Good Parenting or Bad Spying?
Monitoring.
Blocking.
Filtering.
Tracking.
Parenting these days includes an arsenal of tools to find out what kids are up to online, on the street, on the phone, and everywhere else in between. Some say it’s about safety. Others say it’s about spying. And many question the boundaries of parental responsibility.
But should parenting go to the dogs?
Absolutely, according to a New Jersey-based company called Sniff Dogs. For $200 an hour, parents can rent a specially-trained Labrador Retriever that sniffs for drugs in their kids’ bedrooms. Heroin, crystal meth, cocaine. The dogs can even smell a marijuana seed from 15 feet away, as well as the lingering scent of the drug smoked days earlier. If contraband is detected, the pooch sits down, his handler marks the spot, and the parents take over the search from there.
The key, according to Sniff Dogs, is to conduct the search when children are not at home, and without their knowledge. That way, says Sniff Dogs co-owner Debra Stone, “the conversation is not, ‘Are you using drugs?’ but ‘We found the drugs.’” The stealth searches are legal, and Stone insists they don’t constitute snooping. “It’s not a violation of trust,” she said. “It’s what parents often do when monitoring other areas.”
Others disagree. “There are major repercussions for this type of intervention,” said a clinical psychologist. “When parents do this it erodes trust and goodwill.”
“As a parent, you worry,” counters a mother who hired a Sniff Dog to suss out her three kids’ rooms. Though no drugs were found, she says she’ll use the dogs again. “I trust my kids,” she said, “but you can only trust them so far.”
Tell us what you think: Is secretly using a drug-sniffing dog parental responsibility or parental snooping? Does a child’s personal safety ever justify her parents spying on her?
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what type of parenting
either trust them or do a better job parenting cause you should not have to be the f.b.i
ava | 7 months, 1 week ago
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this is what i have to say and im a teen guy
If our parents are going to get us our own computer and put it ont he internet then they should know that we are going to use it to its full extent. Now either they should have done a better job of teaching us right form wrong or just trust us on the decisions that we are going to make with the computer
dennis | 6 months, 1 week ago
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Response to trusting ones children
With respect to the alex’s comment of how responsible he is and his good grades and only smokes in his friends basement. Plus he claims no ill effect after four years of smoking pot…………………….I come from the era of the late 60’s & 70’s; I have watched many friends use pot over the years. The continued useage has cause slow and permanent damage to their abilities to think in abtract terms, to do advanced math, to handle life on any terms other than very minimal and basic efforts. As a group they lost the desire to succeed or advance themselves beyond the daily usage of their drugs and minimalistic lifestyles. So four years is a long time however as of yet your permanent damage is probably minimal but another four years and you will have lost far more than you ever bargained for. They don’t call it dope for nothing. It is used by cancer patients to assist in pain management and increase one’s apetite: but to someone possibly dying and trying to survive chemotherapy…. smoking a little pot is the least of their concerns
when facing death in the eyes. Think about the long term and be more careful.
Al Mar | 6 months, 1 week ago
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listen up Alex re you using pot and good grades...
With respect to the Alex’s comment: about how responsible he is and his good grades and only smokes in his friends basement. Plus he claims no ill effect after four years of smoking pot…………………….I come from the era of the late 60’s & 70’s; I have watched many friends use pot over the years. The continued useage has cause slow and permanent damage to their abilities to think in abtract terms, to do advanced math, to handle life on any terms other than very minimal and basic efforts. As a group they lost the desire to succeed or advance themselves beyond the daily usage of their drugs and minimalistic lifestyles. Four years is a long time for someone as young as you are, however as of yet your permanent damage is probably minimal, yet in another four years you will have lost far more than you ever bargained for. They don’t call it dope for nothing. It is used by cancer patients to assist in pain management and increase one’s apetite: but to someone possibly dying and trying to survive chemotherapy…. smoking a little pot is the least of their concerns
when facing death in the eyes. Think about the long term and be more careful.
Will Mar | 6 months, 1 week ago
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Let Them Help
I would never go into my children’s room without them. If I feel something is wrong or need to check out a situation, I invite my children in with me. I don’t feel that I am spying because I am giving them the chance to open up to me. Do not get me wrong, the room will be checked. By all of us. If a problem arises everybody is already together for a discussion and nobody feels left out. My kids may not like it , but at least I am not going behind their backs.
Mistichance | 5 months, 1 week ago
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The Golden Child
I feel that drug sniffing dogs is a little extreme. Not only is it going overboard, but its not necessary. All parents have to is just simply ask their kids if their up to no good. i speak for all the good kids when I say they will tell the truth. However if there are kids out there who want to lie then maybe there should be some snooping involved. I am a little biased because I hardly ever give my parents a reason not to trust me. However if spying is necessary, then do it.
Timmy G | 4 months, 2 weeks ago
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Good Parenting or Bad Spying?
At first place i agree with both sides which say parent control is good and which say it is not.If you raise them well they will not be bad when they grow up,so there no need to be overcontrol because you trust them.But if you didnt raise them well,you should control them well even if it was your fault at the first place.
samuel beyene | 4 months, 2 weeks ago
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Mrs.
Yes we need to trust our children; however, one may forget that teenagers are children afterall; they often do things just because his/her friends are doing them without giving any thoughts on “right or wrong” or consequences. Therefore, it’s up to us parents, the grown-ups, to catch, stop and guide.
DeeDee | 4 months ago
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Spy on my teen? Call me 00-mom then!
I have a REALLY challenging teenager- I will not go into the details but we have covered all the bases, he is just really smart and head strong. Like all teens he wanted a fancy cell when he started high school this year. BUT WE decided to use this to our advantage. We always know where and who he is with, what he is planning and basically EXACTLY what is going on with him- N ADVANCE. We gave him his fancy new cellI, but it’s a NANNY PHONE.This may sound like an invasion of privacy, but I don’t think my kids need privacy, as much as they need protection!
l hazan | 3 months, 3 weeks ago
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being a parent
there are several ways parents raise their children.
today is better than when i grew up.
most parents these days, i hope, take the time
with their children to listen.
mine did not. i come from a house of seven children.
i am the oldest.
i grew up with , children were to be seen and not heard.
i was to afraid to speak out on any thing.
i knew if i did anything i knew they would not like, i would get
punished hard.
also grew up with a parent who, did not spank, but abused his children.
i was afraid to do drugs, booze , or anything.
i have a 34 year old daughter who got out of control at age 13.
she is, as i hear,still into it all, with raising 2 teens.
she does not have anything to do with her family.
there was not much help back then, but there is today.
so , if any parent reading this knows their child, no matter what age, is doing drugs or booze, and worse, get them some help before it is too late.
children get depressed too, and think their parent,or parents wont understand.
but show them you do, with out yelling at them. go with them to meetings for support.
i did not know what drugs was, or booze when growing up.
my mother kept us under her wing, as far as going out with kids my age, never did.
took care of bothers and sisters, and went to church.
never had a child hood.
so, please take the time to talk to your kids.
i was not a mean kid, i was a good kid.
but a scared one.i look at it this way.
i had my kids, they did not ask to be born, so it was up to me, to find out what was wrong.
if they wont talk to a parent, as i said, find meetings to go to.
thank you for reading my feelings on things.
s w
shirley | 3 months, 3 weeks ago
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