I admittedly was a potty mouth in high school. I guess I thought it made me cool. I was one of those girls who called their friends the B word in a “loving” way. I would throw around the F bomb like an idiot. I realize now it didn’t make me cool but instead the trashy potty mouth girl. Now my mom is going to be shocked to hear this. I remember the first time I said damn around her… she wanted to ground me for two weeks. I think I was 17. If my mom would have heard me talk like that out in public, she would have locked me in my room for a long time. But my mom had no way of knowing since I never talked like that in front of her.

I realize that some kids these days also have potty mouths. But the difference is, they don’t hide it. They put it right on social media. Which brings me to the question: should children be on social media? I say yes if they meet the platform’s age requirements AND their PARENTS DO THEIR JOB and monitor their social media pages!  I am amazed by the stuff I see teenagers post on Facebook, but am more amazed by the fact that their parents do nothing or let it go on for hours on end.

My 14-year-old daughter has a Facebook page. She is required (by me) to be friends with me, my boyfriend, my best friends, her grandma and her dad. That way we can all watch the communication on her page. I also sign in to her account on a regular basis so I can check her messages. I am confident that if there was an inappropriate post on her page, it would be caught within 15 minutes. And since I know her password, I could delete it immediately.

So today I couldn’t help but notice on Facebook the four teenage girls who tore each other apart over several hours. They called each other every inappropriate name you can think of, including whore, B and mother F’er, and threatened to physically harm one another. I noticed that the posts were removed in the evening but it was up for hours. Last month I noticed that a 10th grade boy wrote on his page “Parents told me to do my homework. I told them to F### off,”                                                                                                                   except he didn’t use pound signs. That post is still there.

I don’t claim to be a perfect parent. In fact, I know I’m not. But If I ever saw posts like this on my daughter’s page, not only would the post be deleted but so would her account. We have to hold our kids accountable. Don’t let them get away with being the trashy potty mouth. Unlike our parents, you can actually stop it… at least on social media.

Do you monitor your child’s social media activity? Have you ever had to delete a post or give a warning? How do you handle it?

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