I’m so glad that you had the strength and the presence of mind to get away when you did. It’s very difficult when you get into those sort of relationships young because you generally don’t even have clear boundaries established for yourself yet.

I’m so sorry you were subject not only to everything you went through, but also his mother making those “what if” statements putting the blame on you for what her son did.

At my previous job in scientific research (I am not saying what field to avoid being identified), where I was an entry-level admin, I was harassed by one of their top scientists. He intimidated and harassed me for nearly 2 years, and even slapped me at one point. I am still afraid of him. Everyone knew he did things…

It is unfortunate that u stayed with him as long as u did.  He was a loser and so was his family.

To be honest I thought it was a SpringWatch spinoff where Bill Oddie finally loses his mind and has a frenzy in an abattoir.

And nowhere on the internet is there a way to watch old episodes of Doctor Who so that boys can have that role model! Those poor, deprived boys who have literally no space captains, wizards, ninjas, aliens, presidents, historical figures, athletes, fathers, actors, or knights to look up to!

LOL. Cause kids are always open and honest about everything with their parents.

No, they’re not. We had a LONG talk with my kid about what he did and what we expected from him, and he told us he knew all this, but in typical teenager fashion thought he was smart enough to deal with the risks on his own.

I really wouldn’t call monitoring the activities of prepubescent children “spying.” I’d call it “parenting.” And some common sense applies. It’s not necessary to read your 10 year old child’s diary. It’s a good idea to know what websites your grade schooler is looking at while you’re busy with dinner. Etc.

Yeah, and I went through this already with my 15-year-old, and that approach didn’t work. He’s a bright, responsible kid, and he had all the education at school about online safety and talks with me and my wife about how to behave, so I trusted him and didn’t spy on him for a long while.

This. That and they have never met any teenagers.

All these people who are like, “Well, if you just educate them properly they won’t get themselves into trouble and all this curiousity is natural, anyway” have conveniently forgotten all the dumb avoidable shit they did when they were teens.

As a parent, you can try to cover as many topics as possible, but there is always something you missed. And kids see and do way more than you can cover.

I’m no Windows 10 advocate, but I’m very confused about this idea that children have some kind of inviolable right to privacy from their parents. Morally? Maybe, sure, depending on how you personally feel about it and are raising your children? Legally? Way less clear. Parents can see their minor children’s medical…