I suspect most parents are pretty clear about their rules when it comes to dating behavior and their teenagers and pre-teens. What age can you “go out” on a date? Do you need to “meet” the boy or girl before the date? What is curfew?
Text Dating?
We know that technology has changed everything, but I’m not sure we have thought about the impact on dating. Maybe it’s just that the definition of dating has changed. Now when your teenager exchanges text messages with another teen – are they dating? When they “like” enough of each other’s pictures on Facebook – are they dating? When they chat in a private chat room – are they dating? This is really a parent’s nightmare when it comes to getting a handle on your teenager’s social behavior.
What is your child broadcasting on their iPhone?
I am going to make some assumptions here. The first is that you are paying for your child’s cell phone. Consequently, you have the right and responsibility to monitor what they do with it. That means you occasionally look at who they call and what they text.
Teenagers have also figured out that these are logical assumptions, and they have come up with a number of codes to talk with each other, assuming you won’t know what they mean. So in the interest of leveling the playing field, here are 25 of the most commonly used (or perhaps I should say, 25 you should know and have a conversation if you see them).
ASL = Age, Sex, Location
ASLP = Age, Sex, Location, Picture
BF = Boyfriend
BOM = Bitch of Mine
BRBB = Be Right Back Bitch
CD9 = Parents Are Around
GF = Girlfriend
GNOC = Get Naked on Cam
G2G = Got to Go
HSWM = Have Sex with Me
IDK = I Don’t Know
KMA = Kiss my A**
(L)MIL = (Let’s) Meet in Real Life
MOS = Mom Over Shoulder
N/S = No Sh**
NIFOC = Naked In Front of Computer
NMJC = Nothin’ Much, Just Chillin’
NMU = Not Much, You?
NOOB = code for saying someone doesn’t know much about something
P911 = Parent Emergency
PIR = Parent in Room
POS = Parent Over Shoulder
PRON = Porn
PRW = Parents Are Watching
SR2 = Send to Receive (photos)
STFU = Shut the F*** Up
TDTM = Talk Dirty to Me
Warez – Pirated Software
W/E = Whatever
ZZZ = Sleeping, Bored, Tired
Teens have been trying to keep things from their parents forever, so this isn’t new. The only thing that’s really changed is the tools they are using. But parents need to keep up with that technology in order to keep up with their teenagers.
If you see some texts on your teenager’s phone you don’t recognize, here is a website you can use to put the text in and find out what it means. There are so many texting abbreviations that they have to list them by letter of the alphabet. Wow – is that a bit overwhelming or what?
Hang in there – we will be talking over the next few weeks about the role of technology in raising your teenager.
