After months (and months) of listening to Meredith plead her case regarding Instagram, Jeff and I finally caved and allowed her to create an account last night.
(Last week she presented us with an article (written by a mom) that mentioned all of the positives about letting your child create an Instagram account. It was a good article. In fact, it was probably the thing that nudged us into the “We’re now considering it” circle.)
Anyway, I know you don’t care about this, but I’ll throw it out there anyway.
These are the rules we created in order for our 11 7/12-year-old daughter to keep her Instagram account:
1. I will have all of her login information so that I can check the account at any time.
2. Her account is to remain privatized, meaning anyone who follows her must ask permission.
3. I have to personally approve everyone she follows as well as anyone she allows to follow her. (My eyes rolled into the back of my head this morning when I saw that one of the people who wants to follow her is a 12-year-old girl who describes herself as Sexy. Are they still injecting cows with hormones?)
4. If I detect any sort of questionable activity AT ALL from her, the account will be deleted. Similarly, if any of her followers seem to be overly dramatic (I do understand the difference between typical stupid drama and over-the-top drama) or inappropriate, they will be removed from her list of followers and blocked.
5. She will follow me, and I will follow her. I will NOT “like” any of her photos, nor will I comment on them.
6. She will read a classic novel every two months. (I know. This one is probably weird. I just want her to understand that she has to find a balance. Staring at Instagram for hours will not make anyone smarter. Reading a good book will.)
7. All homework will be completed before she’s allowed to jump on Instagram.
Within five minutes of activating her account, one of her friends requested to follow my Instagram account. I will never let anyone under the age of 20 follow me (except for my own kids), because I Am An Adult.
As of this morning, she has four followers from her new school, and this is nothing but great because meeting new people and making new friends in middle school is hard.
It’s raining, which means it’s time for hot tea and baby hats. Happy Labor Thanksgiving Day to Japan. ‘ ‘ ‘text/javascript’>