Social Diva in the making

My darling Chi is becoming a little social diva.  I should've known it was coming.  Despite everything warning me of delaying the inevitable, I allowed Chi to get a FaceBook account.  It kept her from bogging my own personal page down with posts about silly games (um... at least the ones I decided not to play, but she loves).  And because every game online requires friends to progress through the levels, I've allowed her a very restricted collection of family members linked to her account.


Over the last few weeks, however, Chi has discovered the chat function, striking up conversations with her high school and college aged cousins at random.  Most humor her with sweet, non-committed replies about mundane things.  And Chi rattles off non-sensical things about her life as a third grader.  No matter how many times I've set her account to "appear offline," the darn thing keeps activating.


Then she discovered the "home page" - - the news feed of the system where folk post snippets of nothingness, observations, critique, accomplishments, and everything else.  She's engrossed in the dialogs created by the replies. She tries to figure out the coded text-speak to follow whole conversations.  And she follows links to photos and web sites blindly.

DANGER: Foggy Conditions Ahead!

Warning: Trouble is closer than it appears!

Violation: Illegal Action Sequence

Help!

I've always monitored her game selections closely.  I stay within screen view while she navigates online.  I stopped her arbitrary commenting on other people's photos.  Then she discovered how to link photos to her own profile page and comment about them.  A series of pictures of her siblings, parents, etc. appeared.  [::insert lecture about divulging too much information #256::]

On the plus side, she can get a hold of her father without Mommy-in-the-middle.  As she gets older, this gives her the freedom to pursue the relationship she hopes to have with his family.


But teaching and reteaching and teaching yet again the smart way to safely have an online presence is seemingly a never-ending task.  And she's demonstrated that though she is articulate and retains a bulk of factoids from her lessons at school, she's still a very naive and sweet young girl.  I wish I could freeze her right at this point, while she still believes the world provides limitless possibility, does not discriminate, and is full of incredible adventures.  (It does, afterall, allow me to feel - even if at a lesser degree -  the same optimism through her excitement and fascination).  And did I mention I want to throw her into her protective bubble, hire a bodyguard, or create some impenetrable arch of safety around her every move?


This morning, she was browsing the FB feed and read someone's comment to a status update.

Chi: "These people are dumb.  They can't spell. They don't know how to spell Lame-O."

Me: "How did they spell it Chi?"

Chi: "L-M-A-O"

Me: "That's 'laugh my butt off,' except the 'a' is a bad word."

Chi: "That's not very nice... Well, I guess they can spell and they're not so dumb, just mean."

Yes, my Chi, keep thinking that for a very long time

Welcome, Mommy Rachelle: you've embarked upon the Enterprise. Your destination?Parenting: the final frontier.  First stop? 'Tween years.  Next stop... unknown.