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Teens need their privacy
I was helping my 14-year-old daughter to get her sheets on her bed in the few minutes before a friend came over to visit.
I picked up a piece of paper that was stuck between mattress and headboard, that looked like it could be trash, but to be sure, I glanced at its contents.
BIG MISTAKE.
This set off a firestorm of protest. Paper snatched from my hand, quickly wadded and thrown away. Defiant glare.
Truthfully, I didn’t have time to process the contents, and caught only one name, which I am now sworn by the bonds of motherhood never to reveal, for fear of losing all connection to my child forevermore.
This note was a note to herself, she later explained, in which she essentially was reinventing herself and saying what she might be like if she could be someone else and who she might pretend to have as a boyfriend. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it’s her story and she’s sticking to it.
I did not mean to invade my daughter’s privacy. But this incident did remind me how powerfully teens react to the mere perception of a privacy invasion, even when there is nothing at all to hide. What’s interesting to me, though, is that Beth will tell me who she’s on IM with. She’ll even tell me about the contents of her conversations sometimes.
What’s the dif? “Well, that’s a safety issue, Mom,” she says. “I know you’re just trying to keep me safe.”
Well, amen to that.
Gretchen Day-Bryant has a son in high school and a daughter in middle school. She’s lived to tell about the struggles of juggling little kids and work...
Joy Oglesby has an infant daughter and a sister 13 years her junior, whom she babies to the now-adult...
Cindy Kent Fort Lauderdale mother of three. Her kids span in ages from teenager to 20s...
Rafael Olmeda and his wife welcomed their first son in Feb. 2009, and he's helping raise two teenage stepdaughters...
Lois Solomon lives in Boca Raton with her husband and three daughters...
Anne Vasquez is the Online Editor in charge of overseeing SunSentinel.com. She is the mother of a 5-year-old boy and a newborn daughter.
Georgia East is the parent of a five-year-old girl, who came into the world weighing 1 pound, 13 ounces...
Brittany Wallman is the mother of Creed, 13, and Lily, 6, and is married...
Chris Tiedje is the Social Media Coordinator, and father of two boys and a girl all under the age of seven.
Comments
I loved the post! I, definitely agreed that teens need privacy or more often than not they do really want privacy all the time. That is why the parents need to build a good relationship with their teens because that is the only way they will know if their teens are hiding something from them.
Posted by: troubled teen program | June 10, 2008 10:16 AM
It is helpful to provide privacy in some activities and it should not exceed more than that, providing some privacy to teens make them individually take some decisions, which improves their confidence levels.
http://www.troubledteensguide.com/
Posted by: troubled teens | February 7, 2009 12:35 AM
Troubled teens school is a place where depressed and unmotivated children come with a hope to overcome their worries. Addiction habit, stealing habit and all other bad mannered things can be improved in this school.
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Posted by: teensschool | February 17, 2009 1:11 AM
Yes, it will better to provide privacy to teens as every body needed. The teens privacy will help them to get relax and make some decision by their own. This practice helps them to motivate and take active part in some filed of activities.
http://www.strugglingteen.net/
Posted by: struggling teens | February 25, 2009 12:18 AM
Yes, it will better to provide privacy to teens as every body needed. The teens privacy will help them to get relax and make some decision by their own. This practice helps them to motivate and take active part in some filed of activities.
http://www.strugglingteen.net/
Posted by: struggling teens | February 25, 2009 12:19 AM
Teens wilderness programs are specially design to help troubled and defiant teens. It helps them to overcome from their behavioral and emotional problems. There are many well educated trainers to offer outstanding teaching and training programs to the students.
http://www.restoreteens.com/
Posted by: troubled teens | June 15, 2009 6:28 AM