Chat Room Madness

Today (yesterday now, it's late!) I spent too much time chatting at Real Live Preacher's new blog chatroom, but oh - what fun it was! I love his new website, it mirrors the warmth and approachability of his writing. I got to say hi to RLP in the chatroom, met Chuck Sigars and some other neat people, but I especially enjoyed chatting with Reverend Mommy and Dylan. There is something different and wonderful about connecting live in a chat room experience as compared to the disconnected-time communication of blogs and email. Not better, but a great supplement. I had the same feeling last fall when I got a chance to talk to deb from abiding (whom I miss terribly) in a chat room at RLP's virtual book-signing - it was wonderful. We had talked then about looking into starting a chat-room at the Habbo Hotel (inspired by tallskinnykiwi's Suddenly Seminary room), but never followed through with it. Maybe someday?

Of course, this opens up a whole can-o-parenting-worms! When my 11-year-old daughter sees me on a chat room on my laptop, she wants to do it too! She about flipped when she saw the 3D church scene the one time I checked out the virtual online church that Ship of Fools ran for a while last year (oops, I guess it's still there, I thought it had ended), and I'm sure habbo hotel would be equally appealing... that space between us, the "you can't do it because you're not old enough" space, is narrowing in so many areas. She's so innocent, and the world of online interactions is so appealing... we're a tech-crazy family, we are at our computers and on the net a lot... these are new waters to navigate (though all of parenting my first child has felt like that). The only real rules I know for my girls so far are: 1) all internet activity happens in the open in the family room - if she wants a computer in her room, then no internet; and 2) she can't sign up for ANYTHING without asking us first (and we haven't said 'yes' to much).