8 thoughts on “Do You Still Know Your Child Online? My Family’s Story on Teen Suicide & How Our World Was Almost Destroyed”
Your post took the breath out of me. I’m so sorry for what you discovered. As a parent I put myself in your position & can’t imagine going through what you went through. What happened since then? How can you help your children when they hide from you? How do you monitor a phone you don’t know exists? I hope you’ll share more.
Blog on
Janet
“How do you monitor a phone you don’t know exists?” That’s a great question. My oldest taught me how to look at our internet service provider to see what devices are connecting to our internet. Most of our known devices are named (Example: Mom’s phone, Sister’s Phone, Brother’s laptop, etc.). But early in the year we noticed a device was connecting to our internet late at night (3 am — when “everyone” was asleep). Alarmed, we thought a neighbor was hacking into our wifi so we beefed up our security codes, etc. and notified our Internet service provider. Turns out, the device that was connecting to us, was the phone my child had. I am working on a whole series of post on this so other parents can look at these things and recognize them as red flags. I never thought for a second that one of my children would have a device I didn’t know about. It just never occurred to me to look inward when the wifi useage was brought to my attention.
As for the status of my child, said child is doing much better. We put a lot of things into place immediately; like 24 hour watch, moved said child into parents room so said child is never alone at night. We locked up all sharp/dangerous objects in the safe. We have a daily positivity goals (no depressing music, no scary tv/movies — positive influences only). Weekly therapy. There’s a lot — as I was preparing this post I noticed I needed to elaborate with future posts — I will certainly be doing that. I am thankful WebSafety helped me open the door to this discussion here on the blog.
Thanks so much for stopping by, reading, and sharing your thoughts. I hope you follow Mommy’s Playbook so you will receive update notices on Teen Suicide and how we, as parents, can recognize the signs in our otherwise “happy” children.
Thank you for writing this post and opening your heart. While we haven’t gone through as much as you, our eyes have been opened. Parenting in this day and age is different. Challenging. I often wish we could go back to simpler times. I wish you healing, peace and strength moving forward.
wow, I was shocked reading this post. I know it happens, since my now 25 year old son put me through Hell with his substance abuse issues and brushes with the law in his teen years and back then social media was not as prominent as it is today. But wow, the length she went to to create an alias really stunned me and made me realize it is possible. My 16 yr old and I talk alot about stuff like that, she went through depression in junior high but thankfully overcame it although she still does have some anxiety. Wishing your family the best, thank you for sharing this!
Wow, your post really stunned me. I’m a middle school teacher and have learned so much about the online lives kids lead….have been trying to keep a close eye on my own kids to try to avoid problems online. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
It’s s shocking topic, not many people know what life is on social media, and most people have a facade, and it will be too late when you can tell. New age brings new chilling issues
Your post took the breath out of me. I’m so sorry for what you discovered. As a parent I put myself in your position & can’t imagine going through what you went through. What happened since then? How can you help your children when they hide from you? How do you monitor a phone you don’t know exists? I hope you’ll share more.
Blog on
Janet
Hi Janet,
“How do you monitor a phone you don’t know exists?” That’s a great question. My oldest taught me how to look at our internet service provider to see what devices are connecting to our internet. Most of our known devices are named (Example: Mom’s phone, Sister’s Phone, Brother’s laptop, etc.). But early in the year we noticed a device was connecting to our internet late at night (3 am — when “everyone” was asleep). Alarmed, we thought a neighbor was hacking into our wifi so we beefed up our security codes, etc. and notified our Internet service provider. Turns out, the device that was connecting to us, was the phone my child had. I am working on a whole series of post on this so other parents can look at these things and recognize them as red flags. I never thought for a second that one of my children would have a device I didn’t know about. It just never occurred to me to look inward when the wifi useage was brought to my attention.
As for the status of my child, said child is doing much better. We put a lot of things into place immediately; like 24 hour watch, moved said child into parents room so said child is never alone at night. We locked up all sharp/dangerous objects in the safe. We have a daily positivity goals (no depressing music, no scary tv/movies — positive influences only). Weekly therapy. There’s a lot — as I was preparing this post I noticed I needed to elaborate with future posts — I will certainly be doing that. I am thankful WebSafety helped me open the door to this discussion here on the blog.
Thanks so much for stopping by, reading, and sharing your thoughts. I hope you follow Mommy’s Playbook so you will receive update notices on Teen Suicide and how we, as parents, can recognize the signs in our otherwise “happy” children.
Best,
Victoria
Thank you for writing this post and opening your heart. While we haven’t gone through as much as you, our eyes have been opened. Parenting in this day and age is different. Challenging. I often wish we could go back to simpler times. I wish you healing, peace and strength moving forward.
This is a real eye opener. It is also so sad. Thanks for having the courage to share it.
wow, I was shocked reading this post. I know it happens, since my now 25 year old son put me through Hell with his substance abuse issues and brushes with the law in his teen years and back then social media was not as prominent as it is today. But wow, the length she went to to create an alias really stunned me and made me realize it is possible. My 16 yr old and I talk alot about stuff like that, she went through depression in junior high but thankfully overcame it although she still does have some anxiety. Wishing your family the best, thank you for sharing this!
Makes me glad I never had kids.
Wow, your post really stunned me. I’m a middle school teacher and have learned so much about the online lives kids lead….have been trying to keep a close eye on my own kids to try to avoid problems online. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
It’s s shocking topic, not many people know what life is on social media, and most people have a facade, and it will be too late when you can tell. New age brings new chilling issues