Trying not to be a momma bear....again

I laugh because I've had the "Mama Bear" title with my girls for years. They're now 19 and almost 16 and, believe me, you never stop wanting to protect them. I strongly resist the urge to intervene and I always have - because they will learn no life skills at all if I protect them from learning to resolve most of their own difficulties. But, nothing is harder than for me to see someone make one of my kids cry. I can only think of one case within the last couple of years where I did get involved. My daughter sent a joke via email to one of her friends (I knew about it - she showed it to me first, asked permission and I allowed it). Well, the girl's mother didn't understand that it was a joke and phoned my house. She didn't ask for me. She spoke directly to my daughter (who was either 12 or 13 at the time). She yelled at her and started telling her how to behave online. I saw my daughter's eyes filling up with tears and she was just listening, not speaking - so I took the phone. The woman started in with me and I said, "STOP. Just stop. For one thing, you need to learn to have a conversation and not give a lecture. For another thing, what you don't know is that I work in online security for children and teens every day as my career. My children's use of the internet is monitored and accounted for and they are not even allowed to use instant messaging at this time..." Anyway, it went on like that until she apologized and said that HER daughter didn't understand the joke. I said that was unfortunate but I could not account for that on my end. I read the joke and thought it was cute and funny. Otherwise, I would not have allowed her to send it. She didn't spam it. She didn't send it to her whole contact list. She shared it with ONE friend... and that's the trouble she got for it. Believe me, she didn't send things out for a long time after that. And it was the one time I can remember not being able to keep the Mama Bear caged LOL (oh and btw... don't be too worried about the glasses. My daughter got hers at the age of 5 and, no word of a lie, no one picked on her for them. I guess it's different everywhere but, in her class, a couple of kids already had glasses too and they just weren't a big deal. I went out of my way not to make her feel like they were anything different and I told myself we wouldn't even talk about it unless and until a problem arose. Just went about things as usual, as though nothing had changed. I hope your son has as positive an experience with his! Spongebob glasses... that's adorable)

Hi lilwonders...I can completely understand your point of view. My little sister had to get glasses probably around the time your son is getting them. And the children were mean to her. I think it's better that he chooses the glasses that he likes and you dress down anyone who says anything about your son!