Today’s been incredibly challenging for a number of reasons, and I’m pretty stressed out as a result. Truthfully, I’d be stressed out anyway but whatever.
Mr. Gavin is struggling a bit right now. Who am I kidding? He’s struggling a great deal right now, and it’s taking a toll. Is there a nice way to say he’s driving me fucking crazy?
One of the more recent issues is that Gavin has been cursing rather openly. I get that he’s almost 20 years old, but the reality is that he’s maybe 5 or 6 years old on the inside. It’s like having a kindergartener dropping f-bombs and other words that he shouldn’t be saying. I think in most cases he’s parroting stuff from YouTube and we’ve tried to address this but have been largely unsuccessful for a number of reasons.
I should also say that while Lizze and I aren’t perfect, we do make it a point not to swear in from of the kids. We of course have slipped up from time to time but we do our best.
Trying to find a decent app that sort of locks down and limits what he can do on his tablet has been frustrating.
It’s also tough because if you look at him, he’s a grown man on the outside, with a freaking beard and trying to limit him in certain areas feels wrong. It’s hard to explain. At the same time, realistically he’s just a kid, and we have to always keep that in mind. Honestly, it really is a difficult situation.
Today Lizze and I decided to physically remove YouTube from his tablet and replace it with YouTube Kids. He wasn’t happy about this at first, but at this point in time, I don’t really care.
Gavin has very little concept of what is and is not appropriate. He thinks Bob’s Burgers is highly inappropriate but we’ve caught him watching Let’s Plays of people playing games that are rated MA and he thinks there’s nothing wrong with it.
We have to really stay on top of him because his judgment simply isn’t sound and that’s not likely to change. In fact, it’s probably only going to get worse. For all intents and purposes, we are micromanaging Gavin’s, and I can’t explain how much I hate doing that. Nothing about it feels right. It feels like we’re controlling him and everything about that feels wrong. There is an emotional hurdle that one must overcome when dealing with situations like this.
I will say that to Gavin’s credit, he’s made the best of the change and is discovering new things to watch and he told me before bed, that he really likes it.
I should also add that while the other boys aren’t repeating things like Gavin is, we will be cracking down on what they’re being exposed to as well. They can exercise much better judgment, but we still need to keep a tighter grip on everyone online activity.
At this point, I’m going to call it a night because Elliott has finally fallen asleep and I’m exhausted.
If you have any suggestions for Android apps that help parents monitor and limit access to certain things, please leave your suggestion in the comments below.
