Should You Read Your Kid's Text Messages? Nope! And Here's Why... by Sheryl Gould

Who of us hasn’t read our kid’s texts? I know I have and I’ve found a lot of valuable information that I wouldn’t have discovered if I hadn’t. Reading my kid’s texts has left me feeling proud, horrified, validated and more anxious than before I started.

But I'm here to say, not so fast.

I am so passionate about this topic because I’ve experienced the damage it does to our relationships when we parent from a place of fear and anxiety. Reading my daughter’s texts didn’t protect her, or keep bad things from happening. In fact, it hurt my relationship with my daughter.

We’re a generation of parents that are overly involved in our kid’s business because we are parenting by fear. We need to know the difference between parenting by fear and being a responsible parent. Instead, let’s be proactive and stay informed, set up house rules and do the research on what it means to keep kids safe in our digital world.

If we talk to our kids, build strong relationships with them and tell them we are not judging them, we can have the important discussions. And they will be more likely to feel safe coming to us when something is wrong, or if they have made a poor decision.

Do you read your kid's text messages? Why or why not?