Something New, #126

The Little One was spending the night with her BFF, The Little One II. They had played together all day, so she didn't have any of her personal belongings with her, so I ran her things over to her, including Blankie.

She has had Blankie since birth. Blankie used to be pink on one side, white with rosebuds on the other, and had a ruffle around the edge.

After almost eight years of being dragged around, Blankie is sort of grayish-pink, and where the ruffle was, is now fringe. I've given up trying to mend it to restore it to its original state, and just zig-zag stitch the holes closed now.

Interestingly enough, Blankie is a girl. As in, "Mommy, I'm spending the night and left Blankie at home. Can you bring her?"

So when I dropped Blankie and the rest of her things off at her BFF's they were on the computer playing a game that turned out to be Speed Dating. It appeared to me at first glance that they were having a live chat with someone else.

I'm very liberal with computer and television privileges, but you gotta draw the line somewhere on what is appropriate and what is not.

Online speed dating for eight year olds did not make the "appropriate" list in my book.

Turns out, it wasn't live after all, but the content was a bit suggestive. "Hey baby, let's have a drink," is a bit much for second graders, I think.

So The Little One and The Little One II's mother and I finally figured out they had clicked on a pop-up while playing something else. We gave them a talk on when to ask if it's OK to play a game if they weren't sure and I hope they got it.

I went home and tried figure out the parental control on my computer. I set it up, then after having it in place for about 15 minutes, realized it was more trouble than it was worth. I do keep the computer in the family room, so I figure I'll just keep a closer eye on them, and step up the pop-up blocker.