Any of you with teenagers have to be familiar by now with Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging and texting.  Maybe you even USE some of those technology tools to keep up with your kids.  Where do you draw the line though?

Our member, Connie Mulloy, LOVES technology and it holds no fears for her.  She pragmatically uses it to ride herd on her teen son and daughter.  But, even she drew the line at Twitter—until now!  She tells this amusing story of finding herself in a situation where Twitter was exactly what she needed, and didn’t have!

I am a mom who truly embraces technology and I have for a long time.
I've spent a number of years instant messaging my children.
My son's room is in the basement.
When I wanted him to come to dinner I would IM him. If that didn't work, I would text him. If that didn't work I'd call his cell.
I know it sounds like more effort then calling down the stairs, but that's only if you don't have a teenage boy. His music is so loud he'd NEVER hear anything. Especially not mom.
But I always know he's plugged into his friends and there's no way he has the computer AND cell phone off.
When he was no longer on the same Internet provider that I use, the instant messaging fell by the way side. He was using Explorer and getting on Facebook.
Not to be undone, or slowed down from a timely dinner anyway, I got Facebook too.
Now I send him a Facebook message and a cell phone text followed by the call.
He can't get away from me, and I know my boy is well fed and ready to face the world.
I truly do embrace technology.
I have an iPhone.
I have an eBook.
I have an electronic reader.
I think these things are tremendous fun and I can tell you the positive and negatives of each.
I get a tremendous amount of pleasure waiting to see just what the techno world comes out with next.
Recently, it was Twitter.
Celebrities all over the world are talking about Twitter.
All the ladies on The View, are Twittering or talking about Twitter.
Even Oprah Winfrey Twitters - and face it, if OPRAH does it, everybody wants to do it, right?
Not me.
Not this technology loving Mama.
I just don't get it.
WHY do I CARE what celebrities are doing on a minute by minute or hourly basis?
I can barely keep up with my OWN routine.
If they could Twitter me MY schedule - that would be great!
I'd let Oprah Twitter me a reminder that I have to pick up my 13 year old daughter from soccer at 4:30 on Tuesday and Thursday.
It would be perfectly okay with me if Ashton Kutcher could Twitter me a reminder to pick up dog food while I'm on my way to or from art class. I would prefer however, a picture of HIM shirtless instead of one of his wife in a bikini, but Twitter receivers can't be choosy I guess.
Okay, maybe I am choosy.
I just don't get the fascination with receiving constant messages about anyone else's life.
I couldn't think of anyone, anytime I would register, to be Twittered by, until yesterday.
I was sitting at the bus stop with my thirteen year old daughter at 7:15 AM.
The bus normally arrives at 7:11. The other bus stop Moms and Dads were in their various locations up and down the bus stop route so I felt confident we hadn't missed the bus, but time was slowly ticking past and I was getting concerned.
Did we miss it?
Did it break down?
Should I drive her and completely screw up my morning routine? Driving her would make me run late to everything I had scheduled (without any reminders from Oprah or Ashton) for the day.
Then it dawned on me.
THIS is who I would like to get Twitters from.
The middle school bus driver.
Imagine!
Bus Driver Twitter: Running late by 12 minutes.
Me to daughter: "Take your time baby, I'm getting a second cup of coffee!”
Without the tweet, we didn't know what to do.
My daughter didn't want me to drive her because I'd offer all the kids I could see on the route a ride and she'd recently broken up with the guy one stop ahead of us. That would be "awkward."
At 7:25 I gave her until 7:30. If the bus didn't arrive by then, she could sulk in the front seat, but I wouldn't leave anyone behind.
Never one to choose a socially awkward moment, she solves the problem.
At 7:28, she texts the girl five stops ahead of ours whom we can't see.
She's on the bus.
It's on the way.
Apparently, we have all the technology we need.
Social disaster has been averted.
I don't need Twitter after all.
I'll just have to wait for the NEXT great invention.
I can only hope it includes pictures of a shirtless Ashton Kutcher.

Connie Mulloy, our author, says:  "I'm a stay at home mother of four children ages 13 - 20. We have four dogs, three cockatiels, two guinea pigs, a hamster, chinchilla, and cat. I've been writing about this crazy household for various publications for the past ten years hoping to make other women laugh at the insanity we call parenting. I am a wife, mother, daughter, artist, blogger, member of the PTA, and a currently under counsel for all of the above. Heaven help us all. "

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