Seeing a child endure drama over group chats is enough to send parents lunging for their kid’s phone. After all, we have the skills to resolve disputes diplomatically, the words to make it all better. If only we could just…
Nope, don’t even think about it.
Writing texts as your child is a bad idea, and what’s more, texting in momspeak isn’t going to fool kids more accustomed to acronyms and emojis. It also isn’t going to teach kids how to resolve differences themselves, in their own words, as awkward as they might be.
When 13-year-old Hannah Yeatman wasn’t sure how to respond to some friend drama in a group chat, her mother, Lilly Yeatman, offered suggestions. Her wording didn’t fly with Hannah.
“If my mom had sent the message, she would have put in a bunch of punctuation,” says Hannah, a seventh-grader in Los Angeles. “We don’t really do that.”