Snoopy
A few weeks ago I was talking to Jenners (a.k.a. Seester-in-law, married to the brother I commonly refer to as Big Thirsty or Big Hungry but that's beside the point) about our hypothetical kids' diaries and whether or not we would read said diary if we knew about it.
I said I would read my kids' diary (note the use of future tense here. As in no kids as yet. And no, none on the way. I feel the need to explain. Am fighting the urge).
Jenners was a little mortified. It was one of those responses where you blurt honestly and then wish you had thought about it for just one more millisecond before you opened your yapper - and not because you don't want to be honest but you might want to couch the honest answer with a caveat or warning of mass generalization on the way and because you agree that that response was entirely revolting and NOT what you expected yourself to say. And you know, a good run-on sentence is part of the beauty of blogs...just try to stop me.
So yeah, the honest answer is that if I happened across a diary penned by my child, I would probably open it and read a bit of it. And if I'm being really honest, I'll admit to being a nosy person by nature. One that has really worked hard on taming the impulse to snoop around and is pretty well cured from the kid who was at one time an indiscriminate detective needing to cure every curiosity. Now the most snooping I do is when I'm digging around looking for a good boog.
But really, I am very respectful of other peoples' stuff NOW. College dorm living cured me of it. I found things I never wanted to see. Things that make you want to scrub your eyeballs with SOS pads. Things like this:
I said I would read my kids' diary (note the use of future tense here. As in no kids as yet. And no, none on the way. I feel the need to explain. Am fighting the urge).
Jenners was a little mortified. It was one of those responses where you blurt honestly and then wish you had thought about it for just one more millisecond before you opened your yapper - and not because you don't want to be honest but you might want to couch the honest answer with a caveat or warning of mass generalization on the way and because you agree that that response was entirely revolting and NOT what you expected yourself to say. And you know, a good run-on sentence is part of the beauty of blogs...just try to stop me.
So yeah, the honest answer is that if I happened across a diary penned by my child, I would probably open it and read a bit of it. And if I'm being really honest, I'll admit to being a nosy person by nature. One that has really worked hard on taming the impulse to snoop around and is pretty well cured from the kid who was at one time an indiscriminate detective needing to cure every curiosity. Now the most snooping I do is when I'm digging around looking for a good boog.
But really, I am very respectful of other peoples' stuff NOW. College dorm living cured me of it. I found things I never wanted to see. Things that make you want to scrub your eyeballs with SOS pads. Things like this:
Don't ask. It was brutal. People had to change dorm rooms after the first semester. It's lucky no one got hurt.
But it's a good question and one that people who have or are planning to have kids will one day be confronted with. Maybe not in diary form, but there will be a line to cross in the form of respect and boundaries.
So I ask you Internets: Would you read your kids' diary if you stumbled across it or would you put it back where you found it unmolested?
And to save the suspense, Jenners says she would not molest the diary.
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