Now that we get news, mostly bad, from every direction, there seems to be more to worry about. Though things are really not much different than they were before, we now know more about things that happen, and most of them are bad. That leads us to be a bit overly protective of our children, and may make us be a bit unreasonable. I know I am guilty of that, and my daughter is only six years old. If you have a teenager, you may think a lot about teen privacy and wonder if you are stepping over the line. Even worse, you may feel totally justified in doing so.
The thing about teenagers is that they want to be trusted. Some know they are doing wrong, but they want to make their own choices. Your children do have to show you that they can be trustworthy, and that they do deserve their teen privacy, but there is always a line there somewhere. If you have a child making good grades, seems to have good friends, and has never given you a reason to doubt them, going through their diary is not a good idea. Teen privacy means a lot to them, and they wont trust you if you do that to them without cause.
On the other hand, if your child has bad grades when you know they can do better, wont introduce you to his or her friends, and has already been in some trouble, you have to do what you can to protect them and try to move them on the right path. This is when teen privacy issues are a bit blurred. They have already proven, in a way, that they are not ready to make big choices on their own, and that they have made some very bad ones in the past. Going through the diary is still not a good idea, but you can do more to check up on them if this is the case in your home.
There are some things you can do that give your children the teen privacy that they want without totally ignoring what is going on. You should always have a good dialog with them about anything and everything that is going on in their lives. If you dont talk with them and show them that they can tell you just about anything, they are going to start hiding mistakes that they make. You can and should keep an eye on any online places like MySpace or FaceBook. You can get a good idea of what is going on without digging too deep through their teen privacy. If they leave it online, it is totally and completely fair game.
2:54 AM