’t be sorry.