Mommy MySpace

I was thrilled when I got an email from my grandmother who is in her late 80's. She recently took it upon herself to learn how to email. She has 90 plus grandchildren and greatgrandchildren and was so amazed that my cousin in paris could respond to her in the same day the email was written. I now communicate with my grandmother a lot more because she learned this new talent.

Sent by erika andrus | 3:24 PM ET | 05-08-2008

I have two daughters in college. When they study abroad it is a great way to keep up with their experiences!!

Sent by Carol | 3:28 PM ET | 05-08-2008

My 75 year old mother has a blog and uses it to communicate with myself and my 2 sisters. Today they are having some flooding in the town where my mother lives and I know exactly how the sump pumps are doing, etc. My Mother father and my 2 siblings and a couple of nephews and nieces all use blogging to communicate what is going on in our lives. I also usually get 2 or more e-mails from my mother daily and if I don't respond as she expects I get a message usually titled "Car-54, where are you?"

Sent by Scott in Kansas City | 3:29 PM ET | 05-08-2008

When I was 9 years old, my dad brought home an exorbitant revolutionary gift for us: a TRS-80 personal computer. You loaded the program you wanted to use with a cassette player and wrote your programs in Basic. He told us all, "Learn it! Computers will be VERY important one day!" My brothers and I are all in computing careers and my mother keeps up with us via e-mail (Dad, too!). We're all very proud of her!

Sent by Lynn | 3:30 PM ET | 05-08-2008

My son, whose home school is Berea College, is currently studying at Kyushu University in Japan. He finds it convenient to allow me to view photos taken by himself and by his friends on his Facebook; actually he relies mostly on their photographic efforts to let me feel somewhat included and informed of his time abroad. I am grateful.
My latest e-mail to him: I wondered if he had felt their latest earthquake and I complained that Jon Stewart is featuring John McCain TOO MUCH on The Daily Show!

Sent by Tessa McPherson | 3:30 PM ET | 05-08-2008

My mom like to get emails, but will not send them. So they become very one way conversations. She still like to put on stamps and got to the post office.

Sent by Rob Aams | 3:33 PM ET | 05-08-2008

I'm pretty appalled by the lack of awareness on the part of the parents who are invading their young adult children's e-mail world. Part of transitioning into the role of the parent of an adult child is learning to respect their boundaries. That means letting them tell you what they want to share with you, not spying on them. It's no wonder we're hearing about the guilty feelings some of these spy parents are experiencing. They need to listen to the guilt they're feeling as a way of knowing they're not acting in integrity.

Sent by ellen | 3:34 PM ET | 05-08-2008

Exactly what generation of "moms" are we talking about? I don't have a teenager, but I'm plenty old enough (44), and I got my first email account in 1989. In other words, I was online before some of you were born! Sheesh.

Sent by janet | 3:36 PM ET | 05-08-2008

I am 39 and our generation is a fortunate one to have email as a form of communication because of it's ability to be stored indefinitely.

My mother passed away suddenly last April and reading and re-reading her emails to me, nagging or otherwise has been cathartic and very helpful to me in my healing.

Sent by Micah | 3:40 PM ET | 05-08-2008

I was just beginning to use Instant Messenger when my daughter went off to college in 2000. She, of course, had already used it to talk to her friends. Over the course of 4 years in college, we exchanged 100s of IMs, and I saved almost all of them. IM provided us with a way to talk about things we might not talk about otherwise. They trace her growth from a kid reveling in the freedom that college provided, to a young adult, tired of the college grind, and ready to start her post-college life. The IMs document academics, romances, break-ups, friends, roommates, and plans for their first cocktail party. She's married now, living far from home. We occasionally text each other, but mostly talk on the phone now.

Sent by EllenG | 3:54 PM ET | 05-08-2008

The last email I received from my mom is pretty hilarious and we were actually discussing how funny it was, when my brother told my mom about this program. Pretty ironic. Just a little history --- I purchased a house a couple doors down from my mom, where I live by myself, and she helps me out sometimes while I'm at work. Here's the email that I received from her today......

MOM:
Ant Exterminator will be on the site in about half hour......ME! Oh, and do you have regular mouse traps down there, I can bait them, I think...lol! ewww! Do you need the Laundromat Attendant down there too, she can be there in about half hour also. Oh, I talked to the Cleaning Lady too and wouldn't you know it, she's available too, at the exact same time! Well, maybe they can take care of your problems all at the same time!
Nix on the Dog Walker......can't be there, dog's toooo big!

ME:
Niiiceeee... :-)
exterminator is needed. laudromat attendant is not needed. cleaning lady may be needed - mostly clean for the most part. ummm, i wouldn't walk the dog either! :-)

MOM:
Oh! I just talked to the Lawn Care woman, she can be there too! Dang, you're lucky to have such nice people come by whenever they are called! :)
I should blog this!! (e-mail) lolol!

Sent by Breezee | 4:15 PM ET | 05-08-2008

Great show as always Neal

Thought I should share a story. Needless to say I have a very open minded family.

My previous partner was a gay porn model and escort, and on one of our earliest dates, I confessed to him that I had sent his photograph (chest and up!) to my mother. No less than 15 minutes later, she had forwarded this visually pleasing image to her friends on a rose society forum, who had immediately replied with a link to his website.

Well, my companion literally fell off his chair in panic! "Your mother saw my website? You've seen whats on my website! Oh my god!!!!!". But my mothers reaction "If I ever get to san francisco, could I possibly get my photo taken with him?"

As mentioned by your guests - she totally enjoyed the opportunity to be more familiar with my life - though she saw a little more of that partner than most :)

Sent by Mike | 5:41 PM ET | 05-08-2008

i actually get no internet presence from my Mother. She doesn't even use cell phones much so text messages are never going to happen. Her sister however (who is older) text messages, emails, calls, you name it she is on board. She even has a newer IPOD than I do. She adopts technology (and consequently gets upset at it and returns it to the store). I probably get as many emails for tech support from her as I do daily inspirational messages and links to cool sites.

Sent by Charise | 7:25 PM ET | 05-08-2008

Fun show today, however I want to respond to the idea that mothers are invading their adult children's privacy if they read their blogs:

If you post/blog something on the internet ... you have to be prepared for anyone ... *anyone! your mom, your grandmother, your employer* ... to see it.

I might choose to look the other way at my daughters' blogs, but it seems very naive for them to be upset with me because I saw it.

Sent by becky moser | 7:27 PM ET | 05-08-2008

My mother, sister and I, we e-mail daily. My mother IS our technical support when it comes to computer programs and was the first to get us onto video-chat - which is fabulous for the grandchildren. All three (oh, FOUR!, great-grandma is on e-mail too!) generations are tech-savvy; the littlest ones taking video-chat and "Elmo Mail" (thirty second videos which are e-mailed) totally for granted. We LOVE this addition to our available communication tools - but aren't likely to blog or MySpace any time in the near future.

Sent by Sara S Villarreal Bishop | 8:26 AM ET | 05-09-2008

I'm a dad who emails, texts and facebooks with his 14 year old son regularly, sometimes when we're in the same house! It's a great tool, and can be a fun way to connect. Even if he's a brooding & silent teen at the dinner table, he'll always reply to a text message...

Sent by Jim K | 1:06 PM ET | 05-09-2008

Hello! I'm a college student, living away from home. The internet is such an awesome way to keep in contact with my family. I'm friends on facebook with my mother and those of my siblings who have it, and my younger siblings and I video chat when there's time. I can say nothing but good things about it. (my father was the one who sent me the link to this site. )

I do have a response to those who say that parents are 'invading' the kids space on-line. It's not in any way fair to say that kids own this technology. They certainly weren't the ones who invented it. My dad is way more tech savvy than me and both him and my mom had e-mail before I did (and taught me how to use it. )

Also, reading some-one else's blog is not 'spying' no matter who you are! If you are posting a public blog to the web anyone can read it. If you don't want certain people to see it, then use privacy settings, otherwise it's your own fault if your private life is 'invaded' :)

a way more controversial issue would be mother's who blog about their children ^__^

Sent by Lyndsay A. | 4:04 PM ET | 05-11-2008

I've been frequently texting and MMSing, and sometimes emailing, with my mother in recent months, and it's been a great way to communicate with her quickly about small things like recipe ingredients, work updates, and neat things I see around town. But even though she knows more about my daily activities than she ever has before, she recently got mad at me because I "never call home anymore". After some arguing, she reminded me that it's still important for them to hear the sound of my voice.

Sent by Christine Wrought | 5:08 PM ET | 05-13-2008