Techno-challenged

I admit it, I am techno-challenged! My kids can run circles around me when it comes to knowing how to work a cell phone, computer, game systems, even the VCR. Creating this blog has been a major miracle and I am very proud of myself!

We finally let the older kids get a "facebook" page, and we let Jessie get a Webkinz. We have really avoided all this on line "stuff" due to the fact that there are so many predators out there. We know the kids have been taught about on line predators and cyber bullies, but our thoughts were always, "Why take a chance?" You hear on the new almost weekly about another young girl who has run off with some freaky guy she met on the internet. They are so manipulating and cunning that they can convince kids they are ok when they are perverts. Not to mention that with "social internet sites" that you can't always monitor what comes in and is written on their spaces. Since I don't understand how the computer is even hooked up, I just ahven't been able to wrap my mind around all this techno stuff and had, in the past, thought that to avoid it all is the best route. Until this week.

Mike and I relented and let Grace do "FaceBook" and then let Sam create on, too. We guaranteed them that we will be regularly checking, don't let anyone elses friends join your circle unless you KNOW that person, don't write anything that you would be ashamed of or would be dishonoring to the Lord, etc. Within a day the kids had "umteen" kids join their "friends" network. Oy! Then we let Jessie do Webkinz, an online virtual pet where you can create a house, play games, and talk...very restricted...to other Webkinz on line. It has major blockings and monitors. But, we have family friends that have Webkinz and when they are all on line together they can play and visit. Interestingly enough, we just heard a segment on Focus on the Family all about parents and kids and all the internet stuff and techno gadgets. There is a book called, Plugged In and Tuned Out by Vicky Courtney, and it is designed for the unsavvy techno parents-like me. It's on sale at the bookstore and I plan to get it this weekend to not only educate me but to give me more confidence in parenting kids that know more about stuff than I do.

On that note, I need to get cleaned up and take Jessie to a friend's house. We are on fall break and she had been sick on the couch for two days. She is feeling much better although there is residual stuffiness and throat crud going on.