I am an assistant principal in a middle school (grades 6-8). When I have to search a student's cell phone, I often get sick to my stomach at what I find. It gets worse and worse every year.
I’ve seen the Facebook posts and watched the Instagram stories about trafficking attempts and kidnapping and grooming. The only difference is that this happened at our HOME.
An all-over itch had one mommy-to-be scratching to the point of bleeding during her third trimester. She took to Facebook and today she's so glad she did.
"Our children and grandchildren are growing up in a child-oriented culture. It’s a culture that caters to kids. A culture that says your job as a parent is to make sure your child is always happy."
This is how it is with big kids: the older our children get, the more the things they need comforting from are not things we can do much about. When they don't have friends, we can't set up playdates for them. When they don't understand their homework, we usually don't understand it enough to help them, either. When someone breaks their heart, we can't (and shouldn't) go try to talk them into loving our baby again.
