By Marla Jo Fisher
The Orange County Register
Have you noticed a ghostly green glow from your child's room late at night?
I really had no idea how many kids were up using their computers in the middle of the night, at least until I was up myself, reading and approving their comments on my video game post.
Parents, what are you thinking? Do you know your kid is on the computer at 4 a.m.?
Wondering why you need an air horn to wake your teenager in the morning? Gee, maybe that's why.
It's time to put a password on that computer that only you know. That way, when it gets turned off at night, only Bill Gates can get into it.
But, then, I guess there are a lot of parents in the world who just don't care, or who feel helpless to control their kids' addiction to electronics.
In our house, the computer is in the living room, where Mom can see everything that goes on.
And it's password protected. Since I'm a single mom with two kids, no one goes on the computer in my house without my password. The kids are allowed to use the computer, as long as I know what they're doing.
I even have a password on the TV so the kids don't come home when I'm not here and zone out on the Disney Channel when they should be doing their homework or playing outside.
Even more shocking, our family's cellphones get left in the living room, turned off, at bedtime. Can you imagine? No texting from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.? I guess I should be arrested for child cruelty.
Some of the middle-of-the-night kids usage last night was different time zones, I was getting replies from 15-year-old kids in Australia, but there were an awful lot of kids reading gaming sites and replying too, in long diatribes, when they should have been getting the sleep that is crucial to teenagers.
If you're a kid, and you're reading this in the middle of the night, Frumpy Mom says: Go to bed!
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Marla Jo Fisher was a workaholic before she adopted two foster kids several years ago. Now she juggles work and single parenting, while being exhorted from everywhere to be thinner, smarter, sexier, healthier, more frugal, a better mom, better dressed and a tidier housekeeper. Contact her at mfisherocregister.com. Read her blog at http://themomblog.freedomblogging.com/category/frumpy-middleaged-mom-ma rla-jo-fisher/.