Disappointment is hard to swallow......

When you come across something that you didn't expect it is hard to deal I must say. Yesterday was that day. I'm here to tell you and my children can vouch for this.... I find out everything. Maybe not the minute it happens, maybe it takes a few days, but eventually I find out and when I do.....it's not pretty.

Yesterdays' big "reveal" involved my oldest step-son, the internet, the phone and a ton of people he doesn't know. But thanks to his bad choices, he racked up phone bills that he shouldn't have, he talked to a bunch of strangers all over the United States, telling them where he lived, his phone number, etc.... Maybe they were teenagers like himself.... Maybe it was harmless teenage stuff, but I was not happy, his dad was not happy, our phone bill was not happy.....

What makes a person reach out to so many that will never be a "real" person. This kid of mine is searching for relationships with people he will never see face to face in his whole life. Listening to us explain to him that he lives in a new town, will be going to  a new school, all with so many opportunities to meet new people, yet he focuses on his computer. His link to a world he will never visit. To "friends" and "girlfriends" that he says are real and that he has real feelings about, when really he doesn't know them, he won't ever see them.

Is our world so caught up in the "online" aspect of things that talking in person isn't even necessary. He called a few his "girlfriend" yet would never ever see them in his whole life, how is that a relationship? How is that a commitment?

On the flip side... how many of them were teenagers? How many were pedophiles? Who can tell. I only know that he didn't take that into consideration at all. With younger brothers and sister in the house, he put a lot of them in danger had he messaged, texted, or contacted the "wrong" teenager.

I'm disappointed in his bad choices. I'm concerned that with his dad leaving it will only get worse. Reading over the statuses that he had posted, so many of them were vile, derogatory, hateful comments directed at me. He's counting down the days until he can move out.

I am so up in the air about it all. He has no phone, no computer now. His dad did the whole discussion thing. Let's hope it works!