Filed by Dotsie Bregel
“Whatever you do, do not talk to kids you don’t know online.” How many times have I said these words to my children? “And whatever you do, NEVER meet someone face to face that you’ve met online.”
It totally freaks me out to think about my daughter meeting someone she’s met online at a local mall. My heart pounds and I can make myself sweat easily if I carry the thought longer than a second. So here’s my conflict.
I host a forum community and have been corresponding with some women online for over five years. One gal I met from the BoomerWomenSpeak community is my virtual assistant. She’s been a guest in our home, and is one of my dear friends. We met online!
Last week I went to Vegas and bantered about with several other women I met in my forum community. We’ve been corresponding for years and finally met face to face. It was like meeting up with a bunch of elementary school friends. We can’t stop talking about it. It was a blast.
So this is one area of parenting where I truly don’t practice what I preach. Have you met people face to face that you met online? How do you handle this topic with your children/grandchildren?
Dotsie Bregel is the founder of the National Association of Baby Boomer Women, www.nabbw.com, and Boomer Women Speak, www.boomerwomenspeak.com, a key site on all search engines for “baby boomer women.” She has been mentioned in Time magazine, the Los Angeles Times and AARP Bulletin among dozens of newspapers across the nation. She is on the editorial board of me* magazine and writes book reviews for boomer magazine. She frequently does radio interviews and has appeared on The Early Show (CBS) with Dave Price. She can be contacted at dots@boomerwomenspeak.com or 1-877-bboomer.
