I'm such a mean parent.

I am not the type of parent who believes that his child should own every gadget that exists. My son has a cell phone, but only because we do not have a land line in the house. He had lost his cell about 6 months ago and was told he would not get another until a.) he straightened up and started showing more responsibility, and b.) he could either pay for a replacement or we could get one for free.

Well, our contract came around to where it could be extended and we were able to get him a free phone. My wife was worried about him when he'd be home alone without a phone since that could be a safety issue, so, we were at Costco and they had a deal for getting a nice little samsung touch screen phone for him, so long as you signed up for a family text package. My wife also got a nice little Pantech flip phone with a full keyboard and I got an LG Xenon, but that's beside the point.

I warned him that I would be checking his text messages every day, and he thought he could trick me by deleting messages from his inbox. Unbeknownst to him, there's also a sent box, which he forgot to clean out. He looked at me with disbelief when I questioned him about some foul language in one of the text messages he had sent, and then we had a little talk about using appropriate words and clean speech. He was also warned that if he uses foul language in text again, or tries to delete the texts he has recieved, I will remove texting from his line. Strangely enough, this morning, I found all texts present and accounted for, and no foul language on his end of things. Of course, he knows that I'm a man of my word and when I say something, I will follow through.

We also had a discussion about using wholesome speech, specifically referencing Ephesians 4:29 which states:

^"Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them."

I wish I were able to do something about his friends language. I did send a message back to one kid telling him to watch his language since "parental filters are in place." I hope he gets the point.

So, I'm a mean parent, but I'd rather my kid be mad at me now over little things like this, than get in with the wrong crowd because I don't catch the little things.