Mom=10, MySpace=0!!!! Go, Mom!!!

[Yarnspinner]

I thought about putting this in random acts, but it was neither graceful nor kind...it just brightened up my little corner of the world considerably.

This happened earlier this week at work.  If you've had the questionable thrill of reading some of my whining posts, you know I'm a children's/YA librarian at a very small, inner city library branch.  Our kids rarely use the computers for anything but posting to MySpace, looking up trash and playing music videos way too loud. 

One of these little darlings is K.  He is about fourteen years old, and while he has attitude, he is usually, cautiously, polite to me, even when he makes no pretense about coming to Book Club to steal cookies and chips.

K was in early on Tuesday and we asked him if he was sick.  No, he wasn't sick.  He's just not in the mood.  He signed up for a computer and we had no choice but to allow him to do whatever he feels like, which was getting on line and going to his mySpace account.

He hadn't been there long when a small woman burst through the doors, marched over to him and screamed "THERE you are!  Skipping school?  I been all over the school and that library looking for you.  An' here you are!  What you think you trying to pull?"

K muttered something unintelligible.  Mom looked over at us--she had our undivided attention--and said "Im sorry but I have to take care of this."  We suggested she go for it.

She went for it all right:  K was looking at his My Space account and that was one of the things she had been called to the school to discuss.  It was apparently filthy and he had been picking on classmates using it.  Mom stood over him while he closed out his myspace conversion, undid his account, wiped out all traces of his webpage and so on.  The she got him by the scruff of the neck and frog marched him out.  "We're going to the principal to discuss appropriate punishment!" she told him.  She was only half the boy's size, but she had him up on tippy toes.  Never hit him.  Never once.  And, oh, he had apparently called himself into school sick which was a big surprise for her when she got to the school to view his myspace account.

My colleagues and I (about whom I have complained) were united in what some might perceive as misplaced admiration.  "Well," said Boss "that explains why the boy is as polite as he is.  Too bad more of the mothers don't keep watch on their kids like her."

[Chocolate Cake]

YAY MOM!!!

[Tabris]

WTG! I now know what kind of mom I want to become!

[Lisbeth]

Good for that mother!

[Evil Duckie]

YAY Mom!!!!!

He is learning the hard way that mom doesn't have to tower over you to make you look up to her.

[Alida]

Good for her!!

[Slartibartfast]

Wow!  I, too, am a librarian in a low-income area (rural south, not inner city), and MySpace has been driving me nuts this week.  The kids are out of school, so I've had squads of about a dozen teenagers in my library nonstop, sharing the two computers and "chatting" on MySpace with other kids.  (They can't actually use chat programs from the library, but they can leave comments and get some back pretty much instantaneously if someone else is online.)

So yesterday, one of the girls brought a digital camera, and the kids were all taking pictures of eachother and uploading them onto their MySpace pages.  Fine, I'm not crazy about it, but it's not my issue.  But then I found two of the boys in the *bathroom* together with the camera, taking who knows what kinds of pictures!  The teens were being very secretive all day (trying to cover the picture on the computer monitor so I couldn't see it), but it looks like the guys were doing pictures with their shirts off.  Not cool.  Especially if some of the girls get it into their head to create what is legally child p0rn in this country by doing the same thing, and uploading it in the library!

Other than make conspicuous sweeps of the compuer area and trying to keep an eye on the computer monitors (and enforcing the "one person in the bathroom at a time" rule), there's not much I can really do.  It's got me nervous, though.  I know I can't stop them from doing stupid things, but I can try to stop them from doing stupid things in the library!

[Yarnspinner]

Slartibartfast--

Just had to share the current conversation I'm having with two rude young men (who don't know it, but their mother is on their way to collect them).  They both think I am overpaid and don't understand WHY a librarian needs any kind of education to do anything.  THEY could do this job with their hands tied behind their backs and blindfolded.  I suggested they try cataloging a few books and asked them where to find information on certain things...their response?  "Well, we ain't gettin' paid, we ain't doin' it."

I get so tired of the mocking.  These dweebs wouldn't last ten minutes doing the job they think is so easy.

Wow!  I, too, am a librarian in a low-income area (rural south, not inner city), and MySpace has been driving me nuts this week.  The kids are out of school, so I've had squads of about a dozen teenagers in my library nonstop, sharing the two computers and "chatting" on MySpace with other kids.  (They can't actually use chat programs from the library, but they can leave comments and get some back pretty much instantaneously if someone else is online.)

So yesterday, one of the girls brought a digital camera, and the kids were all taking pictures of eachother and uploading them onto their MySpace pages.  Fine, I'm not crazy about it, but it's not my issue.  But then I found two of the boys in the *bathroom* together with the camera, taking who knows what kinds of pictures!  The teens were being very secretive all day (trying to cover the picture on the computer monitor so I couldn't see it), but it looks like the guys were doing pictures with their shirts off.  Not cool.  Especially if some of the girls get it into their head to create what is legally child p0rn in this country by doing the same thing, and uploading it in the library!

Other than make conspicuous sweeps of the compuer area and trying to keep an eye on the computer monitors (and enforcing the "one person in the bathroom at a time" rule), there's not much I can really do.  It's got me nervous, though.  I know I can't stop them from doing stupid things, but I can try to stop them from doing stupid things in the library!

This is SCARY!!!!!

Can you collect the cameras at the door?  We had a problem where the kids were using their cell phones to take OUR pictures and send them to each other in the pre-myspace days.  We finally told them they had to leave or give us the cell phones as they were now invading our privacy. 

I would definitely make cameras in the bathroom a no-no.  Would you be able to contact the parents or would the parents (like a lot of them here) just see it as you picking on Pwecious?  (For every parent who frog marches their kid out, there are five who tell us we are prejudiced, hate their children and are every bit as entitled as their kids are.)

Barring that, is there a way to innocently spoil the fun?  I once pointed out to 3 young slackers that the "hot chicks" they were talking up in some chat room might very well be middle aged men.  "Aw, Miss, why would a man pretend to be a teenage girl?"  "Why are YOU pretending to be a doctor with a ferrari?" I asked.  "Well, we want them to tell us about sexy--"  And the genius stopped and went "EWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!"  And they all got up and left because "You just sucked all the fun out of it, Miss Lily."  (That's me, Lily Killjoy.)

Good luck with the MySpace...personally, inspite of all the positive, uplifting things I heard about myspace, I'm beginning to see it as tantamount to the REAL decline of our Roman Empire.

[Lunadiana75]

Dances around the computer chanting "GO MOM! GO MOM! GO MOM!"  There is some hope for that kid with a mom like that! 

[Scritzy]

I would love to know how I could nominate that mom for Mother of the Year. She's awesome.

And speaking from experience, I know dynamite comes in small packages. My mother is only four-foot-seven. Of course, at her age she's not so much dynamite as a smoke bomb — irritating, but basically harmless.

[Clara Bow]

I am loving that mom...my three year old is now on red alert...
I hate Myspace. The computers in the library at my college are constantly dominated with boneheads on MySpace, complete with whooping and hollering, foul language and nasty pictures. They create a disturbance. I have no problem with people using MySpace, but when there are others waiting, and the library has the five minute rule posted (during the first week or two of each semester) and all you're doing is farting around, then get off. Also, there is no need for five people to be clustered around one computer seeing how loud they can be. Pardon the rant....I just get tired of people who do not know how to act...
Though I will admit there are more than a few MySpacers who are not total twits. You just don't notice them because they are so quiet....

[LibraryLady]

I am director of a small, mostly rural county library in Texas.  For the librarians who have problems with computer usage, a well-written policy would work.  I know, I'm preaching to the choir but
out here, our policies are (were) well written. Just an example:

persons between age of 13-17 cannot be online without parent coming in and signing permission

there is a limit of 2 hours per day - each hour must be separated by an hour

our library is unfiltered (which I am in favor of) oh well, I could go on.  But if you would like to email me privately  would be glad to offer  my thoutts

hello from whre it is supposed to be 70 degrees tomorrow <sigh>

[Slartibartfast]

Can you collect the cameras at the door?  We had a problem where the kids were using their cell phones to take OUR pictures and send them to each other in the pre-myspace days.  We finally told them they had to leave or give us the cell phones as they were now invading our privacy. 

I would definitely make cameras in the bathroom a no-no.  Would you be able to contact the parents or would the parents (like a lot of them here) just see it as you picking on Pwecious?  (For every parent who frog marches their kid out, there are five who tell us we are prejudiced, hate their children and are every bit as entitled as their kids are.)

Barring that, is there a way to innocently spoil the fun?  I once pointed out to 3 young slackers that the "hot chicks" they were talking up in some chat room might very well be middle aged men.  "Aw, Miss, why would a man pretend to be a teenage girl?"  "Why are YOU pretending to be a doctor with a ferrari?" I asked.  "Well, we want them to tell us about sexy--"  And the genius stopped and went "EWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!"  And they all got up and left because "You just sucked all the fun out of it, Miss Lily."  (That's me, Lily Killjoy.)

Unfortunately, not really much I can do.  Most of the parents here would say "Woah . . . I've got kids?  Wow, I never noticed!"  (Sadly, some of them wouldn't be lying.)  I have had some one-on-one conversations with some of the kids, pointing out that anything they post on MySpace can be read by their parents, teachers, pastor, and librarian.  That's news to many of them!

[Shoo]

Why can't libraries block MySpace on their computers?  Seems to me this would solve quite a few problems. 

[kingsrings]

I am loving that mom...my three year old is now on red alert...
I hate Myspace. The computers in the library at my college are constantly dominated with boneheads on MySpace, complete with whooping and hollering, foul language and nasty pictures. They create a disturbance. I have no problem with people using MySpace, but when there are others waiting, and the library has the five minute rule posted (during the first week or two of each semester) and all you're doing is farting around, then get off. Also, there is no need for five people to be clustered around one computer seeing how loud they can be. Pardon the rant....I just get tired of people who do not know how to act...
Though I will admit there are more than a few MySpacers who are not total twits. You just don't notice them because they are so quiet....

Sounds like the libraries I peruse. Although I must admit, the library workers are getting much better at enforcing rules and disciplining these young punks. At one point, they were completely taking up the back room of computers and using it as their personal space to be loud, crude, and vulgar. The library had to hire security guards to deal with them.