Moms and Dads: Are your children idiots?<\/p>\n
There is a distinct possibility. Better check your paperwork from school, see if there’s any warning notes in there.<\/p>\n
Here’s the thing. For some reason, over the last week, I’ve been the unwitting recipient of mis-dialed text messages from giddy tweens. In each case there was a series of indecipherable messages that I ignored for a while. Eventually, in each case, I finally sent back a text saying “U have the wrong number.” In each case the child did not understand the meaning of that phrase and proceeded to explain how they have the correct number, the number is (such and such) and why don’t I add them to the speed dial, etc. etc.<\/p>\n
So in each case, not being sure what I was dealing with, and thinking that maybe it was me who was wrong about this being a wrong number, I sent a text that said “Who are you?” …. and in each case I got a text back saying the person’s name, the town they live in, and the school they go to. It was like a POW giving name, rank, and serial number; “My name is Johnny and I live in Springfield and I go to the John Glenn Elementary School” or whatever.<\/p>\n
OMG. I happen to not be a child predator, but if I was, I’d be on to something with these gullible kids! What I did, instead of requesting more information so that I could easily find them and use the old “my puppy is lost” trick to lure them into the conversion van or whatever, was to text them back a message saying “I don’t know you, you don’t know me, don’t text me again.”<\/p>\n
The first kid texted me back with “ooops, sorry” and the second kid just stopped texting. I hope they both realize that they should not have given me their names and how to find them. All I wanted was a first name so I could check with my daughter to see if she knew them, or in the case of the second kid, who seemed to think initialy that I was “Johnny” and then that he was Johnny, I just needed to establish a baseline in reality of some sort.<\/p>\n
Parents and guardians: Give your kids the basics. Tell them what to not tell other people, what information to not give to web sites, what to not text to those they don’t know as well as those they know. And tell them about the puppy trick, just in case.<\/p>\n
Because, even if your particular kid is not an idiot (and I’m sure your kid is a perfect genius) any kid can be an idiot any time. Temporary idiocy can strike without warning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moms and Dads: Are your children idiots? There is a distinct possibility. Better check your paperwork from school, see if there’s any warning notes in there. Here’s the thing. For some reason, over the last week, I’ve been the unwitting recipient of mis-dialed text messages from giddy tweens. In each case there was a series … Continue reading Dangerous Teenage Texting<\/span>