Parenting and Facebook

Jakes is old enough to have a Facebook account.  He won't be my friend.  But I have enough friends who ARE friends with him that are helping to keep him in line and report back to me anything that I might need to know about. Thanks, Suzanne and Gmom!  You're the best!

Anyway, I found out that he was playing some of the Facebook games, the games where you have to accept friend requests from total strangers in order to advance in the game.  OH NO!  That just doesn't sit right with me.

So the other day, I spoke with Jakes about the situation and explained my fears.  I wanted to talk with him as an adult.  He complains that I am too protective (I am!) so I am trying to back off and talk to him as I would an adult about certain things.  I asked him to change his privacy settings so that he wouldn't get requests from strangers in the games section.  I could feel his resistance, even over the phone.  I could feel him getting more and more resistant to everything I was saying.

As I was explaining my fears to him, he just FLIPPED out.  He yelled at me and bad mouthed me.  I tried to be calm and collected. I  tried to calm him down. I finally told him that if he didn't change his settings, I would involve his father in this. That set him off even more.  I ended up hanging up on him and walking away from him.

10 minutes or so later, I rec'd a text from his father that he had addressed the Facebook issue.  Apparently, he was home and hear Jakes flip out and investigated.  When Jakes was allowed to have a Facebook account, rules were established and agreed upon by Jakes and his father.  Jakes was breaking those rules.

I didn't know about those rules, I was just acting on my motherly protective instincts.  Fortunately, his father is on the same page as I am.

But I haven't heard from Jakes since the incident.  I did text him that he shouldn't be angry with me, I didn't tell his father, he did by yelling.  

I'm sure I'll hear from him soon.  He wants to go to the farm this weekend.