While Eva was on the Cape with my parents for an extra week she and my dad built a tiny free library. On our last visit to the Cape a few weeks ago Eva finished painting the library. While we were home Dad put the finishing touches on the library and got a 4X4 stake to be able to put it into the ground. Today the library was installed.
We’re on the Cape for the Labor Day Weekend. I think this is the first Labor Day Weekend in a very long time that we have been down. I completely forgot how busy it would be traffic-wise. We were in a few miles and about 40 minutes of traffic before the Bourne Bridge. But, we got down and were able to chill out and relax a bit. We did not bother with the beach today because it was so late in the day but the library is filled and installed and looks fantastic. People have already come to check it out.
Well, we’ve gone and done it. We’ve let Eva get a phone of her own. We did this for a couple of reasons. Eva is nearly of the age where kids get phones now. She’s two months out from becoming a teenager. She’s incredibly responsible and she ‘s got a little job of her own. It is because of this job that we decided that it was time for a phone. Her job is to look after a friend’s dog after school a few days a week. I didn’t want her off doing something like this after school with no way to get in touch with us in case of emergency. Thus, the phone.
I went to Xfinity this afternoon to pick up the phone and get things started. We have two phones on the account already and I had Eva get the iPhone SE as her first phone. It is not as crazy powerful as the iPhone 11 Pro but it will do what she needs. I also went right out and got a screen protector for the phone. Last night I ordered a case for the phone and that is all the physical protection we got for the phone.
We have also protected the phone and Eva using Bark. Bark is a program that alerts us to those sorts of things that we should be aware of like violence, profanity, self-harm and cyber bullying among other things. We have one account that monitors both of the kids. If there is something that is questionable in a text or on a social media account we get an alert. We can check it out and if it is harmless then we do nothing, or maybe mention it. If it is more serious then we have a discussion. We’ve been up front about our expectations for Eva and her technology. We can trust her. It is not her that we question. There are just so many things coming at kids today that we are doing what we can to protect them and guide them with their technology and Bark is a great help. If you are interested in signing up to help protect your kids my referral link is http://bit.ly/BenSparkBark.
Right now they are running a special at $79 a year that can monitor all your kids account or $11.20 a month. Both are well worth it for piece of mind. We know that Eva will be very responsible with her new phone and we can breathe easy knowing that we’ll catch things so that we can have discussions with her before a problem arises.
