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One day while chatting to a fellow friend at South Beach, I was approached by a male Whyvillian. "Hey baby" he remarked, "Do you think I'm as hot as you are?" At first, I thought that this little boy was adorable. His approach was cute and hilarious and I was thinking that we could become friends. So I conjured the witty reply "I'm so hot that you should call the fire department!" Mild flirting but still quite casual. In real life if a man were to say to me what this boy said, my remark would be the same. This boy had a witty response to my wittiness as he said "Girl, you are on fire! Can I eat your donuts?" Ugh, what a disgusting little menace had had turned out to be! He was absolutely right, I WAS on fire -- with rage. I was furious that this boy would talk to me in this way. 'Donuts' was merely a clever synonym for my breasts. I was shocked that after one minute of talking to me, he would ask me such an explicit question.
I had to take a deep breath and remind myself that this was only virtual. What a nasty and sudden remark! The incident was burned into my mind, a forever phrase that I could not erase. I decided to take immediate action by 911 Reporting him for speaking sexual references. I was happy the next day to see that the boy had been taped and lost his chatting privileges. He had never spoke to me again but I wanted to make sure he had learned his lesson. "I am a parent and I felt that your comment was truly explicit. I really doubt that someone at your age is allowed to say such inappropriate phrases. What if you were to say this to your female relative? Or even a friend? How would they react? I am sure that their reaction would be just as negative as mine was. Please do not repeat such disgusting to the members of this respected website." He replied saying "Ew . . . you're a mom? Haha too bad, because you still cannot stop me". I decided to leave this stupid child alone. Since when was it 'ew' to be a mother?
I am a 36 year old single parent struggling to raise my preteen children. I have a son and a daughter, Evan and Rachel, aged 9 and 12. Rachel has reached the age that she believes that in order for her life to be perfect, she must have a boyfriend. However, I completely disagree. I have self-respect. I have good intentions for myself and my children. I immensely protected my kids from any online dangers they may face. I heard about Whyville from a magazine and when I heard that the website was centered around education and science, I immediately encouraged my children (at the time 8 and 11) to join. I also joined the website. I myself majored in Science and I wanted to instil my hobbies upon my children in a fun way. Whyville seemed perfect! I am a very concerned person and only want the best for my children. During my pregnancy I faced several struggles in order to have the wonderful children that I have today. They are the joy of my life and my reason for living. I wanted to protect them from the cruel villains that lurk online. I educated my children about these enemies and told them never to share personal information online. Your basic internet do's and don'ts lecture.
Hey, I was young once too. I know that children lie to their parents. When my children signed up for Whyville they used my email as their parental email. While they were at school I would sign into their account (as you know, passwords are emailed to the parents!) and check the ymails that they received. Nothing concerned me at first. Just other friendly children saying a 'hello' to my kids and talking about TV. I worked for several years to establish a trust between my kids and I was not about to break it now. Everyday for three months, this secretly became my daily routine. Then one day I was shocked to see a ymail that read "What an awesome date. Girl, can't wait to talk again" from a boy, addressed to my daughter. My 11 year old daughter was dating boys online? The thought scared me. I taught my children moral values and safety rules of the internet but I never thought to teach them that online dating was wrong.
When they arrived home from school, we had a family meeting. I taught them the wrongs of online dating and told them that it was a big NO! These relationships are false and there are no emotional attachments involved. Having virtual sex is completely out of the question because I do not want to expose such mature concepts to my young children. Virtual pregnancy is sheer stupidity and so are Whybabies. I am a suitable parent for my children and they do not need to do such meaningless and disgusting things on Whyville. My children became aware that this was wrong. The next day while checking my kids' ymails and accounts, I noticed that my daughter had rejected the boy and the boy sent her an angry reply. "What's with you, chick? First you say I'm cool but then you don't want to date me!" I had the widest smile on my face, that stretched from ear to ear. My daughter had actually listened to what I said.
It was only a few years ago when my daughter played with doll. I brought her countless Barbie dolls and accessories, and Toys R'Us became her favourite store. I reminise the days of her and her friends pretended to be parents, have babies (which were dolls), and play house. I thought it was adorable that they tried to imitate real life and parenthood. It is what every little girl does, including myself. I liked to emulate my mother because she was such a good role model for me. I want to have the same influence on my kids. But there is a fine line between imitating parenthood in childhood and in the virtual world. In the real world I had a watchful eye on my children and I knew that their role-play was harmless. On web sites not only do predators lurk online, but immature kids do too. Web sites don't always educate children on positive things, but negative things as well.
Much like yourselves, I am an avid reader of the Whyville Times. I am aware that several members Whydate. However my parent senses began tingling after reading the Whydating articles in the past two weeks of the Whyville Times. The writers made some excellent points and the BBS were full of comments. I still wonder though, do these articles really have a influence? I noticed that since I joined Whyville, the Whydating problem has increased severely. The site staff sees this as harmless fun and I somewhat agree. I want my kids to have friends on websites because you can meet some very interesting people. But I do not want them to Whydate. When my kids date somebody I would like to meet them and know what kind of person they are. Online if I speak to a child, they could be chameleons. Nice to me but filthy to my children. I don't know whether or not City Workers have kids but I do know that all parents have different values. They may feel that it is okay for their kids to date on a site that they run.
To be honest, I know that I am not the coolest parent. Most parents usually aren't. Nonetheless, show your parents and yourself some respect. Do you have any idea the effort that went to raising you? Feeding kids, changing diapers, it is all such a hassle. We as parents do these things for a reason. We want our children to grow up and have good lives. We want them to take the correct paths when met with difficult situations. They decide which path to take based on the years we parents spent teaching them moral values. Face it kids, you owe us parents a lot. When I signed my kids' Parental Permission form to allow them to chat, I knew I made a good decision because I was aware that Whyville was a safe and fun learning environment. Why does that have to change?
holiday50
Author's Note: Remember I'm not really a parent
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