Love the hat!

I read Flowers in the Attic when I was around 12 or 13, and by then it was ok. But around the same time I read some book about [trigger warning] child ghosts raping the protagonist, told in graphic detail, and that caused some nightmares. I also read Poppy Z. Brite's Exquisite Corpse as an adult, and now I can't read Poppy Z. Brite anymore.

A lot of stuff in adult books went right over my head at that age, because I had no frame of reference. I remember re-reading some romantic mysteries many years later and being boggled at what I'd completely glossed over as a kid.

ION, it's a sign of bad things to come when you get stuck in traffic for ten minutes a block from your house, right?

Given that I was writing Batman/Robin (1960s TV versions) when I was 14 and a feral fan, it occurs to me that I'm going to be the worst when it comes to do as I say, not as I do, or if you do, don't tell me and for god's sake, get a beta.

I think I was 9 or 10 when I read Ghost Story - too young to understand what was going on in the sexy bits, so when I asked Mom about them she tore those pages out. But left in everything about Gregory and Fenny Bates, which I can still see in my mind's eye three and a half decades later. Thanks, Mom.

I forgot about Clan of the Cave Bear! My friend and I tried to get them to show the movie in band at the end of the year when all we did was watch movies. Luckily, that did not happen.

I watched Maude when I was nine and ten, and my mom didn't like it but I guess she gave up. Not a big disciplinarian, my mom. She sort-of censored my tv viewing -- nothing "on late" -- but she never censored my reading at all. I think she just had no idea what was actually out there. Hell, she was horrified by the notion of oral sex. I was reading adult-level books in elementary school, and had no restrictions on what part of the library I could roam, so I definitely got ahold of lots of books that were both too scary and too "adult" for me. Just because I CAN read it, doesn't mean I SHOULD...

Rant about shopping websites: If there is a link to a '"shopping bag" I presume clicking on it would reveal the items in my shopping bag. If instead of that, the result is that I see a fraction of those items plus an assortment of "You may also like" items and there is in fact no way to view all the items in my shopping by clicking on the link to "shopping bag". I shall be a bit miffed. If I email the company to inquire precisely how to view the items in my shopping bag and am subsequently informed that the method for doing that is to click on the link to "Check Out", I shall flee from the illogic and cease using that website. If it happens to be for a brand which I love and whose products I use daily, I shall consider writing an actual letter to the president of the company decrying said lack of function and logic.

Colon or semicolon? I can't remember.

This means Ana has responsibility for the most important aspects of DSN operations from a mission point of view: communications with spacecraft and acquiring the tracking data used as the principal source of spacecraft navigation.

First of all, amych, I'm really sorry. That totally sucks, and when I look for IT stuff for Dan, I'll pass anything I find to you, if it looks up your alley.

Second, kids on the internet. Micah is almost 13 and had been on Instagram for about a year and a half. We have his password, and I'm friends with him on Instagram, so if I see anything hinky, I'd be on him like stink on shit.

Wattpad -- hmm. I think I've told y'all the story about how I was reading a heaving bosoms bodice ripper in 6th grade after all my work was done, and my teacher marched me to the office to call my parents about my "inappropriate reading material" and got my dad on one of his every-5-years sick days.

He listened, asked if I was done with my work, was told I was. Asked if I was causing any trouble or disturbance, was told I wasn't. Asked how my grades were, was told I had straight A's.

And then he told the teacher that he and my mom were the parents and unless there was some kind of written school policy about books, that I could read whatever the hell I wanted during free time and politely said good-bye.

When I got home, he had been looking over my mom's collection of romances and had picked out the one with the most lurid cover and told me to take that one to school tomorrow, and it I had any free time, to take it out and read it.

BUT -- I was a freaky mature reader. I was reading really adult books at about six -- I asked my parents what "rape" was when I read a historical novel about Sacajawea 1500 pages long when I was 6, and that's when my parent's understood how freaky my reading brain was. They got me a dictionary, and asked me to ask them to explain anything I didn't understand to them. They got me a 10 volume set of human sexuality books aimed at teenagers when I was about 8 (I think so they wouldn't have to explain cunnilingus or fellatio EVER.)

So...I think the advice you've gotten is pretty spot-on. I'd say have a joint account with her, and make sure you check the history (and if she ever erase the queue, he privileges are gone.) It depends on her level of mental development.

I was a socially awkward kid and teen because I lived in books so much that I was kind of alien to other kids, BUT I grew up to have a genuine love of knowledge and an empathy and tolerance for all kinds of cultures and mores. I think if I'd had the internet as a kid, I would have connected with more kids like me and not felt like such an anomaly.

But, hey, when Micah gets a phone and/or social media sites, I have great comfort in knowing my husband is a mad hacker and we'll be keeping a mad eye on his interactions. And yo, thanks to my parents, he's had a great book on human sexuality I bought him on his shelf for two years. He was totally grossed out by it when I bought, so I have no idea if he's read it...but then, that 10 volume set on human sexuality? I read it in private, too.

Colon, Allyson