I used to be a Facebook junkie. I am one of those moms who never wanted my daughter on a social network like MySpace. I was worried about stalkers, and, after watching Dateline, had the most horrendous pictures in my head as to what might happen to my extremely beautiful daughter.

Then, it happened. I caved. Not to my daughter but to my friends. More and more, the adult community was using Facebook. My friends were saying things like, “Oh Susan, you are so old fashioned. It is so safe.” “You join and get to keep an eye on what your daughter is doing.” “If you set her privacy settings, only people she ‘friends’ will be able to see her page.” Oh, all right, already! I will let her have a Facebook page and I will get one, too. She had already been grounded twice for having a MySpace page. I might as well get on the social networking train with her.

It was Christmas time, and we were on our break. We both set up our accounts. Since she was 14 and had a paranoid mother, she agreed to let me have her password. Otherwise, all bets were off. I had to be able to make sure this was a safe move, and I was prepared to intervene if I needed to.

I sat in amazement as she showed me how to set up my account. She showed me how to download and share pictures, how to find friends and suggest friends and invite friends. I looked at her and said, “You’ve had some practice, huh?”

Her response was, “Mom, everyone really is doing it.” I could only laugh because she was right. It was because of my adult friends and family that I had finally given into the Facebook mania.

Okay, so now I am set. Although, since she helped me set my account up, she accidentally put her birth year in. I can’t wait until July when I finally turn 18 in the eyes of Facebook. The irony is that she turned 18 in March. Good grief! She and I tried to change the date, but whatever she did, it could not be undone. It became one of our ongoing jokes. She now teases about being older than me.



