Even at the age of 8, the video game bug has bitten him. He likes the game Minecraft. He has to earn his game time, but he does well with it. His other favorite thing to do with tablet time is watch various videos on Youtube. That usually consists of videos about mind craft, cartoons and a few videos about pranksters All innocent stuff that is done in front of us.
Since today was President's Day he didn't have school and stayed home with his brother. Around lunch time I got a call asking if he could get on his tablet for a bit. I figured, why not? He has been good, he is bored hanging with his brother, no harm, no foul. I ate my lunch and afterwards I was going to show my coworker a funny video my husband put up on Youtube. I brought it up on my phone and before I could get to the video I wanted to show her, I see where my youngest has "commented" on a video. He has NEVER done that before and I clicked on it to check it out...WOW!
I had to excuse myself from my coworker and go further check out what I was reading here. Now mind you, it was NOT anything horrible, but it WAS posted by my 8 year old son! The first video was from a popular Youtube couple that I will not mention their names. They have been deleted from my son's account, lol. It was not a bad thing, in fact they mentioned pranks in their title, so that must be why Youtube returned it in the search results. In the video they were discussing zombie names from a online generator and the lady's came back as "Boob eater", the guy was Gay something. So, my young, sweet and innocent 8 year old thought it would be cute to combine their names since he thought "boob eater" was gross. He typed a simple comment, 2 words that made me flip..."Gay Boob".
Now I am sure he my son didn't mean it as an insult to anyone, not at all. He knows what gay means, he knows what boob means. And thanks goodness at 8, boobs are still gross, lmao! It doesn't lessen the shock of seeing that typed out from my son's alias, (he is not allowed to use his real name online). I called him, told him to put the tablet away, told him I saw the comment and I was not happy. He instantly cried, claimed to understand my anger and hung up to go read a book. I then called my husband and told him the story. After he finally quit laughing, he decided that we really didn't set up the clearest of rules for him on the tablet. He was usually on it around us, we hadn't needed to, until today.
I calmed down, called my son back and explained to him that it was not appropiate to use that word at his age or on the internet. I told him we would talk about it when we got home from work. In the middle of talking about it, my husband sends me a text that he saw another post from our son. OMG...really child?! Yes, again it was not age appropriate. This one was on a vlog for the same couple, and they had shown a shot of hairy legs, clearly belonging to the man in the video. Jokingly someone commented how hairy the girl's legs were, lol. I guess it upset my son and he replied to this guy, "It his leg, ass". I had to reread it several times and actually ask him what it meant, (it was before I saw the video.
It sounds horrible to say my 8 year old called a grown up an ass on Youtube, it makes it sound like we are horrible parents. Honestly, we do use cuss words, he hears them, (don't judge) and he knows better than to use them himself. Or at least we thought! The funny thing, (yes...there is a funny part of this), I am not sure he meant it as an insult. It would seem that way. I sure thought so at first. But as read the page, everyone was using this word. Actually quiet a few people were calling others an ass. Not that it makes it right by any mean, but he thought it was part of joke and was following along with everyone else. I did have the urge to use my mother's famous line of "if all your friends jumped off a bridge...", but I refrained.
To sum it up, my son was very embarrassed. We checked his account activity very well and today was the first and only day he had ever commented on there. It was also the last for a VERY long time. He felt bad, and I don't think he thought it was visible by everyone. He learned a valuable lesson, as did we. We questioned our parenting for a few moments and then we were over it. Lessons taught, lessons learned. No one ever said raising kids was easy!!!! I love my family!
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