I never thought I was naive, but...

Since we have extended family all over the country (and the world, for that matter thanks to my globe trotting little brother! Shout out! Love ya B!) I have been asked on numerous occasions to create e-mail addresses for both of the girls. I struggled with this for a while, because, quite frankly I didn't think it was necessary. I mean, Sydney is four. She can barely spell anything other than her name, so how the hell is she going to respond to e-mails? And Olivia is 8, but really, what does she know about the Internet and e-mail and all that jazz?

Honestly, it was laziness on my part. I didn't feel like dealing with the endless responses that Sydney would surely dictate to me to type to her Bunkabee (aka my brother or "Uncle B" - our Parisian relative) that would read similar to this:

"Dear Bunkabee, I love you and you are in Paris and I have two dogs and I saw a purple butterfly today and my birthday is soon and I would like a castle. I love you and I always love you because you live in Paris".

You get the idea....

But, I went ahead and gave them both accounts and e-mailed those that live out of town with their addresses telling them not to expect to hear back from the girls immediately, because they would only be able to reply when I was with them and checked it. The girls (well, Olivia anyway) were VERY excited and we checked their e-mail for the first time to find several e-mails from family members.

Great! I'm thinking I will check it about once a week and the girls can respond to everyone. Cool, huh?

Two days later Olivia is at the computer and suddenly she gets all excited and tells me that she left a message on the Hannah Montana website message board asking Hannah/Miley to e-mail her back and....

SHE PUT HER E-MAIL ON THE MESSAGE FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE ON THIS MESSAGE BOARD THAT 10 MILLION PEOPLE LOOK AT EVERYDAY INCLUDING PROBABLY EVERY PERVERT AND PEDOPHILE IN THE UNITED STATES!!!!

Breathe Debbie, Breathe....in and out....deep breaths now.....

My heart went into my shoes and I quickly ran over to see what she had done and realized that she didn't have the "@____.com". Not that it's too hard to figure out - there are only so many ISPs, but still - I felt a little better. Then we had to have the "Internet" talk (like the "sex" talk - only for grade schoolers- HA!) and I had to scare her and tell her about how there are bad people out there and she cannot give any personal information because I don't want them to find her - and they can find her if she's not careful. I laid down the following rules:

1. No Internet or e-mailing unless I am in the room and I will see who you are e-mailing and who's e-mailing you. I don't need to read it - that's her business. If she wants to tell my brother what a horribly unfair mom I am (and no doubt she will), then she should feel free.
2. You WILL NOT give out your e-mail address to ANYONE - including your friends.
3. You WILL NOT leave your e-mail address, name, address, or any information at all - you aren't even allowed to post the last time you POOPED - on ANY message board ANY where ANY time.

And then I started thinking about it and I asked her - how on earth did you find the Hannah Montana website and that message board?

Her answer made me realize that I am SOOO out of my league and so naive when it comes to my kids sometimes......

"Well, I Googled her mommy"....the only thing missing from her answer was "DUH!"

Who the HECK taught her that?????? She'd obviously more sophisticated on the computer than I ever imagined.......

Gulp......Hang on to your hats folks! It's going to be a bumpy ride!