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September 19, 2007

Teen Tracking or Teen Talking?

I suppose it's never too early to think about teen issues when you have children.

My parenting style is mainly based on the ideas of attachment parenting. I really think that a strong parent-child bond, and a relationship based on respect and nurturing helps in child social development and goes a long way in setting the stage for your relationship with your child into the teen years and beyond.

Brickhouse Security apparently does not share this view. They are marketing a number of test kits and devices aimed at monitoring, spying on, and otherwise infringing the Constitutional rights of your teen. Did you have any idea there was such a thing as a semen detection kit?

Here it is:

Talk about invading someone's privacy. I agree that a parent's job is to set limits and to enforce boundaries, and all that, but my attitude is generally that you give your kid the tools to make good decisions, and then their job is to learn through trial and error how to make their own decisions. I realize that this might involve sex, drugs, and/or rock and roll. If I haven't raised a smart, independent, responsible kid, I'm not sure how monitoring her cell phone calls is going to do anything but piss her off.

I don't think that kids have the same absolute rights as adults, especially when still living under their parents' roof, but at the same time I'm not really sure that superspy-level monitoring and tracking and drug testing is really a relationship builder. There's something to be said for demonstrating respect and trust, and if your kid is already so far gone that these things really seem necessary, well, maybe it's a job for the local authorities.

But ask me again when the Bug is sixteen...

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