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When You Google-Chat With Your Daughter

I was downstairs, sipping a glass of wine, and pfaffing on my laptop. My twins were upstairs in their bedrooms, supposedly reading their new novels.

Then I saw in my Google window that my nine-year-old daughter Vivian (“V”) was online. This is how our conversation went down.:

Google Chat With Viv

And to think, when I was her age, my parents just had to follow the extra-long cord on the rotary-dial phone.

Any technology stories on your end?

*P.S. V wants me to assure you she typed “daRn it” and that it was the font that made it look like ‘dam it…’

Filed Under: Hilarious Family Moments

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. brendanstallard says

    November 4, 2013 at 6:43 am

    Leanne,

    Heh, having no children, (and kinda missing that I don’t,) this brought forth a touch of jealousy.

    Also, it brought forth the failure that I’d be as a parent. Spouse always says that I’d have to look after our kids while she disciplined them. This is so true, I’d be worthless at keeping them within boundaries. I’m hopelessly indulgent.

    A lovely image, thanks for sharing.

    brendan

    Reply
  2. Go Jules Go says

    November 4, 2013 at 6:48 am

    Bustid! …Busted?

    One time I babysit for this [heinous…but that’s another story] 8-year-old, who had a 16-year-old brother who was sometimes around. One day, the 16-year-old left his Instant Messenger window open on the family computer. The content of said IM:

    “Where r we meeting to smoke some green?”

    (Being a compassionate 19-year-old myself, I closed the window, muttering, “Amateur.”)

    Reply
  3. Hi, I'm Natalie. says

    November 4, 2013 at 7:00 am

    My 1yo recently changed the size of the type on my gmail page on the laptop and I have no idea how to change it back. By the time my kids are nine, I have no doubt they’ll be able to hide their online hijinks from me. SIGH.

    Reply
  4. Smplefy says

    November 4, 2013 at 7:10 am

    Careful of the indiscriminate use of child-monitoring technology. They will develop countermeasures.

    Reply
  5. Aimee says

    November 4, 2013 at 11:07 am

    I follow my son on Instagram – and love to embarrass him by “liking” his stuff…. not to mention telling him to take stuff down when I don’t like it!

    Reply
  6. text me, love mom says

    November 4, 2013 at 12:33 pm

    Hi – it’s Candace, Marriann’s friend. My son was plugging his laptop in at the Vancouver airport and followed the cord already plugged into it to the owner – my son-in-law. Both of them were travelling here for Christmas and hadn’t communicated in there ‘ busy guy way’ to realize they would be on the same flight.

    Reply
  7. mollytopia says

    November 4, 2013 at 1:15 pm

    That is hiliarious. Kids and technology are terrifying. Anna texted me from her bedroom to ask if her breakfast was ready…Um no. Feel free to snack on your ipad while you wait…

    Reply
  8. pastorlinzey says

    November 4, 2013 at 2:55 pm

    Well played 🙂

    Reply
    • pastorlinzey says

      November 4, 2013 at 2:58 pm

      I find myself impressed that my 6 yr old says things like “You can play that on a device.” My sentences at 6 were a lot different…

      Reply
  9. amarticus says

    November 5, 2013 at 7:17 am

    Darn it! hahaha so sweet that she wanted to reassure all of us she wasn’t cursing. 🙂

    Reply
  10. The Hook says

    November 6, 2013 at 2:44 pm

    As a young boy, I was always confounded by cable channels and their late-night scrambled “blue movies”.
    Kids these days have no idea how great they have it with instant access to any and all nudity there is to see….

    (And yes, Leanne, you’re welcome for my single-handedly ruining your site.)..

    Reply
  11. pegoleg says

    November 8, 2013 at 9:47 am

    I wondered about that r vs m thing. You really ARE a cool mom to even know how to Google chat.

    Reply
  12. ficscribbler says

    November 10, 2013 at 3:55 pm

    The first thing I liked about using a computer back in 2002 was that I didn’t have to leave my writing (or solitaire, which is very addictive) and climb the stairs to remind my teenage daughters about homework or chores – I could just IM them! Of course these days they favor texting to communicate. They have smart phones and can mostly speak instead of typing their texts, and they think it’s hilarious that they’ve sent me three messages before I finish replying to the first one. I can’t wait until my granddaughter’s old enough to laugh at them about tech proficiency!

    Reply
  13. masgautsen says

    November 11, 2013 at 2:33 pm

    Absolutely brilliant!

    Reply
  14. JM Randolph says

    November 15, 2013 at 6:22 am

    When they post on Instagram from school…because somehow that’s not blocked there.

    Reply
  15. ouidepuis1 says

    November 26, 2013 at 5:35 pm

    Hilarious!!

    Reply
  16. Lynn @ Nomad Mom Diary says

    February 17, 2014 at 9:59 am

    When my four year old shouted “Look it’s GOOGLE” from across the room, I knew I had lost all control. Glad to know it is still possible for us parents to get a leg up on them from time to time 😉 Here’s hoping the balance still stays in our favor five years from now when my kid is nine.

    Reply

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