Ultimate Spy – A New Reality Show?
I was talking a while ago about Chaperone,the new cell-phone-with-GPS unit that allows parents to know where their kids are. Miriam flicked the spy-phone challenge off her sleeve and noted a really fine parental spy technique – communicating:
As a formerly bad girl, this cell-phone-as-tracking-device strikes me as almost embarrassingly easy to foil. Leave the cell phone where you are supposed to be and go somewhere else. How does Mom know you’re ditching school if your phone is in your locker?
However, I am not against less asinine forms of spying on young teenagers. Asking them how their day was is a great technique. Actually listening to the answer is even better, since thirteen-year-olds tend to be horrible liars.
No amount of technology can subsitute for actual parental involvement. Too often, parents focus on the material things that they can provide for their children and end up working so much that they never see them. 40 hours per week is plenty, and it’s all that most of us are paid for anyway (if we’re on salary). I’m not talking about intense, stay-at-home mommy stuff; getting home at 5pm is plenty. And for most of us, it is financially feasible. Just say no to expensive sneakers, and eat dinner together every night. It worked for us.
-Miriam
The conversation’s at Chaperone.
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Miriam’s comment is so beautifully made. Humans will always find their way around technology that is intended to control them. What they can’t get around is the need for the old “triple A"–access, attention, approval. Thanks to Miriam for the wonderfully articulate comment.