Helicopter mother

I was arguably a VERY involved mother for elementary school.  I was the teacher after all.  Sending our kids to school, I felt less involved than a lot of my friends.  I didn't check grades, I didn't check homework, I pretty much let them be.  I was busy home schooling Mark and rearranging furniture.  I let Braeden and Emma handle it.  (Occasionally I needed to intervene.  There were the times both of them were in danger of not graduating.)

So I haven't been all that involved with Mark once he went to school either.  Except now.  I've got all this motherly energy and no where else to point it.  Poor kid.  I've been checking his grades weekly and when there were parent teacher conferences, I vowed to go to every teacher (usually I lose interest after the first few and if the lines are too long).  In the end I went to every teacher except his cross training teacher.  I waited in one of the other lines while Adam and Mark went to the gym.

The other day, I checked his phone to see if there was a text about the young men doing the flags.  I saw a text from a girl that read, "Good night Markie" with a heart emoticon.

First of all, Markie?!?

Our children have no promise that we won't check their phones periodically.  In fact, they can count on it.  It's the understanding we all entered into when the phones were purchased.

I told Mark I'd seen the texts from the girl.

He said, "So you're like the NSA, except you tell me you're checking my phone?"

Exactly.