What We Have Here
When my sister was a teen-ager, she had a bit of a stalker. I was at university at the time so I missed the exact details, but I think it was more of an annoying clueless guy kind of thing than a possible police involvement thing. Years later when my sister and I were both home from university, we were sitting around drinking and talking with my parents and my dad proudly told a story about the last time the guy called for my sister and my dad said "She doesn't want to talk to you. Why don't you just fuck right off?" Which was great, except somehow my sister figured out that he'd been talking to the wrong guy.
Oops.
Fast-forward to the present, when my daughter has just gotten an iphone and we're all on the cloud so sometimes I start getting my kids' texts forwarded to my phone - texts sent TO them as well as texts they send. So a few days ago some guy starts sending Eve "hot or nots" - I'm not linking to it because I find it kind of loathesome, but it's some kind of attractiveness-rating website. Eve tried to politely tell the guy he must have the wrong number, and he texted "fine, kill yourself."
This didn't overly upset Eve - she told him it was the wrong number and he should chill. It made me see red, though, smacking of the very worst kind of male entitlement that makes me want to quit the world or start nad-punching. I was still fuming over it today when my phone buzzed, and I picked it up, and it was a text sent to Eve with a number but no name, saying "hi. I know where you live."
I texted back "I know where I live too. Lose this number, asshole." Did this punk really think he was going to screw with my daughter and not face consequences? I was reviewing my next move, from blocking the number to texting back a furious diatribe, when another text came back: "? why you so mad?"
Crap. I texted back asking who this was and explaining that I was Eve's mother and I thought this was another harassing text. A while later, after school dismissal, a text came from the same number: "Hi Mom, this is Eve and you just called my friend A. an asshole."
Ooooooops.
Oops.
Fast-forward to the present, when my daughter has just gotten an iphone and we're all on the cloud so sometimes I start getting my kids' texts forwarded to my phone - texts sent TO them as well as texts they send. So a few days ago some guy starts sending Eve "hot or nots" - I'm not linking to it because I find it kind of loathesome, but it's some kind of attractiveness-rating website. Eve tried to politely tell the guy he must have the wrong number, and he texted "fine, kill yourself."
This didn't overly upset Eve - she told him it was the wrong number and he should chill. It made me see red, though, smacking of the very worst kind of male entitlement that makes me want to quit the world or start nad-punching. I was still fuming over it today when my phone buzzed, and I picked it up, and it was a text sent to Eve with a number but no name, saying "hi. I know where you live."
I texted back "I know where I live too. Lose this number, asshole." Did this punk really think he was going to screw with my daughter and not face consequences? I was reviewing my next move, from blocking the number to texting back a furious diatribe, when another text came back: "? why you so mad?"
Crap. I texted back asking who this was and explaining that I was Eve's mother and I thought this was another harassing text. A while later, after school dismissal, a text came from the same number: "Hi Mom, this is Eve and you just called my friend A. an asshole."
Ooooooops.
Comments
Also, my daughter's phone and mine were linked and it was annoying so I turned that off but I'm starting to see the benefits of turning it back on.
Except then I can't sext her dad. (Not that I do, but IF I WANTED TO.)
Yet another in the long list of things I admire parents for handling.