I helped my granddaughter complete some work for school that required her to be on the internet. It absolutely amazed me how much information was available to her and how helpful these search engines are in research. On the other extreme, I cannot imagine how I would parent with all of the negative issues of social media. This post by Jeff and Wendy Henderson is excellent:
“Parenting is much like a pendulum. The tighter you pull back on the pendulum the faster it pulls away when you ultimately release it.
The aim of parenting is releasing our kids into the world, prepared and ready. It’s why we should slowly but consistently release the pendulum throughout the teenage years. In the early years, pulling tightly on the pendulum makes perfect sense. This is the season of car seats. But before you know it, the one in the car seat will literally be in the driver’s seat driving away.
If we still treat them like they are in the car seat when they are teenagers, they will drive away unprepared to make decisions as an adult.”